2012 Japanese Grand Prix
The Grand Prix of Japan 2012 was held on October 7 at the Suzuka International Racing Course in Suzuka place and was the 15th 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 Singapore Grand Prix Fernando Alonso led the drivers' championship with 29 points ahead of Sebastian Vettel and 45 points on Kimi Raikkonen. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull -Renault led with 36 points ahead of McLaren -Mercedes and Ferrari on 52 points.
At the Grand Prix of Japan presented the Pirelli P Zero tire compounds drivers the hardware (silver) and P Zero soft (yellow) as well as for wet Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue ) are available.
With Michael Schumacher ( six times ), Alonso, Vettel (each twice), Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button ( once each ) were six former winners of this Grand Prix.
As race stewards acted Lars Österlind (SWE ), Vincenzo Spano ( VEN), Derek Warwick ( GBR) and Kazunari Yamanashi (JPN ).
Training
In the first free practice session Button set the fastest lap ahead of his teammate Hamilton and Mark Webber. In this training Valtteri Bottas Williams by Bruno Senna and Giedo van der Garde took the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen. In the second free practice Webber took the lead ahead of Hamilton and Vettel. Paul di Resta and Schumacher damaged their vehicles in this training with him resembling accidents in the Spoon curve. In the third free practice Vettel set the fastest time ahead of Webber and Felipe Massa. Nico Hulkenberg had an accident in the Degner curve in this training session. Charles Pic was booked following the third free practice session because he had Hamilton Disabled in the chicane. In addition, his team was sanctioned with a fine of 5,000 euros.
Qualifying
In the first phase of qualifying Romain Grosjean drove the fastest lap. The HRT, Marussia and Caterham pilots and Bruno Senna dropped out. In the second section Vettel was in the lead. The Toro Rosso and Mercedes drivers and Pastor Maldonado, Paul di Resta and Massa dropped out. In the third section, Raikkonen spun into the gravel trap in the final phase and triggered a brief caution period, which made it impossible for some competitors a time improvement. Vettel retained the top position and secured the pole position ahead of Webber and Button, which was set back due to a gearbox change at five positions. The gear buttons had the same problem as Hamilton, who suffered an injury to the Singapore Grand Prix during the race.
Also from grid position penalties were Nico Hulkenberg, Schumacher and Jean- Éric Vergne affected: Hulkenberg due to a gearbox change, which was necessary after his accident in free practice, Schumacher, due to a disease caused by him hitting Vergne at the Grand Prix of Singapore and Vergne as he had hindered in the first part of qualifying Senna at the chicane.
Pole sitter Vettel was booked after qualifying, as he had Alonso impeded in the final qualifying section.
Race
At the start to the Japanese Grand Prix, there were several collisions in the first corner. The trigger was a touch of Räikkönen and Alonso. Alonso slots his left rear tire on the front wing Raikkonen. In addition, Grosjean triggered a collision, in which he drove into Webber back. Nico Rosberg had to brake it, so it was a collision between him and Senna. Alonso and Rosberg dropped out due to collision damages, Grosjean, Senna and Webber came into the pits for repairs. The stewards punished Grosjean for his behavior in the initial phase with a 10 seconds stop-and -go penalty; Senna was penalized with a drive-through penalty. Due to the collisions caused a safety car phase. Vettel led into this before Kobayashi, Button, Massa and Raikkonen.
After the restart succeeded Vettel, to work out at the top of a head start, while there was jostling for position in the rest of the field. In lap 13 Button began the phase of the first pit stops. In the following rounds, the remaining riders of the leading group completed their stops. Vettel and Massa waited the longest time, which proved to be the right decision. Vettel held the lead and overtook Massa in the pits Button and Kobayashi and was in second place. In the 19th round, there was a duel between Hamilton and Pérez. Hamilton was preempted by the pit stops before Pérez. Pérez tried before the hairpin overtaking on the winger, while the lost control of his vehicle and retired. In the early stages of the race he succeeded at this point an overtaking maneuver against Hamilton.
In the 31st round of the phase of the second pit stops began. Kobayashi was the first pilot in the pits. Vettel extended his lead over Massa before it stops further out and stayed again as the longest of the leading group on the track, so he remained consistently in the lead. In this phase of the race Narain Karthikeyan and Pic gave up the race with technical problems. In addition, Senna overtook Grosjean, in which he attacked him before the 130R outside.
While Vettel led the race unchallenged ahead of Massa, a duel between Button and Kobayashi developed for third place. However, an attack did not start button. Shortly before the end of the race Grosjean gave up on the box.
Vettel eventually won the race with about 20 seconds ahead of Massa and Kobayashi, who successfully defended the position against third button. Behind the top four drivers there was a larger gap. The other points went to Hamilton, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Maldonado, Webber and Ricciardo.
Vettel started from pole position, the race led to consistently and achieved the fastest lap in the second last round. So he had a Grand Slam. Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko commented on the fastest lap of the race Vettel with: " Completely unnecessary, but that's Vettel. "
Massa scored the first podium position since the Grand Prix of Korea in 2010, Kobayashi was the first time in his Formula 1 career on the podium. Maldonado succeeded, after his victory at the Grand Prix of Spain in 2012 for the first time to score points.
Vettel reduced with the victory of the residue on the world championship leader Alonso from 29 to 4 points. Räikkönen remained in third place. For the designers, there were no changes in the top three positions.
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).