Wikipedia

2012 Belgian Grand Prix

The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix)[2] was a Formula One motor race that took place, at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps near the village of Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium on 2 September 2012, the first event after a five-week summer break.[5] It was the twelfth race of the 2012 Formula One World Championship, and the seventy-seventh running of the Belgian Grand Prix.

2012 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 12 of 20 in the 2012 Formula One World Championship
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Layout of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Layout of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Race details[1]
Date 2 September 2012
Official name 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix[2]
Location Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Francorchamps, Wallonia, Belgium[3]
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 7.004 km (4.352 miles)
Distance 44 laps, 308.052 km (191.415 miles)
Weather

Fine and Dry[4] Air Temp 23 °C (73 °F)[4]


Track Temp 33 °C (91 °F)[4]
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

Jenson Button started from pole position, his first pole position since the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix,[6] and won the race. Sebastian Vettel finished second and Kimi Räikkönen third.[7] The race featured a five-car collision at La Source, for which Romain Grosjean received a race ban.

This was the 300th race for Michael Schumacher.

Report

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Background

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Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso led 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.[8]

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.[9]

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

Free practice

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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

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Accident

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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 Kobayashi and Maldonado 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.

After the accident

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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's Kimi Räikkönen.

Post-race

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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.

Caterham was fined €10,000 for the unsafe release of Kovalainen, running into Karthikeyan.[10]

Classification

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Qualifying

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Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 Grid
1 3   Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.250 1:47.654 1:47.573 1
2 14   Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.686 1:48.569 1:47.871 2
3 18   Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:48.993 1:48.780 1:47.893 61
4 9   Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:49.546 1:48.414 1:48.205 3
5 15   Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.642 1:47.980 1:48.219 4
6 5   Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:49.401 1:48.598 1:48.313 5
7 2   Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:49.859 1:48.546 1:48.392 122
8 4   Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.605 1:48.563 1:48.394 7
9 10   Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:50.126 1:48.714 1:48.538 8
10 11   Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:50.033 1:48.729 1:48.890 9
11 1   Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:49.722 1:48.792 10
12 12   Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:49.362 1:48.855 11
13 7   Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:49.742 1:49.081 13
14 6   Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:49.588 1:49.147 14
15 17   Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:49.763 1:49.354 15
16 16   Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:49.572 1:49.543 16
17 19   Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:49.958 1:50.088 17
18 8   Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:50.181 232
19 20   Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:51.739 18
20 21   Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:51.967 19
21 24   Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:52.336 20
22 22   Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:53.030 21
23 25   Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:53.493 22
24 23   Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:54.989 24
107% time: 1:56.622
Source:[6]

Notes:

  • ^1 — Pastor Maldonado received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in Q1.[11]
  • ^2 — Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg both received a five-place grid penalty for changing their gearboxes before the race.[12]

Race

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

Championship standings after the race

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

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "2012 Belgian GP". ChicaneF1. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  2. ^ a b "2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  3. ^ "2012 Belgian GP". Motor Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "2012 FORMULA 1 SHELL BELGIAN GRAND PRIX (Race)". f1standings.net. F1standings. 2 September 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  5. ^ Collantine, Keith (7 December 2011). "United States Grand Prix remains on unchanged 2012 F1 calendar". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  6. ^ a b Collantine, Keith (1 September 2012). "Button and Kobayashi share front row at Spa". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  7. ^ a b Collantine, Keith (2 September 2012). "Button storms to Spa win after first-lap shunt". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  8. ^ Elizalde, Pablo (29 July 2012). "Fernando Alonso amazed to leave Hungary with extended Formula 1 championship lead". Autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  9. ^ "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for final three rounds". Formula One. 16 October 2012. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
  10. ^ "Belgian GP: Caterham fined, Webber and Schumacher escape penalties, for pit incidents". Autosport.com. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  11. ^ Collantine, Keith (1 September 2012). "Maldonado drops to sixth as Raikkonen avoids penalty". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  12. ^ "Webber gets grid penalty amid Spa practice washout". SpeedCafe. 31 August 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  13. ^ a b "Belgium 2012 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
 
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