The two made contact in the first corner, forcing Hamilton out of the race and earning Hülkenberg a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident. The game was released before the race took place, its release in Europe coinciding with the completion of the circuit. Starting eleventh,[228] he was forced to navigate his way through traffic, narrowly avoiding early contact between Bruno Senna and Kamui Kobayashi as Sebastian Vettel broke free of the field to establish a twenty-second lead by the first round of stops. [197] Fernando Alonso took the lead of the race at the first corner, but Maldonado reclaimed it during the second round of pit stops, when his team forced Ferrari to pit early while Alonso was held up by the Marussia of Charles Pic. The test gave teams the opportunity to assess major aerodynamic upgrades before racing them. [325] Further down the order, Massa overcame his gearbox penalty to finish fourth, while Jenson Button fell from twelfth on the grid to sixteenth at the end of the first lap, using an alternative strategy to claw his way back up to fifth. Ahead of him was Toro Rosso duo Jean-Éric Vergne (fifteenth) and Daniel Ricciardo (sixteenth) in a car that clearly lacked something on its rivals. Pérez's previous best was eighth, achieved at both of the previous two grands prix, in Bahrain and China. The Lotus E20 is a Formula One racing car designed and produced by the Enstone-based Lotus F1 Team for the 2012 Formula One season. In addition to seeing seven different drivers win the first seven races, the 2012 season broke several records. The championship was contested over twenty rounds, which started in Australia on 18 March and ended in Brazil on 25 November. The first European race of the 2012 season began at 12:00 UTC (14:00 local) under cloudy conditions. [179][180][181][182], Starting on 1 May, the teams conducted a three-day test at the Mugello Circuit in Italy ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix. In contrast to the previous two sessions, the remaining Red Bull – Sebastian Vettel – was waiting for a few moments at the end of the pit lane for the lights to go green for the ten-minute session, and was the first to run. Heikki Kovalainen qualified sixteenth, the second time Caterham (and its predecessor, Team Lotus) advanced beyond the first qualifying period in dry conditions. [275] In the physically most demanding race of the year, the teams jostled for position through the first phase of the Grand Prix, trying to position themselves for the final ten laps. [241] The stewards elected to take no action against Red Bull, stating that the team had not violated any of the technical regulations, but noted that they did not accept all of the arguments presented by the team when asked to explain. [63], Scuderia Toro Rosso did not retain Jaime Alguersuari or Sébastien Buemi, instead choosing to replace them with Daniel Ricciardo and 2011 Formula Renault 3.5 Series runner-up Jean-Éric Vergne. This page was last edited on 8 April 2021, at 13:50. Under the terms of the sale, the Sahara Group became Force India's naming-rights sponsor. Both, not even bothering using a set of hard tyres, went straight onto the quicker softs. After being cancelled in 2011 due to civil protests, the Bahrain Grand Prix also returned to the calendar.[1]. Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Pérez both achieved their best ever qualifying results. The final race of the season was run in conditions that were never quite wet enough for drivers to use wet tyres, but never quite dry enough for slick tyres to provide enough grip. ", "We drive like on raw eggs and I don't want to stress the tires at all. [156] Sebastian Vettel finished outside the points after making contact with Karthikeyan and developing a puncture. Maldonado quickest on third day of Barcelona test 2012 F1 testing Posted on . [229] Grosjean attempted to challenge Alonso, but was forced out of the race with an alternator problem seven laps later,[230] leaving Alonso in the lead, four seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen. We had a car which was legal for the first part of the season. [281], Fernando Alonso's luck finally ran out in Japan; having spent most of the season profiting from poor results from his rivals when he needed them the most, Alonso was the victim of a dramatic first corner clash, spinning out when he made contact with Kimi Räikkönen and paving the way for his championship rivals to make considerable inroads into his twenty-nine-point championship lead. Vettel went out on track for another lap with under two minutes left, but later decided to pit without a lap time as he thought of saving tyres for the race and that maybe he did not have the pace of the top five cars.[18]. At this stage of the race, Maldonado, Alonso or Räikkönen looked to be the only drivers with a realistic chance of winning the Grand Prix. [18] He qualified sixteenth, and went on to finish thirteenth overall. [167] The week preceding the Grand Prix saw a renewed wave of protests against the government's attempts use the race to "tell the outside world that the whole thing is back to normal",[168][169] while human rights organisations including Amnesty International criticised the decision to hold the race amid the violent crackdowns. [21], After the race, the stewards gave Michael Schumacher a five-place grid penalty at the next race, Monaco, after he crashed into Bruno Senna and caused them both to retire. Not much happened for the entire session as only 'banker' laps were set as a benchmark for the final two frantic minutes of action. Narain Karthikeyan stopped at the end of the pit lane on track during lap 25, one of his wheels apparently not correctly fitted after his pit stop. [170] Three days before the race, a group of Force India mechanics travelling in an unmarked hire car were involved in a petrol bombing incident at an impromptu roadblock and were briefly exposed to tear gas fired by security forces. These sessions gave the teams and drivers the opportunity to familiarise themselves with their cars, though the teams downplayed the accuracy of testing times as being representative of the running order for the season. After lap 9 the Red Bull and Sauber teams were the only cars to have pitted, all choosing hard compound tyres. The 2012 European Grand Prix (formally, the 2012 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe) was a Formula One motor race that was held at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain on 24 June 2012. He was given a one-race ban and a €50,000 fine for his role in the collision, forcing him to miss the Italian Grand Prix. The 2012 season saw the return of the United States Grand Prix, which was held at the Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Texas. Similarly with the first session, fifteen-minute Q2 period began with no cars venturing onto the track until nearly three minutes in, again due to pollen in the air. Early on, Hamilton led Mark Webber and Button followed by Nico Rosberg and defending world champion Sebastian Vettel. The field stabilised themselves after the first round of stops, with Vettel in the lower points and Fernando Alonso running fourth when he needed a podium to stand any chance of being champion. [289], Sebastian Vettel's momentum continued one week later in Korea, winning his third consecutive race and taking a six-point championship lead as Fernando Alonso finished third. At the head of the field, Alonso was making steady inroads into Maldonado's lead, cutting it to 6 seconds by lap 38. The 2012 Formula One season was the 63rd season of the Formula One World Championship.The season had 20 races, starting in Australia on 18 March and ended in Brazil on 25 November. Technical regulations for 2012 include the reprofiling of the car's nose. Add to favourite. 66th season of Formula One motor racing in 2012, "F1 2012" redirects here. Main information page with practical information on attending the F1 Grand Prix at Barcelona. rFactor | F1 2012 | Rosa | Onboard at Barcelona Watched 2,817 times. [60], Like Räikkönen and Grosjean, Nico Hülkenberg also returned to Formula One, joining Force India alongside Paul di Resta. [19] He initially sought a drive with Williams, before negotiations collapsed in December 2011. Sauber and Pérez initially looked as if they had left their stop too late when Pérez emerged from the pits five seconds behind Alonso, but he began catching the two-time World Champion at the same rate as he had before. 2021 Spanish Grand Prix. Ferrari's early bid to put Fernando Alonso on pole position by way of using Felipe Massa to offer him a slipstream ended in disaster when Alonso's rear anti-roll bar failed in the final period of qualifying,[266] leaving the championship leader marooned in tenth while Lewis Hamilton took pole. Using the hard tyres at the start of Q1 had been common practice for the faster teams in the previous four races but due to how close the field was predicted to be, tyre preservation took precedence. Having started eleventh, Räikkönen used an extra set of soft tyres to move up through the field. It was also Williams best result since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. [331] In his final race in Formula One,[332] Schumacher's seventh place saw him finish the season in thirteenth place overall; his worst performance over a season since he contested six rounds during the 1991 season. ", "It really pisses me off, to be honest, because the car has passed every single technical regulation after the race. Shortly afterwards, the majority of the other drivers made their first scheduled pit stop, with Lotus, Mercedes and Force India the only front running teams to opt for the soft compound tyre again. After the first phase of the session, where drivers set initial times and then pit, Lewis Hamilton was the fastest on the hard compound tyre with a 1:23.989. The two Mercedes followed Pérez with Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Jenson Button's McLaren rounding out the top 8. ... James Allen: "Probably Barcelona and Williams winning a race again after seven years. Button remained unchallenged throughout, even after a mid-race safety car to retrieve the stricken Caterham of Vitaly Petrov. Jenson Button took an early lead from pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and the Red Bull cars while the rest of the field was bottle-necked by contact in the first corner. Unusually, the other Red Bull, Vettel, also got his front wing changed on lap 44. It was also the first time since the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix that Button had failed to reach Q3. [279] Elsewhere, a string of retirements – including a late engine problem for Bruno Senna, which left the Brazilian with minor burns to his back[280] – and a series of altercations involving Mark Webber, Nico Hülkenberg, Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Pérez as they fought over the minor points positions allowed Timo Glock to finish twelfth, the result seeing Marussia retake tenth position in the World Constructors' Championship from Caterham. [28][31] De la Rosa had been without a full-time drive since the 2010 Italian Grand Prix, having spent the majority of the 2011 season as a test driver for McLaren and making one appearance racing for Sauber; Karthikeyan was dropped by the team before the 2011 British Grand Prix in favour of Ricciardo. The early season was tumultuous, with seven different drivers winning the first seven races of the championship; a record for the series. Sergio Pérez added his name to the growing list of early retirements when he slid off at the hairpin under brakes and into the gravel trap whilst trying to force his way past a struggling Lewis Hamilton. [265], The final race in Europe took place at Monza. Alonso's win cemented a twenty-point lead in the championship, whilst Vettel's retirement relegated him to fourth overall, twenty-six points behind Alonso. [151] When the race restarted an hour later, Button was involved in contact with Narain Karthikeyan that forced him to make an unscheduled stop for a new front wing, while Hamilton had a slow pit stop and was held in the lane while other cars passed. Crucially for the Australian, before he lost front wing performance he led a train of six cars all close behind each other. [296] Lewis Hamilton's day went from bad to worse when an anti-roll bar on his McLaren failed,[297] while the car handled its tyres so poorly that he was forced to make an unscheduled stop in order to make it to the finish, only to tear up a length of astroturf that wreaked havoc on his downforce and he slid down to tenth place,[298] narrowly fending off an opportunistic charge from Sergio Pérez to take the final World Championship point on offer. The gap hovered around one second for some time until Alonso started dropping off. So we will try to do it. 2010 - Kimi Raikkonen posing as a Roman Gladiator before the ceremonial start of … Alonso found himself third at the restart and pounced on a mistake by second-placed Romain Grosjean to lead the chase against Vettel. [338] The FIA reviewed the incident and declared that Vettel's pass was legal as a green flag was being shown by a marshal adjacent to the pit exit, meaning the track was green from that point onward; the confusion had been caused by a digital board showing a yellow flag on the exit of Curva do Sol some one hundred metres before the marshalling post. Button was second, with Hamilton scoring his third consecutive third place, giving him a two-point championship lead over Button; Fernando Alonso, who had been leading the championship before the race, finished ninth. [25] Thirty-one people were injured,[26] with seven transferred to local hospitals. Vettel had twenty seconds added to his race time as a penalty, demoting him to fifth overall. Vettel's win gave him a four-point lead in the championship over Hamilton, while Mark Webber's fourth consecutive fourth place secured third overall. This will stop the theoretical possibility of a race lasting more than eight hours. [34], The season only saw one driver change, which was brought about when Lotus driver Romain Grosjean was found by race stewards to be responsible for causing a multi-car pile-up at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix. [52] Former Minardi driver Luis Pérez-Sala took Kolles's place as team principal. With five minutes remaining, only four cars were out on the track – the two Lotus and Toro Rosso cars – who were the only drivers not to set a timed lap for Q2. Music: Disturbed - Inside The FireVideo of group VK: http://vk.com/world_of_speedSubscribe to channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AutoMotoSportVK Grosjean and Webber retired, whilst Pérez was given a stop-go penalty. Yes. F1 2012 Barcelona test - Mclaren Ferrari.jpg 700 × 465; 264 KB F1 2012 Jerez test - Ferrari 2.jpg 1,404 × 936; 619 KB F1 2012 Jerez test - Ferrari 3.jpg 3,888 × 2,592; 3.61 MB The unpredictability of this season was further highlighted with less than a second separating second to seventeenth position. Further down the order, Kimi Räikkönen finished seventh after spending most of the race trapped behind Felipe Massa, and later claimed that mistakes on Saturday had robbed him of a podium on Sunday,[306] while Pedro de la Rosa retired from the race when he suffered a brake failure that saw him spin into the barriers at Turn 4. The Spanish Grand Prix of 2012 also had a winner who had his first win in 2012. [64][65] Alguersuari was offered a seat at HRT, but turned it down[66] and instead joined tyre supplier Pirelli as their test driver, developing tyre compounds for use in racing alongside former Virgin Racing driver Lucas di Grassi. [139] At the second test in Barcelona, Lotus F1 discovered a critical fault in the build of their chassis that forced them to miss four days of running,[140] while both HRT and Marussia were unable to complete any mileage with their 2012 cars after both the HRT F112 and Marussia MR01 failed their crash tests, though both teams were able to complete shakedowns of their cars. Grosjean was later given a one-race ban for causing the collision,[72] becoming the first driver in eighteen years to be banned from racing. The race was preceded by a four-day test at the Mugello Circuit in Italy, starting on 1 May. The next round of pit stops occurred between laps 23 and 28. Button seized the lead from Hamilton, but soon found himself under pressure from Nico Hülkenberg and lost the lead to the German driver on lap 18, and second place to Hamilton shortly thereafter. Over the radio his team told him to pull over immediately, but there was not enough fuel in the car to enable it to return the pits under its own power. Formula One F1 Barcelona Sunglasses Fashion Moda Fashion Styles Barcelona Spain Sunnies. The 2012 season saw the return of the United States Grand Prix, which was held at the Circuit of the Americas, a purpose-built circuit in Austin, Texas. Lewis Hamilton, starting from 24th, was 20th by the end of lap 1 while Vergne and Massa made great starts after promoting themselves to 10th and 11th respectively. [231] Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber had started to carve their way through the field by virtue of a late pit stop and easily picked off the minor points positions and taking advantage of the Maldonado—Hamilton collision to finish third and fourth behind Alonso and Räikkönen. Bruno Senna finished in sixth, scoring more points in a single race than his team scored in 2011. [222] Both Grosjean and Pérez expressed surprise at finishing on the podium,[223][224] while 2011 winner Jenson Button finished sixteenth in what he described as his "worst race in years"[225] and Michael Schumacher suffered a hydraulics failure that left his drag reduction system (DRS) device jammed in the open position. All teams bar HRT attended the session, while Marussia arrived with Virgin's 2011 car, the MVR-02. Lewis Hamilton put himself in the ideal position to take the fight to Fernando Alonso, qualifying on pole whilst Alonso could only manage fifth place. [5] The FIA published a provisional entry list on 30 November 2011,[6] and the grid was finalised on 17 February. [10] The test saw teams introduce major aerodynamic upgrades ahead of the race. The drivers had little opportunity to get comfortable on the restart, as Michael Schumacher misjudged his braking point at the end of the Esplanade Bridge, careening into the back of Jean-Éric Vergne and triggering the safety car for the second time in an accident that was a near mirror-image of his collision with Sergio Pérez in 2011. [178] Red Bull Racing took the lead from McLaren in the World Constructors' Championship, while Lotus's double podium moved them into third overall. [143], The season began in Australia. Tags: F1, f1 2012 testing, f1 barcelona 2012, f1 testing, sutton images 0 3 weeks break is too long…can’t wait for the race this weekend…thank you Sutton Images, always such … Button's retirement and Hamilton's single point meant that McLaren lost second place in the World Constructors' Championship to Ferrari,[291] and Hamilton admitted that his bid to be the 2012 World Drivers' Champion was over. He was saved by the second appearance of the safety car moments later, brought about when di Resta forced Sergio Pérez wide; as Pérez rejoined the circuit, he cut back across the front of Grosjean and the two made contact, which in turn forced Grosjean into the path of Mark Webber. Maldonado's pole position was the only one that he took during his Formula One career. It appeared that the more experienced Alonso would eventually regain the lead, but Maldonado withstood the pressure and eventually Alonso decided to settle for second, rather than risk losing any more traction on his tyres. [45] Renault had previously supplied engines to Williams from 1989 to 1997, when the team won four World Drivers' Championships and five World Constructors' Championships. For me f1 2012 is better. Just as the drivers established a rhythm, Hamilton's gearbox failed, forcing him out of the race and handing the lead to Sebastian Vettel. Lewis Hamilton initially qualified on pole, but he was excluded from the results for a technical infringement, and Williams' Pastor Maldonado inherited pole. ", "New HRT car now set for final F1 test after failing two crash tests", "Marussia to miss last pre-season test after crash test failure", "Why is this season so tight at the top? [322] Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner later admitted that the team's perpetual alternator problems were a serious concern with just one race left in the championship, a World Championship at stake and very little time to diagnose and correct the problem.