2012 Belgian Grand Prix

Last updated
2012 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 12 of 20 in the 2012 Formula One World Championship
Spa-Francorchamps of Belgium.svg
Layout of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Race details [1]
Date2 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 Flag of Brazil.svg Bruno Senna Williams-Renault
Time 1:52.822 on lap 43
Podium
First McLaren-Mercedes
Second Red Bull-Renault
Third Lotus-Renault
Lap leaders
  • 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.

Contents

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

Background

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

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

Accident

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

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

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 sending Kovalainen back onto the track when Karthikeyan's car arrived. On the other hand, no penalties were decided for Red Bull, for a similar manoeuvre by Webber on Massa, nor for Schumacher's manoeuvre on Vettel. [10]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.No.DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q3Grid
13 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.2501:47.6541:47.5731
214 Flag of Japan.svg Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.6861:48.5691:47.8712
318 Flag of Venezuela.svg Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:48.9931:48.7801:47.8936 1
49 Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:49.5461:48.4141:48.2053
515 Flag of Mexico.svg Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.6421:47.9801:48.2194
65 Flag of Spain.svg Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:49.4011:48.5981:48.3135
72 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:49.8591:48.5461:48.39212 2
84 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.6051:48.5631:48.3947
910 Flag of France.svg Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:50.1261:48.7141:48.5388
1011 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:50.0331:48.7291:48.8909
111 Flag of Germany.svg Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:49.7221:48.79210
1212 Flag of Germany.svg Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:49.3621:48.85511
137 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:49.7421:49.08113
146 Flag of Brazil.svg Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:49.5881:49.14714
1517 Flag of France.svg Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:49.7631:49.35415
1616 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:49.5721:49.54316
1719 Flag of Brazil.svg Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:49.9581:50.08817
188 Flag of Germany.svg Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:50.18123 2
1920 Flag of Finland.svg Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:51.73918
2021 Flag of Russia.svg Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:51.96719
2124 Flag of Germany.svg Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:52.33620
2222 Flag of Spain.svg Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:53.03021
2325 Flag of France.svg Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:53.49322
2423 Flag of India.svg Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:54.98924
107% time: 1:56.622
Source: [6]

Notes:

Race

Pos.No.DriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
13 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 441:29:08.530125
21 Flag of Germany.svg Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 44+13.6241018
39 Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 44+25.334315
412 Flag of Germany.svg Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 44+27.8431112
56 Flag of Brazil.svg Felipe Massa Ferrari 44+29.8451410
62 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 44+31.244128
77 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Mercedes 44+53.374136
817 Flag of France.svg Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 44+58.865154
916 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 44+1:02.982162
1011 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 44+1:03.78391
118 Flag of Germany.svg Nico Rosberg Mercedes 44+1:05.11123
1219 Flag of Brazil.svg Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 44+1:11.52917
1314 Flag of Japan.svg Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 44+1:56.1192
1421 Flag of Russia.svg Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 43+1 Lap19
1524 Flag of Germany.svg Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 43+1 Lap20
1625 Flag of France.svg Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 43+1 Lap22
1720 Flag of Finland.svg Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 43+1 Lap18
1822 Flag of Spain.svg Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 43+1 Lap21
Ret23 Flag of India.svg Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 30Accident/brakes24
Ret18 Flag of Venezuela.svg Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 5Collision damage6
Ret15 Flag of Mexico.svg Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 0Collision damage4
Ret5 Flag of Spain.svg Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0Collision5
Ret4 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 0Collision7
Ret10 Flag of France.svg Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 0Collision8
Source: [7]

Championship standings after the race

See also

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References

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  3. "2012 Belgian GP". Motor Sport . Retrieved 30 May 2022.
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  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. 1 2 Collantine, Keith (1 September 2012). "Button and Kobayashi share front row at Spa". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  7. 1 2 Collantine, Keith (2 September 2012). "Button storms to Spa win after first-lap shunt". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
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  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.
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  13. 1 2 "Belgium 2012 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
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2012 Hungarian Grand Prix
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2012 Italian Grand Prix
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2011 Belgian Grand Prix
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2013 Belgian Grand Prix