2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

  2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 11 of 20 in the 2012 Formula One season
The Hungaroring circuit
Date	29 July 2012
Official name	Formula One Eni Magyar Nagydij 2012[1]
Location	Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Hungary
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.381 km (2.722 mi)
Distance	69 laps, 302.249 km (187.809 mi)
Scheduled Distance	70 laps, 306.630 km (190.531 mi)
Weather	Fine and Dry. Very Hot[2][3] Air Temp 30 °C (86 °F)[3] Track Temp 45 °C (113 °F)[3]
Pole position
Driver	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:20.953
Fastest lap
Driver	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault
Time	1:24.136 on lap 68
Podium
First	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault
Third	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault
Lap leaders

The 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix (formally the Formula One Eni Magyar Nagydij 2012)^[1] was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Hungaroring circuit near Mogyoród, Hungary on 29 July 2012.^[4] It was the eleventh round of the 2012 season, and the twenty-seventh running of the Hungarian Grand Prix as a round of the World Championship.

Lewis Hamilton started the sixty nine lap race from pole position^[5]—his first since the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix—alongside Romain Grosjean, in his career-best starting position.^[6] Hamilton went on to win the race with Kimi Räikkönen second and Grosjean finishing third.^[7]

This race marked Heikki Kovalainen's 100th race.

Report

Background

Regulation changes

Red Bull Racing were referred to race stewards at the German Grand Prix after FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer noted that their engine maps had the potential to violate the technical regulations.^[8] Red Bull stood accused of manipulating the relationship between the torque produced by the Red Bull RB8 and the degree to which the throttle was open—particularly in medium-speed corners—thereby allowing more air to pass through the exhaust and over the diffuser, generating more downforce. Red Bull were cleared of wrongdoing, as, in the stewards' words, they had not technically broken any rules, but the FIA announced plans to rewrite the regulations governing throttle mapping so as to outlaw the practice entirely ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.^[9]

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre. It was the first time at the track in the single tyre supplier era (2008–present(Bridgestone then Pirelli)) where the 'supersoft' tyre had not been used.^[10]

Driver changes

Dani Clos took Narain Karthikeyan's place once again for the first free practice session on Friday morning.^[11] Jules Bianchi drove in the place of Nico Hülkenberg at Force India, while Valtteri Bottas drove for Williams, replacing Bruno Senna.

Race

At the end of the formation lap, Michael Schumacher stopped in the 19th place grid position, instead of 17th where he had qualified. Yellow lights were flashed as a result, with the intention of waving the cars through for a second formation lap. However, Schumacher switched his car off believing that the race was being delayed. The cars were waved through for the second formation lap, and Schumacher had to be pushed into the pits for his car to be restarted. Once his car was restarted, he failed to activate the pit speed limiter and exceeded the pit speed limit while driving to the end of the pits for the start of the race.

At the start of the race, Sebastian Vettel attempted to pass Roman Grosjean in turn one, but was blocked. The loss of momentum allowed Jenson Button to pull alongside Vettel through turn two and then pass him in turn three. Mark Webber, starting on medium compound tires, made a great start to jump from 11th to 7th by turn two. Pastor Maldonado made a poor start and fell from 8th to 12th position.

Schumacher pitted on lap two to switch to medium compound tires. He then served a drive-though penalty on lap five for speeding in the pit lane at the start. Kimi Räikkönen initially had no KERS and was stuck behind Fernando Alonso. Roman Grosjean began to catch up with Lewis Hamilton towards the end of the first stint. Hamilton pitted first on lap 19, taking a second longer than normal due to a wheel gun problem, but Grosjean's pit stop on the next lap was even slower, leaving the running order the same.

Roman Grosjean was finally able to catch Lewis Hamilton on lap 24, only to lose time due to mistakes, and then catch up again by lap 30. Kimi Räikkönen's KERS had recovered by this point, allowing him to make up ground. Jenson Button pitted from 3rd position on lap 35 and got stuck behind Bruno Senna, who was up to 7th running a long stint. Button was unable to pass Senna until Senna pitted on lap 43. This allowed Sebastian Vettel to come out ahead of Button when he pitted on lap 39.

Kimi Räikkönen began turning out blistering lap times in clear air. He pitted for the second time on lap 46, and came out of the pits alongside his teammate Roman Grosjean. Räikkönen pushed Grosjean to the edge of the track in turn 1, Grosjean ran wide, and Räikkönen took second place. Räikkönen then began to reel in Lewis Hamilton, but was unable to pass. Pastor Maldonado slid into the side of Paul di Resta on lap 48, earning Maldonado a drive-through penalty.

In the closing laps of the race, Red Bull pitted both of their drivers. Mark Webber fell from fifth to eighth, where he remained until the end of the race. Sebastian Vettel remained in fourth, and by the last lap was able to catch back up to Roman Grosjean on fresher tires, but was unable to pass. Narain Karthikeyan pulled off the track and retired on lap 65 due to suspension damage. The final lap of the race was on lap 69 instead of 70 due to the extra formation lap.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3	Grid
1	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:21.794	1:21.060	1:20.953	1
2	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:22.755	1:21.657	1:21.366	2
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1:22.948	1:21.407	1:21.416	3
4	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:22.028	1:21.618	1:21.583	4
5	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:22.234	1:21.583	1:21.730	5
6	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:22.095	1:21.598	1:21.844	6
7	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:22.203	1:21.534	1:21.900	7
8	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:22.475	1:21.504	1:21.939	8
9	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:22.271	1:21.697	1:22.343	9
10	12	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:22.176	1:21.653	1:22.847	10
11	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:22.829	1:21.715		11
12	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:21.912	1:21.813		12
13	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:22.079	1:21.895		13
14	15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:22.110	1:21.895		14
15	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:22.801	1:22.300		15
16	17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:22.799	1:22.380		16
17	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:22.436	1:22.723		17
18	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:23.250			18
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:23.576			19
20	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1:24.167			20
21	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:25.244			21
22	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:25.476			22
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:25.916			23
24	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:26.178			24
107% time: 1:27.519
Source:[5]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	69	1:41:05.503	1	25
2	9	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	69	+1.032	5	18
3	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	69	+10.518	2	15
4	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	69	+11.614	3	12
5	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	69	+26.653	6	10
6	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	69	+30.243	4	8
7	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	69	+33.899	9	6
8	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	69	+34.458	11	4
9	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	69	+38.350	7	2
10	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	69	+51.234	13	1
11	12	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	69	+57.283	10
12	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	69	+1:02.887	12
13	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	69	+1:03.606	8
14	15	Sergio Pérez	Sauber-Ferrari	69	+1:04.494	14
15	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	68	+1 Lap	18
16	17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	68	+1 Lap	16
17	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	68	+1 Lap	19
18	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	67	Hydraulics	15
19	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	67	+2 Laps	20
20	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	67	+2 Laps	21
21	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	66	+3 Laps	22
22	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	66	+3 Laps	23
Ret	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	60	Steering	24
Ret	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	58	Technical	17
Source:[7]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 164 2 Mark Webber 124 3 Sebastian Vettel 122 1 4 Lewis Hamilton 117 1 5 Kimi Räikkönen 116

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Red Bull-Renault 246 1 2 McLaren-Mercedes 193 1 3 Lotus-Renault 192 2 4 Ferrari 189 5 Mercedes 106

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

References

1. "Formula One Eni Magyar Nagydij 2012". Formula One. Archived from the original on 31 August 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
2. "Weather History for Budapest Ferihegy, Hungary". Weather Underground. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
3. "FORMULA 1 ENI MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2012 (Race)". Formula One. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
4. Collantine, Keith (7 December 2011). "United States Grand Prix remains on unchanged 2012 F1 calendar". F1 Fanatic. Keith Collantine. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
5. "Formula One Eni Magyar Nagydij 2012". Formula One. 28 July 2012. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
6. Elizalde, Pablo (28 July 2012). "Grosjean delighted to answer German GP woes with best F1 qualifying at Hungary". Autosport. Haymarket Media Group. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
7. "FORMULA 1 ENI MAGYAR NAGYDÍJ 2012 Provisional Results". Formula One. 29 July 2012. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-29.
8. Benson, Andrew (22 July 2012). "German GP: Red Bull cleared of illegal engine mapping". BBC F1. BBC. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
9. Benson, Andrew (23 July 2012). "F1 seeks computer rule change on Red Bull". BBC F1. BBC. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
10. "Pirelli reveal tyre choices for final three rounds". Formula One. 16 October 2012. Archived from the original on 29 September 2013. Retrieved 19 February 2013.
11. Elizlde, Pablo (23 July 2012). "Clos to get another F1 Friday outing with HRT at Hungarian Grand Prix". Autosport. Haymarket Media Group. Retrieved 24 July 2012.