The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix (formally the 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix) 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. It was the twelfth race of the 2012 Formula One World Championship, and the seventy-seventh running of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Jenson Button started from pole position, his first pole position since the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix, and won the race. Sebastian Vettel finished second and Kimi Räikkönen third. The race featured a five-car collision at La Source with championship leader Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton amongst the involved drivers, for which Romain Grosjean received a race ban. This was also 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.

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 of a second 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.

Vettel benefited from 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.

Classification

Qualifying Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 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 6 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 12 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 23 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 24107% time: 1:56.622Source: 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 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 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 30 Wheel/accident 24 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 5 Collision damage 6 15 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 0 Collision damage 4 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 0 Collision 5 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 0 Collision 7 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 0 Collision 8Source:

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings 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 117Source:

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

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

See also 2012 Spa-Francorchamps GP2 Series round 2012 Spa-Francorchamps GP3 Series round

References