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25px 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
7.004 km (4.352 mi)
Distance 44 laps, 308.052 km (191.415 mi)
Weather Fine and Dry[2]

Air Temp 23°C (73.4°F)[2]
Track Temp 33°C (91.4°F)[2]

Pole position
Driver 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:47.573
Fastest lap
Driver 25px Brazil Bruno Senna Williams-Renault
Time 1:52.822 on lap 43
Podium
First 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
Second 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
Third 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault

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 grounded 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 Maldonaldo 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 25px Great Britain Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.250 1:47.654 1:47.573 1
2 14 25px Japan Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.686 1:48.569 1:47.871 2
3 18 25px The flag of Venezuela Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:48.993 1:48.780 1:47.893 6 1
4 9 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:49.546 1:48.414 1:48.205 3
5 15 25px Mexico Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:49.642 1:47.980 1:48.219 4
6 5 25px Spain Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:49.401 1:48.598 1:48.313 5
7 2 25px Australia Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:49.859 1:48.546 1:48.392 12 2
8 4 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:49.605 1:48.563 1:48.394 7
9 10 25px France Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:50.126 1:48.714 1:48.538 8
10 11 25px Great Britain Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:50.033 1:48.729 1:48.890 9
11 1 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:49.722 1:48.792 10
12 12 25px Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:49.362 1:48.855 11
13 7 25px Germany Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:49.742 1:49.081 13
14 6 25px Brazil Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:49.588 1:49.147 14
15 17 25px France Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:49.763 1:49.354 15
16 16 25px Australia Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:49.572 1:49.543 16
17 19 25px Brazil Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:49.958 1:50.088 17
18 8 25px Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:50.181 23 2
19 20 25px Finland Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:51.739 18
20 21 25px The flag of the Russian Federation Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:51.967 19
21 24 25px Germany Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:52.336 20
22 22 25px Spain Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:53.030 21
23 25 25px France Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:53.493 22
24 23 25px Flag of India Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:54.989 24
107% time: 1:56.622
Source:[4]

Notes:

  1. Pastor Maldonado received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in Q1.[8]
  2. Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg both received a five-place grid penalty for changing their gearboxes before the race.[9]

Race[]

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

Championship standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos. Driver Points
1 25px Spain Fernando Alonso 164
2 25px Germany Sebastian Vettel 140
3 25px Australia Mark Webber 132
4 25px Finland Kimi Räikkönen 131
5 25px Great Britain Lewis Hamilton 117
Constructors' Championship standings
Pos. Constructor Points
1 25px Austria Red Bull-Renault 272
2 25px Great Britain McLaren-Mercedes 218
3 25px Great Britain Lotus-Renault 207
4 25px Italy Ferrari 199
5 25px Germany Mercedes 112
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/belgium_875/circuit_diagram.html. Retrieved 20 July 2012. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "2012 FORMULA 1 SHELL BELGIAN GRAND PRIX (Race)". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 2 September 2012. http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2012/875/7161/live_timing_popup.html#. Retrieved 19 February 2013. 
  3. Collantine, Keith (7 December 2011). "United States Grand Prix remains on unchanged 2012 F1 calendar". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2011/12/07/united-states-grand-prix-remains-unchanged-2012-f1-calendar/. Retrieved 30 July 2012. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Collantine, Keith (1 September 2012). "Button and Kobayashi share front row at Spa". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/09/01/2012-belgian-grand-prix-qualifying-report/. Retrieved 2 September 2012. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 Collantine, Keith (2 September 2012). "Button storms to Spa win after first-lap shunt". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/09/02/2012-belgian-grand-prix-report/. Retrieved 2 September 2012. 
  6. Elizalde, Pablo (29 July 2012). "Fernando Alonso amazed to leave Hungary with extended Formula 1 championship lead". Autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101643. Retrieved 30 July 2012. 
  7. "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for final three rounds". Formula One. 16 October 2012. http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2012/10/13931.html. Retrieved 19 February 2013. 
  8. Collantine, Keith (1 September 2012). "Maldonado drops to sixth as Raikkonen avoids penalty". F1 Fanatic (Keith Collantine). http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/09/01/maldonado-relegated-sixth-grid-penalty/. Retrieved 2 September 2012. 
  9. "Webber gets grid penalty amid Spa practice washout". SpeedCafe. 31 August 2012. http://www.speedcafe.com/2012/09/01/webber-gets-grid-penalty-amid-spa-practice-washout/. Retrieved 1 September 2012. 



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
Smallwikipedialogo.png This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 2012 Belgian Grand Prix. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


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