Knowledge (XXG)

Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham, was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by two Australians, driver Jack Brabham and designer Ron Tauranac, the team won four drivers' and two constructors' world championships in its 30-year Formula One history. Jack Brabham's 1966 drivers' championship remains the only such achievement using a car bearing the driver's own name.

In the 1960s, Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of open wheel racing cars for sale to customer teams, and had built more than 500 cars by 1970. During this period, teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three and competed in the Indianapolis 500. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced innovations such as the "fan car"—which won its only race before being withdrawn—in-race refuelling, carbon brakes, and hydropneumatic suspension. The team won two more Formula One drivers' championships in the 1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet, and became the first to win a drivers' championship with a turbocharged car.

British businessman Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham during most of the 1970s and 1980s, and later became responsible for administering the commercial aspects of Formula One. Ecclestone sold the team in 1988. Its last owner was the Middlebridge Group, a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through the 1992 season, the team collapsed financially as Middlebridge was unable to make repayments against loans provided by Landhurst Leasing. The case was investigated by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office. In 2009, an unsuccessful attempt was made by a German organisation to enter the 2010 Formula One season using the Brabham name.

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• * Massa recorded no time in Q3 as he did not attempt a run.
• Friday Practice 1 – Alonso tops wet Turkish session
• Friday Practice 2 – Button edges out Rosberg in Istanbul
• Saturday Practice – Vettel recovers in style
• Qualifying – Vettel eases to Istanbul Park pole
• Race – Vettel reigns supreme for Red Bull in Turkey

• * Schumacher recorded no time in Q3 as he did not attempt a run.
• Friday Practice 1 – Webber leads Vettel by a second in Spanish sun
• Friday Practice 2 – Webber again, but Hamilton splits the Red Bulls
• Saturday Practice – Vettel pips Webber at the post
• Qualifying – Webber bests Vettel to take Barcelona pole
• Race – Vettel holds off Hamilton for tense Spanish win

• – Total time includes time elapsed under red flag conditions.
• ‡ Hamilton (6th, + 27.210) was penalised 20 seconds post-race for causing an avoidable collision – Hamilton handed 20-second time penalty
• * Hamilton's best time was deleted after he was penalised for corner-cutting – Hamilton punished for cutting chicane
• † Pérez recorded no time in Q3 as he suffered an accident on his first run. He was later ruled out of the race due to a concussion – Perez to miss Monaco race after qualifying accident
• Thursday Practice 1 – Vettel sets the pace for Red Bull in Monaco
• Thursday Practice 2 – Alonso leads tight top three in Monaco
• Saturday Practice – Alonso tops disjointed Monaco session
• Qualifying – Vettel on pole in Monaco after Perez shunt
• Race – Vettel victorious in red-flagged Monaco thriller

The 2012 Formula One season was the 63rd season of the Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) — the governing body of motorsport — as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The season was contested over twenty rounds, which started in Australia on 18 March and ended in Brazil on 25 November. The 2012 season saw the return of the United States Grand Prix, which was held at the Circuit of the Americas, a purpose-built circuit in Austin, Texas. After being cancelled in 2011 due to civil protests, the Bahrain Grand Prix also returned to the calendar.

The early season was tumultuous, with seven different drivers winning the first seven races of the championship; a record for the series. It was not until the European Grand Prix in June that a driver, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, won his second race of the year, and with it, emerged as a championship contender. Alonso maintained his hold on the championship lead for the next seven races, taking his third win in Germany and finishing on the podium in the United Kingdom, Italy and Singapore. However, costly first-lap retirements in Belgium and Japan allowed his rivals to catch up, and defending World Champion Sebastian Vettel — like Alonso, a two-time winner — took the lead in the sixteenth race of the season. Vettel, too, encountered difficulties throughout the season; contact with a backmarker left him to finish outside the points in Malaysia, while alternator failures at the European and Italian Grands Prix cost him valuable points and exclusion from qualifying in Abu Dhabi led him to start from the pit lane. Vettel entered the final race of the season with a thirteen-point lead over Alonso. Alonso needed a podium finish to stand any chance of becoming World Drivers' Champion, but in a race of attrition that finished under the safety car, Vettel finished in sixth place, scoring enough points to win his third consecutive championship, becoming the third driver to do so. In the World Constructors' Championship, Red Bull Racing secured their third consecutive title when Sebastian Vettel finished second at the United States Grand Prix.

In addition to seeing seven drivers win the first seven races, the 2012 season broke several records. The calendar for the season included twenty races, breaking the previous record of nineteen, which was first set in 2005. Six current or former World Drivers' Champions — Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Räikkönen, and Michael Schumacher — started the season, breaking the record of five established in 1970.

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