2012 Belgian Grand Prix
Race 12 of 20 in the 2012 Formula One World Championship
Layout of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Race details
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	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:47.573
Fastest lap
Driver	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault
Time	1:52.822 on lap 43
Podium
First	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Third	Kimi Räikkönen	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 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.^[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

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 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.

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 EUR50,000 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	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:[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	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:[5]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 164 1 2 Sebastian Vettel 140 1 3 Mark Webber 132 1 4 Kimi Räikkönen 131 1 5 Lewis Hamilton 117 Source: [10]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Red Bull-Renault 272 2 McLaren-Mercedes 218 3 Lotus-Renault 207 4 Ferrari 199 5 Mercedes 112 Source: [10]

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

References