2012 Monaco Grand Prix grid

2012 Monaco Grand Prix

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Row 11. Mark Webber 1’14.381
Red Bull
2. Nico Rosberg 1’14.448
Mercedes
Row 23. Lewis Hamilton 1’14.583
McLaren
4. Romain Grosjean 1’14.639
Lotus
Row 35. Fernando Alonso 1’14.948
Ferrari
6. Michael Schumacher* 1’14.301
Mercedes
Row 47. Felipe Massa 1’15.049
Ferrari
8. Kimi Raikkonen 1’15.199
Lotus
Row 59. Sebastian Vettel No time
Red Bull
10. Nico Hulkenberg 1’15.421
Force India
Row 611. Kamui Kobayashi 1’15.508
Sauber
12. Jenson Button 1’15.536
McLaren
Row 713. Bruno Senna 1’15.709
Williams
14. Paul di Resta 1’15.718
Force India
Row 815. Daniel Ricciardo 1’15.878
Toro Rosso
16. Jean-Eric Vergne 1’16.885
Toro Rosso
Row 917. Heikki Kovalainen 1’16.538
Caterham
18. Vitaly Petrov 1’17.404
Caterham
Row 1019. Timo Glock 1’17.947
Marussia
20. Pedro de la Rosa 1’18.096
HRT
Row 1121. Charles Pic 1’18.476
Marussia
22. Narain Karthikeyan 1’19.31
HRT
Row 1223. Sergio Perez** No time
Sauber
24. Pastor Maldonado*** 1’15.245
Williams

*Five-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Bruno Senna in the Spanish Grand Prix
**Five-place grid penalty for gearbox change
***Ten-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Sergio Perez during practice and five-place grid penalty for gearbox change

2012 Monaco 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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80 comments on “2012 Monaco Grand Prix grid”

  1. How absolutely stupid it is to punish a driver for an incident in the previous race. Whatever happened to a racing incident?

    1. Because if somebody ruins another driver’s race through a completely stupid move then that is the only way to punish them. Had it actually been a racing incident rather than plowing into the back of another driver then I’d agree.

    2. Total a fair decision, nothing about it was a racing incident. But it does make qualifying slightly disappointing for the second race in a row.

    3. How do you penalize, then, a stupid move like that one from Michael?

      Though I agree they should “relax” things a bit. Sometimes it’s just racing incidents and they ALWAYS investigate it. And when they do, they usually punish drivers for nothing, yet they don’t punish drivers for stupidities

    4. Yeah, that ruins the whole event that is qualifying. It makes it feel like watching a football game knowing that if one the teams scors a goal, it won’t count.

      Anyway, I wanted to express how happy and excited seeing Schumi win the qualifying makes me!!! It almost brought a tear of joy to my eye.

      Webber was on pole here in 2010 after edging Robert Kubica. This also brings fond memories.

    5. He must be grateful he wasn’t taken to the back the the grid a la LH.

    6. @sw6569 It wasn’t a racing incident, he drove into the back of another car:

      Schumacher given grid penalty for Senna collision

      I can understand why some people think incidents from one race shouldn’t affect another, but I don’t agree Schumacher’s collision with Senna was a “racing incident”. It was clearly his fault.

      1. @keithcollantine I cannot remember, but did Webber get a penalty when he crashed into Kovalainen in Valencia 2010?

        1. @mustalainen Not to the best of my recollection. I don’t think they were really ‘racing’ so it was just an incident. Schumacher and Senna were battling for position.

          1. @andrewtanner So? Does it changed the fact that Webber ruined Kovalainen race?

          2. @andrewtanner I looked it up, and at the moment they were really racing for position after webber had an unlucky pit-stop. And webber was 2nd on the grid at the next race so at least no grid-penalty for webber at that race.. I just wanted to try to understand the difference between these two incidents but maybe the stewards are way stricter nowadays..

          3. Er, that’s not true. The reason Webber wasn’t penalised has to be because his crash was life threatening, and the stewards would have look appallingly callous had they punished him following a major crash.

            Trouble is… it’s completely inconsistent. Schumacher is punished and Webber walks away scot-free essentially because of the ‘outcome’ of the crash: the actual incidents are near identical.

      2. I know that the stewards deemed it to be an avoidable collision – as that is why there was a penalty in the first place. My point is that collisions are always going to be a part of motorsport. Its only in recent years that there have been sanctions for these collisions which I don’t think are good for the sport. Scenarios like today are ridiculous! I don’t see the point in apportioning blame to something that was very clearly a mistake.

        1. I think that for one thing, Schumacher needed to be shown that he was in the wrong with a penalty, rather than accusing an innocent driver of being an idiot for being crashed into.

          1. The penalty seems particularly unnecessary because although Schumi was very clumsy and impatient, Senna definitely wasn’t an innocent party in the collision. He made a very late jink to the left in the braking zone, and this was particularly risky since he was braking relatively early for that corner.

            If that isn’t a “racing incident” – an accident between two parties racing for position, in which no malice is involved and both arguably have a share of the blame – I don’t know what is.

            Accusing Senna of being an idiot was wrong, but that was a heat-of-the-moment radio message. I don’t perceive such a thing to be relevant to the question of whether a driver should receive a penalty.

    7. Its all better for the ‘show’ too- what better than docking the fastest driver 5 grid places or even better – to the back of the grid…increases overtaking :)

  2. Hot damn! I had Rosberg on pole at 1:14.300. Right team, wrong bloke. Webber on actual pole – now thats worth staying up for.

  3. Such a shame that Schumacher won’t start on pole.

  4. Suffer, EJ. SUFFER. Michael is finally back!

    Anticlimactic finish for Massa though. Still slower than Alonso. :(

    1. @pamphlet I don’t think it was disappointing. He made it to Q&A and is only .1s behind Alonso. That’s respectable when your teammate is Fernando Alonso.

      1. Massa under performing for the last 2 years has made Alonso look like a god and that’s bad because he isn’t. The fact is that a one second gap on a weekend where both drivers are happy with the car, in a top tier team be it Ferrari or otherwise is bad. But Massa did look good all weekend only he couldn’t make work properly it in Q3 for some reason. I was really hoping for a Massa front row or pole but did jump out of my seat when Schumi did it, was simply amazing.

        1. I do think that Alonso is in the top 3 drivers on the grid and I do believe he is better than Massa.

  5. The HRTs look a lot better around this track.

    1. yeah, that might be up for a spot on the podium…

      1. Haha! Only if Karthikeyan throws bananas and turtle shells at every other car on the Grid :P

        1. hahahaha

    2. Sometimes all that matters is the next car.

      1. To be fair, they seem to be a lot more on the pace than previous GPs. And with a prospect with a lot of DNFs, this might be a crucial round for the ‘new’ teams.

  6. Pity for Schumacher and Massa (he seemed fast until the end), at least Schumi already knew his penalty unlike Hamilton in the last one.

    1. Also it was MSC’s fault, unlike HAM, who drove well but was let down by team.

  7. I am putting my money on webber for the race win

    1. unless his classic slow start occur…

      1. Yeah, I don’t think Webber will be leading out of turn one.

        1. It’s pretty hard to fail the start at Monaco,

          1. Webber will find a way.

          2. @alex-bkk – lol, he lost a place at the start at Monaco to Alonso last year as well.

            But I think he’ll get it right this time.

  8. Can we add a rule by which if a driver is given a grid-penalty, he can choose when to take it with the condition that he must take it before the end of the season.

    Michael could have chosen to keep the pole at Monaco and take it at some other race where he hasn’t qualified well in the first place.

    1. Terrible idea. A penalty should be a penalty. You can’t go soft on a driver just because they lose pole position because of it.

      1. indeed, what if michael does a Perez at another track. He’ll then take his penalty, making it redundant.

    2. I think it’s down to characteristic of car. Button and Vettel all prefer balancing car while Hamilton and Webber are not concerned much as them. Clearly, MP4-27 or RB8 are not dominant car so the teams are updating their car aggressively for performance while stability is being sacrificed. Similar thing can be applied to Alonso and Massa as well. I don’t think this makes Button and Vettel bad driver but that’s it.

      1. Sorry, this is not where I wanted to comment on!

    3. If that were the case, then it wouldn’t exactly be a penalty would it. A penalty is designed to punish a driver who has done something wrong, not give them the opportunity to decide when a penalty best fits them.

    4. Nah, making the penalty even more remote from the cause would be absurd. I wouldn’t like to see a race affected by a driver’s penalty received 10 months earlier – one that nobody even remembers anymore. No no no.
      If there has to be a penalty, get it as fast as possible over with.

      1. The other reason why this is a terrible idea is a very simple one – the drivers could easily lessen the penalty’s severity by chosing to get penalised on tracks where the overtaking is the easiest, avoiding the penalties on tracks like Hungaroring, Montmelo or Monaco.

  9. My money is on hamilton for the win.

    1. I think Lewis will be very happy. The 2 guys ahead in the championship are comfortably behind him.

      1. Alonso is right behind him on the same side of the track and he normally gets stonking starts. Watch out!!

      2. alonso will be breathing down his neck after turn 1

      3. I wouldn’t consider Alonso comfortably behind him. It just two positions behind him. Given the good start Alonso normally has, and the better pit stops of Ferrari until now, that is far from comfortable.

  10. Feeling good about possibility of seeing a 6th winner in this 6th race of the season since top 4 contains 3 2012 virgins.

  11. These marshals are so inconsistent, they give Schumi a 5 place grid penalty for causing an accident while they give Pastor a 10 place grid penalty for the same offence.
    It just confirms to me that Hamilton’s penalty last race was definitely biased against him and they can do whatever they want depending on how much they like the driver or team.

    1. Schumacher caused an accident, Maldonado deliberately drove into someone, something he has been punished for before. Big difference.
      But yeah, Hamilton’s penalty was very harsh.

  12. If top drivers finish in position as they started then championship standing will be…

    1. Mark Webber – 73
    2. Fernando Alonso – 71
    3. Lewis Hamilton – 68
    4. Sebastian Vettel – 63
    5. Nico Rosberg – 59
    6. Kimi Raikkonen – 53
    7. Romain Grosjean – 47
    8. Jenson Button – 45

    …Whoah!

    1. That’s a brilliant piece of stats!! Thanks Eggry!!
      In other words – these are the CURRENT Qualfying Champioship standings :)

    2. Amazing that the guy starting the race 5th in WDC can end up first! F1=crazy

  13. Webber for a 2010 repeat! Hamilton will lose a wheel and Alonso will be joined on the podium by another Renault powered car

  14. I hope for Maldonados sake that perez steering problem in the high speed chicane was due to him running over his front left…..

    The sooner Maldonado is kicked out of this sport the better.

    1. I was thinking he might have hit the inside of Tabac

    2. In fact PER is a thread to MAL shine, MAL just make sure PER can’t score points in hopes Ferrari may choose him next year !

  15. I was so excited for Webber, but then I remembered that he will be in about 11th place by turn 1.

  16. question- why didnt Vettel post a time? Seeing his team mate on pole and how hard it is to overtake in monaco, why wouldnt u wanna post a time?

    1. It does look like he missed a trick. I’d be very surprised if saving tyres for the race pays as great dividends here as elsewhere. Tyre wear is just too low.

      1. @keithcollantine Maybe they’re thinking they can save a pit stop? Ambitious admittedly.

      2. No missed trick – I believe he’d used all three sets of supers getting to Q3 (one set in Q1 and 2 in Q2).

  17. It’s slipping away from Lotus. You have yo seize your chances in F1, they don’t come round again usually.
    In Bahrain an easy win was not achieved because Boullier was too concerned with promoting GRO and too slow to realise a win was on the cards.
    Currently the team are not able to give RAI what he needs: they should have used the last test opportunity to fix the steering to Kimi’s satisfaction, instead it’s an ongoing prob still..
    This weekend GRO might follow ROS and HAM past WEB into ste devote, But ALO may have other ideas about that !!!
    Looks like a HAM ALO ROS podium, with RAI fourth.

    1. Not surprising, really. Their strategies were generally quite awful last year, at times baffling, and apparently that doesn’t go away overnight.

    2. When I write that Kimi is hard on his cars, his fans will not agree with me (obviously). You wrote the team could have used the test to correct his problems but you forgot kimi refused to attend the test!

      His steering problem did not start today, he has always been hard on them during his McLaren years as was confirmed today by Johnny Herbert on Skytv. Who does he think he is???? Arghhhhh!!!

      1. johnny herbert was at McLaren with KR? that’s news to me

  18. webber and mercedes cars looked really fast today, i think webber will win the race, hes always been good at monaco. mclaren arent looking quick enough for a win, which is surprising considering how well they started the season and looked like the fastest car overall.

  19. Top 5 all in different cars. Has this happened this season at all? I’m guessing most probably.

  20. Rosberg and Hamilton will top Webber at the first 3 corners. My guess. AND IF schu can pull off a few good first laps,he could be on the podium.

  21. The fastest 9 are covered by less than 1s. Nice!

    Schumacher deserved the penalty but it is a shame that his best chance at vindicating his comeback will be most likely quashed. However, like the guys on Sky said, experience pays dividends at Monaco and I’d certainly fancy him more than some of his higher grid placed competitors. Plus, he is known to start well, but well enough to capitalise before the first corner, who knows!?

    What’s going on with Button, he’s paling into obscurity this season? Sort it out Jenson!

    1. I may be very wrong, but i think he’s back to normal. Lewis is a better driver than him.

  22. Am I missing something? I saw the lap record listed as 1:14.439 (MS, F2004). Why is his time from today (or Webber’s, even) being counted as a new lap record? Was there a config change or something?

    1. Lap records can be set only in a race. The 2004 time has been set during the race.

      Qualifying times do not count as lap records.

      1. Oh Duh. /hits self over head with the stupid stick.

        It’s just that lap records (or even times approaching them) have seemed so rare these days that I got ahead of myself. Thanks for not laughing at me for asking. :))

  23. Wonder if Hamiton will try and look after his tyres, as Webber and the Mercs might have tyres issues!

  24. Maldonado has had an engine change and will start last

  25. Sorry, meant a gearbox change

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