2012 Belgian Grand Prix

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Belgium  2012 Belgian Grand Prix
Race details
Race 12 of 20 in the 2012 Formula One season
Layout of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Layout of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Date 2 September 2012
Official name 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix[1]
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
Distance 44 laps, 308.052 km (191.415 mi)
Weather

Fine and Dry[2] Air Temp 23 °C (73 °F)[2]


Track Temp 33 °C (91 °F)[2]
Pole position
Driver McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:47.573
Fastest lap
Driver Brazil Bruno Senna Williams-Renault
Time 1:52.822 on lap 43
Podium
First McLaren-Mercedes
Second Red Bull-Renault
Third Lotus-Renault
Lap leaders

The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix)[1] was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium on 2 September 2012,[3] the first race after a five-week summer break. It was the twelfth race of the 2012 season, and the seventy-seventh running of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Jenson Button started from pole position[4] and won the race. Sebastian Vettel finished second and Kimi Räikkönen third.[5]

This was the 300th race for Michael Schumacher.

Report

Background

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso leads the championship by forty points from Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, with fourth-placed Lewis Hamilton a further seven points behind.[6]

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the white-banded medium compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.[7]

Dani Clos replaced Narain Karthikeyan at HRT in the first practice session, while Valtteri Bottas drove Bruno Senna's Williams once again.

Free practice

The first free practice session began in wet conditions. Kamui Kobayashi ended the session fastest, having chosen to stay out early while other drivers pitted to begin work on their car setup. Ferrari's Felipe Massa failed to set a lap time when his car ground to a halt as he was about to enter the pits at the end of the installation lap. The second practice session saw even more rain fall, and large puddles of standing water on the circuit made running impractical. Only a handful of drivers set lap times, with Marussia's Charles Pic finishing the session fastest. The third and final session on Saturday morning was dry, allowing teams just one hour to complete as much of their testing programmes as possible ahead of qualifying and the race. Fernando Alonso went on to finish the session fastest.

Race

Pastor Maldonado let his clutch slip a fraction too soon and started his race before the lights had gone out, passing the Saubers. Grosjean made a good start and moved up to the inside of La Source, but in doing so, squeezed Hamilton between himself and the pitwall. The two touched wheels, both drivers losing control. Grosjean then speared into the back of Pérez and became airborne, crashing heavily into Alonso, missing Alonso's head by a few inches. Grosjean came to rest at the outside wall. Hamilton crashed into Kobayashi as well as Alonso after Grosjean's heavy impact. Pérez lost his rear wing from Grosjean's hit and touched Maldonado when the accident happened, making Maldonado spin. Only the latter two emerged from the crash, Kobayashi with a substantial hole in the side of his car. Kobayashi who had started on the front row for Sauber, pitted after the accident and resumed in last place. Once Maldonado recovered from his spin he hit Timo Glock after the safety car restart. Narain Karthikeyan's HRT spun off backwards and hit into the tyre wall late in the race after a wheel came loose. After starting the race in 14th, Felipe Massa fought hard to get the fifth place, ahead of Red Bull’s Mark Webber. Bruno Senna had eighth position secured but due to a slow puncture he had to make a pitstop with only four laps left in the race, dropping him to 12th.

Button, who started on pole, was never under threat as Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel fought from 10th to 2nd, ahead of Lotus' Kimi Räikkönen.

Post-race

Romain Grosjean was fined €50,000 and was given a one-race ban at the Italian Grand Prix for his role in the crash at the start.

Pastor Maldonado was given two five-place grid penalties at the Italian Grand Prix, the first of which was for his jump start and the second for causing an avoidable collision with Glock.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Grid
1 3 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.250 1:47.654 1:47.573 1
2 14 Japan Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.686 1:48.569 1:47.871 2
3 18 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:48.993 1:48.780 1:47.893 61
4 9 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:49.546 1:48.414 1:48.205 3
5 15 Mexico Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.642 1:47.980 1:48.219 4
6 5 Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:49.401 1:48.598 1:48.313 5
7 2 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:49.859 1:48.546 1:48.392 122
8 4 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.605 1:48.563 1:48.394 7
9 10 France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:50.126 1:48.714 1:48.538 8
10 11 United Kingdom Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:50.033 1:48.729 1:48.890 9
11 1 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:49.722 1:48.792 10
12 12 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:49.362 1:48.855 11
13 7 Germany Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:49.742 1:49.081 13
14 6 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:49.588 1:49.147 14
15 17 France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:49.763 1:49.354 15
16 16 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:49.572 1:49.543 16
17 19 Brazil Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:49.958 1:50.088 17
18 8 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:50.181 232
19 20 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:51.739 18
20 21 Russia Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:51.967 19
21 24 Germany Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:52.336 20
22 22 Spain Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:53.030 21
23 25 France Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:53.493 22
24 23 India Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:54.989 24
107% time: 1:56.622
Source:[4]

Notes:

Race

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 3 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 44 1:29:08.530 1 25
2 1 Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 44 +13.624 10 18
3 9 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 44 +25.334 3 15
4 12 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 44 +27.843 11 12
5 6 Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 44 +29.845 14 10
6 2 Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 44 +31.244 12 8
7 7 Germany Michael Schumacher Mercedes 44 +53.374 13 6
8 17 France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 44 +58.865 15 4
9 16 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 44 +1:02.982 16 2
10 11 United Kingdom Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 44 +1:03.783 9 1
11 8 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 44 +1:05.111 23
12 19 Brazil Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 44 +1:11.529 17
13 14 Japan Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 44 +1:56.119 2
14 21 Russia Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 43 +1 Lap 19
15 24 Germany Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 20
16 25 France Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 22
17 20 Finland Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 43 +1 Lap 18
18 22 Spain Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 21
Ret 23 India Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 30 Accident 24
Ret 18 Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 5 Collision 6
Ret 15 Mexico Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 0 Collision 4
Ret 5 Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0 Collision 5
Ret 4 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 0 Collision 7
Ret 10 France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 0 Collision 8
Source:[5]

Championship standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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Previous race:
2012 Hungarian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
2012 season
Next race:
2012 Italian Grand Prix
Previous race:
2011 Belgian Grand Prix
Belgian Grand Prix Next race:
2013 Belgian Grand Prix