title: Agamemnon

text: Atreus and Aerope have three children, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia. The continued miasma surrounding the house of Atreus expresses itself in several events throughout their lives. Agamemnon is forced to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the gods and allow the Greek forces to sail for Troy. When Agamemnon refuses to return Chryseis to her father Chryses, he brings plague upon the Greek camp. He is also later killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, who conspires with her new lover Aegisthus in revenge for the death of Iphigenia. Menelaus's wife, Helen of Troy, runs away with Paris, ultimately leading to the Trojan War. According to book 4 of the "Odyssey," after the war his fleet is scattered by the gods to Egypt and Crete. When Menelaus finally returns home, his marriage with Helen is now strained and they produce no sons. Both Agamemnon and Menelaus are cursed by Ajax for not granting him Achilles's armor as he commits suicide.


title: Agamemnon

text: Agamemnon and Clytemnestra have three remaining children, Electra, Orestes, and Chrysothemis. After growing to adulthood and being pressured by Electra, Orestes vows to avenge his father Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. After successfully doing so, he wanders the Greek countryside for many years constantly plagued by the Erinyes (Furies) for his sins. Finally, with the help of Athena and Apollo he is absolved of his crimes, dispersing the miasma, and the curse on house Atreus comes to an end.


title: Agamemnon

text: Athenaeus tells a tale of how Agamemnon mourns the loss of his friend or lover Argynnus, when he drowns in the Cephisus river. He buries him, honored with a tomb and a shrine to Aphrodite Argynnis. This episode is also found in Clement of Alexandria, in Stephen of Byzantium "(Kopai" and "Argunnos)," and in Propertius, III with minor variations.


title: Agamemnon

text: The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous tragedies, ancient and modern, the most famous being the "Oresteia" of Aeschylus. In the legends of the Peloponnesus, Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of "Zeus Agamemnon". His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae.


title: Agamemnon

text: In works of art, there is considerable resemblance between the representations of Zeus, king of the gods, and Agamemnon, king of men. He is generally depicted with a sceptre and diadem, conventional attributes of kings.


title: Agamemnon

text: Agamemnon's mare is named Aetha. She is also one of two horses driven by Menelaus at the funeral games of Patroclus.


title: Agamemnon

text: In Homer's "Odyssey" Agamemnon makes an appearance in the kingdom of Hades after his death. There, the former king meets Odysseus and explains just how he was murdered before he offers Odysseus a warning about the dangers of trusting a woman.


title: Agamemnon

text: Agamemnon is a character in William Shakespeare's play "Troilus and Cressida", set during the Trojan War.


title: Cake

text: Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, and which share features with desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies.


title: Cake

text: The most common ingredients include flour, sugar, eggs, fat (such as butter, oil or margarine), a liquid, and a leavening agent, such as baking soda or baking powder. Common additional ingredients include dried, candied, or fresh fruit, nuts, cocoa, and extracts such as vanilla, with numerous substitutions for the primary ingredients. Cakes can also be filled with fruit preserves, nuts or dessert sauces (like custard, jelly, cooked fruit, whipped cream or syrups), iced with buttercream or other icings, and decorated with marzipan, piped borders, or candied fruit.


title: Cake

text: Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions, such as weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. There are countless cake recipes; some are bread-like, some are rich and elaborate, and many are centuries old. Cake making is no longer a complicated procedure; while at one time considerable labor went into cake making (particularly the whisking of egg foams), baking equipment and directions have been simplified so that even the most amateur of cooks may bake a cake.


title: Cake

text: The term "cake" has a long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word "kaka".


title: Cake

text: The ancient Greeks called cake πλακοῦς ("plakous"), which was derived from the word for "flat", πλακόεις ("plakoeis"). It was baked using flour mixed with eggs, milk, nuts, and honey. They also had a cake called "satura", which was a flat heavy cake. During the Roman period, the name for cake became "placenta" which was derived from the Greek term. A placenta was baked on a pastry base or inside a pastry case.


title: Cake

text: The Greeks invented beer as a leavener, frying fritters in olive oil, and cheesecakes using goat's milk. In ancient Rome, the basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with butter, eggs, and honey, which produced a sweet and cake-like baked good. Latin poet Ovid refers to his and his brother's birthday party and cake in his first book of exile, "Tristia".


title: Cake

text: Early cakes in England were also essentially bread: the most obvious differences between a "cake" and "bread" were the round, flat shape of the cakes, and the cooking method, which turned cakes over once while cooking, while bread was left upright throughout the baking process.


title: Cake

text: During the Great Depression, there was a surplus of molasses and the need to provide easily made food to millions of economically depressed people in the United States. One company patented a cake-bread mix to deal with this economic situation, and thereby established the first line of cake in a box. In so doing, cake, as it is known today, became a mass-produced good rather than a home- or bakery-made specialty.


title: Cake

text: Later, during the post-war boom, other American companies (notably General Mills) developed this idea further, marketing cake mix on the principle of convenience, especially to housewives. When sales dropped heavily in the 1950s, marketers discovered that baking cakes, once a task at which housewives could exercise skill and creativity, had become dispiriting. This was a period in American ideological history when women, retired from the war-time labor force, were confined to the domestic sphere, while still exposed to the blossoming consumerism in the US. This inspired psychologist Ernest Dichter to find a solution to the cake mix problem in the frosting. Since making the cake was so simple, housewives and other in-home cake makers could expend their creative energy on cake decorating inspired by, among other things, photographs in magazines of elaborately decorated cakes.


title: Cake

text: Ever since cake in a box has become a staple of supermarkets and is complemented with frosting in a can.


title: Cake

text: Cakes are broadly divided into several categories, based primarily on ingredients and mixing techniques.


title: Cake

text: Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive.


title: Cake

text: Butter cakes are made from creamed butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. They rely on the combination of butter and sugar beaten for an extended time to incorporate air into the batter. A classic pound cake is made with a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. Another type of butter cake that takes its names from the proportion of ingredients used is 1-2-3-4 cake: 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs. According to Beth Tartan, this cake was one of the most common among the American pioneers who settled North Carolina.


title: Cake

text: Baking powder is in many butter cakes, such as Victoria sponge. The ingredients are sometimes mixed without creaming the butter, using recipes for simple and quick cakes.


title: Cake

text: Sponge cakes (or foam cakes) are made from whipped eggs, sugar, and flour. Traditional sponge cakes are leavened only with eggs. They rely primarily on trapped air in a protein matrix (generally of beaten eggs) to provide leavening, sometimes with a bit of baking powder or other chemical leaven added. Egg-leavened sponge cakes are thought to be the oldest cakes made without yeast.


title: Cake

text: Angel food cake is a white cake that uses only the whites of the eggs and is traditionally baked in a tube pan. The French Génoise is a sponge cake that includes clarified butter. Highly decorated sponge cakes with lavish toppings are sometimes called "gateau", the French word for cake. Chiffon cakes are sponge cakes with vegetable oil, which adds moistness.


title: Cake

text: Chocolate cakes are butter cakes, sponge cakes, or other cakes flavored with melted chocolate or cocoa powder. German chocolate cake is a variety of chocolate cake. Fudge cakes are chocolate cakes that contain fudge.


title: Cake

text: Coffee cake is generally thought of as a cake to serve with coffee or tea at breakfast or a coffee break. Some types use yeast as a leavening agent while others use baking soda or baking powder. These cakes often have a crumb topping called streusel or a light glaze drizzle.


title: Cake

text: Layer cakes are cakes made with layers of sponge or butter cake, filled with cream, jam or other filling to hold the layers together.


title: Cake

text: One egg cakes are made with one egg. They can be made with butter or vegetable shortening. One egg cake was an economical recipe when using two eggs for each cake was too costly.


title: Cake

text: Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive. For example, banana bread may be properly considered either a quick bread or a cake. Yeast cakes are the oldest and are very similar to yeast bread. Such cakes are often very traditional in form and include such pastries as babka and stollen.


title: Cake

text: Cakes may be classified according to the occasion for which they are intended. For example, wedding cakes, birthday cakes, cakes for first communion, Christmas cakes, Halloween cakes, and Passover plava (a type of sponge cake sometimes made with matzo meal) are all identified primarily according to the celebration they are intended to accompany. The cutting of a wedding cake constitutes a social ceremony in some cultures. The Ancient Roman marriage ritual of "confarreatio" originated in the sharing of a cake.


title: Cake

text: Particular types of cake may be associated with particular festivals, such as stollen or chocolate log (at Christmas), babka and simnel cake (at Easter), or mooncake. There has been a long tradition of decorating an iced cake at Christmas time; other cakes associated with Christmas include chocolate log and mince pies.


title: Cake

text: A Lancashire Courting Cake is a fruit-filled cake baked by a fiancée for her betrothed. The cake has been described as "somewhere between a firm sponge – with a greater proportion of flour to fat and eggs than a Victoria sponge cake – and a shortbread base and was proof of the bride-to-be's baking skills". Traditionally it is a two-layer cake filled and topped with strawberries or raspberries and whipped cream.


title: Cake

text: Cakes are frequently described according to their physical form. Cakes may be small and intended for individual consumption. Larger cakes may be made to be sliced and served as part of a meal or social function. Common shapes include:


title: Cake

text: Special cake flour with a high starch-to-gluten ratio is made from fine-textured, soft, low-protein wheat. It is strongly bleached and compared to all-purpose flour, cake flour tends to result in cakes with a lighter, less dense texture. Therefore, it is frequently specified or preferred in cakes meant to be soft, light, and/or bright white, such as angel food cake. However, if cake flour is called for, a substitute can be made by replacing a small percentage of all-purpose flour with cornstarch or removing two tablespoons from each cup of all-purpose flour. Some recipes explicitly specify or permit all-purpose flour, notably where a firmer or denser cake texture is desired.


title: Cake

text: A cake can fail to bake properly, which is called "falling". In a cake that "falls", parts may sink or flatten, because it was baked at a temperature that is too low or too hot, when it has been underbaked and when placed in an oven that is too hot at the beginning of the baking process. The use of excessive amounts of sugar, flour, fat or leavening can also cause a cake to fall. A cake can also fall when subjected to cool air that enters an oven when the oven door is opened during the cooking process.


title: Cake

text: A finished cake is often enhanced by covering it with icing, or frosting, and toppings such as sprinkles, which are also known as "jimmies" in certain parts of the United States and "hundreds and thousands" in the United Kingdom. The frosting is usually made from powdered (icing) sugar, sometimes a fat of some sort, milk or cream, and often flavorings such as a vanilla extract or cocoa powder. Some decorators use a rolled fondant icing. Commercial bakeries tend to use lard for the fat, and often whip the lard to introduce air bubbles. This makes the icing light and spreadable. Home bakers either use lard, butter, margarine, or some combination thereof. Sprinkles are small firm pieces of sugar and oils that are colored with food coloring. In the late 20th century, new cake decorating products became available to the public. These include several specialized sprinkles and even methods to print pictures and transfer the image onto a cake.


title: Cake

text: Special tools are needed for more complex cake decorating, such as piping bags and various piping tips, syringes and embossing mats. To use a piping bag or syringe, a piping tip is attached to the bag or syringe using a coupler. The bag or syringe is partially filled with icing which is sometimes colored. Using different piping tips and various techniques, a cake decorator can make many different designs. Basic decorating tips include open star, closed star, basketweave, round, drop flower, leaf, multi, petal, and specialty tips. An embossing mat is used to create embossed effects. A cake turntable that cakes are spun upon may be used in cake decoration.


title: Cake

text: (also known as sugar paste), and buttercream are used as covering icings and to create decorations. Floral sugarcraft or wired sugar flowers are an important part of cake decoration. Cakes for special occasions, such as wedding cakes, are traditionally rich fruit cakes or occasionally Madeira cakes, that are covered with marzipan and iced using royal icing or sugar-paste. They are finished with piped borders (made with royal icing) and adorned with a piped message, wired sugar flowers, hand-formed fondant flowers, marzipan fruit, piped flowers, or crystallized fruits or flowers such as grapes or violets.


title: Cake

text: The shelf life of cakes packages for commercial sale depends on several factors. Cakes are intermediate moisture products prone to mold growth. Commercial cakes are frequently and commonly exposed to different mold varieties before they are packaged for sale, including "Aspergillus flavus" and various "Penicillins", and "Aspergillus niger". Preservatives and oxygen absorbents are currently used to control and inhibit mold growth.


title: Cake

text: The CDC has recommended not to eat raw cake batter because it can contain "E. coli". Raw flour can contain bacteria and needs to be cooked like other foods.


title: Fanta

text: Fanta is an American-owned German brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drinks created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are more than 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as a Coca-Cola alternative in 1940 due to the American trade embargo of Nazi Germany, which affected the availability of Coca-Cola ingredients. Fanta soon dominated the German market with three million cans sold in 1943. The current formulation of Fanta was developed in Italy in 1955.


title: Fanta

text: During the Second World War, the US established a trade embargo against Nazi Germany, making the export of Coca-Cola syrup difficult. To circumvent this, Max Keith, the head of Coca-Cola Deutschland (Coca-Cola GmbH), decided to create a new product for the German market, using only ingredients available in Germany at the time, including sugar beet, whey (a cheese byproduct), and apple pomace—the "leftovers of leftovers", as Keith later recalled. The name was the result of a brainstorming session, which started with Keith's exhorting his team to "use their imagination" ("Fantasie" in German), to which one of his salesmen, Joe Knipp, retorted "Fanta!".


title: Fanta

text: The German plant was cut off from Coca-Cola headquarters following America's entry into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. After the war, the Coca-Cola Company regained control of the plant, formula, and the trademarks to the new Fanta product—as well as the plant profits made during the war.


title: Fanta

text: In 1943 alone, 3 million cases of Fanta were sold in Germany. Many bottles were not consumed as a beverage but used as a cooking ingredient to add sweetness and flavor to soups and stews, as sugar was severely rationed.


title: Fanta

text: During the war, the Dutch Coca-Cola plant in Amsterdam (N.V. Nederlandse Coca-Cola Maatschappij) suffered the same difficulties as the German Coca-Cola plant. Keith put the Fanta brand at the disposal of the Dutch Coca-Cola plant, of which he had been appointed the official caretaker. Dutch Fanta had a different recipe from German Fanta, elderberries being one of the main ingredients.


title: Fanta

text: Fanta production was discontinued when the German and Dutch Coca-Cola branches were reunited with their parent company after 1945. Following the launch of several drinks by Pepsi-Cola in the 1950s, Coca-Cola relaunched Fanta in 1955. The drink was heavily marketed in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, although it did not become widely available in the United States until the 1960s because the company feared it would undermine the strong market position of their flagship cola.


title: Fanta

text: The modern-day orange Fanta was first produced in Naples, Italy in 1955 by a local bottling plant using locally sourced oranges.


title: Fanta

text: In February 2015, a 75th-anniversary version of Fanta was released in Germany. Packaged in glass bottles evoking the original design and with an authentic original wartime flavor including 30% whey and pomace, it is described on the packaging as "less sweet" and a German original. An associated television ad referenced the history of the drink and said the Coca-Cola company wanted to bring back "the feeling of the Good Old Times" which was interpreted by many to mean Nazi rule. The ad was subsequently replaced.


title: Fanta

text: There are more than 200 flavors worldwide; the recipes can differ per country. The Orange flavor recipe outside of the US contains orange juice and the American version has none.


title: Fanta

text: In Mexico, Fanta is made with sugar whereas the US version uses high fructose corn syrup. In the UK, the sugar content was reduced in 2017 to 4.6% per 100ml in the standard version (non-sugar free) to ensure that the product was below the 5g that will incur the soft drinks levy (sugary drink tax). This was a third lower than the recipe used before 2016, when some of the sugar was replaced by sweeteners.


title: Fanta

text: In Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Poland, Serbia, Romania, Sweden, and some other European countries, there is "Fanta Shokata" (a wordplay on ""soc"" which means both "elderberry" and "shock" in Romanian) based on an elderflower blossom extract drink. In Russia, however, "Shokata" is the rebranding of "Fanta Citrus", which is more like a common lemonade. This version of drink actually has white color, like a common lemonade while the bottle is blue-colored.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 American epic period drama film directed by Rob Marshall and adapted by Robin Swicord from the 1997 novel of the same name by Arthur Golden. It tells the story of a young Japanese girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold by her impoverished family to a geisha house () to support them by training as and eventually becoming a geisha under the pseudonym "Sayuri Nitta." The film centers around the sacrifices and hardship faced by pre-World War II geisha, and the challenges posed by the war and a modernizing world to geisha society. It stars Zhang Ziyi in the lead role, with Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, Suzuka Ohgo, and Samantha Futerman.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The film was produced by Steven Spielberg (through production companies Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures) and Douglas Wick (through Red Wagon Entertainment). Production was split between southern and northern California and a number of locations in Kyoto, including the Kiyomizu temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine. It was released in the United States on December 9, 2005, by Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures, with the latter receiving studio credit only.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The film was released to polarized reviews from critics worldwide and was moderately successful at the box office. It was also nominated for and won numerous awards, including nominations for six Academy Awards, and eventually won three: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. The acting, visuals, sets, costumes, and the musical score (composed by Spielberg's long time collaborator John Williams) were praised, but the film was criticized for casting some non-Japanese actresses as Japanese women and for its style over substance approach. The Japanese release of the film was titled "Sayuri", the titular character's geisha name.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: In 1929, Chiyo Sakamoto and her older sister Satsu are sold off by their poor father and taken to Gion, Kyoto. Chiyo is taken in by Kayoko Nitta, known as "Mother", the proprietress of a local ; Satsu, deemed too unattractive, is sent to a brothel instead. Chiyo also meets "Granny" and "Auntie", the other women who run the house; Pumpkin, another young girl; and the 's resident geisha, Hatsumomo.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Pumpkin and Chiyo soon begin their education to become future geisha. Hatsumomo, seeing Chiyo as a potential rival, immediately treats her with abuse. Hoping Chiyo will run away, Hatsumomo tells her where she can find Satsu in the red light district. They make plans to run away the following night. When Chiyo tries to escape via the rooftops, she falls and is injured. As a result, Mother stops investing in Chiyo's geisha training and instead makes her a menial servant to pay off her debts. Satsu flees Kyoto and Chiyo never sees her again.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: One day, while crying on a riverbank, Chiyo encounters Chairman Ken Iwamura. He buys her a shaved ice dessert and gives her his handkerchief and some money to cheer her up. Touched by his kindness, Chiyo resolves to become a geisha so that she might become a part of the Chairman's life.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Several years later, Pumpkin debuts as a under Hatsumomo's tutelage. Shortly afterwards, Chiyo is taken under the wing of Mameha, one of the district's most prominent geisha, who persuades Mother to reinvest in Chiyo's geisha training, promising to pay her twice over after her debut. Chiyo becomes a and receives the name Sayuri. At a sumo match, Sayuri is reintroduced to the Chairman, but attracts the attention of his gruff business partner Toshikazu Nobu.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Thanks to Mameha's efforts, and in spite of Hatsumomo's scheming, Sayuri rises in popularity; attracting the attention of many men; including Dr. Crab, and the Baron, Mameha's own . In a bidding war for Sayuri's deflowering ceremony, as part of her becoming a full geisha, the winning bid is a record-breaking amount from Dr. Crab. Mother immediately names Sayuri as her adopted daughter and the heiress to the , crushing Pumpkin and enraging Hatsumomo.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Upon returning home from the ceremony, Sayuri finds a drunken Hatsumomo in her room, where the latter has found the Chairman's handkerchief. This leads to a fight between the two, in which Hatsumomo eventually starts a fire in the . Though the building is saved, Hatsumomo is banished from Gion.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Sayuri's successful career is cut short by the outbreak of World War II. The Chairman relocates her to safety of the countryside, where she works for a kimono maker. After the war ends, Nobu asks Sayuri to help him impress an American Colonel who could approve funding for their business. Sayuri reunites with Mameha, who reluctantly agrees to help Sayuri impress the Colonel, as well as Pumpkin, who is now working as an escort.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Sayuri travels with Nobu, the Chairman, Mameha, Pumpkin, and the American soldiers to the Amami Islands. The Colonel propositions Sayuri, but she rejects him. Nobu confronts Sayuri after seeing this and confesses his desire to become her . Sayuri devises a plan to have Nobu catch her being intimate with the Colonel so that he will lose interest, and enlists Pumpkin's help to do so. However, Pumpkin brings the Chairman instead. When confronted, Pumpkin declares it her revenge for Sayuri being adopted by Mother instead of her. Disheartened, Sayuri decides to give up on her pursuit for the Chairman.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: After returning to Gion, Sayuri is summoned to a nearby tea-house. Expecting Nobu, Sayuri is instead surprised to see the Chairman. The Chairman confesses his feelings for her, that he always knew of her identity but refused to interfere with Nobu's feelings out of respect, and that he himself arranged for Mameha to become her mentor. Sayuri is finally able to confess her love to the Chairman and they share a kiss.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Shortly after the book's release in 1997, the filming rights to the book were purchased for $1 million by Red Wagon's Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher, backed by Columbia Pictures. The following year, Steven Spielberg planned to make "Memoirs of a Geisha" as the follow-up to "Saving Private Ryan", bringing in his company DreamWorks. Spielberg's DreamWorks partner David Geffen attempted to persuade him not to take the project, feeling it was "not good enough for him". Prior to Spielberg's involvement, the film was planned to be shot in Japan in the Japanese language. By 2002, with Spielberg having postponed production for "A.I. Artificial Intelligence", "Minority Report" and "Catch Me If You Can", Spielberg stepped down from directorial duties to only produce.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Both Wick and Fisher approached Rob Marshall, who was interested in doing a non-musical after "Annie" and "Chicago". This brought a third company into "Memoirs of a Geisha", as Marshall was still signed to release his next film through "Chicago" distributors Miramax.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The three leading non-Japanese actresses, including Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, and Michelle Yeoh, were put through "geisha boot camp" before production commenced, during which they were trained in traditional geisha practices of Japanese music, dance, and tea ceremony. Anthropologist Liza Dalby was also brought in to aid in the production as an advisor, though she later commented that "while the director and producers often asked my opinion on things, most of the time they went ahead and followed their own vision", calling the film a "wasted opportunity" to display geisha society accurately.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Production of the film took place from September 29, 2004 to January 31, 2005. It was decided that contemporary Japan looked too modern for a story set in pre- and post-war Japan, meaning that many scenes were filmed on cost-effective soundstages or on location in the United States, primarily California. The majority of the film was shot on a large set built on a ranch in Thousand Oaks, California. Most interior scenes were filmed in Culver City, California at the Sony Pictures Studios lot. Other locations in California included San Francisco, Moss Beach, Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, Sacramento, Yamashiro's Restaurant in Hollywood, the Japanese Gardens at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, and Downtown Los Angeles at the Belasco Theater on Hill Street. Towards the end of production, some scenes were shot in Kyoto, including the Fushimi Inari-Taisha, the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: One of the tasks faced by sound editors in post-production was improving the English pronunciation of the cast, which in part involved piecing together different dialogue clips from other segments of the film to form missing syllables in the actors' speech, as some only spoke partially phonetic English when performing. The achievement of the sound editors earned the film an Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The film debuted on DVD, in both Widescreen and Fullscreen versions, on March 28, 2006. The release was a 2-Disc set, with a second disc dedicated to special features. The film was consequently released on the Blu-ray format on September 25, 2007. The Blu-ray received positive reviews, for the video and audio quality and for porting over every single extra from the 2-Disc DVD release.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: In the Western hemisphere, the film received mixed reviews. In China and Japan, reviews were more negative, with some controversy among audience and critics arising from the film's casting and its relationship to Japan's history.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: "Memoirs of a Geisha" received mixed reviews from Western critics. Illinois' "Daily Herald" said that the "[s]trong acting, meticulously created sets, beautiful visuals, and a compelling story of a celebrity who can't have the one thing she really wants make "Geisha" memorable". "The Washington Times" called the film "a sumptuously faithful and evocative adaption" while adding that "[c]ontrasting dialects may remain a minor nuisance for some spectators, but the movie can presumably count on the pictorial curiosity of readers who enjoyed Mr. Golden's sense of immersion, both harrowing and [a]esthetic, in the culture of a geisha upbringing in the years that culminated in World War II".


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 35% based on 164 reviews as of August 2021, with an average rating of 5.40/10; the consensus stated "Less nuanced than its source material, "Memoirs of a Geisha" may be a lavish production, but it still carries the simplistic air of a soap opera." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 54 out of 100, based on reviews from 38 critics, meaning "mixed or average review." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: In the United States, the film managed $57 million during its box office run. The film was facing off against "King Kong", "", and "Fun with Dick and Jane" during the Christmas holiday. On its first week in limited release, the film screening in only eight theaters tallied up an $85,313 per theater average which made it second in highest per theater averages behind "Brokeback Mountain" for 2005. International gross reached $158 million.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The "New Statesman" criticized "Memoirs of a Geisha"'s plot, saying that after Hatsumomo leaves, "the plot loses what little momentum it had and breaks down into one pretty visual after another" and says that the film version "abandons the original's scholarly mien to reveal the soap opera bubbling below". "The Journal" praised Ziyi Zhang, saying that she "exudes a heartbreaking innocence and vulnerablity" but said "too much of the character's yearning and despair is concealed behind the mask of white powder and rouge". London's "The Evening Standard" compared "Memoirs of a Geisha" to "Cinderella" and praised Gong Li, saying that "Li may be playing the loser of the piece but she saves this film" and Gong "endows Hatsumomo with genuine mystery". Eighteen days later, "The Evening Standard" put "Memoirs of a Geisha" on its Top Ten Films list. Glasgow's "Daily Record" praised the film, saying the "geisha world is drawn with such intimate detail that it seems timeless until the war, and with it the modern world comes crashing in".


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Controversy arose due to the casting of the film, with all three main female roles going to non-Japanese actresses. Ziyi Zhang (Sayuri) and Gong Li (Hatsumomo) both held Chinese citizenship at the time of the film's production (Gong Li became a naturalised Singaporean from 2008 onwards), whereas Michelle Yeoh (Mameha) is an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia. All three were already prominent actresses in Chinese cinema. The film's producers defended the position, stating that the main priorities in casting the three main roles were "acting ability and star power". Director Rob Marshall noted examples such as the Mexican actor Anthony Quinn being cast as a Greek man in "Zorba the Greek".


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Opinion of the casting in the Asian community was mixed, with some finding the casting of Chinese actresses for Japanese roles offensive in the face of Japan's wartime atrocities in China and mainland Asia. The Chinese government canceled the film's release because of such connections, and a website denounced star Ziyi Zhang as an "embarrassment to China."


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: In Japan, reception to the film was mixed. Some Japanese expressed offence at the three main female roles being played by Chinese actresses; others took issue with the portrayal of geisha in the film, deeming it inaccurate and Westernised. Japanese cultural expert Peter MacIntosh, who had advised on the film, expressed concern that it had not been made specifically for a Japanese audience, and that anyone knowledgeable about Japanese culture who saw the film would be "appalled". The film garnered only average box office success in Japan, despite being a high budget film about Japanese culture.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Other Asians defended the casting, including the film's main Japanese star Ken Watanabe, who said that "talent is more important than nationality." In defense of the film, Zhang said:


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: A director is only interested in casting someone he believes is appropriate for a role...regardless of whether someone is Japanese or Chinese or Korean, we all would have had to learn what it is to be a geisha, because almost nobody today knows what that means—not even the Japanese actors on the film.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: "Geisha" was not meant to be a documentary. I remember seeing in the Chinese newspaper a piece that said we had only spent six weeks to learn everything and that that was not respectful toward the culture. It's like saying that if you're playing a mugger, you have to rob a certain number of people. To my mind, what this issue is all about, though, is the intense historical problems between China and Japan. The whole subject is a land mine. Maybe one of the reasons people made such a fuss about "Geisha" was that they were looking for a way to vent their anger.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: Film critic Roger Ebert pointed out that the film was made by a Japanese-owned company, and that Gong Li and Ziyi Zhang outgrossed any Japanese actress even in the Japanese box office.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The film received occasionally hostile responses in Mainland China, with the film being censored and banned by China. Relations between Japan and Mainland China at the time of the film's release had been particularly tense, owing to the then-Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, having paid a number of visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine - a shrine specially dedicated to honoring Japan's war dead, including those convicted of war crimes. These visits were denounced by China's foreign ministry as having honored war criminals whose crimes pertained to Japan's actions in China in WW2 specifically. China had also prevented Japan from receiving a seat on the United Nations Security Council in the year of the film's release.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The film's setting of the 1920s and 1940s covers both World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which time Japan captured and forced thousands of Korean and Chinese women into sexual slavery known as "comfort women" for Japanese military personnel. Various newspapers such as the Shanghai-based "Oriental Morning Post" and the "Shanghai Youth Daily" expressed fears that the film could be banned by censors, with concerns that the casting of Chinese actresses as geisha could create anti-Japanese sentiment, and stir up resentment surrounding Japan's wartime actions in China - in particular, the use of Chinese women as sex slaves for Japan's occupying forces. A different controversy rose with the mentioning of a Japanese soldier that had fought in Manchuria, China, as the geisha introducing the soldier referred to him as a "war hero" in the film.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The film had been originally scheduled to be shown within Mainland China on February 9, 2006; however, the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television decided to ban the film on February 1, 2006, considering the film "too sensitive" for release, a decision that overturned the film's approval for screening in November.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The film was originally scheduled to be approved in November 2005, but in January 2006, the SARFT failed to issue a screening permit. When asked by the reporter whether the film had passed the censorship process, the person in charge of CMPC said "no comment". After 25 January, Memoirs of a Geisha was banned from screening. Mao Yu, director of the Film Council's publicity department, said the film was "sensitive and complex". The media pointed out Zhang Ziyi's role involving the plot of nude and prostitute, and also a scene in which she bathes with a Japanese man as the reason for the ban, and the fact that it was totally unacceptable in China for a Chinese woman to play a Japanese geisha.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The film received six Academy Award nominations and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design. Williams won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and Zhang was nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. Gong Li was named Best Supporting Actress by the National Board of Review. "Memoirs of a Geisha" earned nine nominations at the Satellite Awards. It was also nominated for six BAFTA Awards.


title: Memoirs of a Geisha (film)

text: The "Memoirs of a Geisha" official soundtrack featured Yo-Yo Ma performing the cello solos, as well as Itzhak Perlman performing the violin solos. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, who won his fourth Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.


title: Got7

text: Got7 (; commonly stylized in all caps) is a South Korean boy band formed by JYP Entertainment. The group is composed of seven members: Jay B, Mark, Jackson, Jinyoung, Youngjae, BamBam, and Yugyeom. Got7 debuted in January 2014 with the release of their first EP "Got It?", which peaked at number two on the Gaon Album Chart and number one on "Billboard's" World Albums Chart. The group gained attention also for their live performances, which often include elements of martial arts tricking and street dancing.


title: Got7

text: In late 2014, Got7 signed with Sony Music Entertainment Japan and ventured into the Japanese market to release their debut Japanese-language single "Around the World". They returned to South Korea a month later to release their first full-length studio album "Identify", which topped the nation's charts. In 2015, Got7 released the EPs "Just Right" and "Mad", which yielded their most commercially successful single, "Just Right". In 2016, they moved into the Japanese market with a full-length Japanese studio album, "Moriagatteyo", which entered the Oricon Albums Chart at number three.


title: Got7

text: Their fifth Korean EP "" and their second full-length studio album "" were both chart-toppers, and the 2017 EP "", the third and final part of the group's "Flight Log" series, was their first album to sell more than 300,000 copies.


title: Got7

text: The group departed from JYP Entertainment in January 2021, following the expiration of their contract with the agency.


title: Got7

text: In 2009, Jay B and Jinyoung were cast into JYP Entertainment after passing open auditions. In 2010, Mark and BamBam were respectively scouted by JYP scouts in Los Angeles, USA and Bangkok, Thailand. That same year, Yugyeom became a JYP trainee after he was offered an opportunity at his dance school. In December, Jackson passed JYP's overseas audition in Hong Kong, but he did not start his training until the summer of 2011.


title: Got7

text: Jay B and Jinyoung, then known by the stage name Junior, made their debut as actors in the 2012 television drama "Dream High 2". In May, they debuted as the pop duo JJ Project with the single "Bounce". The duo appeared again as actors for the 2013 drama, "When a Man Falls in Love".


title: Got7

text: Meanwhile, Mark, Jackson, BamBam and Yugyeom prepared for their debut together as a group. The quartet made their first television appearance on the fourth episode of Mnet's reality-survival program "Who is Next: WIN", which aired on September 6, 2013. The seventh and final member to join the group was Youngjae, who had only been a trainee for seven months.


title: Got7

text: JYP Entertainment announced Got7 on January 1, 2014, debuting their first boy group since 2PM in 2008. A tentative name of the group was "Get7" (), but was changed because it didn't sound good. According to Park Jin-young, "Got7" originated from best-selling group g.o.d, as Park was supposed to debut with them as a six-member mix-gender group and used the working name "Got6". The final name includes the lucky number seven, meaning "seven lucky people come together".


title: Got7

text: Got7 was described as a hip-hop group that incorporates martial arts tricking and b-boying styles in their performances. This style drew comparisons to their senior group, 2PM, who are well known for their acrobatic dance styles. Thus, the group drew attention even before the official debut and received the nickname "post 2PM".


title: Got7

text: Got7 released their first EP, "Got It?," on January 20, 2014. The album shot to No. 1 on "Billboard"'s World Albums Chart and was No. 2 on the Gaon Album Chart. Got7 made their official music program debut on January 16, 2014, through Mnet's "M Countdown", performing their debut single "Girls Girls Girls". Shortly after their debut, the group signed a contract with Japan's Sony Music Entertainment and launched a showcase in Japan in front of 9,000 fans.


title: Got7

text: On June 23, Got7 released their second EP, "Got Love", with its title song "A", which was written and produced by J.Y. Park. For their new EP, the group opted to show a brighter and more colorful image than their martial arts and b-boy style choreography emphasized at debut. In November 2014, the group released their first full-length album, "Identify", as well as the music video for its title track, "Stop Stop It". "Identify" topped Gaon's Weekly Album Sales Chart in its first week and "Stop Stop It" peaked at number four on "Billboard"'s World Digital Songs chart. In October, Got7 held their first Japan Tour, "Got7 1st Japan Tour 2014", and made their Japanese debut on October 22 with their single "Around the World". This included the hip-hop track "So Lucky", composed and written by 2PM's Jun. K.


title: Got7

text: In January, Got7 were awarded the "New Artist Award" at the 29th Golden Disc Awards and at the 24th Seoul Music Awards. In the same month, Got7 starred in their own web drama "Dream Knight", co-produced by Youku Tudou and JYP Pictures, and featuring actress Song Ha-yoon as the female lead role. The drama tells the story of a girl who shares dreams, love and friendship with a group of mysterious boys with magic powers and gathered close to 13 million hits in total. The show received the "Best Drama Award", "Best Director Award" and "Rising Star Award" at the K-Web Fest in July.


title: Got7

text: On June 10, 2015, the group released their second Japanese single "Love Train", which debuted at No. 4 on the Oricon Singles Chart. The single contains a "Love Train", the original Japanese song "O.M.G." and the two tracks' instrumental renditions. The group released their third EP, "Just Right", on July 13, 2015. The title track, "Just Right", peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's World Digital Songs chart, remaining in the top three for two consecutive weeks. As of January 8, 2020, the "Just Right" music video on YouTube has over 300 million views, making it the group's first music video to reach this milestone.


title: Got7

text: Got7 released their third Japanese single "Laugh Laugh Laugh" with its B-side "Be My Girl" on September 23. It sold over 35,000 album copies in the first week of its release and made its debut at No. 1 on the Oricon's singles chart.


title: Got7

text: The group released their fourth EP, "Mad", and the music video for its title track, "If You Do", on September 29. They followed up this release with their first repackaged album, "Mad: Winter Edition", on November 23, with the three additional tracks, "Confession Song", "Everyday" and "To. Star".


title: Got7

text: On February 3, 2016 Got7 released their first full-length Japanese studio album titled "Moriagatteyo". The lead single is co-composed by 2PM's Jang Wooyoung and features a bside co-composed by Jun.K also of 2PM. The album placed number two on the Oricon charts. The album features 12 original Japanese songs which includes songs from their first three Japanese singles. The album also features 4 Japanese versions of their Korean singles "Girls Girls Girls", "A", "Stop Stop It", and "Just Right".


title: Got7

text: On February 15, 2016, Got7 and labelmate Twice were confirmed as new clothing ambassadors for NBA Style Korea. On March 21, 2016, Got7's fifth EP, "", and its title track, "Fly", were released. On March 31, Got7 became the first Korean act to chart on Billboard's Artist 100 since Psy (peaking at No. 88), entering the chart at No. 45. On April 9, 2016, Got7 entered the Billboard Artist 100 chart at No. 45, becoming only the second K-pop act chart on the ranking. "" debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Album Chart and on the Billboard World Albums Chart. On April 12, Got7 digitally released "Home Run", the second title track for their "" album – member Jay B participated in writing and composing the song.


title: Got7

text: Got7 participated in a Japanese educational TV program beginning in April. In NHK Educational TV's they played "Soon-Ock Kim's School" students role and performed humorous Hangul skits every week. They appeared in the textbooks monthly as well. They appeared regularly for 2 years until March 2018.


title: Got7

text: Got7 held their first solo concert, "Fly Tour", from April 29–30 in Seoul, with the tour continuing on to dates in China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and the United States throughout the summer.


title: Got7

text: In the first half of the year, the group became brand model in Thailand for IT'S SKIN, softlens brand BAUSCH+LOMB, and "Est Cola". For BAUSCH+LOMB, Mark, BamBam and Jinyoung starred in a short film titled "Sanctuary", which was released on May 11 together with three Thai actors.


title: Got7

text: On September 27, Got7 released their second studio album titled "", which consists of thirteen songs, including the title track "Hard Carry". The members have contributed to the composition and lyrics of 11 tracks on the album. It sold 200,000 album copies in South Korea and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's World Albums Chart, selling 2,000 copies in the U.S.


title: Got7

text: On November 16, Got7 released their first Japanese EP titled "Hey Yah". The album took third place on the Oricon chart and is the first Japanese album in which members took part in writing and composing. The album also features a track produced by 2PM's Jang Wooyoung who has previously worked with Got7.


title: Got7

text: "Fly" charted at No. 15 on Billboard year-end World Albums chart, marking Got7's first appearance on the chart, and they also ranked at No. 6 on the Billboard year-end World Albums Artists chart, making them the highest-charting act other than BTS. To date, only G-Dragon, Shinee, 2NE1 and EXO have landed on this chart.


title: Got7

text: On March 13, the third album of the "Flight Log" trilogy, "", was released. The album sold 220,000 copies in pre-orders alone, and, with 310,000 sold by April 14, it exceeded the total sales of 230,000 copies for "Flight Log: Turbulence". Moreover, "Flight Log: Arrival" placed first on Gaon and Hanteo's album charts in March, topping Billboard's World Album Chart.


title: Got7

text: On May 24, the group released a new single in Japan, "My Swagger", which topped Billboard's Japan Single Chart and took second place on Oricon on the day of release.


title: Got7

text: On October 10, the group released their seventh EP titled "7 for 7". The title track "You Are" is co-composed and co-written by group leader Jay B, the album also features songs written and composed by the members themselves. Following the release of their album, title track "You Are" topped real-time music charts in South Korea.


title: Got7

text: On November 15, the group released their second Japanese EP titled "Turn Up". Simultaneously they held their tour in Japan titled "Got7Japan Tour 2017: Turn Up". This is the group's first album and tour in which member Jackson did not participate in due to health concerns and conflicting schedules, resulting in a halt on all his Japanese schedules with the exception of special occasions.


title: Got7

text: On December 7, Got7 re-released their EP "7 for 7" as a holiday themed "present edition" featuring new photos of the members. Alongside the re-release of the album, the group released a performance video for their b-side "Teenager", which was composed by member Jay B.


title: Got7

text: On March 12, the group had their comeback through their eighth EP entitled "Eyes On You". The title track "Look" is co-composed and co-written by Jay B, with the other members contributing to the album as well. Following the release of the album, "Look" topped major real time charts in South Korea, becoming their most successful track on music charts since debut. The album also topped the iTunes international album charts in twenty countries and the Hanteo's daily chart on March 12 for physical album sales. "Look" entered the Gaon Download Chart in third, while "Eyes on You" topped the physical album shipments chart for the week from March 11 through 17. The album also debuted on Billboard World Albums Chart at number 2. "Eyes on You" sold over 300,000 copies in South Korea and was certified platinum by Gaon Chart and the Korean Music Content Association (KMCA). In the same month, Got7 has collaborated with global sport brand "Adidas" through a special performance video of the title song of Got7's new album "Eyes On You", "Look", to commemorate the release of the new album. Also, "Adidas" opened a special pop-up store under the name of '7 Eye-catching Adicolors' at Times Square in Seoul for 4 days and held various events.


title: Got7

text: In April, Got7 was appointed as a global ambassador of Korean beauty brand "The Face Shop" across 28 countries.


title: Got7

text: On May 4–6, Got7 kicked off their 2018 Eyes On You World Tour in Seoul. The tour dates continued throughout the summer selling out shows in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. While touring the United States, Got7 became the first K-pop group to perform at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.


title: Got7

text: Throughout May and June Got7 simultaneously held a tour in Japan while on their world tour titled "Got7 Japan Fan Connecting Hall Tour 2018: THE New Era" in support of their Japanese single "THE New Era", which was released on June 20. The single topped the Oricon charts placing number one on the daily charts and on Billboard Japan.


title: Got7

text: On September 17, Got7 released their third studio album entitled "". Following the release of the album, title track "Lullaby" topped major real time charts in South Korea. While promoting the album, Got7 became the third male group to hold a comeback show on Mnet through their television channel, Facebook, and YouTube. The "Got7 Comeback Show" aired two hours after the album was released. "Present: You" was certified platinum by Gaon Chart on November 8, 2018, after selling over 250,000 copies.


title: Got7

text: On January 30, Got7 released their third Japanese extended play "I Won't Let You Go," which debuted at No. 1 on the Oricon Daily Album Chart with estimated sales of 22,948 copies, holding the position for the entire week and eventually topping the Oricon Weekly Album Chart for the week January 28 – February 3.


title: Got7

text: On February 13, JYP Entertainment hinted at Got7's second sub-unit duo, which later revealed to include members Jay B and Yugyeom named Jus2. They released their music video titled "Focus on Me" on March 3, 2019 and subsequently released their debut album, "Focus" the following day. They also had their first tour, "Jus2 <FOCUS> Premiere Showcase Tour", stopping at 7 cities in Asia.


title: Got7

text: The group released their ninth extended play, "Spinning Top: Between Security & Insecurity", on May 20, 2019. They sold 64,148 copies on the first day and 214,125 copies in the first week, becoming the first group from JYP Entertainment to sell 2 million albums since debut. The EP debuted on the "Billboard" World Albums chart at No. 5, also coming in at No. 9 on "Billboard's" Heatseekers Albums chart. They then embarked on their third world tour from June 15 to October 26, titled Got7 2019 World Tour 'Keep Spinning'. They stopped at 12 countries in North America, South America and Europe, including Australia and the Philippines. During its North American stop, Got7 appeared on the "Today Show" on June 26, becoming the first Korean group to perform on the show.


title: Got7

text: On July 31, Got7 released their fourth Japanese extended play, "Love Loop", which debuted at No. 2 on Oricon's daily albums chart with estimated sales of 15,257 copies, raising at No. 1 on August 3. To commemorate the release, a special pop-up shop with a dedicated menu was opened in Tokyo and Osaka from July 30 to August 12. The group held the Our Loop Tour from July 30 to August 18. In September additional dates for the Keep Spinning World Tour were added, indicating they were going to continue the world tour in 2020 and stopping at 5 different Asian countries.


title: Got7

text: The group released their tenth extended play, "Call My Name", and its lead single "You Calling My Name" on November 4, 2019. They sold 100,341 copies on the first day and 224,459 copies in the first week, and became the first artist from JYP Entertainment to sell over 100,000 copies on the first day. The EP debuted on the "Billboard" World Albums chart at No. 5, and also topped the Gaon Weekly Chart and the Hanteo Weekly Chart.


title: Got7

text: On November 5, Got7 were awarded the Korea Volunteering Grand Award at the 2019 Korea Sharing Volunteer Awards for their contribution to the local community.


title: Got7

text: At the end of the year, they won their first Grand Prize (daesang) at the 4th Asia Artist Awards for Performance of the Year. They also ended the year at No. 4 on "Billboard's" Year-End Social 50 Artists Chart. In December, tickets were released for the Bangkok leg of the Keep Spinning World Tour at the Rajamangala National Stadium, and sold out within two hours. Due to high demand they announced an additional concert date, and would become the second K-pop group to perform two shows at the venue.


title: Got7

text: On April 20, 2020, Got7 released their eleventh EP, "Dye", along with its lead single, "Not By the Moon". They sold 159,098 copies of their EP on the first day and 281,791 copies in the first week, breaking their personal record for first day and first week sales. The EP also debuted on the "Billboard" World Albums chart at No. 4. It has sold over 450,000 copies, becoming their bestselling album to date. On November 30, Got7 released their fourth studio album, "", along with its lead single, "Last Piece". A pre-release single, "Breath", was released on November 23.


title: Got7

text: On January 10, 2021, JYP Entertainment initially announced that their exclusive contracts would expire. Three days prior to the announcement, other reports have said Yugyeom had left the label for AOMG, despite JYP later clarifying it was difficult for them to confirm what agency the members were in contact with.


title: Got7

text: On January 11, JYP Entertainment released an official statement reiterating that all members will leave the company after their exclusive contract expires on January 19, 2021.


title: Got7

text: On February 19, 2021, Got7 released a teaser for an upcoming single called "Encore" on a new YouTube channel. It was released the following day.


title: Got7

text: The members focused on solo activities for the following year; then, it was reported that they would return with their new EP on May. On May 6, 2022, they revealed a new logo and launched new social media accounts under Warner Music Korea.


title: Got7

text: On May 8, they announced a comeback by dropping the cover of their new self-titled EP, "Got7". It was preceded by the "Got7 Homecoming 2022 Fancon", which was held on May 21–22 both online and offline, at SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium. On May 23, Got7 released the album and the music video of the title song, "Nanana".


title: Got7

text: In February 2017, donation area G+ Star Zone re-opened, decorated with life-size portraits of Got7, to raise funds in their name to help financially disadvantaged teenagers.


title: Got7

text: In April 2019, the group donated 30 million won to the Hope Bridge National Reunion Relief Association to help people affected by the forest fires in Gangwon-do. For the Keep Spinning World Tour in 2019, they launched the "Keep Spinning, Keep Dreaming with Got7" project together with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to comfort seriously ill children and give them the opportunity to attend their concerts and meet them.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 66th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 63rd FIA Formula One World Championship, a motor racing series 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 championship 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.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: 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 title 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 just the third driver in the sport's sixty-three-year history 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.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: In addition to seeing seven different 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 . 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 .


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: This was the last season for 7-times world champion, Michael Schumacher as he announced his retirement from Formula One for the second time, after the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The following twelve teams and twenty-five race drivers competed in the 2012 Formula One World Championship. The FIA published a provisional entry list on 30 November 2011, and the grid was finalised on 17 February. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Pirelli.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Eight drivers were entered by teams as third or test drivers during Friday practice sessions: Jules Bianchi for Force India, Esteban Gutiérrez for Sauber, Valtteri Bottas for Williams, Giedo van der Garde and Alexander Rossi for Caterham, Dani Clos and Ma Qinghua for HRT, and Max Chilton for Marussia.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: At the November 2011 meeting of the Formula One Commission in Geneva, several teams were given permission to change their constructor names – the name recognised by the FIA as the entity that effectively owns the team, and to which all results for that team are credited – with final approval from the World Motor Sport Council granted in December of that year:


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: As a result of the name changes, Team Lotus and Lotus Renault GP declared that their ongoing dispute over the use of the Lotus name was over after they had reached an "amicable conclusion". Although the exact terms of the settlement were kept confidential, the joint statement detailed the transfer of the rights to the Lotus and Team Lotus names to Group Lotus's ownership.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Williams announced that they would be using Renault engines for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, with an option to use Renault engines again in 2014 under the next generation of engine regulations. Renault had previously supplied engines to Williams from to , when the team won four World Drivers' Championships and five World Constructors' Championships. Following their worst season in their thirty-year history – in which they finished ninth in the World Constructors' Championship with just five points – the team underwent a technical review, employing former McLaren designer Mike Coughlan (having served his suspension for his role in the 2007 Formula One espionage controversy) as Chief Designer, and promoting Jason Somerville to Head of Aerodynamics. Likewise, Marussia (then known as Virgin Racing) underwent a restructuring, splitting with Wirth Research mid-season after a technical review by Marussia Motors and the board of directors. The team also announced a technical partnership with McLaren that granted them access to McLaren's testing facilities as well as the purchase of Wirth Research facilities.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: In the week before the 2011 Indian Grand Prix, Force India announced that the Sahara Group had purchased a 42.5% stake in the team, valued at US$100 million. The investment gave the Sahara Group and team principal Vijay Mallya an equal stake in the team, with team director Michiel Mol controlling the remaining 15% of the team. Under the terms of the sale, the Sahara Group became Force India's naming-rights sponsor. Mercedes GP also changed the name of their team, announcing that they were to become known as Mercedes AMG. The new name originates from AMG, Mercedes-Benz's performance and luxury road car brand.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: HRT team principal Colin Kolles formally left his position, with the team citing the relocation of their headquarters to Spain as the reason for the separation. Former Minardi driver Luis Pérez-Sala took Kolles's place as team principal. In January 2012, the team relocated to a new facility in Valencia before settling at a permanent facility in Caja Mágica, Madrid.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Peter Sauber formally stepped down from his position as team principal of Sauber F1 in the week before the Korean Grand Prix, appointing the team's CEO, Monisha Kaltenborn as his successor. Kaltenborn's appointment made her the first female team principal in the sport's sixty-three-year history.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The 2012 season saw several driver changes. Lotus chose not to take up an option on Vitaly Petrov's contract, and did not offer Bruno Senna a new contract. Petrov and Senna were replaced by World Drivers' Champion Kimi Räikkönen – returning to the sport after two seasons competing in the World Rally Championship – and reigning GP2 Series champion Romain Grosjean, who also returned to the sport after a two-year absence. Petrov later replaced Jarno Trulli at Caterham; Trulli's replacement meant that the opening race of the season would be the first race since the 1973 German Grand Prix to take place without an Italian driver on the grid. Senna joined Williams, the team having previously attempted to secure Räikkönen for the season. Senna replaced Rubens Barrichello, who left Formula One after a record-breaking nineteen seasons. He later moved to IndyCar for the 2012 season, joining KV Racing Technology.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Like Räikkönen and Grosjean, Nico Hülkenberg also returned to Formula One, joining Force India alongside Paul di Resta. Adrian Sutil left the team, having spent six years with both Force India and its previous incarnations, Spyker and Midland. He initially sought a drive with Williams, before negotiations collapsed in December 2011. Sutil was later the subject of criminal action, charged with grievous bodily harm after allegedly assaulting a senior Renault team member with a glass in a Shanghai nightclub following the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix. Sutil was found guilty, and was sentenced to an eighteen-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay a €200,000 fine. Despite this, Sutil rejoined Force India for the season.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Scuderia Toro Rosso did not retain Jaime Alguersuari or Sébastien Buemi, instead choosing to replace them with Daniel Ricciardo and 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series runner-up Jean-Éric Vergne. Ricciardo had previously served as the team's test and reserve driver before being placed at HRT for the 2011 British Grand Prix, while Vergne had completed a limited testing schedule for the team in the second half of the season. Sébastien Buemi became Red Bull Racing's testing and reserve driver contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota, driving a TS030 Hybrid. Alguersuari was offered a seat at HRT, but turned it down and instead joined tyre supplier Pirelli as their test driver, developing tyre compounds for use in racing alongside former Virgin Racing driver Lucas di Grassi.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan returned to Formula One with HRT. De la Rosa had been without a full-time drive since the 2010 Italian Grand Prix, having spent the majority of the season as a test driver for McLaren and making one appearance racing for Sauber; Karthikeyan was dropped by the team before the 2011 British Grand Prix in favour of Ricciardo. He, too, made a one-race appearance at the Indian Grand Prix, before leaving the team until the 2012 season began. Vitantonio Liuzzi, who drove for HRT in 2011, joined the Indian i1 Super Series. The series was later postponed until 2013, but Liuzzi was unable to retain his seat with the team. At the launch of the HRT F112 in March, Liuzzi was confirmed as one of the team's testing and reserve drivers alongside both former GP2 Series driver Dani Clos and Ma Qinghua, the first ever Chinese driver to step into a Formula 1 car.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Jérôme d'Ambrosio left Marussia (then known as Virgin Racing) after the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix. He later joined Lotus F1 as their third driver. Charles Pic – who placed fourth in the 2011 GP2 Series driving for Addax – joined Marussia, replacing d'Ambrosio.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The season only saw one driver change, which was brought about when Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was found by race stewards to be responsible for causing a multi-car pile-up at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix. He was given a one-race ban and a €50,000 fine for his role in the collision, forcing him to miss the Italian Grand Prix. He was replaced by the team's testing and reserve driver, Jérôme d'Ambrosio. Grosjean returned to the team for the next round in Singapore.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The 2012 season was preceded by three test sessions; one at Jerez de la Frontera and two in Barcelona. These sessions gave the teams and drivers the opportunity to familiarise themselves with their cars, though the teams downplayed the accuracy of testing times as being representative of the running order for the season. At the second test in Barcelona, Lotus F1 discovered a critical fault in the build of their chassis that forced them to miss four days of running, while both HRT and Marussia were unable to complete any mileage with their 2012 cars after both the HRT F112 and Marussia MR01 failed their crash tests, though both teams were able to complete shakedowns of their cars.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The season began in Australia. Jenson Button took an early lead from pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull cars while the rest of the field was bottle-necked by contact in the first corner. Button remained unchallenged throughout, even after a mid-race safety car to retrieve the stricken Caterham of Vitaly Petrov. Button went on to take his third victory at the Melbourne circuit, ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who profited from the safety car to pass Hamilton. McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh later admitted that Button was "more than marginal" on fuel after the team made a mistake in calculating their fuel loads for the race, forcing Button to use a "severe fuel-saving mode" from the eighth lap of the race. Hamilton came under threat from Mark Webber in the late stages of the race, but held on to secure third place. Webber finished fourth – his best result in his home Grand Prix – while Fernando Alonso finished fifth, having endured pressure from Pastor Maldonado for the last half of the race. Maldonado's race ended when he crossed onto the astroturf on the final lap and spun into the wall. Kimi Räikkönen finished seventh after a poor qualifying session saw him start the race seventeenth, taking advantage of a chaotic final lap to make up two places, while Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna both retired after a bizarre collision that saw their cars tangled up in one another. HRT failed to qualify for the race for the second consecutive season after drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan failed to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest qualifying time.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: McLaren locked out the front row of the grid for the second race in succession, with Lewis Hamilton once again on pole. Both HRT cars qualified for the race, but filled out the final row of the grid almost two seconds behind Marussia's Charles Pic in twenty-second position. In the race, Hamilton made a better start than Jenson Button, but his lead was short-lived; heavy rain interrupted the race, forcing the suspension of the Grand Prix. When the race restarted an hour later, Button was involved in contact with Narain Karthikeyan that forced him to make an unscheduled stop for a new front wing, while Hamilton had a slow pit stop and was held in the lane while other cars passed. Fernando Alonso inherited the lead, with Sauber's Sergio Pérez a surprise second, having made an early stop for extreme wet weather tyres and then taking advantage of a rush to the pit lane to position himself in third at the restart. As the race wore on, Pérez began to quickly catch Alonso on a drying track. Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to pit for dry-weather tyres on lap 38, triggering another round of stops. Sauber and Pérez initially looked as if they had left their stop too late when Pérez emerged from the pits five seconds behind Alonso, but he began catching the two-time World Champion at the same rate as he had before. Pérez closed to within half a second with seven laps to go, but ran wide at turn 14 and lost five seconds, later admitting that it was his mistake. He was unable to close the gap, and Alonso went on to win the race by two seconds, the win giving him a five-point lead in the championship. Pérez was second, taking his first podium and Sauber's best ever result as an independent team. Hamilton finished third ahead of Mark Webber and Kimi Räikkönen, while Button had to settle for fourteenth. Bruno Senna finished in sixth, scoring more points in a single race than his team scored in . Sebastian Vettel finished outside the points after making contact with Karthikeyan and developing a puncture.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The championship resumed three weeks later in China, with the lead-in period to the race marked by Lotus F1 protesting the legality of Mercedes's rear wing design. The FIA rejected the protest, and with Mercedes allowed to continue racing with their car unchanged, Nico Rosberg took his – and the team's – first pole position since their return to Formula One in , while a penalty to Lewis Hamilton for a gearbox change promoted Michael Schumacher to second on the grid. Schumacher would ultimately retire from the race after the first round of stops when it was discovered that one of his wheels had not been attached properly. Rosberg took an early lead in the race, and while his attempt to complete the race with only two pit stops came under threat from second-placed Jenson Button, a mistake by Button's pit crew during his final stop handed Rosberg a nineteen-second advantage over Kimi Räikkönen. Räikkönen was attempting a similar two-stop strategy, but his tyres wore out seven laps from the end of the race, and he lost eleven positions in a single lap. This forced Rosberg to drive conservatively to preserve his tyres while Button recovered from his disastrous pit stop to pass Sebastian Vettel for second. Button was held up by the incumbent World Champion long enough for Rosberg to preserve his tyres, and he became the 103rd person to win a Grand Prix. The result was also Mercedes's first win as a constructor since Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1955 Italian Grand Prix. Button was second, with Hamilton scoring his third consecutive third place, giving him a two-point championship lead over Button; Fernando Alonso, who had been leading the championship before the race, finished ninth. After two retirements in the opening rounds of the championship, Romain Grosjean scored his first points in Formula One by finishing sixth.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: In the face of ongoing media speculation and public pressure to cancel the race due to ongoing political instability in Bahrain, the FIA released a statement at the Chinese Grand Prix confirming that the Bahrain Grand Prix would go ahead as planned. The week preceding the Grand Prix saw a renewed wave of protests against the government's attempts use the race to "tell the outside world that the whole thing is back to normal", while human rights organisations including Amnesty International criticised the decision to hold the race amid the violent crackdowns. Three days before the race, a group of Force India mechanics travelling in an unmarked hire car were involved in a petrol bombing incident at an impromptu roadblock and were briefly exposed to tear gas fired by security forces. There were no injuries or damage, but two of the mechanics involved chose to leave the country. The team later announced their intentions to race despite the incident.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Sebastian Vettel qualified on pole, his first since the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix. Heikki Kovalainen qualified sixteenth, the second time Caterham (and its predecessor, Team Lotus) advanced beyond the first qualifying period in dry conditions. Vettel went on to win the race – becoming the fourth winner in as many races – after spending much of the race defending against Kimi Räikkönen. Having started eleventh, Räikkönen used an extra set of soft tyres to move up through the field. His team-mate, Romain Grosjean, finished third. Grosjean had initially shown the pace to challenge Vettel's lead, but unlike Räikkönen, he did not have an extra set of fresh tyres, and lost touch with the reigning World Champion after the first set of stops. Lewis Hamilton finished eighth, once again hampered by slow pit stops. He was later involved in an altercation with Nico Rosberg that saw Rosberg referred to the stewards for forcing Hamilton beyond the boundary of the circuit while defending his position, but he escaped without penalty. Hamilton went on to finish eighth, while team-mate Jenson Button was forced to retire two laps from the end of the race after reporting an unusual vibration from the differential. Daniel Ricciardo was involved in early contact that saw the Australian driver slide down the order from sixth at the start to fifteenth by the end of the race, having spent most of the Grand Prix caught behind Vitaly Petrov. Vettel's win gave him a four-point lead in the championship over Hamilton, while Mark Webber's fourth consecutive fourth place secured third overall. Red Bull Racing took the lead from McLaren in the World Constructors' Championship, while Lotus's double podium moved them into third overall.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The decision to hold the race despite the ongoing protests made it one of the most controversial Grands Prix in the sport's sixty-year history.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Starting on 1 May, the teams conducted a three-day test at the Mugello Circuit in Italy ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. The test gave teams the opportunity to assess major aerodynamic upgrades before racing them. HRT elected not to take part in the test, instead choosing to concentrate on establishing themselves at their new headquarters in Madrid. Both Lotus's trackside operations director Alan Permane and Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber questioned the value of testing at the Mugello circuit as the characteristics of the circuit were unlike any of the circuits the championship was due to visit after the test, while Caterham driver Vitaly Petrov was critical of the choice of Mugello as a testing venue as he felt it was not safe enough for Formula One. Petrov's comments came shortly after Fernando Alonso crashed on the final morning of the test. Red Bull Racing and Lotus team principals Christian Horner and Éric Boullier were also critical of the test as they felt that the costs of conducting in-season testing outweighed any benefits, with Horner stating his opposition to continuing mid-season testing in the future.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Following criticism over the sensitivity of their tyre compounds, tyre supplier Pirelli announced changes to their tyre allocation for the Spanish Grand Prix, making pit strategy the focal point of the Grand Prix. Pirelli would later diagnose the problems with the tyre compounds as originating from developing them on a testing chassis that was two years out-of-date at the time. Lewis Hamilton took his third pole of the season, edging out Williams driver Pastor Maldonado by half a second, while Maldonado's team-mate Bruno Senna was eliminated early when he spun. Hamilton was later excluded from the qualifying results after his car did not have enough fuel to return to the pits for scrutineering, promoting Maldonado to pole position and moving Hamilton to the back of the grid. Fernando Alonso took the lead of the race at the first corner, but Maldonado reclaimed it during the second round of pit stops, when his team forced Ferrari to pit early while Alonso was held up by the Marussia of Charles Pic. Maldonado maintained a lead of seven seconds over Alonso, but a mistake by his crew during the third pit stop cost him time and left him vulnerable to the Ferrari driver in the final stint of the race. Meanwhile, third-placed Kimi Räikkönen moved to an ambitious strategy that would see him attempt to force Maldonado and Alonso to race beyond the life expectancy of their tyres, allowing him to swoop in at the last minute to steal first place. Räikkönen's strategy failed as Maldonado withstood pressure from Alonso for fifteen laps, winning the race by three seconds and becoming the first Venezuelan driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix. It was Williams's first win in one hundred and thirty Grand Prix starts; their previous race win was Juan Pablo Montoya's victory at the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton recovered from twenty-fourth on the grid to finish eighth, while Sebastian Vettel overcame a drive-through penalty and an unscheduled stop for a technical fault that forced his team to replace his front wing to make a late move on Nico Rosberg for sixth place that would preserve his championship lead.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: For the second consecutive race, the fastest driver in qualifying did not start the race from pole. Michael Schumacher set the fastest time, but a five-place grid penalty left him sixth overall. Two hours before the race, protests against parts introduced onto the floor of the Red Bull RB8 left team principal Christian Horner with a choice: to change the offending parts and start both cars from the pit lane, guaranteeing that any result the team recorded would be preserved; or to leave the parts on the car, allowing both drivers to start the race from the positions they qualified in, but risking a post-race exclusion. Horner ultimately chose the latter option, and Mark Webber started from pole, establishing an early lead over Nico Rosberg as a first-corner accident eliminated four cars. The race was run under the constant threat of rain, with drivers trying to extend the life of their tyres to avoid being forced to make an additional stop and falling down the order. The rain never materialised, though Jean-Éric Vergne was observed using a set of intermediate tyres late in the race. The variety of strategies used by the front-runners resulted in the last ten laps being contested with the top six cars running nose-to-tail. Webber visibly faded in the final laps, but held on when the following cars were momentarily pinned behind the slow-moving Heikki Kovalainen. Webber won the race – his second on the streets of Monaco – with Rosberg second and Fernando Alonso third, the result giving Alonso a three-point lead in the championship. Red Bull Racing maintained their lead in the Constructors' Championship as rival teams chose not to follow through on the threat of their pre-race protest, while Kovalainen finished thirteenth to see Caterham overtake Marussia for tenth place. Elsewhere, Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado was given a ten-place grid penalty for an incident that saw him clip Sergio Pérez. Combined with a five-place penalty for changing his gearbox, Maldonado started from the back row of the grid where he was eliminated in the first-corner accident.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: One week before the Canadian Grand Prix, the FIA declared the floor used by Red Bull in Monaco to be illegal, forcing the team to change the offending parts for the Canadian Grand Prix. Despite the ruling, the team's results were kept intact. The team was also forced to change the design of their axles, after FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting felt that holes in the axles contravened the technical regulations. Nevertheless, Sebastian Vettel comfortably took pole position by three-tenths of a second. Vettel controlled the early phase of the race, but was caught and passed by Lewis Hamilton before the first round of stops, while Fernando Alonso slipped through shortly afterwards. All three drivers were using a two-stop strategy at the time, but as Hamilton made his second stop, both Alonso and Vettel shifted to a one-stop strategy, with Alonso's team resorting to discussing strategy options in his native Spanish to prevent their rivals from overhearing their plans. Hamilton had twenty laps to make up a twelve-second deficit, and he easily reeled Vettel in; in response, Red Bull pitted the reigning World Champion, and Vettel fell to fifth. Hamilton's next target was Alonso, whose tyres lost all grip and he fell victim to Hamilton, Romain Grosjean, Sergio Pérez and Vettel in quick succession. Hamilton won the race, becoming the seventh winner in seven races and taking a two-point lead in the championship. Grosjean's second place saw Lotus take third place in the Constructors' Championship from Ferrari. Both Grosjean and Pérez expressed surprise at finishing on the podium, while 2011 winner Jenson Button finished sixteenth in what he described as his "worst race in years" and Michael Schumacher suffered a hydraulics failure that left his drag reduction system (DRS) device jammed in the open position.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Fernando Alonso became the first man to win two races in 2012 at the European Grand Prix in Valencia, scoring his first home win since the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix. Starting eleventh, he was forced to navigate his way through traffic, narrowly avoiding early contact between Bruno Senna and Kamui Kobayashi as Sebastian Vettel broke free of the field to establish a twenty-second lead by the first round of stops. Vettel's lead was quashed when Heikki Kovalainen and Jean-Éric Vergne made contact, triggering the deployment of the safety car to clear debris from the circuit. Alonso found himself third at the restart and pounced on a mistake by second-placed Romain Grosjean to lead the chase against Vettel. Vettel pulled away once more, but his lead was short-lived as he lost drive and his engine shut down on lap 33. Grosjean attempted to challenge Alonso, but was forced out of the race with an alternator problem seven laps later, leaving Alonso in the lead, four seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen. As the race entered the final laps, Räikkönen forced his way past Hamilton to secure second place, but Pastor Maldonado's attempts to take third place ended with Hamilton in the barrier and a broken nose for the Williams driver. Maldonado finished tenth, but was given a post-race drive-through penalty and was classified twelfth. Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber had started to carve their way through the field by virtue of a late pit stop and easily picked off the minor points positions and taking advantage of the Maldonado—Hamilton collision to finish third and fourth behind Alonso and Räikkönen. It was Schumacher's first podium since the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix. Alonso's win cemented a twenty-point lead in the championship, whilst Vettel's retirement relegated him to fourth overall, twenty-six points behind Alonso.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Difficult conditions greeted the teams upon their arrival at the Silverstone Circuit, as parts of the Midlands received a month's rainfall in the space of two days. The torrential rain lasted throughout the weekend, forcing qualifying to be suspended for ninety minutes, before race day dawned clear. The circuit was declared dry, allowing the drivers to start on the tyre compound of their choice, with Alonso on the harder tyre streaking away at the start while Paul di Resta crashed at Aintree on the first lap after making contact with Romain Grosjean. As the leaders settled into a rhythm, Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Pérez collided at Brooklands, prompting an angry response from the Mexican driver. Perez's teammate Kamui Kobayashi also ran into trouble, locking his tyres as he entered his pit box and hitting three members of his pit crew, though none were seriously injured. The race was ultimately decided by the choice of tyre in the first stint as Alonso moved onto the softer option and Webber onto the harder prime for the final phase of the race. Webber caught Alonso with five laps to go, passing him on the Wellington Straight. Webber held on for his second win of the season, with Vettel third and Felipe Massa in fourth, his best result since achieving a podium in South Korea in 2010. The result meant Webber closed to within thirteen points of Alonso's championship lead, with both drivers breaking away from third-placed Vettel. After showing early promise in the wet conditions, McLaren went backwards in the dry, losing second place in the Constructors' Championship to Ferrari and third to Lotus.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: Limited running in practice and a wet qualifying session meant that teams had to improvise their strategies at the Hockenheimring. Fernando Alonso controlled much of the race from pole position, only relinquishing the lead when he pitted, and he went on to take his third victory of the season. Lewis Hamilton's one hundredth Grand Prix started with a disaster when he picked up a puncture on the third lap and spent most of the race at the tail end of the field before retiring on lap 56 with a suspension problem. Confusion briefly reigned when Hamilton, in seventeenth place at the time, began lapping faster than the leaders and sought to unlap himself. Sebastian Vettel later claimed that this was a ploy by McLaren to force both him and Alonso to drive defensively against Hamilton, slowing them down enough to allow team-mate Jenson Button to leap-frog them at the second round of stops; Vettel lost a position to Button, but Alonso was unaffected, as Ferrari pitted him before Hamilton could interfere with his race. Button briefly looked as if he had the pace to pass Alonso for the race lead, but the race was deadlocked in the final twenty laps, and Button began to fade in the final five laps of the race. The race was marked by another technical dispute regarding Red Bull Racing, who were referred to the stewards by FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer for what he felt was an illegal engine map in use on the Red Bull RB8. The stewards elected to take no action against Red Bull, stating that the team had not violated any of the technical regulations, but noted that they did not accept all of the arguments presented by the team when asked to explain. The stewards were less forgiving of Vettel, who ran wide at the hairpin while trying to pass Button and could only complete the pass outside the limits of the circuit. Vettel had twenty seconds added to his race time as a penalty, demoting him to fifth overall. With Button promoted to second, Kimi Räikkönen inherited third place and Kamui Kobayashi was classified a then season-best fourth.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: As the championship moved into the second half of the season, Fernando Alonso maintained a thirty-four-point lead over his nearest rival, Mark Webber, with Sebastian Vettel a further ten points behind. Alonso's outlook for the race was dour, qualifying sixth and pinning his hopes on a wet race as Lewis Hamilton continued McLaren's mid-season resurgence, returning to pole position for the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix. Following an aborted start triggered by Michael Schumacher lining up in the wrong grid position and then shutting his engine off in the confusion, Hamilton and Grosjean lead the field away. After prematurely moving Jenson Button onto a three-stop strategy, McLaren gave Hamilton the order to hold position as the tight confines of the Hungaroring circuit forced the teams to try to make up positions in the pits. This was evidenced by Kimi Räikkönen, who inherited the lead after the first set of stops and produced a series of fast laps that allowed him to rejoin in second, coming dangerously close to team-mate Grosjean under brakes as he emerged from the pit lane. Despite taking two seconds out of Hamilton's lead within five laps of rejoining the race, Räikkönen was powerless to reel Hamilton in any further. Hamilton won the race, the nineteenth of his career, with Räikkönen second and Grosjean in third. Hamilton's victory brought with it twenty-five points that put him back in championship contention, while a late decision by Red Bull to move Mark Webber onto a three-stop strategy saw the Australian slip further behind Fernando Alonso, as the Spaniard extended his championship lead to forty points.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The championship resumed one month later in Belgium. Jenson Button qualified on pole and broke away at the start while a four-car pile-up started behind him when Romain Grosjean made contact with Lewis Hamilton and they both slammed into Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez, eliminating all four on the spot and triggering the safety car. Kamui Kobayashi's car was also damaged, and Pastor Maldonado was spun around amidst the chaos. Grosjean was later given a one-race ban for causing the collision, becoming the first driver in eighteen years to be banned from racing. Maldonado retired shortly after the restart with a broken front wing after making contact with Timo Glock, while Narain Karthikeyan spun off at Stavelot mid-way through the race when his wheel came loose. Button controlled the race from the front and was unchallenged throughout, while Sebastian Vettel clawed his way up to second from tenth on the grid. Kimi Räikkönen started and finished third, let down by a conservative pit strategy that forced him to make a second stop late in the race in order to use both compounds of tyre as per the rules – even when it became apparent that Button and Vettel were racing on a one-stop strategy – and Nico Hülkenberg finished in a career-best fourth place. Button's win allowed him to regain precious ground on the championship fight, while Alonso's retirement from the race and Vettel's second place moved the reigning World Champion to within twenty-four points of the championship lead. Scuderia Toro Rosso scored their first points since the Malaysian Grand Prix, with Jean-Éric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo finishing eighth and ninth respectively. Further down the order, Caterham was summoned to the stewards on charges of an unsafe pit release when Heikki Kovalainen was released directly into the path of Karthikeyan and the team was given a €10,000 fine for the incident.


title: 2012 Formula One World Championship

text: The final race in Europe took place at Monza. Ferrari's early bid to put Fernando Alonso on pole position by way of using Felipe Massa to offer him a slipstream ended in disaster when Alonso's rear anti-roll bar failed in the final period of qualifying, leaving the championship leader marooned in tenth while Lewis Hamilton took pole. Hamilton asserted early control over the race, and while Ferrari made significant ground early on to be running second and third – despite losing the data uplink between their cars and the pit wall that provided them with telemetry – it was Sergio Pérez who proved to be Hamilton's biggest challenge. Starting outside the top ten, Pérez elected to start on the harder compound tyres and complete one stop, producing fastest lap after fastest lap as McLaren's confidence was broken when Jenson Button's car was paralysed by a fuel pressure problem. Hamilton would ultimately prevail, but he was forced to push in the final few laps to maintain his lead, and won the race by four seconds as Pérez claimed his third podium of the season with second place. Alonso went on to finish third, benefiting from Button's retirement and a drive-through penalty for Sebastian Vettel when the reigning World Champion forced him so wide through the Curva Grande that Alonso was forced off the circuit. Bruno Senna later criticised the race stewards for not penalising Paul di Resta for a similar altercation on the approach to the Variante della Roggia early in the race. Meanwhile, with Romain Grosjean serving his suspension, Lotus enlisted former Marussia F1 driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio as their second driver for the weekend. He qualified sixteenth, and went on to finish thirteenth overall.