2012 Italian Grand Prix

  2012 Italian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 13 of 20 in the 2012 Formula One season
Layout of the Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Date	9 September 2012
Official name	Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander d'Italia 2012[1]
Location	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.793 km (3.6 mi)
Distance	53 laps, 306.720 km (190.58 mi)
Weather	Dry and Sizzlingly Sunny[2] Air Temp 28 °C (82 °F)[2] Track Temp 40 °C (104 °F)[2]
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:24.010
Fastest lap
Driver	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes
Time	1:27.239 on lap 53
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari
Third	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 2012 Italian Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Gran Premio Santander d'Italia 2012)^[1] was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Monza, Italy on 9 September 2012.^[3] It was the thirteenth race of the 2012 season, and the final race in Europe before the teams return to Asia for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole, ahead of team-mate Jenson Button. The result gave McLaren their sixty-second front-row lock-out, breaking the previous record set by Williams.^[4] Hamilton won the race by four seconds from Sergio Pérez, with Fernando Alonso completing the podium.^[5]

Report

Background

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the white-banded medium compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre.^[6]

Circuit changes

The drag reduction system zones used in 2011 were shortened for the 2012 race.^[7] The first DRS zone, located on the straight between the second Lesmo corner and the Variante Ascari, was shortened by fifty meters, while the DRS zone on the front straight was shortened by five meters.

Driver penalties

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean did not participate in the race due to receiving a one-race ban for his involvement in the first-lap incident at the Belgian Grand Prix that saw four cars crash heavily at the La Source hairpin.^[8] Grosjean was replaced by the team's testing and reserve driver, Jérôme d'Ambrosio.^[9]

Pastor Maldonado received two five-place grid penalties. the first for jumping the start of the Belgian Grand Prix and the second for causing an avoidable accident with Timo Glock after Grosjean's accident.^[10]

Paul di Resta was also demoted five places for an unscheduled gearbox change on Saturday morning, his second gearbox penalty of the season.^[11]

Driver changes

Ma Qinghua became the first Chinese driver to take part in a Grand Prix weekend when he drove Narain Karthikeyan's HRT F112 in the first free practice session on Friday morning.^[12] Valtteri Bottas drove Bruno Senna's Williams FW34 in the same session, while Jules Bianchi took Paul di Resta's place at Force India.

Free practice

Mercedes AMG driver Michael Schumacher was fastest in the first practice session, three-tenths of a second quicker than Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg.^[13] For Lotus, Jérôme d'Ambrosio finished the session fifteenth, over a second and a half slower than Schumacher and sixth-tenths down on team-mate Kimi Räikkönen. Ma Qinghua was the slowest runner after ninety minutes, nearly six seconds slower than Schumacher, and within two seconds of team-mate Pedro de la Rosa. At the end of the session, both Fernando Alonso and Pastor Maldonado were observed to stop on the circuit with technical problems.

Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver in the second session,^[14] narrowly edging out Button and Alonso, the latter of whom had another disrupted session with a series of technical problems surrounding the gearbox and brakes that limited his time on the circuit. Having set the fastest time in the morning session, Schumacher finished tenth following a series of off-track excursions. He was highly-critical of the speed bumps placed around the Variante della Roggia chicane, claiming they were a safety hazard that could result in serious injury if a driver hit them at speed.

Hamilton was once again fastest in the third session, just one thousandth of a second ahead of Alonso.^[15] Paul di Resta finished the session third, while Sebastian Vettel suffered a loss of power on his final lap and pulled over at the Roggia chicane. The Red Bull RB8 was consistently one of the slowest cars through the speed trap, evidenced by the way neither Red Bull driver featured in the top ten runners in any of the free practice sessions, with the exception of Mark Webber, who set the ninth-fastest time of the first session.

Race

Vettel walking back to the pits after his retirement

Felipe Massa made a great start to pass Jenson Button for second place. He pulled alongside pole sitter Lewis Hamilton going into the first chicane, but Hamilton had the inside line and was able to stay ahead. Fernando Alonso was able to make his way up from 10th to 7th place by the end of the first lap, and passed Kimi Räikkönen for 6th going into the first chicane on the second lap.

On lap 4, Sebastian Vettel passed Michael Schumacher under braking into the first chicane for 4th place. One lap later, Bruno Senna attempted to pass Nico Rosberg around the outside into the first chicane. Senna turned into Rosberg, they banged wheels, and Senna went straight through the chicane to take 11th. Fernando Alonso was able to pass Schumacher coming out of the Parabolica on lap 7.

On lap 8, Bruno Senna tried to pass Paul di Resta on the outside going into the second chicane. Di Resta moved over, forcing Senna onto the gravel. Senna went straight through the chicane and back onto the racing line right in front of Mark Webber, who dodged around him as they entered the first Lesmo corner. On the next lap, Jean-Éric Vergne had a right rear suspension failure under braking into the first chicane. He spun and slid sideways over one of the curbs, launching his car into the air over the chicane.

Jenson Button retook 2nd place from Felipe Massa in the 2nd chicane on lap 19. Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel pitted at the same time on lap 21, and came out right behind Massa with only a car's length separating each of the three. Lewis Hamilton pitted on lap 24, allowing Sergio Pérez, who hadn't pitted yet, to take the lead from 2nd.

On lap 26, Fernando Alonso tried to go around the outside of Sebastian Vettel through Curva Grande. Vettel moved to the outside, pushing Alonso off the track and onto the gravel. The move was similar to a move Vettel pulled on Alonso the year before, but this time Vettel was given a drive-through penalty. Alonso was able to pass Vettel on lap 29, and the drive-through on lap 35 put Vettel in 9th place behind Webber.

After the podium ceremony, third-placed Alonso took over a TV camera

Lewis Hamilton retook the lead from Sergio Pérez on lap 29. Pérez pitted on the next lap and came back out in 8th place. Jenson Button retired on lap 34 following a sudden loss of fuel pressure. This moved Felipe Massa back up to 2nd with Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez gaining on him. Massa was passed by Alonso on lap 40, and then by Pérez three laps later. Pérez quickly chased down Alonso and passed him on lap 46.

Sebastian Vettel retired on lap 47 with a failed alternator. On lap 51, Mark Webber clipped the curb on the exit of the Ascari chicane and spun. He fell out of the point-scoring positions and retired due to severely flat-spotted tires.

Lewis Hamilton won the race, with Sergio Pérez, who started 12th, in second and quickly catching him. Fernando Alonso completed the podium, having started 10th.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.211	1:24.394	1:24.010	1
2	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.672	1:24.255	1:24.133	2
3	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:24.882	1:24.505	1:24.247	3
4	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:24.875	1:24.345	1:24.304	91
5	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:25.302	1:24.675	1:24.540	4
6	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:25.011	1:24.687	1:24.802	5
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:24.689	1:24.515	1:24.833	6
8	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:25.151	1:24.742	1:24.855	7
9	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:25.317	1:24.683	1:25.109	8
10	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:24.175	1:24.242	1:25.678	10
11	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:25.556	1:24.809		11
12	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:25.103	1:24.820		222
13	15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:25.300	1:24.901		12
14	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:25.135	1:25.042		13
15	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:25.728	1:25.312		14
16	10	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Lotus-Renault	1:25.834	1:25.408		15
17	17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:25.649	1:25.441		16
18	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:26.382			17
19	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1:26.887			18
20	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:27.039			19
21	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:27.073			20
22	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:27.441			21
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:27.629			23
107% time: 1:30.067
24	12	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	no time			243
Source:[4]

Notes:

• ^1 — Paul di Resta was demoted five places for an unscheduled gearbox change.^[11]
• ^2 — Pastor Maldonado was given two five-place grid penalties for jumping the start and causing an avoidable accident during the previous race in Belgium.^[10]
• ^3 — Nico Hülkenberg failed to set a lap time when his car stopped on the circuit during the first qualifying period. As he was unable to get the car restarted, he was not allowed to take any further part in qualifying. His entry to the race depended on a special dispensation from race stewards, which was subsequently granted.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	53	1:19:41.221	1	25
2	15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	53	+4.356	12	18
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	53	+20.594	10	15
4	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	53	+29.667	3	12
5	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	53	+30.881	7	10
6	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	53	+31.259	4	8
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	53	+33.550	6	6
8	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	53	+41.057	9	4
9	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	53	+43.898	8	2
10	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	53	+48.144	13	1
11	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	53	+48.682	22
12	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	53	+50.316	14
13	10	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Lotus-Renault	53	+1:15.861	15
14	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	52	+1 Lap	17
15	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	52	+1 Lap	18
16	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	52	+1 Lap	20
17	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	52	+1 Lap	19
18	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	52	+1 Lap	23
19	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	52	+1 Lap	21
20	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	51	Tyres	11
21	12	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	50	Brakes	24
22	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	47	Alternator	5
Ret	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	32	Fuel pressure	2
Ret	17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	8	Suspension	16
Source:[5]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 179 3 2 Lewis Hamilton 142 1 3 Kimi Räikkönen 141 2 4 Sebastian Vettel 140 2 5 Mark Webber 132

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Red Bull-Renault 272 2 McLaren-Mercedes 243 1 3 Ferrari 226 1 4 Lotus-Renault 217 5 Mercedes 126

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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