2012 Belgian Grand Prix
- Button wins Belgian GP Driver of the Weekend vote
- Rate the Race Result: 2012 Belgian Grand Prix
- Top ten pictures from the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix
- Predictions win puts Rajamaniarun second
- Vote for your Belgian GP Driver of the Weekend
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
2nd September 2012, 14:38
This is brilliant for the championship!
David-A (@david-a)
2nd September 2012, 14:38
Another year, another Eau Rouge pass!
de Hooch
2nd September 2012, 16:27
this one was a delight, one of kimi’s best moves on MSC in eleven years of passes.
Eggry (@eggry)
2nd September 2012, 14:40
No way!! What a accident!
xeroxpt (@)
2nd September 2012, 14:59
that was my prediction yesterday, well i guess everyone was expecting that, Romain got lucky again he didnt killed anyone.
JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
2nd September 2012, 15:48
Grosjeans a little lier he saw the crash on the lotus pit wall from multiple angles then told lee he hadn’t seen it yet.
Calum (@calum)
2nd September 2012, 14:50
Classic JB. Haven’t seen such a dominant weekend from him since the Brawn days!
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
2nd September 2012, 14:51
Flawless weekend by Button. Made the right calls and drove calmily to the win.
Comfortable win, wich lead us to say that Mclaren is the car to beat at this stage. But i like to point out two things: Vettel had great race pace, i think if he started from a higher spot the race would be tight. And looking to what Massa did (14th to 5th) there is no doubt that Alonso would be on the podium at least.
@HoHum (@hohum)
2nd September 2012, 22:32
@edmarques, yes Vettel drove a great race, made some excellent passes and had the right strategy. Mark Webber on the other hand was just as fast but got stuck in traffic with the same conservative 2 stop strategy that has cost him dearly in every race that he has started from several rows back this year. Time for Mark to kick some ass, maybe his own, RBR may have had 2 drivers on the podium had they used the winning 1-stop strategy for both drivers.
safeeuropeanhome (@debaser91)
2nd September 2012, 14:55
Did Button get fastest lap? Grand Slams are increasingly rare these days and it would just show how dominant he was today if he got one. I don’t even think Vettel got many, if any last year in his season of domination. Button was rather helped by Mr Grosjean’s rubbish driving at the first corner, but regardless I think it was clear on Button’s performance everyone else was driving for second place right from lap one.
As a Raikkonen fan another frustrating weekend, he couldn’t make the mediums work so he had to switch to the hards early on for the two stopper. Button, Vettel and Hulkenberg did brilliant jobs, I was really impressed with Vettel’s overtaking today and the one on Webber in particular was brilliant
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
2nd September 2012, 15:00
I think Bruno Senna made the fastest lap.
Guilherme (@guilherme)
2nd September 2012, 15:45
@debaser91 I believe Vettel had his only career Grand Slam last year at the Indian GP
Eggry (@eggry)
2nd September 2012, 14:55
the fact that Alonso could make really good result make me really depressed….ah…
Todfod (@todfod)
2nd September 2012, 18:36
yeah .. as an Alonso fan I’m a little gutted. He would have extended his championship lead today if it wasn’t for Grosjeans antics.
Anyways, at least he is fine. He should be back fighting at the front in Monza
@HoHum (@hohum)
2nd September 2012, 22:36
@eggry, yes Alonso could have done well as Massa proved, I think it’s time to stop calling the Ferrari a dog.
Todfod (@todfod)
3rd September 2012, 8:58
But thats also because 5-6 drivers in front of Massa either retired or were at the back of the grid due to bad luck.
Ferrari isn’t a dog.. but it clearly isn’t as quick as the Mclarens or the Red Bulls. Lotus also gets the better of Ferrari on many occassions. So its probably the 3rd to 4th fastest car on the grid. It is the ‘dog’ amongst the front running teams thats for sure.
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
2nd September 2012, 15:10
Complete silliness at Mercedes and Williams. After the first corner mayhem, if someone was bound to capitalise on the chaos it should have been Schumacher, Rosberg and Senna. Instead Mercedes miscalculated their tyre wear on that dog of a car (again!) and threw Schumacher off a potential 3rd or 4th place and Rosberg out of the points. Almost the same thing going on with Senna – messed up strategy and a complete incapability of extracting more than maybe 80% of what the whole package is capable of.
Utterly stupid… only 6 points out of a potential much larger haul…
Eleanore (@leucocrystal)
2nd September 2012, 20:19
To be fair to Senna, apparently he’d incurred some damage early on from Vettel, supposedly at the first corner or thereabouts, but I haven’t looked closely for that yet, will have to do so on the rewatch. Picked up a slow puncture somewhere (possibly from di Resta) at the very end, hence that unfortunate too-late pit stop. On the whole though, one-stopping was not the right strategy, and it’s a shame that Williams knew this (based on their pit radio comments) and kept him on it anyway. It’s not like they had another driver out there to worry about today!
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
2nd September 2012, 21:30
Exactly. I know I usually tend to bash Senna for every mistake he makes and I still consider him as being slow. Both in relation to his team mate and with the drivers who race comparable cars – Perez, Kobayashi, Hulkenberg and Di Resta.
However, this time Senna really wasn’t at fault for dropping back. It was all about poor calls on the other side of the pit wall. Same goes for Schumacher and Rosberg.
DioF1
3rd September 2012, 8:26
The poor strategy of Merc and Schu is what made him end that down. If he followed the same strategy as Raikonnen he could at least fininsh in the top 5. It seems that they never realized that they were in P6 after turn 1 and kept their strategy like they were in P13. What a dissapointing performance from the so called top strategist Brawn.
pejte (@pejte)
2nd September 2012, 15:12
One more no points race for Alonso and this championship will be really intresting.
Really glad all drivers are ok after the crash
Klaas (@klaas)
2nd September 2012, 15:23
The championship was really interesting until now when we didn’t have to see Fingerboy taking poles and winning by a countrymile almost every race. And surely more interesting if the Championship leader would lose points due to the splendid performances of his competitors and not because someone crashes into him.
F1fanNL (@)
2nd September 2012, 15:27
Or the loss of a definite victory due to mechanical failure.
duncanmonza (@duncanmonza)
2nd September 2012, 15:21
I wonder how the Saubers and Maldonado would have done. I suspect quite well, shame.
Nick (@npf1)
2nd September 2012, 15:24
With all the close racing involved in today’s race, I’d mostly expect him to crash, or at least go off a few times..
Nick (@npf1)
2nd September 2012, 15:21
Such a shame for Sauber. Really feel for them, as this was the best grid for them to do something interesting and score big time, with an opportunity to take over Mercedes’ place in the standings perhaps. Not like I hate Mercedes, but well, Sauber having that opportunity says much about their season..
Bit gutted Alonso and Hamilton were out at the start as well, but Kimi and Lotus really didn’t deliver today in my opinion. We knew Button was going to be fast, but losing spots to Vettel and even Schumacher and Hulkenberg during the race isn’t a good sign. Hulkenberg and the STR boys did very well, with the STR drivers impressing me with balanced and fair, but very competitive racing. Not as on edge as the Marussia battle, but more impressive.
I’m a fan of Grosjean on the track, but damn, that man needs to sort his starts out. Maldonado might be dangerous during the race, but Grosjean needs Codemasters type camera angles at his starts. Bit of a cheeky move by Schumacher heading into the pits as well, but I’d be lying if the 8 year old Schumacher fan inside wasn’t having a glory moment.
Aditya Banerjee (@chicanef1)
2nd September 2012, 15:22
Anyone know who got the fastest lap?
Antonio Nartea (@tony031r)
2nd September 2012, 15:33
Senna I think, on fresh mediums – 1:52.822
Eleanore (@leucocrystal)
2nd September 2012, 15:37
On hard tires, actually! Pity the strategy was clearly the wrong one and he caught a slow puncture on top of that.
Juij (@juij)
2nd September 2012, 19:56
I didn’t like Buttom smiling before podium while he was chatting with Seb and Kimmi about the first retirement from FA due to an horrible accident, too bad taste there.
Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
2nd September 2012, 21:40
Kind of hard to hold a grudge. JB just got done dominating a race at a track he’s notoriously under-performed at. If that were me, I’d be smiling too.
Dave (@davea86)
3rd September 2012, 6:44
I’m pretty sure they knew he was ok. I did think it was a bit cheeky when Kimi said “it’s about time” when they pointed out that Alonso failed to finish. Kimi has scored points in every race this year except for China and that was only because the team got the strategy wrong and his tyres went off. Both Button and Kimi have been classified as finishers in every race this year.
Todfod (@todfod)
3rd September 2012, 9:13
Yeah well Jenson can smile if he wants to… as everyone was laughing at his driving for most of this season.
IceBlue (@iceblue)
2nd September 2012, 21:37
Juij: Well, if Jenson Button smiling before the podium disturbs you (maybe he should only smile after?), you should just step back and ask yourself if your narrow-minded comment is based on fact. I seriously doubt that you have the capability to read minds. The fact is that Jenson was on the pole, executed a great start and drove brilliantly to maintain his lead to the end. Perhaps you should go take a Midol.
Michael Schumacher was on the way to a best finish this season spoiled by a gearbox failure. How sad, and I’m not a raving fan of his either.
Aditya Banerjee (@chicanef1)
3rd September 2012, 4:45
Not a gearbox “failure”, but a missing clutch rev at Gear 6.
DioF1
3rd September 2012, 8:28
Actually a poor pit stop strategy!
c.f.leong
3rd September 2012, 14:16
alonso are always good during practise but when it come to qualifying..you could not make it even to the first row..also his too early made at the pit stop has nade him lose out to those who stop much later
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
4th September 2012, 9:20
Such a disappointment that Kobayashi couldn’t finish in the points. I thought he would have bagged 10th which would have been a great comeback. However, 13th is still respectable.