2012 Singapore Grand Prix
The Singapore Grand Prix 2012 was held on September 23 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore and was the 14th 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 Italian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso led the drivers' championship with 37 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen 38 points. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull -Renault led with 29 points ahead of McLaren -Mercedes and Ferrari on 46 points.
At the Grand Prix of Singapore presented Pirelli riders the tire compounds P Zero soft (yellow) and P Zero Supersoft (red), as well as for wet conditions Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato full- Wets (blue ) are available.
Before the race, the recently deceased Sid Watkins was commemorated with a minute's silence. Watkins was from 1978 to 2004 chief physician of the FIA for Formula 1 racing.
Romain Grosjean returned to his racing schedule lock to the Lotus cockpit back, sparking Jérôme D' Ambrosio from.
With Alonso (twice), Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel ( once each ) were three former winners of this Grand Prix.
As race stewards acted José Abed ( MEX), Garry Connelly (AUS), Allan McNish ( GBR) and Nish Shetty (SIN).
Training
The first free practice initially took place on a drying track. The pilots used Some of the intermediates or rain tires. Vettel was the fastest pilot in front of the McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Hamilton. In this training, Qing Hua Ma took over the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan. In the second session, the first two positions remained unchanged. The third position went to Alonso. The only break in training on Friday sparked Bruno Senna, who stopped by a wall touch the rear suspension. The training was interrupted for vehicle recovery.
In the third training Vettel drove the fastest time. Second was this time Hamilton ahead of Alonso. The training was stopped two minutes in front of the planned end after an accident of Vitaly Petrov. Sergio Pérez and Mark Webber also fell on wall by touch. Charles Pic overhauled after termination of the training an opponent under red flags. Pic was therefore occupied by the stewards with a time penalty of 20 seconds for the race standings.
Qualifying
In the first phase of qualifying Grosjean was the fastest driver. The HRT, Marussia and Caterham pilots and Kamui Kobayashi retired from. In the second section Hamilton was ahead. The Toro Rosso drivers and Senna, Pérez, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg stepped down from. In the third section of Hamilton retained the lead and secured the pole position ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Vettel.
Since the Mercedes drivers put in the last section to the one time waived and only one in-and out - round lead, decided their race number on the start position. In order for the waiver of Nico Rosberg on the lower starting number had an effect for the first time. Michael Schumacher asked on his return to Mercedes necessary to obtain the odd starting number and Rosberg she left him.
Due to gear changing Senna and Pedro de la Rosa were placed in the grid to five positions to the rear.
Race
Already at the start Vettel and Button walked past the second-placed Maldonado. Hamilton kept the lead. In the initial phase there were several touches and duels, but there is no difference from pilot. Schumacher and Rosberg fought on the Raffles Boulevard a team- internal duel, in which Rosberg prevailed. The two pilots Caterham Kovalainen and Petrov touched, with Petrov lost his front wing and had to pit for repairs. In addition, Massa suffered in the first round of a tire failure, which necessitated a pit stop, and Senna is damaged his front wing. The race organizers looked at all the incidents in the initial phase than the normal racing accidents and imposed no penalties.
Meanwhile, Hamilton and Vettel set initially as the head from the rest of the field. However, Button made up some ground, as more progressed at his opponent, the tire degradation than with him. First, Vettel went into the pits, then Hamilton. While Vettel behind several competitors came back on the track and it overtook first, Hamilton had free rein. Button continued four more laps on the track and was the lead after his pit stop back to Hamilton from. He stopped in front of Maldonado, Hamilton and Vettel but were still ahead of him.
In lap 23 there was a change of leadership. Hamilton, who had always had a safe lead over Vettel up to this point, suffered a gearbox failure and failed. McLaren already knew before the race that there could be a problem with the gearbox and Hamilton confirmed that in his vehicle began shifting problems three or four rounds before the failure.
In the second pit stops Maldonado and Alonso, who were in the battle for fourth position went to the box at the same time. The seats remained unchanged. However, Alonso moved to the harder tire compound, while Maldonado decided for the softer. A little later, Karthikeyan had an accident in the tunnel under the stands, which is a safety car phase triggered. Vettel and Button went into the pits and completed their second Stop. Maldonado went a second time to change the tires before he even gave up during the safety car period, with hydraulic problems. Just before the restart it came almost to a collision between Vettel and Button as there was a misunderstanding when tires warm up.
Even during the first lap after the restart another Safety Car period was necessary because Schumacher and Jean- Éric Vergne collided. Schumacher braked too late and drove into the back Vergne. The race stewards saw the blame for this accident with Schumacher and punished him for the next race with a transfer back to ten positions on the grid. In this safety-car phase again several drivers went into the pits. The first three - Vettel, Button and Alonso - but remained on the track.
After the restart Massa ventured on the Anderson Bridge overtaking against Senna. Massa squeezed past his opponents, touched both vehicles. However, there were no damage and there was no investigation by the race organizers. While Massa shortly afterwards also went to Daniel Ricciardo over, Vettel sat first at the tip slightly from Button from. A little later there were incidents with Pérez, Hulkenberg and Kobayashi: Pérez sat down with a hard maneuvers next Hulkenberg and thereby damaged his front wing. Shortly afterwards, tried to overtake Hulkenberg Pérez teammate Kobayashi. Here, Kobayashi and Hulkenberg his front wing damaged his tires. Both had to stops for repairs to the box. Shortly before the end of the race Senna turned from his vehicle, he was, however, considered.
The race was completed after 59 rounds of 61 planned, because the timeout period of two hours was achieved. Vettel won ahead of Button and Alonso. It was Vettel's second win of the season after the Bahrain Grand Prix.
In the fourth place followed by Paul di Resta, who have hitherto best result thus achieved in Formula 1. The other points were awarded to Rosberg, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Massa, Ricciardo and Pérez.
While the first three positions in the World Championship with the design engineers remained unchanged, exchanged in the drivers' standings on the front positions Vettel and Hamilton the courses, making Vettel became the direct followers of Alonso.
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).