2012 Spanish Grand Prix

 2012 Spanish Grand Prix

Racing data
5th of 20 races of the Formula 1 World Championship 2012
Surname:	Formula 1 Gran Premio de España Santander 2012
Date:	May 13, 2012
Place:	Montmeló
Course:	Circuit de Catalunya
Length:	307.104 km in 66 laps of 4.655 km
Pole position
Driver:	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault
Time:	1: 22.285 min
Fastest lap
Driver:	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault
Time:	1: 26.250 min (lap 53)
Podium
First:	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault
Second:	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Third:	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault

The 2012 Spanish Grand Prix took place on May 13th at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló and was the fifth race of the 2012 Formula 1 World Championship .

Reports

background

After the Bahrain Grand Prix , Sebastian Vettel led the drivers' standings with 4 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton and 5 points ahead of Mark Webber . In the construction standings, Red Bull-Renault led with 9 points ahead of McLaren-Mercedes and with 44 points ahead of Lotus-Renault .

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

At Mercedes , Bob Bell took over the sporting management of the team for this event, as team boss Ross Brawn was unable to travel for health reasons.

With Michael Schumacher (six times), Kimi Räikkönen (twice), Fernando Alonso , Felipe Massa , Jenson Button , Webber and Vettel (once each), seven former winners competed in this Grand Prix.

The race commissioners were Silvia Bellot (ESP), Gerd Ennser (DEU), Tom Kristensen (DNK) and Radovan Novak (CZE).

training

In the first free practice, Alonso set the fastest time ahead of Vettel and Kamui Kobayashi . Jules Bianchi took over Force India from Paul di Resta , Valtteri Bottas took over Williams from Bruno Senna , Alexander Rossi took over Caterham from Heikki Kovalainen and Dani Clos took over HRT from Narain Karthikeyan . Rossi and Clos took part in a Formula 1 weekend for the first time. In the second free practice, Button achieved the fastest lap ahead of Vettel and Nico Rosberg . In the third free practice session, Vettel was fastest ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Kobayashi.

Qualifying

Romain Grosjean set the fastest lap in the first section of qualifying . The HRT, Marussia and Caterham pilots and Senna were eliminated. Senna landed in the gravel trap on his last lap. Karthikeyan did not make time within the 107 percent rule and therefore failed to qualify. Since Karthikeyan's time in the third free practice would have enabled a qualification, the race stewards decided to allow him to race afterwards. In the second section, Maldonado set the fastest time. The Toro Rosso and Force India pilots as well as Massa, Webber and Button were eliminated. Kobayashi, who finished ninth, rolled out on the run-out lap, which is why only nine pilots participated in the last segment.

Vettel lined up in front of the last segment in about a minute before the red light to be the first to go out on the track. He didn't get a timed lap. Since he was the first pilot of those without a timed lap, he was in first place among these drivers, which was eighth in the overall classification. In the last segment, Maldonado was again fastest and achieved his first pole position ahead of Alonso and Grosjean.

Hamilton was originally the fastest pilot in the first and third segments. However, he was disqualified. He had been instructed by his team to park his car on the lap because there was a technical problem. At this point there was still 1.3 liters of fuel in the tank. The minimum amount that must be in the tank after a session is 1 liter. McLaren argued with force majeure, which made it necessary to park the vehicle. The race stewards came to the conclusion that it was not a technical problem, but that Hamilton canceled the run-out lap, which is prohibited by the regulations. The race stewards determined a violation of article 6.6.2 of the technical regulations and disqualified Hamilton. The official justification of the FIA ​​read: “ Because the amount of gasoline that is put into the car is completely under the control of the competitor, the commissioners cannot recognize this as a case of force majeure. “Hamilton was given permission to start the race but has to start from last place.

run

At the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, pole setter Maldonado lost the lead to Alonso, who started from second place. Raikkonen improved to third, Rosberg to fourth. Sergio Pérez , who started from fifth place, suffered a tire damage on the first lap and had to pit to make a repair stop. Hamilton, who started the race from last place, made up a few positions in the start phase and was 17th after the third lap.

On the sixth lap, Webber began the phase of the first pit stops. He switched to the harder tire compound. A lap later, his teammate Vettel followed on the same strategy. In the meantime, Alonso and Maldonado set themselves apart from Raikkonen at the top. On the tenth lap, Alonso pitted first in the leading trio and switched to the harder tires. Maldonado and Raikkonen follow one lap later. While Maldonado followed Alonso and switched to the harder compound, Raikkonen stayed on the softer tire compound.

On lap 13 there was a collision between Schumacher and Senna at the end of the start-finish straight. While Schumacher had to park his vehicle immediately, Senna made it to the second sector, where he finally gave up. Schumacher was his opponent, the older tire than he had driven on. The race stewards investigated the incident after the race and pronounced a penalty of five places for the next race against Schumacher.

A little later, Grosjean, who had fallen behind Rosberg in the starting phase, overtook Rosberg with the help of the drag reduction system . Webber fell back, however, and eventually changed his front wing on the pits. After 10 laps, Alonso was leading Maldonado by about 2 seconds. Raikkonen was about 8 seconds behind the leader in third place. All other drivers were at least 20 seconds behind Alonso.

On the 24th lap, Maldonado began the second pit stop phase of the leading trio. Alonso stayed out for two more laps and eventually came back on track behind Maldonado. Alonso ran after Maldonado's stop on Charles Pic to lap. This disabled Alonso. The race stewards later imposed a drive-through penalty on Pic. Shortly afterwards Raikkonen came to the pits and switched to the harder tire compound. In the meantime, Karthikeyan had parked his vehicle on the side of the track.

In the 28th lap, a drive-through penalty was pronounced against Massa and Vettel. As a result of the accident between Schumacher and Senna, both had been too fast in this section of the route and the race stewards recognized that the yellow flags were being disregarded.

At half time, Maldonado was leading Alonso by about seven seconds. Raikkonen and Grosjean were third and fourth, a little behind. Hamilton, who had just pitted, had worked his way up to fifth place by this point. Pic and Pérez dropped out with technical problems during this phase.

After Alonso had caught up a bit, Maldonado pitted on lap 41. Alonso followed on the 44th lap and fell back behind Maldonado. In the meantime, Raikkonen held the lead and, after being overtaken by Maldonado and Alonso, pitied again on lap 49. Alonso then caught up on Maldonado, but a few laps before the end of the race he was unable to keep the gap on Maldonado at around one second and lost something. During this phase, Raikkonen caught up with the leading duo. Although he still came within a second of Alonso, there was no time for an overtaking maneuver.

Maldonado finally won his first Formula 1 Grand Prix ahead of Alonso and Raikkonen, who were both between 3 and 4 seconds behind. Grosjean followed in fourth place, about 15 seconds behind. All other drivers were at least a minute behind Maldonado. Kobayashi completed the top 5.

Vettel overtook Hamilton and Rosberg in the last few laps and finally reached the goal in sixth place. The other points went to Rosberg, Hamilton, Button and Nico Hulkenberg .

It was Williams' first win since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix . At that time, Juan Pablo Montoya won . Maldonado is the first Venezuelan to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix. He is the third Venezuelan to compete in a Formula 1 race. The Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Henrique Capriles , the opposition presidential candidate for the next elections in Venezuela, immediately congratulated him on his success . In Venezuela's capital, Caracas , there were spontaneous victory celebrations.

For the first time since the Formula 1 World Championship in 1983 there were five different winners in the first five races.

In the world championship, Vettel kept the lead. Alonso caught up with Vettel with equal points and took second place. Hamilton dropped from second to third place. Maldonado improved from 14th to 9th place with the victory. The first three positions for the designers remained unchanged.

Incident after the race

After the race there was an incident in the pit lane. A fire broke out in the pit of the victorious Williams racing team, which also spread to the neighboring pit of the Caterham team. Since the Williams team had taken the winning group photo shortly before, there were no people in the part of the box where the fire broke out. A total of 31 people (employees of the racing teams Caterham, Force India and Williams, as well as the FIA) were treated for breathing difficulties, cuts and minor burns, seven of them had to be hospitalized. One of the Williams employees had to be flown to the hospital by helicopter because of severe burns. Team boss Frank Williams , who sits in a wheelchair, was rescued from the pit in time. During the evacuation, Maldonado carried his cousin, who was unable to walk properly due to a foot injury, on his shoulders out of the danger area.

The cause of the fire is investigated by the team, the fire brigade and the police. A suspicion supported by eyewitness reports suggests that the fire started when the tank of Bruno Senna's car was emptied. So far there is no regulation for the storage of hazardous materials in the box.

The team was assisted in putting out the fire by some employees from the other teams. Some employees, especially from Caterham and Force India, helped. Williams then thanked all helpers for their support with the extinguishing work. Force India Deputy Team Principal Robert Fernley subsequently criticized the security forces for their uncoordinated behavior.

The Williams box burned out almost completely and the team's equipment was destroyed in the process. However, the racing operations for the next race should not be affected. McLaren offered Williams to lend the team any missing equipment for the next race. Maldonado's vehicle was still in the parc fermé at the time and was therefore not damaged. Senna's vehicle, which was in the pits during the fire, was brought to the factory for damage analysis. No damage was found during investigations on the route.

Williams consultant Alexander Wurz commented on the incident as follows: “ I think the property damage is very large and I also don't know what it looks like in terms of insurance. At the moment, the most important thing is that nothing serious has happened to people. The fire spread like lightning - it was brutal. You had to walk properly to get out of the smoke. "

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	Jules Bianchi	Force India VJM05	Mercedes-Benz 2.4 V8	P
		Paul di Resta
	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	Alexander Rossi	Caterham CT01	Renault 2.4 V8	P
		Heikki Kovalainen
	21st	Vitaly Petrov
HRT F1 team	22nd	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT F112	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	23	Dani Clos
		Narain Karthikeyan
Marussia F1 Team	24	Timo Glock	Marussia MR01	Cosworth 2.4 V8	P
	25th	Charles Pic

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Bianchi drove the Force India with the number 11 in the first free practice. Di Resta then took over the vehicle for the remainder of the race weekend.
2. ↑ ^{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.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Rossi drove the Caterham with the number 20 in the first free practice. Kovalainen then took over the vehicle for the rest of the race weekend.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Clos 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	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1: 23.380	1: 22.105	1: 22.285	01
02	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1: 23.276	1: 22.862	1: 22.302	02
03	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	1: 23.248	1: 22.667	1: 22.424	03
04th	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	1: 23.406	1: 22.856	1: 22.487	04th
05	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari	1: 24.261	1: 22.773	1: 22.533	05
06th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1: 23.370	1: 22.882	1: 23.005	06th
07th	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1: 23.850	1: 22.884	no time	07th
08th	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes	1: 23.757	1: 22.904	no time	08th
09	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean Ferrari	1: 23.386	1: 22.897	no time	09
10	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 23.510	1: 22.944	-	10
11	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1: 23.592	1: 22.977	-	11
12	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1: 23.852	1: 23.125	-	12
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1: 23.720	1: 23.177	-	13
14th	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 24.362	1: 23.265	-	14th
15th	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1: 23.906	1: 23.442	-	15th
16	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1: 23.886	1: 23.444	-	16
17th	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1: 24.981	-	-	17th
18th	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1: 25.277	-	-	18th
19th	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1: 25.507	-	-	19th
20th	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 26.582	-	-	20th
21st	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1: 27.032	-	-	21st
22nd	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1: 27.555	-	-	22nd
107 percent time : 1: 29.075 min (based on Q1 best time of 1: 23.248 min)
DNQ	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1: 31.122	-	-	23
EX	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1: 22.583	1: 22.465	1: 21.707	24

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. ↑ Lewis Hamilton was taken out of the scoring because of a violation of Article 6.6.2 of the technical regulations.

run

Item	driver	constructor	Round	Stops	time	begin	Fastest lap
01	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	66	3	1: 39: 09,145	01	1: 27.906 (26.)
02	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	66	3	+ 3.195	02	1: 27,390 (46.)
03	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	66	3	+ 3.884	04th	1: 26.938 (50th)
04th	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	66	3	+ 14,799	03	1: 26,250 (53.)
05	Kamui Kobayashi	Clean Ferrari	66	3	+1: 04.641	09	1: 28.266 (45.)
06th	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	66	4th	+1: 07.576	07th	1: 27.768 (65th)
07th	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	66	3	+1: 17.919	06th	1: 28,150 (45th)
08th	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	66	2	+1: 18.140	24	1: 28.918 (50th)
09	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	66	3	+1: 25.246	10	1: 28.624 (41st)
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	65	3	+ 1 lap	13	1: 28.912 (48th)
11	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	65	3	+ 1 lap	11	1: 27.857 (44th)
12	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	65	3	+ 1 lap	14th	1: 28.308 (54.)
13	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	65	3	+ 1 lap	15th	1: 28.587 (44th)
14th	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	65	3	+ 1 lap	12	1: 28,313 (44th)
15th	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	65	4th	+ 1 lap	16	1: 28.448 (47th)
16	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	65	3	+ 1 lap	19th	1: 28.715 (50th)
17th	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	65	3	+ 1 lap	18th	1: 28.773 (48th)
18th	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	64	3	+ 2 rounds	21st	1: 29,599 (49.)
19th	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	63	4th	+ 3 rounds	22nd	1: 30.722 (54th)
-	Sergio Perez	Clean Ferrari	37	3	DNF	05	1: 28.605 (20.)
-	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	35	2	DNF	20th	1: 31.136 (29.)
-	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	22nd	2	DNF	23	1: 32.903 (15.)
-	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	12	0	DNF	17th	1: 31.822 (10.)
-	Michael sSchumacher	Mercedes	12	1	DNF	08th	1: 31.089 ( 04.)

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

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  Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 61 02  Fernando Alonso Ferrari 61 03  Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 53 04th  Kimi Raikkonen Lotus Renault 49 05  Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 48 06th  Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 45 07th  Nico Rosberg Mercedes 41 08th  Romain Grosjean Lotus Renault 35 09  Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 29 10  Sergio Perez Clean Ferrari 22nd 11  Kamui Kobayashi Clean Ferrari 19th 12  Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 15th

Item driver constructor Points 13  Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 14th 14th  Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4th 15th  Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 3 16  Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2 17th  Felipe Massa Ferrari 2 18th  Michael sSchumacher Mercedes 2 19th  Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 0 20th  Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 0 21st  Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 0 22nd  Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 0 23  Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 0 24  Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 0

Constructors' championship

Item constructor Points 01  Red Bull-Renault 109 02  McLaren-Mercedes 98 03  Lotus Renault 84 04th  Ferrari 63 05  Mercedes 43 06th  Williams-Renault 43

Item constructor Points 07th  Clean Ferrari 41 08th  Force India-Mercedes 18th 09  Toro Rosso-Ferrari 6th 10  Marussia-Cosworth 0 11  Caterham-Renault 0 12  HRT-Cosworth 0

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sven Haidinger: Barcelona: Pirelli reckons with different strategies. Motorsport-Total.com, May 9, 2012, accessed May 10, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Stefan Ziegler: Mercedes team boss Brawn not in Barcelona. Motorsport-Total.com, May 10, 2012, accessed May 10, 2012 . 
3. ^ GP Spain in Barcelona / 1st free practice. Motorsport-Total.com, May 11, 2012, accessed May 11, 2012 . 
4. ↑ Mario Fritzsche: Rossi: 'Everything is very exciting'. Motorsport-Total.com, May 11, 2012, accessed May 11, 2012 . 
5. ^ GP Spain in Barcelona / 2nd free practice. Motorsport-Total.com, May 11, 2012, accessed May 11, 2012 . 
6. ^ GP Spain in Barcelona / 3rd free practice. Motorsport-Total.com, May 12, 2012, accessed May 12, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Stefan Ziegler: Despite the 107 percent rule: Karthikeyan can start. Motorsport-Total.com, May 12, 2012, accessed May 12, 2012 . 
8. ↑ Christian Nimmervoll, Dieter Rencken: Pole withdrawn : Hamilton on the last starting place! Motorsport-Total.com, May 12, 2012, accessed May 12, 2012 . 
9. ↑ Dominik Sharaf: "Five places back: Schumacher punished for Monaco". Motorsport-Total.com, May 13, 2012, accessed May 15, 2012 . 
10. ↑ Markus Lüttgens: “Pic throws Alonso through the bill”. Motorsport-Total.com, May 14, 2012, accessed May 15, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Markus Lüttgens: "Maldonado's triumph inspires his compatriots". Motorsport-Total.com, May 14, 2012, accessed May 15, 2012 . 
12. ^ "For the first time since 1983 five winners at the start". Motorsport-Total.com, May 13, 2012, accessed May 15, 2012 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Stephan Heublein: "Formula 1 - What happened at the Williams fire?" Spread out in a flash. Motorsport-Magazin.com, May 13, 2012, accessed on May 13, 2012 . 
14. ^ ^{A b c d} Christian Nimmervoll: "Williams Fire: Seven Mechanics in the Hospital". Motorsport-Total.com, May 13, 2012, accessed May 13, 2012 . 
15. ↑ "After a fire at Williams: FIA starts investigation". Motorsport-Total.com, May 14, 2012, accessed May 14, 2012 . 
16. ↑ ^{a b c} Markus Lüttgens: "Box fire causes major property damage at Williams". Motorsport-Total.com, May 14, 2012, accessed May 14, 2012 . 
17. ↑ Philipp Schajer: "Formula 1 - Fernley criticizes rescue measures". No training for the security teams. Motorsport-Magazin.com, May 14, 2012, accessed May 14, 2012 . 
18. ↑ Stephan Heublein: "Formula 1 - Fire Source in the Gasoline Store". Three injured in the hospital. Motorsport-Magazin.com, May 13, 2012, accessed on May 13, 2012 . 
19. ↑ Markus Lüttgens: "McLaren offers Williams support after the fire". Motorsport-Total.com, May 14, 2012, accessed May 14, 2012 . 

Web links

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

• Weekend statistics at Motorsport-Total.com