2012 German Grand Prix

Report

Background

As there was no race at Hockenheim in 2011, 2012 was the first year that the drag reduction system (DRS) and Pirelli tyres featured at the circuit. The DRS detection zone for the race was located at turn four, with the activation zone located 260 m further down the road, so that it could be used on the approach to the hairpin.

Tyre supplier Pirelli chose to run with the most commonly run tyre combination of the year to date, and brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre to the Hockenheim circuit.

Driver penalties

Romain Grosjean took a five-place grid penalty after his team discovered a terminal issue in his gearbox. Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber were also given five-place penalties for gearbox changes. Sergio Pérez was given a five-place grid penalty for impeding Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen in the second qualifying session.

Drivers

Dani Clos took over Narain Karthikeyan's HRT during the first free practice session. Jules Bianchi replaced Paul di Resta at Force India, while Valtteri Bottas once again drove Bruno Senna's Williams for the same session. This race marked Lewis Hamilton's 100th race and Kamui Kobayashi's 50th race.

Race

The conditions on the grid were dry and sunny before the race; the air temperature ranged between 20 - and the track temperature was between 30 -. Fernando Alonso won the race, his 30th in Formula One to become the only driver to win three races at this point in the season, Jenson Button was 2nd after Sebastian Vettel was given a 20 second time penalty for passing the former by going off the track, the penalty dropped the German down to 5th. Michael Schumacher got the 77th and final fastest lap of his Formula One career.

Classification

Qualifying

Notes: : — Romain Grosjean, Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber were each demoted five places as a penalty for changing their gearboxes before the race. : — Sergio Pérez was demoted five places as a penalty for impeding Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen in the second qualifying session.

Race

Notes: : — Sebastian Vettel was given a 20 second post-race drive-through penalty for an illegal overtaking manoeuvre on Jenson Button on lap 66, dropping him from second to fifth.

Championship standings after the race

Alonso increased his points advantage to 34 points over Webber, bringing up their totals to 154 and 120, respectively. While Vettel remained in third with 110 points, Räikkönen overtook Hamilton in the standings for fourth spot, six points clear of Hamilton following the latter's retirement. Meanwhile, Ferrari narrowed their deficit to Red Bull to 53 points, while McLaren overtook Lotus for third in the standings having amassed 160 points, with Lotus being shy by only one 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 German Grand Prix |Next_year's_race = 2013 German Grand Prix

References

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