A Year of Champions - 2012 Trivia Quiz

Answer: 5

Compared to his 2011 form, where Vettel won 11 of 19 races, he would win only 5 of 20 races during 2012 as the grid was one of the closest in years. Vettel only beat Alonso to the World Championship by 3 points (281 for Vettel, 278 for Alonso). It took four races for Vettel to win (Bahrain) and would not win again until the Singapore Grand Prix, where he would then go on to win four in a row. Eight drivers won a Grand Prix during 2012 - Alonso (3), Raikkonen (1), Hamilton (4), Button (3), Webber (2), Rosberg (1) and Maldonado (1).

Answer: Dani Pedrosa

The 2012 MotoGP season was dominated by three riders - Dani Pedrosa, who won 7 races and finished second overall, Jorge Lorenzo, who won 6 races and was World Champion and Casey Stoner, who won 5 races and finished third overall. No other rider won a race during the season.

It was Lorenzo's greater consistency which won the Championship as in addition to his 6 victories were 10 second places and only two retirements in 18 events.

Answer: 4th

Hunter-Reay entered the final race at Fontana behind Will Power in the standings. Power had won 3 of the first four races but had struggled with consistency. Hunter-Reay won 4 races prior to Fontana. Power crashed out early during the race in a battle with Hunter-Reay and had to finish 5th or better to win the title. Hunter-Reay eventually finished 4th and became the first American to win the IndyCar championship since 2006 while the first American to win a unified title since 1994.

Answer: Dodge

Keselowski won 5 races during the season in addition to 13 top-5 and 23 top-10 finishes. Keselowski was a model of consistency with only four finishes outside the top 20 during the season and finished 8 of the 10 races in the top 10 during the Chase. Penske Racing was the only team to use Dodge on a full-time basis during 2012 and announced they would move to Ford for 2013.

This was the first title for Penske Racing in NASCAR and the second title for Keselowski in NASCAR after his 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series win.

Answer: 9

Driving for Citroen on a full-time bases since 2003 in the WRC, Loeb finished 2nd overall in 2003 but has won every single World Rally Championship title from 2004 to 2012. Between 2004 and 2012 Loeb won an unprecedented 74 rallies including seasons such as 2006, where he finished every rally either 1st or 2nd, and 2010 where he finished every rally in the points. 2012 saw Loeb win 9 out of 13 rallies and finish 57 points ahead of his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen. Loeb confirmed during 2012 that he would only compete in selected rallies during 2013.

Answer: 0.5

In his last year of competition before retirement, Max Biaggi who was riding for Aprilia, beat Tom Sykes by half a point to clinch the 2012 World Superbike Championship. The season was one of the most open in years with numerous manufacturers proving to be competitive - Aprilia, BMW, Kawasaki, Ducati and Honda all won races - while 9 different riders managed to take at least one victory. Biaggi won 5 races on his way to the title.

The reason for the half-points were two races, one at Monza and one at Silverstone, that were stopped early and half-points were awarded.

Answer: Robert Huff

Chevrolet dominated the 2012 WTCC season with factory drivers Robert Huff finishing the season as WTCC Champion, Alain Menu as runner-up and Yvan Muller third overall. Yvan Muller won the most races (9) during the season compared to Huff only winning 5 but it was Huff's greater consistency that won him the Championship.

After their success, Chevrolet confirmed their departure at the end of the 2012 Championship.

Answer: True

Since 2007 when Whincup joined Triple Eight Race Engineering, the young Victorian has dominated touring car racing in Australia. Whincup has won four V8 Supercar Championships - 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012 (finishing runner-up in 2007 and 2010) - and also four Bathurst 1000 races in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012. Whincup and Lowndes were the first pairing to win three Bathurst's on the trot since Peter Brock and Larry Perkins won the race in 1982-1984 (the two were joined by John Harvey for their 1983 win).

Answer: Gordon Shedden

Shedden, driving a Honda Civic for Team Dynamics, won his first British Touring Car Championship by beating his team-mate Matt Neal at the final round at Brands Hatch. Jason Plato finished third overall driving for MG. Shedden won 8 races in total in the 10 round, 30 race championship.

Answer: Canadian

Spengler was born in Alsace, France on the French / German border but moved to Canada when he was 3 years old and races under the Canadian flag. Spengler eventually moved back to France to pursue a racing career and began driving in the DTM in 2005. He came close to winning the DTM in 2005 and 2006 while driving for Mercedes-Benz when he finished runner-up. Two third place finishes followed 2010 and 2011.

A move to BMW for 2012 helped Spengler win four races and his first DTM title in 2012.