2012 Malaysian Grand Prix

 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix

Racing data
2nd of 20 races in the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	2012 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix
Date:	March 25, 2012
Place:	Sepang
Course:	Sepang International Circuit
Length:	310.408 km in 56 laps of 5.543 km
Weather:	Rain, later drying off
Pole position
Driver:	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Time:	1: 36.219 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault
Time:	1: 40.722 min (lap 53)
Podium
First:	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Second:	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari
Third:	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes

The Malaysian Grand Prix 2012 (officially 2012 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix ) took place on 25 March at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang instead and was the second race of the Formula 1 World Championship in 2012 .

Reports

background

After the Australian Grand Prix , Jenson Button led the drivers' standings with 7 points ahead of Sebastian Vettel and 10 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton . McLaren-Mercedes led the constructors' championship with 10 points ahead of Red Bull-Renault and with 28 points ahead of Sauber-Ferrari .

At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Pirelli provided the drivers with the tire compounds P Zero Hard (silver) and P Zero Medium (white), as well as Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue) for wet conditions .

With Michael Schumacher (three times), Kimi Räikkönen , Fernando Alonso , Vettel (twice each) and Button (once) five former winners competed in this Grand Prix.

Paul Gutjahr (SUI), Johnny Herbert (GBR), Roger Peart (CAN) and Allen Oh (MAS) acted as racing stewards at this Grand Prix .

There was a fire in the Lotus hospitality on Saturday morning . The team's hospitality and kitchen were 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 the vehicle from Bruno Senna during this training session . It was Botta's first outing in a Formula 1 training session. In the second free practice session, Hamilton kept the lead from Schumacher and Button. In the third free practice, Rosberg set the fastest lap ahead of Vettel and Mark Webber .

Qualifying

In the first section of qualifying, Webber set the fastest time ahead of Schumacher and Button. The HRT , Marussia and Caterham pilots as well as Jean-Éric Vergne did not make the leap into the last segment. In the second part of the time training, Raikkonen took over the leadership position in front of Webber and Button. The Force India and Williams pilots as well as Kamui Kobayashi , Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa were eliminated. In the final section, Hamilton set the fastest time ahead of his teammates Button and Schumacher.

run

The first corner after the start of the Grand Prix

It started to rain before the race started. Since the rain wasn't that heavy at first, all drivers except the HRT pilots started on intermediate tires. Hamilton kept the lead at the start. In turn four there was a collision between Schumacher and Romain Grosjean . Both pilots spun and lost some positions. On the fourth lap, the race was finally over for Grosjean because he had spun one more time and this time got stuck in the gravel.

Hamilton and Button behind the safety car just before the race was interrupted

From the very first lap, some drivers began to switch to rain tires. The rain got heavier from lap to lap and a thunderstorm hit the track. On the seventh lap, the race management sent the safety car out onto the track for safety reasons. After the conditions did not improve and longer rain had been predicted, the race management decided to stop the race on the ninth lap with the red flag. Hamilton was leading at this point in front of Button and Sergio Pérez , who had already switched to rain tires on the first lap. The top 10 were completed by Webber, Alonso, Vettel, Vergne, Massa, Rosberg and Narain Karthikeyan . Vergne and Karthikeyan were the only drivers not yet pitted, with Vergne racing on intermediates until the break.

The starting grid during the interruption

After a break of almost an hour, the race was restarted behind the safety car. During the break, the drivers had the opportunity to have their tires changed, but all drivers behind the safety car had to drive with rain tires. Since the track was already drying out, some drivers, including Button, pitted immediately when the race restarted to change tires to intermediates. A lap later, a group around the leading Hamilton pitted. At Hamilton's stop, however, there were minor difficulties, which is why he was overtaken by Alonso, who was also in the pits. Button also passed Hamilton.

Button's chances of winning were soon reduced to a minimum. During an overtaking maneuver against Karthikeyan, the latter left him little space, so that Button's front wing was damaged and he had to go to the pits for repairs. In the meantime, Pérez was leading the race. After he had also completed his stop, he fell behind Alonso and was in second place in front of Hamilton.

In the next few laps, Alonso and Pérez pulled away from the rest of the field, with Alonso initially increasing his lead on Pérez lap by lap. A bigger gap formed behind Hamilton, as Rosberg could not keep up in fourth place and was eventually overtaken by several drivers. Vettel initially took fourth place.

Although the track continued to dry out, no driver tried to switch to slicks at first because more showers had been announced. But since some pilots had already put too much stress on their intermediates, these drivers switched to fresh intermediates and lost some positions.

In the meantime, Pérez caught up with Alonso and was just a few seconds behind him. Other pilots failed to catch up with the leading duo. On the 38th lap, Ricciardo finally risked a switch to slicks. Since he drove by far the fastest laps, all the pilots followed suit within the next few laps. Leading Alonso pitted on lap 40, Pérez and Hamilton a lap later. Alonso initially had about seven seconds ahead of Pérez, but he caught up again and approached Alonso, while his team-mate Kobayashi retired with braking problems.

The duel of the race: Alonso (front) and Pérez (back) in the first two positions

On the 48th lap there was a collision between Vettel and Karthikeyan. When Vettel tried to lap Karthikeyan, the latter left him too little space and damaged Vettel's rear tire, which disintegrated as a result. Karthikeyan was given a 20-second time penalty after the race, which caused him to drop from penultimate to last place.

At the top, a duel between Alonso and Pérez finally developed. However, Pérez made a driving error a few laps before the end of the race and lost a few seconds. Although he managed to reduce the gap again, he could no longer catch up with Alonso.

Alonso in the Ferrari after winning the race

Alonso finally won a Formula 1 race for the 28th time. It was the first win of the season for Ferrari whose car was actually not capable of winning. Pérez achieved his first podium finish in second, which was Sauber's best ever result in Formula 1. It was the first podium finish by a Mexican driver since Pedro Rodríguez finished second at the 1971 Dutch Grand Prix , which he had achieved in rainy conditions at the time. Pérez and Rodríguez are so far (as of March 2012) the only Mexicans who have reached the podium at a Grand Prix.

Hamilton was third, almost 15 seconds behind. The other points went to Webber, Raikkonen, Senna, Paul di Resta , Vergne, Nico Hülkenberg and Schumacher, who benefited from a pastor Maldonado's engine damage . Räikkönen achieved the fastest race lap for the first time since his comeback. Senna and Vergne achieved their best results so far. For Vergne it was the first time in his second race that he scored points in Formula 1.

Alonso took the lead in the drivers' championship ahead of Hamilton. Button, who was in the lead before the race, fell back to third place. The first two positions of the designers remained unchanged. Ferrari took third position from Sauber.

Registration list

team	No.	driver	chassis	engine	tires
Red Bull Racing	01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull RB8	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	02	Mark Webber
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	03	Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-27	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	04th	Lewis Hamilton
Scuderia Ferrari	05	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari F2012	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	06th	Felipe Massa
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	07th	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes F1 W03	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	08th	Nico Rosberg
Lotus F1 Team	09	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus E20	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	10	Romain Grosjean
Sahara Force India F1 Team	11	Paul di Resta	Force India VJM05	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
	12	Nico Hulkenberg
Sauber F1 Team	14th	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean C31	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	15th	Sergio Perez
Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso STR7	Ferrari 2.4 V8	P
	17th	Jean-Éric Vergne
Williams F1 team	18th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW34	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	19th	Valtteri Bottas
		Bruno Senna
Caterham F1 team	20th	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham CT01	Renault 2.4 V8	P
	21st	Vitaly Petrov
HRT F1 team	22nd	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT F112	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	23	Narain Karthikeyan
Marussia F1 Team	24	Timo Glock	Marussia MR01	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	25th	Charles Pic

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Bottas drove the Williams with the number 19 in the first free practice. Senna then took over the vehicle for the rest of the race weekend.

Classifications

Qualifying

Item	driver	constructor	Q1	Q2	Q3	begin
01	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 37.813	1: 37.106	1: 36.219	01
02	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 37.575	1: 36.928	1: 36.368	02
03	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes	1: 37.517	1: 37.017	1: 36.391	03
04th	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1: 37.172	1: 37.375	1: 36.461	04th
05	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	1: 37.961	1: 36.715	1: 36.461	10
06th	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1: 38.102	1: 37.419	1: 36.634	05
07th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	1: 38.058	1: 37.338	1: 36.658	06th
08th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1: 37.696	1: 36.996	1: 36.664	07th
09	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1: 38.151	1: 37.379	1: 37.566	08th
10	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari	1: 37.933	1: 37.477	1: 37.698	09
11	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1: 37.789	1: 37.589	-	11
12	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1: 38.381	1: 37.731	-	12
13	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1: 38.437	1: 37.841	-	13
14th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1: 38.325	1: 37.877	-	14th
15th	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 38.419	1: 37.883	-	15th
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1: 38.303	1: 37.890	-	16
17th	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean Ferrari	1: 38.372	1: 38.069	-	17th
18th	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 39.077	-	-	18th
19th	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1: 39.306	-	-	24
20th	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1: 39.567	-	-	19th
21st	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 40.903	-	-	20th
22nd	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 41.250	-	-	21st
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1: 42.914	-	-	22nd
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1: 43.655	-	-	23
107 percent time : 1: 43.974 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 37.172 min)

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t} racing cars with KERS
2. ↑ Kimi Raikkonen was moved five positions back because of a gear change.
3. ↑ Heikki Kovalainen was moved five positions back because of overtaking in a safety car phase at the Australian Grand Prix.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	56	3	2: 44: 51.812	08th	1: 41.680 (53rd)
02	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari	56	3	+ 2.263	09	1: 41.021 (54th)
03	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	56	3	+ 14,591	01	1: 41,539 (50th)
04th	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	56	3	+ 17.688	04th	1: 41.017 (52nd)
05	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	56	3	+ 29,456	10	1: 40.722 (53.)
06th	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	56	4th	+ 37.667	13	1: 41,404 (55.)
07th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	56	3	+ 44.412	14th	1: 41.819 (55.)
08th	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	2	+ 46.985	18th	1: 41.922 (55th)
09	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	56	3	+ 47.892	16	1: 42,173 (51.)
10	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes	56	3	+ 49.996	03	1: 41.760 (53rd)
11	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	56	4th	+1: 15.527	05	1: 41.342 (50.)
12	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	56	4th	+1: 16.828	15th	1: 41.756 (54th)
13	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	56	4th	+1: 18.593	07th	1: 41.863 (51.)
14th	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	56	5	+1: 19.719	02	1: 42,100 (50th)
15th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	56	4th	+1: 37.319	12	1: 42.051 (56th)
16	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	55	3	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 43,513 (52nd)
17th	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	55	3	+ 1 lap	20th	1: 44.757 (50th)
18th	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	55	4th	+ 1 lap	24	1: 43.803 (54.)
19th	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	54	4th	DNF	11	1: 42.237 (51.)
20th	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	54	3	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 44.813 (50.)
21st	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	54	3	+ 2 rounds	22nd	1: 46.244 (54.)
22nd	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	54	2	+ 2 rounds	23	1: 45,909 (52nd)
-	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean Ferrari	46	3	DNF	17th	1: 44.202 (44.)
-	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	3	0	DNF	06th	2: 08.464 ( 02.)

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t} racing cars with KERS
2. ↑ Narain Karthikeyan was subsequently given a 20-second time penalty.

World Cup stands after the race

The first ten of the race got 25, 18, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 point (s) respectively.

Driver ranking

Item driver constructor Points 01  Fernando Alonso Ferrari 35 02  Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 30th 03  Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 25th 04th  Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 24 05  Sergio Perez Clean Ferrari 22nd 06th  Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 18th 07th  Kimi Raikkonen Lotus Renault 16 08th  Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 8th 09  Kamui Kobayashi Clean Ferrari 8th 10  Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 7th 11  Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4th 12  Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2

Item driver constructor Points 13  Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 2 14th  Michael sSchumacher Mercedes 1 15th  Nico Rosberg Mercedes 0 16  Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 0 17th  Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 0 18th  Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 0 19th  Felipe Massa Ferrari 0 20th  Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 0 21st  Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 0 22nd  Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 0 23  Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 0 -  Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  McLaren-Mercedes 55 02  Red Bull-Renault 42 03  Ferrari 35 04th  Clean Ferrari 30th 05  Lotus Renault 16 06th  Force India-Mercedes 9

Item constructor Points 07th  Williams-Renault 8th 08th  Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6th 09  Mercedes 1 10  Marussia-Cosworth 0 11  Caterham-Renault 0 12  HRT-Cosworth 0

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Formula 1 - Pirelli nominates tires for Malaysia" (Motorsport-Magazin.com on March 20, 2012)
2. ↑ "Moment of shock in the paddock: Fire at Lotus" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 24, 2012)
3. ^ "GP Malaysia in Sepang / 1st free practice" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 23, 2012)
4. ^ "GP Malaysia in Sepang / 2nd free practice" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 23, 2012)
5. ^ "GP Malaysia in Sepang / 3rd free practice" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 24, 2012)
6. ^ "GP Malaysia in Sepang / Qualifying" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 24, 2012)
7. ^ "Satisfaction for Vettel: penalty for Karthikeyan" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 25, 2012)
8. ↑ "Despite victory: pressure on Ferrari not less" (Motorsport-Total.com on March 25, 2012)

Web links

Commons : Malaysian Grand Prix 2012  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Weekend statistics at Motorsport-Total.com