2012 Malaysian Grand Prix
The Malaysian Grand Prix 2012 ( officially 2012 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix) was held on 25 March at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang instead and was the second race of the Formula 1 season in 2012.
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
According to the Australian Grand Prix, Jenson Button led the Drivers' Championship with 7 points ahead of Sebastian Vettel and 10 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton. McLaren -Mercedes resulted in the constructors' championship with 10 points ahead of Red Bull-Renault and with 28 points ahead of Sauber - Ferrari.
At the Grand Prix of Malaysia introduced the Pirelli P Zero tire compounds drivers the hardware (silver) and P Zero medium ( white), as well as for wet conditions Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato full- Wets (blue ) are available.
With Michael Schumacher ( three times), Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Vettel (each twice) and button (once ) occurred five former winners of this Grand Prix.
As stewards of this Grand Prix functioned Paul Gutjahr (SUI ), Johnny Herbert (GBR ), Roger Peart ( CAN) and Allen Oh (MAS ).
On Saturday morning there was a fire in the hospitality of Lotus. The hospitality and the cuisine of the team has been destroyed. People were not injured.
Training
In the first free practice Hamilton set the fastest time ahead of Vettel and Nico Rosberg. At Williams Valtteri Bottas took over in this training the vehicle by Bruno Senna. It was Bottas first use in a Formula 1 training. In the second free practice Hamilton maintained the lead ahead of Schumacher and Button. In the third free practice session Rosberg set the fastest lap before Vettel and Mark Webber.
Qualifying
In the first phase of qualifying Webber set the fastest time ahead of Schumacher and Button. The HRT, Marussia and Caterham - pilot Jean- Éric Vergne and did not make the jump to the last segment. In the second part of the session Raikkonen took the lead position ahead of Webber and Button. The Force India and Williams driver and Kamui Kobayashi, Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa retired from. In the final section of Hamilton put the best time ahead of his team mate Button and Schumacher.
Race
Before the start of the race it started to rain. As the rain was not so strong at first, started up on the HRT drivers all drivers on intermediate tires. Hamilton kept at startup guide. In turn four, there was a collision between Schumacher and Romain Grosjean. Both pilots turned and lost a few positions. In the fourth round, the race for Grosjean was eventually terminated because he had turned once more, and this time got stuck in the gravel.
As early as the first round began some drivers to change to wet tires. The rain got heavier with every lap and it attracted a storm on the way. In the seventh round, the race management, the safety car sent for safety on the track. After no improvement of the situation became apparent and prolonged rain was predicted, the jury decided to cancel that race in the ninth round with the red flag. Hamilton led to this point ahead of Button and Sergio Pérez, who joined in the first round on rain tires. The top 10 was completed by Webber, Alonso, Vettel, Vergne, Massa, Rosberg and Narain Karthikeyan. Vergne and Karthikeyan were the only pilots who were not yet on the box, with Vergne drove up to the interruption to intermediates.
After an almost one-hour break, the race behind the safety car was resumed. The drivers had in the interruption, the opportunity to change their tires, but all pilots had to go behind the safety car with wet tires. Since the track was dry already am, went some pilots, including button, immediately at the restart of the race to change tires to intermediates to the box. One lap later, a group went to the leading Hamilton to the box. In Hamilton's stop but there were minor difficulties, which is why he was overtaken by Alonso, who was in the pits at the same time. Also Button overtook Hamilton.
Buttons victory chances were, however, already dropped shortly thereafter to a minimum. In an overtaking maneuver against Karthikeyan this left him little space, so buttons front wing was damaged and he had to pit for repairs. In the meantime, Perez was leading the race. After he had completed his stop, he fell behind Alonso and was in second place ahead of Hamilton.
In the next few laps Alonso and Pérez continued from front rest of the field, with Alonso initially also increased his lead to Pérez lap after lap. Behind Hamilton was formed a larger gap, as Rosberg lying in fourth place could not keep up, and was eventually overtaken by several pilots. First Vettel took the fourth place.
Although the track was drying continues, no driver initially tried a change to slicks, as more showers were announced. However, some pilots had their Intermediates already too far, these drivers switched to fresh Intermediates and lost a few positions.
In the meantime, Pérez took on Alonso and approached him for a few seconds back. Other pilots did not manage to catch up to the leading duo. In the 38th round finally risked Ricciardo a change to slicks. As he drove by far the fastest laps, attracted by all pilots within the next rounds. The leading Alonso came in the 40th round to the pits, Perez and Hamilton a lap later. Alonso had initially back to the seven seconds ahead of Perez, however, brought this up again and approached Alonso, while his team-mate Kobayashi failed with brake problems.
In the 48th round, there was a collision between Vettel and Karthikeyan. As Vettel Karthikeyan wanted to round, this left him too little space and damaged Vettel's rear tire, which dissolved as a result. Karthikeyan was occupied after the race with a 20 -second time penalty, so he fell back from the penultimate to the last place.
Eventually developed a duel between Alonso and Pérez at the top. However, Pérez made a few laps before the race finish a driving mistake and lost a few seconds. He succeeded indeed to reduce the gap again, but he could not catch up with Alonso.
Alonso eventually won for the 28th time a Formula 1 race. It was the first win of the season for Ferrari, whose vehicle was not actually capable of winning. Pérez scored his first podium in second placement, which was the best result of Sauber in F1. It was the first podium finish of a Mexican driver, since the second place of Pedro Rodríguez at the Grand Prix of the Netherlands in 1971, the latter had at that time also achieved in rainy conditions. Pérez and Rodríguez have so far (as of March 2012) are the only Mexicans who have reached the podium of a Grand Prix.
Hamilton was almost 15 seconds behind third. The other points were awarded to Webber, Raikkonen, Senna, Paul di Resta, Vergne, Nico Hulkenberg and Schumacher, who benefited from an engine failure Pastor Maldonado. Räikkönen scored for the first time after his comeback the fastest race lap. Senna and Vergne achieved their best ever placing. For Vergne was in his second race for the first time that he scored in Formula 1.
Alonso took the lead in the drivers' world championship ahead of Hamilton. Button, who was before the race in the lead, dropped back to third place. For the designers, the first two positions remained unchanged. Ferrari took over the third position of Sauber.
Message list
Classifications
Qualifying
Race
WM stands after the race
, The first ten of the race were 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s).