2012 Spanish Grand Prix grid

2012 Spanish Grand Prix

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Row 11. Pastor Maldonado 1’22.285
Williams
2. Fernando Alonso 1’22.302
Ferrari
Row 23. Romain Grosjean 1’22.424
Lotus
4. Kimi Raikkonen 1’22.497
Lotus
Row 35. Sergio Perez 1’22.533
Sauber
6. Nico Rosberg 1’23.005
Mercedes
Row 47. Sebastian Vettel No time
Red Bull
8. Michael Schumacher No time
Mercedes
Row 59. Kamui Kobayashi No time
Sauber
10. Jenson Button 1’22.944
McLaren
Row 611. Mark Webber 1’22.977
Red Bull
12. Paul di Resta 1’23.125
Force India
Row 713. Nico Hulkenberg 1’23.177
Force India
14. Jean-Eric Vergne 1’23.265
Toro Rosso
Row 815. Daniel Ricciardo 1’23.442
Toro Rosso
16. Felipe Massa 1’23.444
Ferrari
Row 917. Bruno Senna 1’24.981
Williams
18. Vitaly Petrov 1’25.277
Caterham
Row 1019. Heikki Kovalainen 1’25.507
Caterham
20. Charles Pic 1’26.582
Marussia
Row 1121. Timo Glock 1’27.022
Marussia
22. Pedro de la Rosa 1’27.555
HRT
Row 1223. Narain Karthikeyan 1’31.122
HRT
24. Lewis Hamilton* 1’21.707
McLaren

*Sent to back of grid for stopping on track after his final lap

2012 Spanish Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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94 comments on “2012 Spanish Grand Prix grid”

  1. Words can not describe how dissappointed I was when Hamilton bested Maldonados time.

    And I don’t even like the guy!

    1. DK (@seijakessen)
      12th May 2012, 14:07

      You’re not alone.

      I was hoping Maldonado was going to be on pole position. But fear not, I think Lewis has generally been meh with his launches so I could see him being out of first by the time they hit turn 1.

      1. Knowing both Hamilton and Maldonado, I fear that turn 1 might end in tears.

        1. That’s what i thought too. Between Lewis and Alonso looks like is all settled down now.

        2. maybe good news for Alonso though?

    2. @antranik Well, you can stop feeling disappointed now, Hamilton has been relegated to the back of the grid. Very harsh, but Maldonado is now on pole!

      1. I’m still disappointed. Not as much, but it would have been so great to see somebody like Maldonado “legitimately” taking pole. However, this is going to be an amazing race for sure.

  2. Am I the only one who thought most of the tension was lost by them not showing any of the positions during Q3?

    1. Quite right. Considering all the millions they receive, it’s extraordinary that they let slip little things like this. Such a shame!

    2. There seemed to be a lot of glitches with the timing/info from FOM during the sessions this weekend (see for example http://t.co/WAjQbOyU, via @magnificent-geoffrey)

      1. @bosyber Actually, that was Mattzel89 the amazing motorsport video capturer who posted that, not me. I was just sharing it.

        1. Ah, thanks for providing the source, should have said “from Mattzel89 via @magnificent-geoffrey” then, as you alerted me to it :)

      2. Poor stuff. I assumed for a while that Hamilton was the only one to set a lap in the first 7 or so minutes.

    3. That’s because no-one was setting times until the last lap.

      1. No, they still didn’t show the list even then.

  3. How ’bout ole’ Moldynads!

  4. Five of the top six haven’t won a race this year, we could get our five winners from five races yet (with some chance of it being 5 constructors too).

    Also, of the previous race winners what a surprise that it’s Alonso who looks to have the best chance of making it to two wins this season – a real improvement from Ferrari.

    1. Yeah. It’s unbelievable how the Fernando might be leaving this weekend as the championship leader. I dont think there car has improved by leaps and bounds, but it seems that Fernando can capitalise on the smallest of gains.

      Felipe on the other hand is still showing why he doesn’t belong in a Ferrari… and why no team would want to pick him up after he’s fired.

  5. Does Karthikeyan qualify? He was out of the 107% time…

    1. Jake (@jakehardyf1)
      12th May 2012, 14:09

      He doesn’t

      1. @jakehardyf1 Looking at it, he might actually, his quickest time in FP3 was a 28.2, and the 107% time was a 28.4, so he should qualify

      2. @jakehardyf1 – The 107% rule is intended to keep slow cars out of the race, not slow drivers. The only times the stewards have ever refused entry to the race were when both cars failed to qualify within 107% of the fastest time in Q1, and when they had failed to show anything that could be considered reasonable pace over the course of the weekend. Since de la Rosa qualified and Karthikeyan was within 107% of the fastest free practice times, HRT would have cause to lobby for (and likely receive) a dispensation from the stewards.

    2. Considering he’s almost four seconds slower than de la Rosa, he must of had a problem, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him race.

      1. @slr yes KAR had a problem. Feel sad for Narain. He entered F1 on merit having won in every series he has ever raced in

  6. What a result! Each session was slow to get going, but when they did they were amazing.

  7. Pay driver paid off!

    1. Ba-dum Tshh.

  8. Jake (@jakehardyf1)
    12th May 2012, 14:09

    Pirelli is making this year so crazy. What the heck!

    1. Maybe expensive isn’t always the best, it turns out…..

  9. I am personally profoundly unimpressed with the new Toro Rosso pair. In practice their times look far more competitive than last year’s car, but the drivers don’t seem to be getting the performance out of on qualifying or race day. At least I don’t feel that they are.

    1. Every STR driver got at least 1.5 seasons, we’ll have to see how they go over that time period. I think they’ll do better than Alguersuari and Buemi, so their inter-team battle will be interesting.

      1. Exactly, so far it look like they’ll need 1.5 seasons to look better. In other words, they are not impressing and their performance is not an improvement.

        1. Heh, nice turnaround on @david-a‘s repsonse @bobo!

        2. Touche @bobo . I wouldn’t write them off yet, but the driver who was promoted from Toro Rosso impressed immediately, and these two aren’t doing as well.

          1. Fair enough @David-A; we’ll see. Thanks @Bosyber.

            I wonder whether they will finish close to the points tomorrow…

      2. the str drivers are like Toro’s on thin ice

    2. I don’t see STR 2012 drivers doing much different than STR 2011 drivers.

  10. Why didn’t the alleged poleman return to boxes? Isn’t it penalty material? Any chance of disqualification for this race? Or for the next 1,000,000?

  11. Did Lewis run out of fuel? Could be in trouble!

    1. Do the drivers have to complete their outlap?

      I’m fairly confidant kobayashi turned off as he too ran out of fuel – running very light fuel loads!

      1. Do the drivers have to complete their in lap?

        I’m fairly confidant kobayashi turned off as he too ran out of fuel – running very light fuel loads!

      2. Kobayashi had a hydraulic leak according to sky..

  12. 1. Mclaren
    2. Williams-Renault
    3. Ferrari

    The 90s called, they want their grid back! :D

    1. Paul Ogbeiwi (@)
      12th May 2012, 14:17

      LOL nice one :p

    2. I quote from someone on twitter ‘McLaren, Williams, Ferrari top 3, we’re back in 2003!’

  13. Whilst the last couple of minutes of Q3 was exciting, all I can say is that Schumacher is right about these tyres.

    We’ve just seen a great example of exactly why there being so much onus on the tyres is a bad thing. That’s not to say degradable tyres are a bad thing, but I do think it needs to be toned down a bit!

  14. Just listening to Webber’s comments “we thought we had done enough, and got caught with our pants down”. That comes after vettel’s comments before the season started “we don’t know where everyone is until he drops his pants, and they see what you have and you see what they have”

    What is it about red bull and dropping their pants?! Wonder what goes on behind closed doors at that team…

    1. Hilarious!

    2. good one, they do seem to have a fixation @3dom :)
      What did Red Bull give again? …

    3. Dom (@3dom)
      I havent laughed so much on these posts man, seriously funny!!

      1. Cheers guys, I thought this post had been removed. Happy to see it still up. Is it bad that I read it again and laughed at my own joke?! :-D

  15. I have to say … I felt genuinely embarrassed for Bruno Senna. Even before Maldonado started setting those blistering lap times. To be brutally honest, that low-speed spin at the end of Q1 was one of the more-pathetic displays I’ve seen from a Formula 1 driver. Once again, Bruno Senna squanders a golden opportunity with a silly mistake. Unless he can pull two rabbits out of his helmet tomorrow (Maldonado having just pulled out the customary one), I’d say Senna’s days at Williams are numbered.

    1. It was a stupid mistake, but “one of the more-pathetic displays I’ve seen from a Formula 1 driver”? Really?

    2. @prisoner-monkeys

      I disagree completely. I think you’re being far too harsh on his season because of this qualifying session. Maldonado is very quick on a flying lap. He was even faster than Rubens in his rookie year. I don’t see how he “squandered” a golden opportunity with a silly mistake. Yes, he made a mistake on his first lap when he locked his front-left at La Caixa (and he claimed he got stuck behind Massa on that lap, but I’m yet to check that) and that’s what triggered the spin when he tried too push too hard on tyres that were not in their prime anymore.

      Once again, I do acknowledge his mistakes in today’s session, but no team principal on their right mind would sack a driver who scored the most points for them this season (10 more than Maldonado) because of that.

      As to “on the more pathetic displays” from a F1 driver, I don’t even think you believe that yourself. I for one have seen far worse.

      1. no team principal on their right mind would sack a driver who scored the most points for them this season (10 more than Maldonado) because of that

        Even if that driver could coneivably – and by all rights should – have twice as many points as he currently does? Senna has 14 points now. He should have 28.

        Take, for example, Malaysia. He had the pace to match Alonso and Perez. In fact, he was the only driver who could do it. But because he lost his front wing on the first lap, he had to do an entire lap at a very pedestrian pace, and so any chance he had at fighting for a podium – or even the win – was lost. If he’d kept his nose clean, he could have switched onto the wet tyres and would have been third or fourth at the restart.

    3. We saw some of those mistakes by Maldonado last year too @prisoner-monkeys, even where he didn’t just had a gearbox/hydraulic failure. Arguably, AUS this year was a bit silly of him.

      I guess driving a good Williams is something quite different from a part season in an HRT, and a non-developing Renault car. Let’s give Senna some time (until end of season?) to come good before we write him off. Maldonado has been clearly growing into his role as an F1 driver in the last 15 months too.

    4. I’d say Senna’s mistake at Spa last year was pathetic, the spin today was Senna just push too hard and taking too much kerb.

      Scoring points in Malaysia and China will have helped him, so I don’t think we can say his days are numbered yet. If he continues his current form for a few more races, I think his days will be numbered then.

    5. I also think Bruno had a different set-up to Maldonado. Pastor seemed to be able to carry more speed through Campsa while Bruno was understeering — so on this occasion, I don’t think it was a level playing field.

  16. Ken (@myxomatosis)
    12th May 2012, 14:21

    Aside from Hamilton’s blistering lap and Maldonado popping up in second, Q3 was incredibly dull. This is is what people mean when they say that tires are the dominant factor to the detriment of the racing. Watching the likes of Vettel and Shumacher just coasting around was boring, irritating and a letdown considering the excitement that Q3 is supposed to promise. These tires DID NOT improve the show.

    Sigh, why can’t they just provide the drivers with qualifying tyres?

    1. Exactly. 2 or 3 sets of qualifying tyres should be provided to each driver – if they need more they can take them from their race allocation

    2. @myxomatosis

      Aside from Hamilton’s blistering lap and Maldonado popping up in second, Q3 was incredibly dull.

      I’m inclined to agree with you, but only in the sense that the FOM television director broke the age-old rule of story-telling: it is better to show your audience something happening rather than telling them. Everyone went out at the last minute; there wasn’t much that could be done about that. But all we saw of it was an angle on the chicane and the final corner, and so we had to rely on Brundle and Croft telling us everything else that was happening on the circuit. It’s an unfortunate habit of the director that he follows the first driver out of the pits for a flying lap, and then only concentrates on the final corner; he’s done it all season.

      Sigh, why can’t they just provide the drivers with qualifying tyres?

      Ask the teams. Pirelli suggested qualifying tyres for 2012, but the teams refused.

      1. Ken (@myxomatosis)
        12th May 2012, 14:42

        I found myself wondering about the race direction too. Like you say, “show, not tell”.

        Do you know what the basis of the teams’ refusal was?

      2. Plus for the first time today they decided we didn’t need a full list of driver positions. I find it hard to feel invested in a session if I can’t even see where the drivers are.

        1. I was watching with my laptop+external monitor containing f1fanaticlive,bbc/autosport live blog thing; live timing, and my brothers laptop with a live stream – I kept updating us on what the times actually were doing :)

      3. Since all the drivers were setting their times on the same lap it was not possible to show each ones lap in more than 1 section of the track live, not the producers fault that no-one wanted to use up their tyres.

    3. @myxomatosis Honestly, we wouldn’t have drivers coasting around in Q3 if they weren’t forced to start the race on their Q3 tyres. That rule was stupid with the Bridgestones, and it’s even more so with the Pirellis.

    4. Blistering lap because he was with less fuel than the other drivers. No merit in that. He might get penalized after all he did the same in Canada and a rule was created by that. Kobayashi had hidraulic problems. Guess what Maldonado scored his first pole and the cheater is going backwardss

      1. Have we actually found out that Hamilton ran out of fuel yet? Or are you just having a go at him with half the facts for a laugh?

      2. Ken (@myxomatosis)
        12th May 2012, 14:56

        Who says that he had less fuel than the others? Is that the only reason a car might stop on track? Don’t jump to conclusions based solely on your irrational hatred of a driver or team.

        Calm down, these are just sportsmen. You are not obligated to invest your every emotion into the sport.

      3. Half a lap less fuel wouldn’t give anybody an advantage of over half a second. They wouldn’t be stupid enough to do it intentionally. Even if it does turn out to be fuel, the idea that McLaren ‘cheated’ rather than made a mistake is laughable.

        1. Lets make everybody happy and penalise him half a second.

          1. That would actually be a good idea any time somebody fails to get back because of fuel. Penalise them at least the equivalent (maybe double) time they might have gained from a full lap less fuel- that would discourage people to do it, without an over the top penalty if it is a genuine mistake. I remember hearing that roughly 0.1 seconds per lap is the gain each lap, so penalising in time rather than position for 0.2-0.4 seconds would seem fair more fair than any grid penalty. Or make it a percentage such as 0.5% to compensate for doing so around a longer track having a bigger benefit.

    5. Unfortunately I think the first solution to less exciting qualifying attempted will be qualifying points which I personally hope never touch F1.

  17. The three rows each consists of a champion, and a guy who’s only got 1 year worth of F1 experience. Anyone else noticed?

    1. First six rows contain one world champion each.

      1. Great find those statistics!

  18. The three rows each consists of a champion, and a guy who’s only got 1 year worth of F1 experience. Anyone else noticed?

    1. * The three front rows.

  19. Just hope that both HAM and MAL can get out of T1 in one piece, well in separate pieces, but both having their car undamaged, if not I expect either BUT or one of the RBs will take advantage.

  20. The first 6 rows have 6 WDC’s and the front 3 are on the left hand side.While on the same 3 rows the right hand side has 3 guys with only 1 year of experince.Going 2 be a exciting gp……..

  21. It seems Button needs the car to be absolutely perfect to perform.
    Otherwise he just disappears into mediocrity.

    1. WDC= Mediocrity, not an equation i’m familiar with, normally i don’t comment on the disrespectful stuff, but really if thats trully your thoughts perhaps you watch the wrong sport.

      1. WDC can sometimes be won by a mediocre driver. See Jacques Villeneuve. His career after 1997 wasn’t glorious.

      2. @bigbadderboom
        So because he is world champion he can’t have faults?

      3. Look, I don’t want to start the “Lewis – Jenson, who is better?” but I agree with Jason to an extent.

        Both are world champions and have enough experience. Jenson finds understeer or balance issues etc. and the Lewis would also be suffering such problems at some point but still we never see Lewis going too slow. Lewis digs deep and finds time even when the car has issues while Jenson needs a car that is obedient. Jenson can’t control a brat :)

  22. Just asking, when was the last time Hamilton failed to get through into Q3? His Q3 streak must have been extremely long, long enough for the record books I reckon! Last time I remember was Malaysia 2010.

  23. Raikkonen’s time was 1’22.487 not 1’22.497

  24. I have to say, I find it disappointing to see Q3 happen with 3+ drivers not bothering to come out on track and set a qualifying time. Is that bothering other fans, or am I alone in this.

    1. Ken (@myxomatosis)
      12th May 2012, 18:38

      You’re not alone, I found it dissapointing too. A lot of people did. I was really looking forward to Q3. But at least a couple of drivers went for it.

    2. @jackal40 It doesn’t bother me too much to be honest. It’s just another strategic element for me.

      I think that it at least provides some fresh rubber for the top 10, which helps liven things up.

  25. OMG! MALDONADOS ON POLE!

  26. What a thoroughly messed up grid, especially now Hamilton has had his marching orders.

    Maldonado qualifying 2nd on merit is impressive, really impressive. Williams have had a tumultuous time this season already with Adam Parr leaving so it’s good they can remain focussed and hopefully use this recent turn in fortune to attract some more attention to the team.

    Both Sauber’s in the top 10? Superb. These guys are pretty good to their tyres usually so here’s hoping they use that to their advantage tomorrow, particularly Kobayashi having a fresh(er) set will help them too.

    Pic and Petrov managed to turn the tables in their respective teams as well.

    We’re on for a potential classic tomorrow. Even if we have a usual finish there needs to be plenty of action for it to happen.

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