Singapore Grand Prix 2012

 Singapore Grand Prix 2012

Racing data
14th of 20 races of the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship
Surname:	2012 Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix
Date:	23rd September 2012
Place:	Singapore
Course:	Marina Bay Street Circuit
Length:	299.444 km in 59 laps of 5.073 km
Planned:	309.59 km in 61 laps of 5.073 km
Pole position
Driver:	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Time:	1: 46.362 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes
Time:	1: 51.033 min (lap 52)
Podium
First:	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Second:	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes
Third:	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari

The 2012 Singapore Grand Prix took place on September 23rd at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore and was the 14th race of the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship .

Reports

background

After the Italian Grand Prix , Fernando Alonso led the drivers' standings with 37 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and 38 points over Kimi Raikkonen . In the constructors' championship, Red Bull-Renault led by 29 points over McLaren-Mercedes and 46 points over Ferrari .

At the Singapore Grand Prix, Pirelli provided the drivers with the tire compounds P Zero Soft (yellow) and P Zero Supersoft (red), as well as Cinturato Intermediates (green) and Cinturato Full Wets (blue) for wet conditions .

Before the race, the recently deceased Sid Watkins was remembered with a minute's silence. Watkins was the FIA's chief physician for Formula 1 races from 1978 to 2004.

Romain Grosjean returned to the Lotus cockpit as planned after his race suspension , replacing Jérôme D'Ambrosio .

With Alonso (twice), Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel (once each), three former winners competed in this Grand Prix.

The race stewards were José Abed (MEX), Garry Connelly (AUS), Allan McNish (GBR) and Nish Shetty (SIN).

training

The first free practice took place on a drying track. Some of the pilots used the intermediates or rain tires. Vettel was the fastest driver ahead of the McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Hamilton. In this training Qing Hua Ma took over the HRT from Narain Karthikeyan . In the second training session, the first two positions remained unchanged. The third position went to Alonso. The only interruption in training on Friday was caused by Bruno Senna , who broke his rear suspension after hitting the wall. The training was interrupted to recover the vehicle.

In the third training session, Vettel set the fastest time. This time Hamilton was second ahead of Alonso. The training was stopped two minutes before the scheduled end after an accident by Vitaly Petrov . Sergio Pérez and Mark Webber also attracted attention by touching the wall. After the training session was stopped , Charles Pic overtook an opponent under red flags. Pic was therefore given a time penalty of 20 seconds for the race classification by the race stewards.

Qualifying

Grosjean was the fastest driver in the first section of qualifying. The HRT, Marussia and Caterham pilots as well as Kamui Kobayashi were eliminated. In the second section, Hamilton was ahead. The Toro Rosso pilots as well as Senna, Pérez, Felipe Massa , Kimi Räikkönen and Nico Hülkenberg were eliminated. In the third section, Hamilton kept the lead and secured pole position from Pastor Maldonado and Vettel.

Since the Mercedes drivers did not set a time in the last section and only drove one in and one out lap, their starting number decided the starting position. Nico Rosberg's renunciation of the lower start number had an effect for the first time. On his return to Mercedes, Michael Schumacher asked to receive the odd starting number and Rosberg left it to him.

Due to gear changes, Senna and Pedro de la Rosa were moved five positions down on the grid.

run

At the start, Vettel and Button passed second-placed Maldonado. Hamilton retained the lead. In the initial phase there were several contacts and duels, but no pilot was eliminated. Schumacher and Rosberg fought an internal team duel on Raffles Boulevard, in which Rosberg prevailed. The two Caterham pilots Kovalainen and Petrow touched, with Petrow losing his front wing and having to pits for repairs. In addition, Massa suffered a tire damage on the first lap that required a pit stop and Senna damaged his front wing. The race management regarded all incidents in the initial phase as normal racing accidents and did not impose any penalties.

Meanwhile, Hamilton and Vettel are initially at the top of the rest of the field. However, Button made up ground again when his opponents' tire degradation progressed faster than he did. First Vettel pitted, then Hamilton. While Vettel came back onto the track behind several competitors and initially overtook them, Hamilton had free rein. Button stayed four laps longer and gave the lead back to Hamilton after his pit stop. He stayed ahead of Maldonado, but Hamilton and Vettel were still ahead of him.

In the 23rd lap there was a change in leadership. Hamilton, who had always had a secure lead on Vettel up to this point, suffered a gearbox damage and was out. McLaren knew before the race that there might be a problem with the transmission and Hamilton confirmed that his car was starting to have shifting problems three or four laps before it failed.

During the second pit stops, Maldonado and Alonso, who were fighting for fourth position, pitted at the same time. The places remained unchanged. However, Alonso switched to the harder tire compound, while Maldonado opted for the softer one. A little later Karthikeyan had an accident in the tunnel under the grandstand, which triggered a safety car phase. Vettel and Button went to the pits and completed their second stop. Maldonado went to change tires one more time before giving up with hydraulic problems during the safety car phase. Shortly before the restart there was almost a collision between Vettel and Button, as there was a misunderstanding when warming up the tires.

During the first lap after the restart, another safety car phase was necessary because Schumacher and Jean-Éric Vergne had collided. Schumacher braked too late and drove Vergne into the rear. The race stewards saw Schumacher's fault for this accident and punished him for the coming race with a ten position back on the starting grid. In this safety car phase, several drivers pitted again. The first three - Vettel, Button and Alonso - fell by the wayside.

After the restart, Massa dared an overtaking maneuver against Senna on Anderson Bridge. Massa squeezed past his opponent, the two vehicles touching. But there was no damage and there was no investigation by the race management. While Massa drove past Daniel Ricciardo shortly afterwards , Vettel initially moved slightly away from Button at the top. A little later there were incidents with Pérez, Hülkenberg and Kobayashi: Pérez sat down next to Hülkenberg with a tough maneuver and damaged his front wing in the process. Shortly afterwards, Hülkenberg Pérez tried to overtake team-mate Kobayashi. Kobayashi damaged his front wing and Hulkenberg his tire. Both had to pits for repairs. Shortly before the end of the race, Senna parked his vehicle, but he was classified.

The race was ended after 59 of 61 planned laps, as the time limit of two hours had been reached. Vettel won ahead of Button and Alonso. It was Vettel's second win of the season after the Bahrain Grand Prix .

In fourth place followed Paul di Resta , who achieved his best result in Formula 1 to date. The other points went to Rosberg, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Massa, Ricciardo and Pérez.

While the first three positions in the world championship remained unchanged for the constructors, Vettel and Hamilton swapped places in the drivers' standings, making Vettel the direct pursuer of Alonso.

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	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	Qing Hua Ma
		Narain Karthikeyan
Marussia F1 Team	24	Timo Glock	Marussia MR01	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	25th	Charles Pic

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ma drove the HRT with the number 23 in the first free practice. Karthikeyan 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: 48.285	1: 46.665	1: 46.362	01
02	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1: 49.494	1: 47.602	1: 46.804	02
03	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1: 48.240	1: 46.791	1: 46.905	03
04th	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 49.381	1: 47.661	1: 46.939	04th
05	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1: 49.391	1: 47.567	1: 47.216	05
06th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1: 48.028	1: 47.667	1: 47.241	06th
07th	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1: 48.717	1: 47.513	1: 47.475	07th
08th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	1: 47.688	1: 47.529	1: 47.788	08th
09	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes	1: 49.546	1: 47.823	no time	09
10	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1: 49.463	1: 47.943	no time	10
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1: 49.547	1: 47.975	-	11
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	1: 48.169	1: 48.261	-	12
13	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1: 49.767	1: 48.344	-	13
14th	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari	1: 49.055	1: 48.505	-	14th
15th	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 49.023	1: 48.774	-	15th
16	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 49.564	1: 48.849	-	16
17th	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1: 49.809	no time	-	22nd
18th	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean Ferrari	1: 49.933	-	-	17th
19th	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1: 50.846	-	-	18th
20th	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1: 51.137	-	-	19th
21st	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 51.370	-	-	20th
22nd	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 51.762	-	-	21st
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1: 52.372	-	-	23
24	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1: 53.355	-	-	24
107 percent time : 1: 55.226 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 47.688 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. ↑ Bruno Senna was moved five positions back due to a gear change.
3. ↑ Pedro de la Rosa was moved five positions back due to a gear change.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	59	2	2: 00: 26.144	03	1: 52.134 (50.)
02	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	59	2	+ 8,959	04th	1: 52.625 (47th)
03	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	59	2	+ 15.227	05	1: 52.709 (53rd)
04th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	59	2	+ 19,063	06th	1: 52.931 (54th)
05	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	59	2	+ 34.784	10	1: 53.897 (55th)
06th	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	59	2	+ 35.759	12	1: 53.785 (53rd)
07th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	59	2	+ 36.698	08th	1: 54.123 (56.)
08th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	59	3	+ 42.829	13	1: 53,997 (47.)
09	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	59	2	+ 45.820	15th	1: 54.267 (53.)
10	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari	59	2	+ 50.619	14th	1: 53.726 (53rd)
11	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	59	3	+1: 07.175	07th	1: 52.778 (51st)
12	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	59	2	+1: 31.918	20th	1: 56.057 (30.)
13	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean Ferrari	59	3	+1: 37.141	17th	1: 51.690 (52nd)
14th	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	59	3	+1: 39.413	11	1: 51.033 (52nd)
15th	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	59	3	+1: 47.967	19th	1: 55.233 (48th)
16	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	59	2	+ 2: 12.925	21st	1: 56.486 (37th)
17th	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	58	3	+ 1 lap	24	1: 57.671 (48th)
18th	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	57	3	DNF	22nd	1: 53.610 (27.)
19th	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	57	4th	+ 2 rounds	18th	1: 55,140 (44th)
-	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	38	2	DNF	16	1: 53.510 (28th)
-	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes	38	2	DNF	09	1: 56.047 (26.)
-	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	36	3	DNF	02	1: 55,120 (27.)
-	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	30th	1	DNF	23	1: 58.507 (26.)
-	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	22nd	1	DNF	01	1: 55,541 (14th)

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. ↑ Mark Webber was given a 20-second time penalty after the race because he had gained an advantage by leaving the track.
3. ↑ Charles Pic was given a time penalty of 20 seconds after the race because he had overtaken under red flags in the third free practice.

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 194 02  Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 165 03  Kimi Raikkonen Lotus Renault 149 04th  Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 142 05  Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 132 06th  Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 119 07th  Nico Rosberg Mercedes 93 08th  Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 82 09  Sergio Perez Clean Ferrari 66 10  Felipe Massa Ferrari 51 11  Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 44 12  Michael sSchumacher Mercedes 43 13  Kamui Kobayashi Clean Ferrari 35

Item driver constructor Points 14th  Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 31 15th  Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 29 16  Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 25th 17th  Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 8th 18th  Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6th 19th  Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 0 20th  Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 0 21st  Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 0 22nd  Jérôme D'Ambrosio Lotus Renault 0 23  Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 0 24  Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 0 25th  Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Red Bull-Renault 297 02  McLaren-Mercedes 261 03  Ferrari 245 04th  Lotus Renault 231 05  Mercedes 136 06th  Clean Ferrari 101

Item constructor Points 07th  Force India-Mercedes 75 08th  Williams-Renault 54 09  Toro Rosso-Ferrari 14th 10  Marussia-Cosworth 0 11  Caterham-Renault 0 12  HRT-Cosworth 0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mario Fritzsche: "Pirelli: Mixtures for Belgium, Italy, Singapore are fixed". Motorsport-Total.com, July 31, 2012, accessed August 7, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll, Dieter Rencken: "Watkins Tribute: minute of silence instead of applause." Motorsport-Total.com, September 23, 2012, accessed on September 23, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: “A damp start in Singapore: Vettel before Hamilton”. Motorsport-Total.com, September 21, 2012, accessed on September 22, 2012 . 
4. ^ "GP Singapore in Singapore / 1st free practice". Motorsport-Total.com, September 21, 2012, accessed on September 22, 2012 . 
5. ^ Christian Nimmervoll: "Friday in Singapore: Vettel twice fastest". Motorsport-Total.com, September 21, 2012, accessed on September 22, 2012 . 
6. ^ "GP Singapore in Singapore / 2nd free practice". Motorsport-Total.com, September 21, 2012, accessed on September 22, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: "Singapore: Duel Vettel against Hamilton continues". Motorsport-Total.com, September 22, 2012, accessed on September 22, 2012 . 
8. ^ "GP Singapore in Singapore / 3rd free practice". Motorsport-Total.com, September 22, 2012, accessed on September 22, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Mario Fritzsche, Dieter Rencken: " Time penalty and detention for red-sinners Pic". Motorsport-Total.com, September 22, 2012, accessed on September 23, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll: "Eliminating start numbers costs Rosberg a position". Motorsport-Total.com, September 23, 2012, accessed on September 23, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Mario Fritzsche: "Senna: Changing the gearbox costs five starting places". Motorsport-Total.com, September 23, 2012, accessed on September 23, 2012 . 
12. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} "Singapore GP in Singapore / Race". Motorsport-Total.com, September 23, 2012, accessed January 5, 2013 . 
13. ^ ^{A b c d} Christian Nimmervoll: " Unlucky Hamilton: Fireworks for Vettel!" Motorsport-Total.com, September 23, 2012, accessed on January 6, 2013 . 
14. ↑ Stefan Ziegler: "McLaren: Light and Shadow in the Night of Singapore". Motorsport-Total.com, September 23, 2012, accessed January 5, 2013 . 
15. ^ Stephan Heublein, Robert Seiwert: "Formula 1 - penalty: Schumacher in Suzuka 10 places back". Serious crash. Motorsport-Magazin.com, September 23, 2012, accessed January 5, 2013 .