The 2012 Formula 1 Season Trivia Quiz

Answer: Two of the seven winners won their first ever Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg won his maiden victory in China for Mercedes. Pastor Maldonado won his first race in Spain for Williams, their first victory since Juan-Pablo Montoya had won the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.

McLaren won two of the first seven races: Jenson Button won the opening race of the season in Australia, Lewis Hamilton won the seventh race in Canada. Red Bull also won two of the seven first races with Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and Mark Webber in Monaco. Fernando Alonso started from 9th position in the Malaysian Grand Prix, which he won for Ferrari. All the others started from the front row.
Two drivers also recorded the fastest lap in their winning race: Button in Australia and Vettel in Bahrain.

Answer: The team's garage burnt down

Shortly after the race fire broke out in the Williams pit-box. Several people got injured, including four members of team Williams as well as members of Caterham and Force India. The probable cause of the fire was a KERS-unit which sparked a fuel fire. Much of Williams's equipment in the garage, including computer hardware, telemetry and pit equipment, was destroyed in the incident.

Answer: Pirelli

Pirelli came back into F1 as the sole tyre manufacturer in 2011, after Bridgestone's withdrawal at the end of the previous season. Before the 2012 season Pirelli announced that their new tyres "would provide more opportunity for passes and help make a better show". (source: Autosport).

There are four different compounds for dry races, each indicated with a different colour on the side of the tyre (hard - silver, medium - white, soft - yellow and super-soft - red), and two treaded tyres for wet conditions (intermediate - green and full wet - blue). All drivers are obliged to use two different compounds during a race, except in a wet race.

Answer: Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso started from 11th place on the grid. After a great start he was already in 8th position on lap two. When the pace car came out on lap 27 he was in 3rd position behind Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean. After the pace car had gone in Vettel's car broke down and Alonso overtook Grosjean to take the lead.

He stayed there to win a surprising and emotional home victory. Alonso also took the lead in the championship after the European Grand Prix and held on to that lead until after the Japanese Grand Prix.

Answer: He was banned for one race

Romain Grosjean started from 9th, moved to the right trying to pass Lewis Hamilton and squeezed him towards the pit wall. Both cars touched, Grosjean ran into the back of Sergio Perez's Sauber and was catapulted over the front of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari, missing his head by inches. All cars involved were out of the race, as well as Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber. Because of prior start incidents this year stewards felt it necessary to give Grosjean a one race ban.

Jenson Button won the Belgian Grand Prix. Grosjean was replaced for the Italian Grand Prix by Lotus test driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio, who finished 13th in Italy.

Answer: Sergio Perez

2012 was Sergio Perez's second season in F1. In the second race of the season, the Malaysian Grand Prix, he impressed by finishing second behind Fernando Alonso in wet conditions. Canada was another great race for Perez where he took third in the closing stages of the race. In Italy he overtook both Ferraris to finish second again.

Perez is a product of the Ferrari Drivers Academy and speculations about him joining Ferrari were rife all season, but Ferrari was hesitant to sign him. When Lewis Hamilton announced his transfer to Mercedes for the 2013 season, McLaren snapped him up as Hamilton's replacement.

Answer: Monisha Kaltenborn

Monisha Kaltenborn (nee Narang) was born in India in 1971, but after her parents had moved to Austria she chose the Austrian nationality. She has a degree in international business law and in 1999 started to work for the Fritz Kaiser group, who then had a stake in Sauber F1 team. After Kaiser group had sold its shares Kaltenborn remained at Sauber, first as head of the legal department and later as part of the management team. In May 2012 she acquired a 33% stake in the team and in October, when Peter Sauber retired, she became team boss.

Maria de Villota was a test driver for Marussia F1 who lost an eye in a testing accident. Susie Wolff (nee Stoddart) is a test driver for Williams, and wife of Williams investor Toto Wolff. Sabine Kehm is Michael Schumacher's manager since he made his comeback in F1. Before she was his spokeswoman.

Answer: United States Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel laid the foundations of his third title in Asia with four wins in a row: Singapore, Japan, Korea and India. He turned a 39 points deficit over Alonso into a 13 points advantage.
Lewis Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix.

Answer: Kimi Räikkönen

After a two year break from F1 Kimi Räikkönen made his comeback for team Lotus. He finished in the points in all but one race (China) and his regular points scoring earned him third place in the championship. In Abu Dhabi Räikkönen started from 4th on the grid and took the lead after Lewis Hamilton retired.

He won the race with Fernando Alonso coming second closely behind. Sebastian Vettel finished third after starting from the pit lane. Vettel had been excluded from the qualifying result for a fuel irregularity.

Answer: Vettel had a 13 points advantage

Nothing much had changed since the Indian Grand Prix. Both contenders earned 33 points in Abu Dhabi and the USA. Sebastian Vettel went to Brazil with 273 points, Fernando Alonso had 260 points. Fourth place was enough for Vettel to guarantee his third title. Alonso had to finish on the podium to keep his chances alive, and had to rely on a bad result for Vettel.

Answer: Bruno Senna

Starting from fourth Sebastian Vettel made a bad start what dropped him back into the midfield, where he was hit by Bruno Senna's Williams. Vettel's Red Bull spun and was passed by the whole field dropping him back to last place. At first the car looked badly damaged but it soon became clear that he was able to continue. By lap eight he was already back into a points scoring position.

Answer: Nico Hülkenberg

Nico Hülkenberg started from 6th and passed Felipe Massa and Mark Webber in the early laps. He got past Fernando Alonso when he ran wide on lap five. When Lewis Hamilton went in the pits to change to intermediate tyres he moved up into second place. On lap 18 he also overtook Jenson Button to take the lead. Hülkenberg had a comfortable lead for a while until he ran wide on lap 48 and Hamilton got past again.

Answer: A collision between the two leading drivers

Nico Hülkenberg had gone wide at turn eight in lap 48 what allowed Lewis Hamilton to retake the lead. From here he was chasing and closing in on Hamilton's McLaren. In lap 55 an attempt to overtake him went wrong. When Hülkenberg was on the inside of Hamilton's McLaren his Force India slipped on the wet part of the track and touched Hamilton's front left wheel. This caused Hülkenberg to spin and Hamilton to retire from the race.

Jenson Button took the lead after the incident in lap55. Hülkenberg was able to resume the race but race-stewards blamed him for causing an avoidable collision and gave him a drive-through penalty. When Hülkenberg served his penalty he dropped back to fifth. Fernando Alonso gained two positions from the collision and, after making a pit stop, was in second place.

Answer: 7th

After the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix Michael Schumacher retired from the sport, with an amazing 7 world championships, 91 wins and 68 pole positions.

Before the 2010 season he had announced his comeback, driving for Mercedes. The second part of his career wasn't nearly as successful as his first. Mercedes proved to be uncompetitive and Schumacher didn't manage to win, let alone fight for the championship. Schumacher announced his second retirement shortly after Lewis Hamilton was confirmed as a Mercedes driver for 2013.

Eight laps from the end of his last Grand Prix Schumacher was in 6th position, when he was overtaken by Sebastian Vettel. Sixth place was enough for Vettel as long as Fernando Alonso stayed in second position (which he did).

Answer: True

When Paul di Resta crashed at the end of lap 69 the pace car came out. This meant that no more overtaking could be done as there weren't enough laps left to resume the race. The Brazilian Grand Prix was won by Jenson Button for McLaren, Fernando Alonso finished second, Felipe Massa third.

Sebastian Vettel took 8 points from his 6th place finsih, Alonso 18 from second. This was enough for Vettel to give him his third consecutive title, with a three points advantage over Alonso.