2012 Belgian Grand Prix

2012 Belgian Grand Prix
Previous←	2012 Hungarian Grand Prix
Round	12 of 2012
Next→	2012 Italian Grand Prix
2007 layout of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Race Details
Date	September 2, 2012
Official Name	2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix
Location	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Spa, Belgium
Course	Permanent racing facility 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
Distance	44 laps, 308.176 km (191.492 mi)
Pole Position
Driver	Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:47.573
Fastest Lap
Driver	Bruno Senna Williams-Renault
Time	1:52.822 on lap 43
Podium
First	Jenson Button
Second	Sebastian Vettel
Third	Kimi Räikkönen
Lap Leaders

Tyres Available
Option	Prime	Inter	Wet

The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix (officially the 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix) was the twelfth race of the 2012 Formula One Season and the 68th Belgian Grand Prix, the 57th time as the round of the Formula One World Championship. The race was held on September 2nd at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the 45th F1 race held at the venue.

The race was won by Jenson Button who led the race from start to finish, followed by Sebastian Vettel in second and Kimi Räikkönen in third. The result leaves Fernando Alonso, who retired on lap 1, leading the World Championship by 24 points from Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull continue to lead the Constructors' Championship by an increased margin of 53 points from McLaren-Mercedes.

After the race, the stewards awarded a one-race suspension, active at the Italian Grand Prix, to Lotus-Renault driver Romain Grosjean for causing a collision at the first corner which led to the retirement of himself, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Pérez and Pastor Maldonado.

Background

Following the extended summer break, the drivers will approach the Belgian Grand Prix with Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso leading the World Drivers' Championship by 40 points from Mark Webber of Red Bull-Renault. Red Bull lead the Constructors' Championship.

The event will be a first Belgian Grand Prix for F1 rookies, Jean-Éric Vergne and Charles Pic, both of whom have experience of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit from other racing series.

There are no major changes to the circuit from the 2011 event, and the DRS zone is again expected to be from the exit of Eau Rouge/Radillon, along the Kemmel Straight to the braking zone for Les Combes, with the detection point before the entry to Eau Rouge.

Chilean driver, Eliseo Salazar will make his debut as the drivers representative on the Stewards board in Belgium. Salazar raced in Formula One from 1981 to 1983 for the March, Ensign, ATS and RAM teams. However he was more noted as a Sports Car and IndyCar driver in his later career. Salazar was also one of the former F1 drivers competing in the GP Masters from 2005 to 2006.

Entry list

The full entry list for the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix is shown below:

No.	Driver	Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Engine	Model	Tyre
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB8	Renault	RS27-2012	P
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull	RB8	Renault	RS27-2012	P
3	Jenson Button	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren	MP4-27	Mercedes	FO 108Z	P
4	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	McLaren	MP4-27	Mercedes	FO 108Z	P
5	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	F2012	Ferrari	056	P
6	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	F2012	Ferrari	056	P
7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	W03	Mercedes	FO 108Z	P
8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	W03	Mercedes	FO 108Z	P
9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Team	Lotus	E20	Renault	RS27-2012	P
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	Lotus	E20	Renault	RS27-2012	P
11	Paul di Resta	Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM05	Mercedes	FO 108Z	P
12	Nico Hülkenberg	Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India	VJM05	Mercedes	FO 108Z	P
14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber	C31	Ferrari	056	P
15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber	C31	Ferrari	056	P
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR7	Ferrari	056	P
17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso	STR7	Ferrari	056	P
18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams F1	Williams	FW34	Renault	RS27-2012	P
19	Bruno Senna	Williams F1	Williams	FW34	Renault	RS27-2012	P
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham F1 Team	Caterham	CT01	Renault	RS27-2012	P
21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham F1 Team	Caterham	CT01	Renault	RS27-2012	P
22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT F1 Team	HRT	F112	Cosworth	CA2012	P
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT F1 Team	HRT	F112	Cosworth	CA2012	P
24	Timo Glock	Marussia F1 Team	Marussia	MR01	Cosworth	CA2012	P
25	Charles Pic	Marussia F1 Team	Marussia	MR01	Cosworth	CA2012	P
Free Practice 1 only
19	Valtteri Bottas	Williams F1	Williams	FW34	Renault	RS27-2012	P
23	Dani Clos	HRT F1 Team	HRT	F112	Cosworth	CA2012	P

Practice Overview

FP1

In the first practice session Valtteri Bottas replaced Bruno Senna in the second Williams, Jules Bianchi replaced Nico Hülkenberg in the Force India and Dani Clos was piloting the HRT instead of Narain Karthikeyan. With a heavy downpour of rain on the circuit there was limited track time for the drivers. This meant that there was a rather unusual final result for the session time sheets. Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber lead the timesheets with Pastor Maldonado in the Williams second followed by the Toro Rosso's of Ricciardo and Vergne.

Mark Webber was top of the championship runners in 5th with Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel in ninth. The McLaren's of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were 15th and 16th respectively. Both Ferrari and Lotus opted to do only very limited running, completing only a few basic installation laps.

The Ferrari of Felipe Massa was the only car who did not set a lap time, a suspected engine failure prevented him from completing his first lap. Of those that did brave the conditions, Kobayashi, Maldonado, Ricciardo, Webber and Button had spins down at Les Combes.

FP2

The afternoon practice session suffered from similar torrential conditions as the morning session. Free Practice 2 however saw even less activity in its session in the first. Only 18 of the 24 drivers ventured out on track and only 10 of these drivers completed timed laps in the very dying minutes of the session.

On top of the 10 drivers who set timed laps was a surprising Charles Pic, for the first time setting the fastest time in a Formula One practice session for himself and the Marussia team. Of the championship contenders only Fernando Alonso set a timed lap putting his Ferrari third on the timesheets.

Alonso's teammate Felipe Massa was the only driver who participated in both Friday Practice Sessions who did not set a lap time in either session. The Lotus drivers of Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean only went out very briefly in the first practice session, however in the second session they did not leave the garage at all. Other notable names who did not make it out on track was the Red Bull of Mark Webber, the Caterham of Vitaly Petrov and both the HRT drivers of Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan.

FP3

The Saturday free practice session was in stark contrast to the Friday practice sessions. The Sun was out and the track was extremely busy as the drivers and teams attempted to gather as much data on the track that was not able to be gathered due to the rain on the previous day.

Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes had a suspected gearbox failure fifteen minutes into the session which caused him to stop out on track. With barely any running in any of the practice sessions his retirement from the session put him on the back foot for qualifying and the race.

At the conclusion of the session, it was championship leader Fernando Alonso leading the way in his Ferrari. His nearest championship rivals in the Red Bull's saw Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel finish seventh and ninth respectively. Kimi Räikkönen demonstrated the Lotus pace finishing the session just behind Alonso in second. The Sauber team produced impressive lap times with Sergio Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi finishing a strong third and fourth. Lewis Hamilton however did not produce any strong lap times finishing the session in twelfth whereas his teammate Jenson Button finished the session fifth.

Practice Times

No.	Driver	Team		FP1			FP2			FP3
				Pos	Time		Pos	Time		Pos	Time
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault		9	2:14.860		-	no time		9	1:49.292
2	Mark Webber			5	2:13.191		-	no time		7	1:49.164
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes		16	2:16.861		-	no time		5	1:49.091
4	Lewis Hamilton			15	2:16.827		-	no time		12	1:49.615
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari		22	2:40.749		3	2:50.497		1	1:48.542
6	Felipe Massa			24	no time		-	no time		6	1:49.092
7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes		10	2:15.402		-	no time		13	1:49.621
8	Nico Rosberg			7	2:14.210		-	no time		24	1:58.113
9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault		23	2:46.580		-	no time		2	1:48.683
10	Romain Grosjean			21	2:38.701		-	no time		8	1:49.266
11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes		11	2:15.812		4	2:51.333		10	1:49.382
12	Nico Hülkenberg			DNP			-	no time		14	1:49.674
	Jules Bianchi			13	2:16.786		DNP			DNP
14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari		1	2:11.389		7	2:53.232		4	1:48.863
15	Sergio Pérez			10	2:13.361		9	3:12.901		3	1:48.850
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		3	2:12.004		2	2:49.750		16	1:49.776
17	Jean-Éric Vergne			4	2:12.824		8	2:58.232		15	1:49.710
18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault		2	2:11.941		5	2:51.660		11	1:49.561
19	Bruno Senna			DNP			-	no time		17	1:50.027
	Valtteri Bottas			8	2:14.660		DNP			DNP
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault		18	2:18.199		-	no time		18	1:52.339
21	Vitaly Petrov			14	2:17.788		-	no time		21	1:52.809
22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth		19	2:19.546		-	no time		22	1:53.383
23	Narain Karthikeyan			DNP			-	no time		23	1:53.562
	Dani Clos			20	2:19.689		DNP			DNP
24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth		12	2:16.409		6	2:52.076		20	1:52.630
25	Charles Pic			17	2:17.519		1	2:49.354		19	1:52.566

Qualifying

Q1

The sun was shining once again with no threat of the torrential rain that had affected the Friday Practice sessions. The session saw the Williams of Pastor Maldonado as the fastest man on track just pipping the McLaren of Jenson Button to the top of the time sheets. This was in contrast to their teammates with Lewis Hamilton struggling in fifteenth and Bruno Senna in seventeenth.

Nico Hülkenberg also showed promise putting his Force India third just ahead of the Ferrari of Championship leader Fernando Alonso. Hülkenberg however was involved in an incident where one of his hot laps were allegedly blocked by the fastest driver Pastor Maldonado, the incident would be investigated by the stewards after the conclusion of the qualifying sessions. The constructors championship leaders, Red Bull appeared to be struggling with Sebastian Vettel finishing tenth and Mark Webber finishing fourteenth.

Nico Rosberg was the big loser in the session though, he failed to put together a competitive lap time and finished the session eighteenth and within the drop out zone. It was always going to be a struggle for the German, he had done near to no dry weather driving on the circuit after the circuit wash out on Friday and his gearbox failing in the opening minutes of the first dry practice session on Saturday.

Q2

Jenson Button continued to demonstrate his qualifying pace putting in the fastest lap time of the session. Fastest man in the first session Pastor Maldonado struggled and only just managed to put his car in tenth place and into the final session of qualifying. The same could not be said of his teammate however, Senna struggled in his Williams which saw him have a large spin at Pouhon. He finished the session in seventeenth and last place.

Both Sauber's appeared to be competitive with Sergio Pérez finishing the session second and Kamui Kobayashi finishing fifth. Nico Hülkenberg who had appeared very strong in the first session struggled in the second qualifying session and only put his car into twelfth position. He was beaten by teammate Paul di Resta who had made into into Q3 after ironically struggling in the first session.

However the biggest name to not make it into the final qualifying session was reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel. Vettel had been struggling with his car all weekend and finished a disappointing eleventh putting his Red Bull just ahead of Hülkenberg and Michael Schumacher who would be starting his 300th Grand Prix from a disappointing thirteenth.

Q3

McLaren, Lotus and an impressive Sauber were the only teams to get both drivers into the final qualifying session. Jenson Button continued to set the benchmark time and dominated the final qualifying session to take his first pole for McLaren and his first since the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix with Brawn.

Kamui Kobayashi scored his best ever qualifying position finishing second and putting himself on the front row next to Button. His teammate Sergio Pérez also finished an impressive fifth. Championship leader Fernando Alonso did not demonstrate any strong pace throughout all of qualifying, yet crucially with the exception of the Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen who starts fourth he manages to qualify ahead of all his nearest championship contenders.

Behind both Button and Kobayashi starts Pastor Maldonado who had generally been quick throughout the weekend putting himself and Williams in a prime position to fight for the lead of the race on Sunday.

Post-Qualifying

After the second practice session on Friday it was confirmed that Mark Webber would suffer a five place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change. This meant that he would start the race in twelfth position just behind teammate Sebastian Vettel who would start tenth. With both their drivers in for a likely chance of winning the drivers title and the Red Bull team leading the constructors title it had put the team and the drivers at a serious disadvantage after qualifying as they were the lowest qualifying team and drivers of the likely championship contenders.

Nico Rosberg would also receive a five place grid drop. His gearbox failure in the Saturday practice meant that the team was forced to replace the gearbox before it had finished its required lifespan. Rosberg would now start twenty third and on the last row of the grid starting ahead of only the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan. Starting so far back on the grid and only completing a very limited number of laps on the circuit would make it difficult for Rosberg to score a strong result for the team.

Pastor Maldonado's strong third place on the grid was under threat after he had allegedly blocked a flying lap from Nico Hülkenberg in the first qualifying session. The stewards eventually concluded that Maldonado was guily of blocking Hülkenberg and therefore handing him a three place grid penalty meaning that Maldonado will start sixth on the grid. Therefore, promoting four time Belgian GP winner Kimi Räikkönen to third with Sergio Pérez and Fernando Alonso starting fourth and fifth respectively.

Qualifying Results

Pos.	No.	Driver	Team		Q1			Q2			Q3		Grid
					Pos	Time		Pos	Time		Pos	Time
1	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes		2	1:49.250		1	1:47.654		1	1:47.573	1
2	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari		9	1:49.686		5	1:48.569		2	1:47.871	2
3	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault		1	1:48.993		10	1:48.780		3	1:47.893	6†
4	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault		5	1:49.546		3	1:48.414		4	1:48.313	3
5	15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari		7	1:49.642		2	1:47.980		5	1:48.219	4
6	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari		4	1:49.401		6	1:48.598		6	1:48.313	5
7	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault		14	1:49.859		4	1:48.546		7	1:48.392	12‡
8	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes		13	1:49.805		7	1:49.605		8	1:48.394	7
9	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault		17	1:50.126		8	1:48.714		9	1:48:538	8
10	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes		16	1:50.033		9	1:48.729		10	1:48.890	9
11	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault		10	1:49.722		11	1:48.792				10
12	12	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes		3	1:49.362		12	1:48.855				11
13	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes		11	1:49.742		13	1:49.081				13
14	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari		12	1:49.763		14	1:49.147				14
15	17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		8	1:49.672		15	1:49.354				15
16	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari		6	1:49.572		16	1:49.543				16
17	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault		15	1:49.958		17	1:50.088				17
18	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes		18	1:50.181		–	no time				23
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault		19	1:51.739							18
20	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault		20	1:51.967							19
21	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth		21	1:52.336							20
22	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth		22	1:53.030							21
23	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth		23	1:53.493							22
24	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth		24	1:54.989							24

Grid

	Pos.	Pos.
	Driver	Driver
		______________
Row 1	______________	1
	2	Jenson Button
	Kamui Kobayashi	______________
Row 2	______________	3
	4	Kimi Räikkönen
	Sergio Pérez	______________
Row 3	______________	5
	6	Fernando Alonso
	Pastor Maldonado†	______________
Row 4	______________	7
	8	Lewis Hamilton
	Romain Grosjean	______________
Row 5	______________	9
	10	Paul di Resta
	Sebastian Vettel	______________
Row 6	______________	11
	12	Nico Hülkenberg
	Mark Webber‡	______________
Row 7	______________	13
	14	Michael Schumacher
	Felipe Massa	______________
Row 8	______________	15
	16	Jean-Éric Vergne
	Daniel Ricciardo	______________
Row 9	______________	17
	18	Bruno Senna
	Heikki Kovalainen	______________
Row 10	______________	19
	20	Vitaly Petrov
	Timo Glock	______________
Row 11	______________	21
	22	Pedro de la Rosa
	Charles Pic	______________
Row 12	______________	23
	24	Nico Rosberg§
	Narain Karthikeyan	______________

† Maldonado was handed a three place grid penalty for blocking during qualifying

‡ Webber was handed a five place grid penalty for a change of gearbox

§ Rosberg was handed a five place grid penalty for a change of gearbox

Race

Report

As the cars lined up on the grid, trouble already seemed to be brewing before the race even got under way. Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber appeared to be smoking and overheating on the grid, a worrying and ominous thought before the race had even begun. Pastor Maldonado who started 6th then jumped the start after letting go of the clutch before the lights went out and moved up to third behind Kimi Räikkönen and Jenson Button. Most of the drivers had been startled and distracted by Maldonado's suspiciously good start which would have dire consequences as they headed down to turn 1.

The Lotus of Romain Grosjean veered sharply across to the right hand side of the track, pushing the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton onto the grass at the side of the track. Hamilton losing control of his car from this manoevure slammed into the back of Grosjean as they neared the first corner slingshotting Grosjean into the back of Sergio Pérez in the Sauber and then launching him over the top of championship leader Fernando Alonso. The other Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi was squeezed out in the melee hitting the back of the stricken Ferrari of Alonso and then was hit behind by the out of control Hamilton. Maldonado had taken damage as well when he was hit in the rear by Pérez. Six cars had been damaged in the startline accident and of those six only Kobayashi and Maldonado were able to drive away. Maldonado however retired later on lap three when the damaged appeared to be terminal. Kobayashi was the only driver of the drivers involved in the accident to finish the race albeit with a massive hole in the right hand side of his car and struggling throughout the race to finish a disappointing 13th.

There was a worry in the aftermath of the accident with Alonso laying motionless within the car but eventually exited although suffering from a bit of shock and a slightly injured shoulder. The accident however did benefit some drivers, with the safety car coming out to allow the marshalls to clear away the carnage of the first corner, Heikki Kovalainen found his Caterham in a strong 10th position after the first lap. Whilst Nico Hülkenberg was 3rd followed by his Force India teammate Paul di Resta, then it was Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa.

The safety car pulled in at the end of lap four and remarkably once again there was another incicident at the first corner when Kovalainen lost control of his car spinning to the back of the field. Unable to make use of his great start and had it all to do once again. At the front Button sped away into the lead while Hülkenberg was able to get passed Raikkonen for second whilst Schumacher managed to pass di Resta for third. Unable to get his tyre temperatures up to speed, Raikkonen struggled and dropped behind Schumacher. Both the Red Bull drivers had lost time in the first corner accident with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel 10th and 11th. Vettel however put in some great driving passing his teammate, the two Toro Rosso's of Jean-Éric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo both of whom benefitted from the start line accident then passing Di Resta and Felipe Massa. Di Resta out himself out of the running when he began to suffer from severe tyre degradation and was forced to pit quite early.

Kimi Räikkönen was also struggling for speed and he too came into the pits quite early severely damaging his hopes of challenging race leader Jenson Button. This put reigning champion Sebastian Vettel into third place just behind the feisty Michael Schumacher hoping for a strong result in his 300th Grand Prix. The two World Champions dueled for several laps until lap 19 when Vettel attempted to pass Schumacher at his favourite passing position at the Bus Stop chicane, the last corner of the circuit. Schumacher defended well and looked to have the corner only for him to surprisingly dart across the track and into the pits nearly crashing into Vettel as he did so, the rather brash manoveaur nearly took both cars out of the race and was see a steward investigation after the conclusion of the Grand Prix..

There were two pit lane incidents investigated during the race. Whilst completing his first pitstop Heikki Kovalainen was released from the pits a little too early and nearly hit the incoming HRT of Narain Karthikeyan. Not long after Mark Webber was also released a little to early from the pits and was a little too close to comfort with Felipe Massa in the Ferrari. The stewards fined Caterham 10 000 Euros for the incident whilst Webber got away unpenalised.

Entering the final stages of the race, Narain Karthikeyan spun into the barriers on Lap 30 after a wheel in his recent pitstop was not properly attached sending him into the barriers at Les Combes. Schumacher was still running third significantly behind Sebastian Vettel and race leader Jenson Button. Schumacher was leading a train of cars with Raikkonen, Hülkenberg, Webber and Massa snapping at his heels. Schumacher was much slower on the corners being passed by Raikkonen several times at the Bus Stop Chicane but with the advantage of the double-DRS stormed passed him again at the Kemmel Straight. Finally on lap 34 Raikkonen gets the better of Schumacher for the final time snapping past him at Eau Rouge and then proceeding to pull away. Schumacher and Hülkenberg continued to battle for 4th position. Hülkenberg passed Schumacher a few times but like Raikkonen, Schumacher was able to storm past him at the Kemmel Straight. Schumacher however was struggling and gave up his plight pulling into the pits for new tyres forcing him to drop to seventh. Any hope of him getting back into the fourth place battle was lost when he lost 6th gear and was forced to limp around the track for the rest of the race.

Lap 36, the same lap that Schumacher pitted saw Felipe Massa finally managing to pass Mark Webber for 5th place putting his Ferrari into a relatively strong position. Further down the pack Nico Rosberg in the second Mercedes had put in a good drive to get into 8th position after starting 23rd however like his teammate he was suffering from tyre degradation and was forced to let the two Toro Rosso cars of Jean-Éric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo past and then was soon followed by the Force India of Paul di Resta and therefore dropping out of the points.

At the front Jenson Button had driven a flawless race leading from lights to flag without being challenged at all. His race win had put him back into title contention. Sebastian Vettel finished 2nd in the race after making his two stop strategy work passing numerous cars out on track to finish a strong 2nd place. Kimi Räikkönen whilst quicker than Vettel at the end of the race had lost too much time dueling with Schumacher to put in any serious challenge finishing the race in third. Nico Hülkenberg put in one of his best performances as a race driver to finish in his finishing position to date with a 4th-place finish. He was followed by the resurgent Massa putting in his best performance of the season making the most of Alonso's retirement, then Mark Webber, a disappointing result not being able to maximise the retirements of championship rivals Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. Then Michael Schumacher, a disappointing result considering his pace and then a double points finish for Toro Rosso, scoring their first points since the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix with Vergne leading Ricciardo. Paul di Resta was the final driver to score points taking the solitary point in 10th place being unable to match his teammates pace throughout the weekend.

Post-Race

Alonso scored his first DNF since the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, his championship lead reduced to 24 points now leading from Sebastian Vettel who was now 2nd in the drivers championship. Lewis Hamilton's DNF also hurt his championship plight dropping to 5th in the championship standings as Kimi Räikkönen moves ahead of him. Mark Webber was not able to maximise the retirements of Alonso and Hamilton and dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the standings. With his win in Belgium it meant there was hope yet for Jenson Button in the championship however he was still 16 points behind the next highest contender, Lewis Hamilton.

After the race, Romain Grosjean was found guilty of causing the multi-car pile-up at Belgium which saw Fernando Alonso slightly injured. His punishment was a severe one race ban preventing him from racing at the 2012 Italian Grand Prix, the next race on the calender. As Pastor Maldonado was unable to serve his punishment for jumping the start due to him retiring from the race, he sees a 10 place grid penalty for the next race in Italy. The final punishment of the day by the Stewards was when Caterham was given a 10 000 Euro fine after an unsafe release from the pits by Heikki Kovalainen.

Classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	44	1:29:08.530	1	25
2	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	44	+13.624	10	18
3	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	44	+25.334	3	15
4	12	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	44	+27.843	11	12
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	44	+29.845	14	10
6	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	44	+31.244	12	8
7	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	44	+53.374	13	6
8	17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	44	+58.865	15	4
9	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	44	+1:02.982	16	2
10	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	44	+1:03.783	9	1
11	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	44	+1:05.111	23
12	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	44	+1:11.529	17
13	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	44	+1:56.119	2
14	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 lap	19
15	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	43	+1 lap	20
16	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	43	+1 lap	22
17	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	43	+1 lap	18
18	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	43	+1 lap	21
Ret	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	30	Wheel/Accident	24
Ret	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	5	Collision damage	6
Ret	15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	0	Collision damage	4
Ret	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	0	Collision	5
Ret	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Collision	7
Ret	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	0	Collision	8

Milestones

• Michael Schumacher's 300th race (298th start).
• Vitaly Petrov's 50th race (49th start).
• HRT's 50th race.
• First fastest Practice time for Marussia
• First fastest Practice time for Charles Pic
• Jenson Button takes his first Pole Position for McLaren-Mercedes
• First Front Row Start: Kamui Kobayashi
• Bruno Senna: first Fastest Lap
• First Lights-to-flag win in F1 since 2011 Indian Grand Prix
• Highest Grand Prix finish to date: Nico Hülkenberg (4th)

Standings after the race

Drivers' World Championship Pos. Driver Pts 1 Fernando Alonso 164 2 Sebastian Vettel 140 3 Mark Webber 132 4 Kimi Räikkönen 131 5 Lewis Hamilton 117 6 Jenson Button 101 7 Nico Rosberg 77 8 Romain Grosjean 76 9 Sergio Pérez 47 10 Michael Schumacher 35 11 Felipe Massa 35 12 Kamui Kobayashi 33 13 Nico Hülkenberg 31 14 Pastor Maldonado 29 15 Paul di Resta 28 16 Bruno Senna 24 17 Jean-Éric Vergne 8 18 Daniel Ricciardo 4 19 Heikki Kovalainen 0 20 Vitaly Petrov 0 21 Timo Glock 0 22 Charles Pic 0 23 Narain Karthikeyan 0 24 Pedro de la Rosa 0

Constructors' World Championship Pos. Team Pts 1 Red Bull-Renault 272 2 McLaren-Mercedes 218 3 Lotus-Renault 207 4 Ferrari 199 5 Mercedes 112 6 Sauber-Ferrari 80 7 Force India-Mercedes 59 8 Williams-Renault 53 9 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 12 10 Caterham-Renault 0 11 Marussia-Cosworth 0 12 HRT-Cosworth 0

Notes

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