2012 Japanese Grand Prix

Fine and Dry [ 2 ] Air Temp 23 °C (73 °F) [ 2 ]

The 2012 Japanese Grand Prix (formally known as the 2012 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix ) [ 1 ] was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture , Japan on 7 October 2012 at 15:00 local time. [ 4 ] The race was the fifteenth round of the 2012 season , and marked the 38th running of the Japanese Grand Prix .

Michael Schumacher received a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Jean-Éric Vergne during the Singapore Grand Prix , [ 7 ] while Jenson Button and Nico Hülkenberg were both demoted five places for making unscheduled gearbox changes. [ 8 ] [ 9 ]

Entering the Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari led the Drivers' Championship on a total of 194 points, 29 points clear of the second-placed Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel . Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen was third in the standings, and 16 points adrift of Vettel, despite not having won a race in 2012. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton 's championship hopes were becoming increasingly slim as he lay 50 points behind Alonso in fourth place, albeit 10 points ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webb...

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre, as opposed to the previous year where the medium compound was used as the "prime" tyre. [ 10 ]

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton set the first and second fastest times respectively during the first session for McLaren . [ 11 ] The Red Bull of Mark Webber finished the session with the third fastest time, three tenths slower than Button's quickest time. His teammate, Sebastian Vettel , finished the session down in seventeenth place. [ 12 ] The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg set the fourth fastest time of the session, despite having to abandon his car out on track at the Esses with one minute remai...

Behind Senna was the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen in nineteenth, albeit with a time more than a second slower than Senna. [ 22 ] His teammate, Vitaly Petrov , had a disappointing session qualifying in twenty-third place, as the two Marussia cars sandwiched an impressive HRT of Pedro de la Rosa , with Timo Glock taking twentieth and Charles Pic taking twenty-second. [ 19 ] Petrov was, however, only two tenths slower than Glock, but three tenths faster than Narain Karthikeyan who took last place ...

Vettel and Webber were both on faster laps than their previous ones, but were unable improve their times because of the yellow flags. [ 27 ] They maintained their grid slots, though, as the team took their first front row lock-out of the season. [ 28 ] Vettel claimed his fourth successive pole at the Suzuka circuit, maintaining his 100% record there and, with the 34th pole position of his career, he moved into third in the all-time list for pole positions , behind Michael Schumacher and Ayrton S...

At the end of the safety car period, and the beginning of lap 3, Vettel sprinted away from Kobayashi, quickly establishing a three-second lead and building on it. Sergio Pérez attempted to overtake Räikkönen for fifth place at Turn 1, but he was forced wide and slotted in behind sixth place Hamilton, and in front of Hülkenberg. He managed to overtake Hamilton at the hairpin on lap 6, locking his tyres and creeping around the apex. He then began to move back towards the fifth-placed Lotus of Räik...

Vettel and Massa were the drivers showing good pace when Button became the first driver to make a scheduled pit-stop in the race in lap 13. Räikkönen and Hülkenberg pitted the following lap from fifth and eighth positions respectively, having to make their way past Vergne and Kovalainen after their pit stops. Kobayashi pitted on lap 16 to promote Felipe Massa to second place, but kept Button behind him as both were temporarily held up by drivers yet to stop, before promptly overtaking them. Vett...

Hamilton and Kobayashi pitted on lap 31, one lap after Räikkönen, who Hamilton was competing with now for fifth spot. He overtook him at Turn 1 on the following lap. On lap 34, Narain Karthikeyan retired his HRT into the garage due to vibrations in the car. Button, Massa and Vettel made pit stops on laps 35, 36 and 38 respectively, and all retained their positions in fourth, second and first, with Kobayashi in third. Michael Schumacher, who had started twenty-third and opted for a different tyre...

Sebastian Vettel took the 24th victory of his career by twenty seconds and became the first driver to take consecutive victories in the 2012 season. It was also the second Grand Slam (pole, fastest lap, and lead every lap en route to victory) of Vettel's career. Felipe Massa ended the longest streak a Ferrari driver had ever had without a podium by finishing second, taking his first since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix . Kobayashi became the third Japanese driver to score a Formula One podium, in fr...

As a consequence of his victory and Alonso's retirement, Vettel closed the gap between himself and championship leader to just four points. In an interview after the race, Mark Webber described Romain Grosjean as a "first-lap nutcase" with regard to the collision Grosjean caused between them at the race start. [ 35 ]

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