2012 Belgian Grand Prix

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.

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.

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 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 the unsafe release of Kovalainen, running into Karthikeyan.

Classification

Qualifying

Notes:

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

Race

Championship standings after the race

Defending double champion Vettel took benefit of Alonso's early retirement by reducing his deficit to the championship leader to 24 points; he simultaneously advanced to second in the standings ahead of Webber who dropped down to third after missing out on the podium. Webber moved to 132 points, eight behind Vettel. Räikkönen reclaimed fourth spot from Hamilton with 131 points, only one point behind Webber and fourteen clear from Hamilton. Meanwhile, the top five in the Constructors' Championship remained unchanged, with Red Bull maintaining their lead with 272 points, slightly increasing their lead towards second-placed McLaren by a single point.

Drivers' Championship standings

Constructors' Championship standings

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

References

|Previous_year's_race = 2011 Belgian Grand Prix |Next_year's_race = 2013 Belgian Grand Prix

References

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2. "2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix". [[Formula One Group.
3. "2012 Belgian GP". [[Motor Sport (magazine).
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6. Collantine, Keith. (1 September 2012). "Button and Kobayashi share front row at Spa". Keith Collantine.
7. Collantine, Keith. (2 September 2012). "Button storms to Spa win after first-lap shunt". Keith Collantine.
8. Elizalde, Pablo. (29 July 2012). "Fernando Alonso amazed to leave Hungary with extended Formula 1 championship lead". [[Haymarket Media Group.
9. (16 October 2012). "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for final three rounds". Formula One.
10. "Belgian GP: Caterham fined, Webber and Schumacher escape penalties, for pit incidents".
11. Collantine, Keith. (1 September 2012). "Maldonado drops to sixth as Raikkonen avoids penalty". Keith Collantine.
12. (31 August 2012). "Webber gets grid penalty amid Spa practice washout". SpeedCafe.
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