2012 Chinese Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of China 2012 was held on 15 April at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai and was the third race of the Formula 1 season in 2012.
- 3.1 qualifying
- 3.2 race
- 4.1 Drivers' Championship
- 4.2 Constructors' Championship
Reports
Background
After the Malaysian Grand Prix Fernando Alonso led the drivers' championship with 5 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and 10 points ahead of Jenson Button. In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren continued to lead. The team has 13 points ahead of Red Bull Renault and 20 points to Ferrari.
At the Grand Prix of China made Pirelli riders the tire compounds P Zero medium ( white) and P Zero soft (yellow), as well as for wet conditions Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue ) are available.
With Hamilton (twice), Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel and Button ( once each ) were six former winners as well as all the winners since 2005 for this Grand Prix.
Stewards were Garry Connelly (AUS), Emanuele Pirro (ITA ) and Vincenzo Spano ( VEN).
Training
In the first free practice Hamilton posted the fastest time ahead of Nico Rosberg and Schumacher. Jules Bianchi took over in this training the Force India of Paul di Resta, Valtteri Bottas Williams by Bruno Senna and Giedo van der Garde the Caterham of Vitaly Petrov. It was the first participation of Bianchi and van der Garde at a Grand Prix weekend. In the second free practice Schumacher was the fastest driver. Second place went to Hamilton, Vettel third. In the third free practice Hamilton set the fastest time ahead of Button and Rosberg.
Qualifying
In the first segment of qualifying Sergio Pérez scored the fastest time. The HRT, Marussia and Caterham pilots and Jean-Eric Vergne dropped out. In the second segment, Mark Webber set the fastest lap. The Force India and Williams drivers and Daniel Ricciardo, Felipe Massa and Vettel dropped out. In the final section Rosberg achieved the fastest time ahead of Hamilton and Schumacher. It was the first pole position for Rosberg, who scored a pole position in the Formula 1 World Championship as 96 drivers.
Race
At the start Rosberg held the lead over his teammate Schumacher. Kamui Kobayashi, who went from third place on the grid, came away not good and lost a few places. Rosberg sat down into the following rounds some of the rest of the field, while Schumacher did not succeed and he drove in about one second ahead of Button.
Already in the sixth round Webber began the phase of the first pit stops. He changed the tire compound soft to medium. However, it took a few rounds until another driver drove into the pits. In the eleventh round button was lying in third place in the box. In contrast to Webber but he remained on the softer tire compound. One lap later, Schumacher came into the pits. Shortly afterwards, Schumacher presented the car at the edge of the track. He dropped out after a tire is not attached properly during his first pit stop and the car damaged. Mercedes was awarded a 5,000 -US - dollar penalty for unsafe release. Since Schumacher shuts off the car before the tire came off was waived further sanctions.
Rosberg's stop, which took place round after round Schumacher, worked and he came back in third place ahead of Button on the track. Meanwhile, Pérez was ahead of Massa in the lead. After Pérez but was in the pits and Rosberg was driven past Massa, Rosberg led the race again. Rosberg broke away in the next round of the Button.
With the second pit stop Rosberg waited about ten laps longer than Button. He thus received a strategic advantage because he was able to drive through without another stop while Button again had to pit one. Button tried out down at the top of a head start to still have a chance of a duel against Rosberg after his third stop with fast laps. Buttons third stop was problematic, however, and he fell behind Raikkonen and Vettel.
Raikkonen was a two -stop strategy in second place behind Rosberg. However, Rosberg had after 44 of 56 rounds a lead of about 23 seconds which is why he would have been able to engage a safety stop. Raikkonen's tire built in the next few rounds from getting stronger. After he had lost second place to Vettel on the 48th lap, fell within a few rounds back to 14th place. With deterioration of the tires finally Vettel had problems. In the 52nd lap he lost the second place to Button, in the last round but Hamilton walked past him and in the last round he was beaten and his team-mate Webber.
Rosberg finally scored his first Formula 1 victory with about 20 seconds ahead of Button, who was second ahead of Hamilton. It was the first Formula 1 victory for Mercedes as a designer since the Italian Grand Prix in 1955, where Juan Manuel Fangio won his teammate Piero Taruffi. Mercedes did not occur 1955-2010, however, as a design engineer in Formula 1 at, but was active only as a motor manufacturer. The current Mercedes team had achieved the last time at the Grand Prix of Italy in 2009 as Brawn GP Rubens Barrichello with a victory.
Webber was fourth ahead of Vettel and Romain Grosjean, who first came into the top 10 and scored points. The other points went to Senna, Pastor Maldonado, Alonso and Kobayashi. Kobayashi also set the fastest race lap. It was his first fastest lap of the race and also the first fastest lap of the race for Sauber.
In the world championship Hamilton took the lead from Alonso, who dropped back to third place. Button took the second place. For the designers, the first three positions remained unchanged, with McLaren -Mercedes increased the lead over the other teams.
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).