2012 F1F F2 PS3 Indian Grand Prix

The Indian Grand Prix promised to close the field up more, after an enthralling qualifying. Jamie was the first out, setting a reasonable time on the harder compound tyre, which was soon bested by his team mate, by nearly a second. Alfie Widger was looking good to beat Tom Robson's time, before crashing in the third sector, ending any effort he may have had at taking his second pole position.

Jamie went out again with a few minutes remaining on the clock, and set a blisteringly quick time of 1:22.907, still on the prime tyres, securing his second consecutive pole by nearly eight tenths of a second from Tom Robson.

The race was a much different story though, as Gareth Parles in the Mercedes was able to get off the line much quicker than Jamie Franklin, thanks to his option tyres. This caused a mishap into turn one, when Jamie went wide, with Gareth and Tom battling for position, and an unlikely Alfie Widger taking the lead.

Gareth, Tom and Jamie then battled in the opening laps for position, although it was evident at this time that the Mercedes driver was slower than the two McLaren drivers. Jamie Franklin was able to pass Gareth Parles on the second lap and then began to eat into Alfie's lead, although not quite as quickly as he would have thought.

On lap six, Alfie pitted in for new tyres, despite the prime tyres supposedly being able to last nearly twice as long, and Jamie took the lead. It was at this time that the teams (outside McLaren) realised that Jamie was once again on a one stopper, just like in Malaysia. However, after some laps on the option tyres, Jamie was given a drive-through penalty for repeated corner cutting. This closed the gap to Alfie to less than a second, and the Sauber was directly behind the McLaren as it exited the pits.

The battle raged on for a few laps before the Sauber driver eventually made a mistake and had to then save fuel for the remaining laps, whilst Jamie was able to push on.

It was becoming evident that Jamie Franklin was able to extract far more life out of the new Pirelli tyres than any of his competitors, including his team mate, Tom Robson.