Lewis Hamilton’s five-wheel change for McLaren was the fourth-quickest pit stop of the race.
Indian Grand Prix tyre strategies
The tyre strategies for each driver:
| Stint 1 | Stint 2 | Stint 3 | |
| Sebastian Vettel | Soft (33) | Hard (27) | |
| Mark Webber | Soft (30) | Hard (30) | |
| Lewis Hamilton | Soft (32) | Hard (28) | |
| Jenson Button | Soft (25) | Hard (35) | |
| Fernando Alonso | Soft (29) | Hard (31) | |
| Felipe Massa | Soft (28) | Hard (32) | |
| Kimi Raikkonen | Soft (27) | Hard (33) | |
| Sergio Perez | Soft (14) | Soft (5) | Hard (1) |
| Pastor Maldonado | Soft (27) | Hard (3) | Hard (29) |
| Nico Rosberg | Soft (27) | Hard (33) | |
| Romain Grosjean | Hard (36) | Soft (24) | |
| Nico Hulkenberg | Soft (28) | Hard (32) | |
| Bruno Senna | Soft (26) | Hard (34) | |
| Michael Schumacher | Hard (1) | Soft (32) | Soft (22) |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Hard (27) | Soft (33) | |
| Paul di Resta | Soft (28) | Hard (32) | |
| Kamui Kobayashi | Hard (36) | Soft (24) | |
| Jean-Eric Vergne | Soft (1) | Soft (32) | Hard (26) |
| Vitaly Petrov | Soft (31) | Hard (28) | |
| Heikki Kovalainen | Soft (32) | Hard (27) | |
| Timo Glock | Soft (31) | Hard (27) | |
| Pedro de la Rosa | Soft (32) | Hard (10) | |
| Narain Karthikeyan | Soft (26) | Hard (32) | |
| Charles Pic | Soft (28) | Hard (31) |
Sebastian Vettel delayed his first pit stop as he was still going strong on the soft tyres after half distance.
“I felt very good on the soft tryes and was competitive,” he said. “I could have stayed out even longer I think, but at some stage you have to cover. McLaren and Ferrari were quick on the hard tyre today, so it was important to have a gap to them.”
However McLaren could not get as much performance out of the soft tyre compared to the hard, as was clear from practice. Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said: “We found it difficult to coax sufficient pace out of the [softs], but our car was the fastest in the field on the [hards].
“The trouble was, by the time we were running on [hards], the gap to the cars ahead was a bit too large.”
Indian Grand Prix pit stop times
How long each driver’s pit stops took:
| Driver | Team | Pit stop time | Gap | On lap | |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 20.707 | 33 | |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 20.800 | 0.093 | 29 |
| 3 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 20.808 | 0.101 | 30 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 20.852 | 0.145 | 32 |
| 5 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 20.976 | 0.269 | 36 |
| 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 21.100 | 0.393 | 28 |
| 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 21.322 | 0.615 | 33 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Sauber | 21.336 | 0.629 | 14 |
| 9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | 21.404 | 0.697 | 27 |
| 10 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 21.490 | 0.783 | 27 |
| 11 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 21.509 | 0.802 | 25 |
| 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 21.654 | 0.947 | 28 |
| 13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 21.658 | 0.951 | 33 |
| 14 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 22.003 | 1.296 | 27 |
| 15 | Bruno Senna | Williams | 22.047 | 1.340 | 26 |
| 16 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham | 22.445 | 1.738 | 31 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 22.637 | 1.930 | 27 |
| 18 | Charles Pic | Marussia | 22.692 | 1.985 | 28 |
| 19 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | 22.726 | 2.019 | 36 |
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | 22.967 | 2.260 | 32 |
| 21 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT | 23.830 | 3.123 | 32 |
| 22 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 23.948 | 3.241 | 28 |
| 23 | Sergio Perez | Sauber | 24.508 | 3.801 | 19 |
| 24 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | 24.544 | 3.837 | 26 |
| 25 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 25.036 | 4.329 | 1 |
| 26 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | 25.097 | 4.390 | 1 |
| 27 | Timo Glock | Marussia | 27.303 | 6.596 | 31 |
| 28 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 28.053 | 7.346 | 30 |
Red Bull were the fastest team in the pits for the third time in the last seven races.
But McLaren’s pit stop for Lewis Hamilton was impressively quick – the fourth-fastest of the race – given that it included a change of steering wheel.
“During that first stint I started having a downshift problem,” explained Hamilton. “I was having to change down with my right hand instead of my left, so the team elected to change the steering wheel at the pit stop.”
“I’ve never had to change a steering wheel during a race before. We’ve done it in Barcelona testing before, but never in a race. Even so, the guys did it fantastically quickly, under immense pressure, so I want to say ‘well done!’ to them all.
“I took the wheel off before I’d even stopped the car, and threw it out of the car. The team then fitted a new one, I clicked it into first gear, and I was away – all in just a bit over three seconds flat.”
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Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei
KaIIe (@kaiie)
28th October 2012, 17:45
Just rewatched that Lewis stop, pure magic. Incredible how fast everything happens.
LosD (@losd)
28th October 2012, 18:12
Yeah, it really looked impressive. Slow-throw-stop-attach-go! :)
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
29th October 2012, 1:23
Vettel was the last onto his stop, covering Hamilton rather than Alonso/Webber. I think he was just playing games with the rest of the field to be honest. I think him making sure he was last to the pits was about him trying to further his record of most consecutive laps led, rather than any strategy!
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
29th October 2012, 13:06
That steering wheel change was impressive, brilliant how it’s just plug and play!
Seeing Raikkonen get around Massa with their pit-stop battle was cruel when his hard-work was undone by Massa’s DRS moments later! Makes you wonder if sometimes it’s best to hang back and attack later, though I could appreciate Raikkonen wanting to get it done quickly.
ceat
31st October 2012, 11:01
Vettal is just the best…. Born legend