Template:Current The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix (officially the 2012 Formula 1 Shell Belgian Grand Prix) will be 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 will be held on September 2nd at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the 45th F1 race held there.
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 2005-2006.
Practice Overview
FP1
In the first practice session Valtteri Bottas replaced Bruno Senna in the second Williams whilst 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. The downpour 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 a similar rain downpour as the morning session. Free Practice 2 however saw even less activity in its session in the first. The session saw only 18 of the 24 drivers venture 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 Raikkonen 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.
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 | |||||
| 2 |  Mark Webber
|
5 | 2:13.191 | - | no time | ||||||
| 3 |  Jenson Button
|
McLaren-Mercedes
|
16 | 2:16.861 | - | no time | |||||
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton
|
15 | 2:16.827 | - | no time | ||||||
| 5 |  Fernando Alonso
|
 Ferrari
|
22 | 2:40.749 | 3 | 2:50.497 | |||||
| 6 |  Felipe Massa
|
24 | no time | - | no time | ||||||
| 7 | Michael Schumacher
|
Mercedes
|
10 | 2:15.402 | - | no time | |||||
| 8 | Nico Rosberg
|
7 | 2:14.210 | - | no time | ||||||
| 9 |  Kimi Räikkönen
|
Lotus-Renault
|
23 | 2:46.580 | - | no time | |||||
| 10 |  Romain Grosjean
|
21 | 2:38.701 | - | no time | ||||||
| 11 | Paul di Resta
|
 Force India-Mercedes
|
11 | 2:15.812 | 4 | 2:51.333 | |||||
| 12 | Nico Hülkenberg
|
DNP | - | no time | |||||||
| Jules Bianchi
|
13 | 2:16.786 | DNP | DNP | |||||||
| 14 |  Kamui Kobayashi
|
 Sauber-Ferrari
|
1 | 2:11.389 | 7 | 2:53.232 | |||||
| 15 |  Sergio Pérez
|
10 | 2:13.361 | 9 | 3:12.901 | ||||||
| 16 | Daniel Ricciardo
|
Toro Rosso-Ferrari
|
3 | 2:12.004 | 2 | 2:49.750 | |||||
| 17 | Jean-Éric Vergne
|
4 | 2:12.824 | 8 | 2:58.232 | ||||||
| 18 |  Pastor Maldonado
|
Williams-Renault
|
2 | 2:11.941 | 5 | 2:51.660 | |||||
| 19 | Bruno Senna
|
DNP | - | no time | |||||||
| Valtteri Bottas
|
8 | 2:14.660 | DNP | DNP | |||||||
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen
|
 Caterham-Renault
|
18 | 2:18.199 | - | no time | |||||
| 21 |  Vitaly Petrov
|
14 | 2:17.788 | - | no time | ||||||
| 22 | Pedro de la Rosa
|
HRT-Cosworth
|
19 | 2:19.546 | - | no time | |||||
| 23 | Narain Karthikeyan
|
DNP | - | no time | |||||||
| Dani Clos
|
20 | 2:19.689 | DNP | DNP | |||||||
| 24 | Timo Glock
|
Marussia-Cosworth
|
12 | 2:16.409 | 6 | 2:52.076 | |||||
| 25 | Charles Pic
|
17 | 2:17.519 | 1 | 2:49.354 | ||||||
Milestones
- Michael Schumacher's 300th race (298th start).
- Vitaly Petrov's 50th race (49th start).
- HRT's 50th race.
Notes
| v·d·e | Nominate this page for Featured Article |