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The top 10 IndyCar drivers of 2012
It was an incredibly tight season in IndyCars, with Dallara's DW12 providing a new challenge. AUTOSPORT's reporter Mark Glendenning picks out his top 10 performers
By Mark Glendenning
AUTOSPORT US editor
The top 10 IndyCar drivers of 2012
1. Will Power (AUS)
Championship position: 2nd (465 points)
Team: Team Penske
Starts: 15
Wins: 3
Poles: 5
Fastest laps: 3
The driver to beat on just about any given weekend had his mojo abandon him right when he needed it most. Or, to quote an email from a former colleague in Australia: "I can't believe he's done it again".
Power was the class of the field in 2012, although his season wasn't perfect, as evidenced by the strategy miscue at Baltimore, or his constant struggle to second-guess whether race control might leave the pits open during a caution. Still, everything else he did, he usually did better than the majority of the field – one corner at Fontana notwithstanding.
2. Scott Dixon (NZ)
Championship position: 3rd (435)
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Starts: 15
Wins: 2
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 0
Often seemed that if he didn't have bad luck he'd have no luck at all, but as quick as anyone when everything was working as it should.
If you had to pick a fault (not counting the assorted mishaps that were beyond his control) you might point to his occasionally being a bit quiet in qualifying, but it was often scary to see what he could do in the races. If you had to sum up his year in one race, it would be Sonoma – fastest guy on the track, but forced by a string of unlikely events to make six pitstops.
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay (USA)
Championship position: 1st (468)
Starts: 15
Team: Andretti Autosport
Wins: 4
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 2
Not as consistent as he'd liked to have been, but his knack for stepping up on crunch weekends paid off in a big way.
The American's Milwaukee/Iowa/Toronto hat-trick vaulted him into contention after a tough start to the season, and a steadfast refusal to give up when things went awry – the mechanical problem at Mid-Ohio and being taken out by Alex Tagliani at Sonoma – meant that he was still in a position to capitalise when Power got it wrong at Fontana.
4. Dario Franchitti (GB)
Championship position: 7th (363)
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Starts: 15
Wins: 1
Poles 3
Fastest laps: 1
One of the big pre-season questions was, which of the big guns was going to struggle to get their heads around the DW12?
The answer, as it turned out, was the reigning champion. It didn't take Franchitti and his crew more than a couple of races to figure it out, but by then they were already on the back foot. By the Scot's sky-high standards, a single win from a season would ordinarily be considered a poor return for the effort, but when that win comes at the Indy 500, it's another story. It's also worth noting that even when the championship was gone, Franchitti's effort never dipped below 100 per cent.
5. Simon Pagenaud (F)
Championship position: 5th (86.5)
Team: Schmidt Hamilton Racing
Starts: 15
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0
The Frenchman gave a few of the big guns something to think about with his performances in the single-car Schmidt Hamilton entry.
Technically a rookie, he came into the series pretty well-credentialled, with a season of Champ Car and a strong sportscar career under his belt, but he stepped up his game again in 2012. Despite never having seen an oval he adapted quickly and, in races such as Texas and Milwaukee, it was mishaps in the pitlane rather than on the track that proved to be his undoing. One of the subplots of the 2013 season will be where he can take things from here.
6. Helio Castroneves (BR)
Championship position: 4th (431)
Team: Team Penske
Starts: 15
Wins: 2
Poles: 1
Fastest laps: 0
It's as if 2011 never happened. As long as there are better-rounded guys like Power, Dixon, Franchitti, Hunter-Reay and now Pagenaud in the field it seems difficult to imagine Castroneves winning a title, but the Brazilian's performances this year were far more representative of what he is capable of than they were 12 months previously. There were still errors, but this time around, they were the exception rather than the norm.
7. Tony Kanaan (BR)
Championship position: 9th (351)
Team: KV Racing Technology
Starts: 15
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0
TK remained as strong a force as ever in the races – the problem was that he usually qualified too low for it to matter. Ovals were his strong suit, and he could have had a great result at Texas had he not been on the receiving end of a chop from Power, but he proved that his speed hasn't dulled with podiums at Milwaukee and Iowa.
8. Sebastien Bourdais (F)
Championship position: 25th (173)
Starts: 11
Team: Dragon Racing
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0
Potentially a controversial choice, considering that he didn't contest the entire season. But as the saying goes, it's not what you've got, it's how you use it. What Bourdais had at any given moment was not that impressive: a Lotus engine for the first few races, a partial season for the rest – but he still managed to regularly spook his better-resourced rivals.
9. Justin Wilson (GB)
Championship position: 16th (278)
Team: Dale Coyne Racing
Starts: 15
Wins: 1
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 1
Long respected for his ability on road courses, but 2012 reminded the world that the Brit is decent at turning left, too. His win at Texas will always be accompanied by an asterisk over the legality or otherwise of his car's aero package. (And, in turn, the extent to which the part in question actually made a difference). But he also qualified well at Milwaukee before having to take an engine penalty, and could have been a contender at Indy had it not been for an overly polite restart.
10. James Hinchcliffe (CDN)
Championship position: 8th (358)
Team: Andretti Autosport
Starts: 15
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest laps: 0
Hinchcliffe saw off some stiff opposition for the final spot, and Ryan Briscoe, Alex Tagliani and Oriol Servia are just three who might feel aggrieved. What got the Canadian over the line was his consistently strong performance over the first half of the season – there were weekends when it was he, rather than Hunter-Reay, who looked like Andretti's best chance at a title. The charge fell away as the year went on, but he has plenty to build upon for 2013.