2012 Singapore Grand Prix result

2012 Singapore Grand Prix

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Pos#DriverCarLapsGapDifferenceReason
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault59
23Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes598.9598.959
35Fernando AlonsoFerrari5915.2276.268
411Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes5919.0633.836
58Nico RosbergMercedes5934.78415.721
69Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault5935.7590.975
710Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault5936.6980.939
86Felipe MassaFerrari5942.8296.131
916Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari5945.8202.991
1015Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari5950.6194.799
112Mark Webber*Red Bull-Renault5967.17516.556
1224Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth5991.91824.743
1314Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari5997.1415.223
1412Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes5999.4132.272
1520Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault59107.9678.554
1625Charles Pic**Marussia-Cosworth59152.92544.958
1722Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth581 lap1 lap
1819Bruno SennaWilliams-Renault572 laps1 lap
1921Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault572 laps210.141
Not classified
17Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari3821 laps19 lapsAccident
7Michael SchumacherMercedes3821 laps0.384Accident
18Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault3623 laps2 lapsHydraulics
23Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth3029 laps6 lapsAccident
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes2237 laps8 lapsGearbox

*20 seconds added to race time for gaining an advantage by going off the track.
**20 seconds added to race time for failing to obey red flags in practice.

2012 Singapore 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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55 comments on “2012 Singapore Grand Prix result”

  1. nothing special except retire of Hamilton. Little action from front runners.

    Anyway, Vettel did well. in fact in the middle of the race, he was faster than Hamilton.

  2. Is that the best finish (12th) by one of the bottom 3 teams?

    1. Yes, it is. Delighted for Marussia. Will see if Caterham can improve their car now

      1. Best track for Glock, Just in time update from Marussia. They did their best shot for WCC :D
        I can’t see Caterham would achieve more than this.

        1. davidnotcoulthard
          23rd September 2012, 17:03

          Something to redeem their 2 last WCC places?

        2. what happened to Kovalainen after the second restart? he was 11th shortly after it restarted, then 15th, then pitted. he was on track for a point with the sauber incidents.

  3. McLaren mess up with Hamilton again.

    He damaged his gearbox yesterday when he whacked his right rear in the wall during Q3.

    Brunno damaged his gearbox similarly, but at least they decided to take a penalty to change it.

    McLaren knew the box was damaged but decided to risk it.

    1. During the broadcast on Sky, Kravitz reported McLaren saying they did not know of the problem beforehand:

      https://twitter.com/f1fanaticlive/status/249854605696065536

      1. I was watching BBC. Coulthard and Jordan have jsu commented on the Forum that McLaren knew of the potential problem yesterday.

      2. I was watching BBC. Coulthard and Jordan have just commented on the Forum that McLaren knew of the potential problem yesterday.

      3. They said on team radio “sorry we did the best we could with it yesterday”

        1. Okay, Sky F1 are now saying “Hamilton’s cruel retirement – unannounced and understood to be unrelated to his brush with the wall during qualifying “.

    2. Mclaren said there was no sign of gearbox damage. I can’t imagine they ruined his race intentionally.

      1. Jordan has just said on the red button forum that he was told yesterday that there was a possible gearbox issue.

        1. Interesting. so really Mclaren ruined his race.

          1. Wasn´t Hamilton who ruined his race by hitting the wall?

          2. @pnunocosta How could he know his gearbox was damaged? That’s the team’s work.

          3. davidnotcoulthard
            23rd September 2012, 17:06

            According to….JORDAN!

          4. (@eggry) In my opinion it was nobody´s fault. I find it hard to believe that the brush in the wall in Q3 made the gearbox fail in the race.
            We can´t put the blame always in the team, they´ve checked it and nothing was found.
            It was just a bad day at the office for Hamilton´s side of the garage.

        2. I would guess, that its more that they feared GB issues yesterday, but inspection didn’t show anything. Surely they would have changed the GB otherwise

    3. If McLaren did know that there might be a risk with the gearbox (and based on the Speed TV broadcast here in U.S., it seems that they did– as noted by other commenters, the team radio communication with Hamilton strongly suggestive of same) that was a terrible strategic decision not to replace it and take the grid penalty. Hamilton could have raced for the podium and perhaps even the win from P6 given his speed and overtaking skills, and would have collected a significant number of hugely important points. Instead, in trying not to give up pole, he lost everything. Including emotional momentum that he crucially needs to drive his performance.

      Mental agility in the face of sudden adversity is an essential skill not only for the driver, but for the team. You cannot become emotionally attached to any tactical advantage at the expense of the big picture at any time, even if you are sitting on pole. When suddenly faced with a potentially catastrophic issue, you immediately have to switch strategy to damage limitation, which is a different mindset than pole-to-flag mindset. And given the beating the cars and drivetrains take in Singapore due to track characteristics, race length, ambient heat and humidity, going to battle with this was NOT the race to try to finesse a potentially catastrophic gearbox issue. In Singapore, McLaren got emotionally attached to staying on pole rather than recognizing that what was important was making sure they finished.

  4. glock’s 12th place puts marussia ahead of caterham in the constructor’s championship. i know there’s a handful of races left, but i think marussia have secured 10th.

    1. @lucabadoerfan Unless we have another race with as many retirements and Safety Cars I would think Marussia are pretty safe.

  5. Force India are back in form. Nice drive by Paul. Hope they will carry on.

  6. If this result benefits anyone, it’s Alonso. 3rd place out of nothing with Hamilton retired and his contenders taking points off each other. He can’t have it better than this. This guy knows exactly what he needs to do to win a championship and I would declare myself VERY surprised if that doesn’t happen this year.

    On the other hand, expected Vettel to come on strong here, as per usual and to be honest, considering his pace in the last 10 laps or so, I reckon even if Hamilton was still in the race, Vettel would have easily won this one. Button did a fair job and salvaged something for McLaren’s WCC charge. Same could be said about Lotus who, I’m sure, weren’t hoping for 6th and 7th after quali and the first part of the race.
    Great drives from Di Resta, Rosberg, Massa – the luckiest guy in the field today – and Ricciardo.

    Behind them, except for Glock, complete disaster. It all looked like a GP2 showing.

    1. Also, I think it’s safe to say we’re in for a handful of grid drops in Japan. Schumacher for sure. Hulkenberg and Kobayashi, most likely.

      1. @tony031r Why would Kobayashi get a grid drop for Japan?

        1. @slr – Yeah, forget that. My bad. I was living with the impression that he was under investigation for pushing Webber off track but it was Hulkenberg. Sorry. :)

  7. Why did Red Bull pit Webber? Even if his tires were gone at the end he could have held on for at least 7th!

  8. Massa made my day, the way he could successfully manage that overtake maneuver simply delighted me. I mean who else thought a pass was possible at that place, arguably the narrowest part of the circuit.

    1. That pass on Senna was insane. I was almost about to shout scream!
      Anyway, good to see both of them safe and no SC again :D

      1. Massa had some fire. And to think he was last! Shows you how much Red Bull stuffed Webber’s race!

        1. He did a lot to spice up the race there!

    2. Didn’t Kubica overtake someone (Petrov maybe) at that same corner in 2010? Well anyway it was brilliant move from Massa. Absolutely stunning car control.

    3. That pass was amazing!
      When Senna started closing in I thought they’ll crash into each other and into the wall and then when his car went dancing my heart skipped! I though FOR SURE they will collect each other. Loved it, just loved it!
      It was literally breath taking moment and amazing car control.

  9. Great job by Glock. 12th place is pure gold for Marussia. I’m happy for them, they are improving a lot.

    1. Not to take anything away from Glock but they benefited from the rather large number of retirements, Senna’s drop at the end of the race, Hulkenberg’s and Koba’s coming together and most important Caterham hitting trouble with both Petrov and Kovalainen. So I don’t know if they actually improved that much in terms of mechanical packages rather than made the most out of the context.

      Still, well deserved. Keeping a cool head in Singapore with all the bump’n’runs in the midfield is truly an applause-worthy effort. :)

      1. @tony031r

        Yeah, I agree, but it is also true that Marussia has been catching up with Caterham in the last races, so it’s good that they were rewarded with a very good 12th place. Timo also said that his car was quite damaged after a contact with the wall. Well done to Glock.

    2. @yobo01 Agreed. Even though they have changed identity every single year since they got into the sport, they have always been my favourite new team. They have closed the gap to Caterham quite a lot since their windtunnel upgrades started coming in. I’m really looking forward to their next year car.

  10. Was Schumi’s a mistake or another car failure? At first it didn’t look like a car failure, but how could a 7 time WDC miss a braking point? Unless he’s getting old. I think it’s time to hang up the boots Schumi, coming back from retirement is looking like a big mistake. BTW, did anyone hear the radio message from the team?

    1. As someone said in the live blog, may be Schumi was busy enjoying the battle ahead of him? :-P

    2. @vho
      On RTL he said that he braked earlier then he had before, but he was cought out because the others braked a lot earlier. Whether it’s actually true or not, I have no idea, but that is what he said.

    3. Was Schumi’s a mistake or another car failure?

      It did seem like Vergne and Perez braked a bit earlier and caught Schumi off guard.
      Car failure or not, it’s the third time this happened in one year: Kobayashi, Singapore 2011 / Senna, Barcelona 2012 / Vergne, Singapore 2012. :)

  11. What a championship battle we have on our hands! Vettel just 29 points behind Alonso. Even though things didn’t pan out for Lewis this weekend, I wouldn’t count him out just yet. If there is any driver who can take 5 victories in a row, it’s probably Lewis.

    This one’s going to go down to the wire between these 3… and hopefully Kimi can get in there too

    1. @todfod, somehow I don’t think the Lotus will be able to keep the pace with the Red Bulls and McLarens in the remaining races, but I would dearly like to see Kimi on the top spot of the podium before the end of this season.

      1. @vho Lotus seemed to have all their hopes pinned on the ‘Device’ . Which they say should give them an advantage of 0.5s a lap . I think thats enough to keep them fighting at the top

        1. @Todfod

          If there is any driver who can take 5 victories in a row, it’s probably Lewis.

          Uh, the longest string of victories Lewis’ has ever had was 2 in a row. Compare that to Vettel’s 3, Button’s 4 and Alonso’s 4.

          1. @kingshark . I’m just saying he’s entirely capable of taking 5 victories in a row. He’s got the fastest car, is driving well, and is the clear favourite for taking pole position on all the remaining circuits.

        2. @Todfod The fastest Lotus qualified 1.4 secs behind Lewis (Grojean), and they finished 35 secs behind Vettel, after 2 safety cars bunched the pack up – with the last safety car appearing on lap 39, and perhaps disappearing on lap 42 or 43. The race finished on lap 59, so there were less than 20 laps remaining, which mean that Lotus were losing more than 1.75 secs per lap. So how would a ‘Device’ thats going to give then 0.5 sec advantage per lap going to keep them fighting at the top?

          1. @vho Singapore is a unique circuit, and sometimes certain cars struggle more than usual while others shine. Do you honestly believe that Ferrari are going to 7-8 tenths down on Mclaren and Red Bull at Suzuka??

            According to that logic, every car must have seem pale in comparison to the Red Bull when it went 7 tenths quicker in quali at Valencia, and a second a lap faster on raceday.

            I’m not denying that Lotus are slower than Mclaren, but I can guarantee you that they will not be 1.4 seconds off the pace in Suzuka

          2. @Todfod For Lotus to refer to 0.5 sec advantage then are we expecting that it the average gain or the expected gain only on particular tracks?

            I would agree that Singapore is a unqie track and that the remaining tracks are non-street tracks and Lotus could fare better, but so could other competitors. I’m not entirely convinced that Lotus would be able to turn it around as this year’s results so far dictate they’re the bridesmaid, but it would be a dream comeback for Kimi if Lotus to keep him in the fight all the way to Sao Paulo.

  12. I have a sneaky feeling the stewards are going to penalize Vettel…

    1. @hosford90
      For what? He didn’t do anything wrong today.
      He did what everyone does at the restart, so I don’t expect a penalty.
      It was surprising to see Button complaining, he did the same thing (if not worse) at Suzuka 2011 and China 2010, if I recall correctly.

      1. I agree that he shouldn’t. There just seemed to be an unusual amount of fuss in there and concern on Red Bull faces.

  13. Great result for Marussia that. They should start drawing up a list of what to spend their money on and Caterham should draw up a list of potential sponsors ;)

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