2012 Belgian Grand Prix grid

2012 Belgian Grand Prix

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Row 11. Jenson Button 1’47.573
McLaren
2. Kamui Kobayashi 1’47.871
Sauber
Row 23. Kimi Raikkonen 1’48.205
Lotus
4. Sergio Perez 1’48.219
Sauber
Row 35. Fernando Alonso 1’48.313
Ferrari
6. Pastor Maldonado* 1’47.893
Williams
Row 47. Lewis Hamilton 1’48.394
McLaren
8. Romain Grosjean 1’48.538
Lotus
Row 59. Paul di Resta 1’48.89
Force India
10. Sebastian Vettel 1’48.792
Red Bull
Row 611. Nico Hulkenberg 1’48.855
Force India
12. Mark Webber** 1’48.392
Red Bull
Row 713. Michael Schumacher 1’49.081
Mercedes
14. Felipe Massa 1’49.147
Ferrari
Row 815. Jean-Eric Vergne 1’49.354
Toro Rosso
16. Daniel Ricciardo 1’49.543
Toro Rosso
Row 917. Bruno Senna 1’50.088
Williams
18. Heikki Kovalainen 1’51.739
Caterham
Row 1019. Vitaly Petrov 1’51.967
Caterham
20. Timo Glock 1’52.336
Marussia
Row 1121. Pedro de la Rosa 1’53.03
HRT
22. Charles Pic 1’53.493
Marussia
Row 1223. Nico Rosberg** 1’50.181
Mercedes
24. Narain Karthikeyan 1’54.989
HRT

*Three-place penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg
**Five-place penalty for gearbox change

2012 Belgian 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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74 comments on “2012 Belgian Grand Prix grid”

  1. Can’t help but to feel real good after MR. Kobayashi get that high in F1. As fellow Asian Good luck.

    1. I had a dream last night that KOB would qualify 2nd, funny how it turned out today.

      1. Now have a dream he wins the race pls :)

  2. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
    1st September 2012, 14:09

    I had Kamui pegged for Pole @ 1:47.8xx (I forget exactly)… I’m feeling pretty good right now, even though he only got 2nd.. :)

  3. I wonder why the gap between BUT and HAM was so huge…atleast McL could have used team orders had HAM been near him….and what an incredible performance by the Sauber team!!!! Given their tyre conservation abilities,they might just win tomorrow!!!

    1. Hamilton has just said in an interview that he felt his lap was as good as it should be, but also that this morning his side of the garage reverted to the old-spec, higher downforce rear wing they’ve had at other races, because the new updated rear-wing they brought for Spa wasnt working alright. Jenson on the other hand stuck with the update. Anyways, i too find it to be a huge difference in performance and it’s a shame because if Lewis had had the same rear wing settings, Mclaren would have had a front row lock-up.

      1. Would they? If Hamilton says they were having problems making it work, what makes you think that he would have found it more too his liking today?

        1. I am assuming that because its clearly obvious that the update worked [b]eventually[/b] on Button’s car, even if he was complaining of problems even in Q1.

    2. Hamilton was running a different downforce setting; that explains some of the deficit. His first turn lock-up probably lost him a couple of tenths, but other than that Button was just fundamentally faster.

    3. For once I like the McLaren tactic! Let JB do the testing and in Monza next week the team will know what to do ….. I hope JB will be nice to his tyres and I dont want to hear any complains tomorrow!

      BTW, beating the red car in their backyard is always nice :)

      1. The backyard is actually Firoano.. but you could say Monza if you wanted to pick an f1 circuit.

        1. Maybe this guy is from the future?

      2. I never knew Spa is Ferrari’s backyard…

    4. The thing is even though Hamilton has supposedly more downforce he wasn’t able to make use of it in the second sector. He’s going to struggle tomorrow unless there is rain or something. I don’t think he has the right setup to make the overtakes. He’s going to have to work a miracle imho.

  4. Congrats for Button’s pole!! Top 5 runner is just out of expectation. Especially Sauber duo and Maldonado. Alonso looked good until Q2 but then things changed. still it’s good position for Alonso since except Kimi, there’s no title contender in the front of him(unless Button doing this again and again!)

    1. its a great line up. On one hand, the suprise drivers could conceivably finish in the top 5 (a win isnt out of the question). On the other, it means that the race could be epic in scale with the drivers behind them needing to pass themselves, upping their game to do so. Its all adding to more excitment then we normally would expect, and Spa is 9 times out of 10 very exciting anyway!

      1. I think we’ll see something special tomorrow…

        I say we…. I’ll be at work! Nooooooooo!!!!

  5. I couldn’t be happier with Jenson getting pole. It’s the happiest I’ve felt from getting my predictions wrong xD

  6. I think they are running a higher down-force setting than Ferrari which can hurt them in the race if they don’t make a margin in front.

    1. Button was as fast as Alonso in sector 1 and 3 which seems insane to me. No one was fast in every sector except Button. Clearly, Button and Mclaren got switch on whether it’s intended or not.

    2. If Alonso was nearly/as fast as Buttons inital pole laps Sector1 time, wouldnt that suggest the Ferrari isnt quite as high on Downforce as drivers like Hamilton? Just throwing it out there.

      1. Could see in sectors time than Hamilton was amongst the quickest in sector 2 and losing time in 1 and 3 … could be a problem for him to overtake during the race, but they expect this setup to be more gentle with the tyres

        1. ham’s non drs top speed could be better than others drs enabled top speed. so he could be ok for race

  7. Who would have thought about JB, KK & PM would b the top 3 drivers at the end of Q3. Totaly unpredictable quali. Banker lap by JB.

  8. All eyes on those Saubers tomorrow! And fingers crossed Maldonado doesn’t wipe the whole front of the grid out in La Source.

    1. And fingers crossed Maldonado doesn’t wipe the whole front of the grid out in La Source

      If theres anything we can be certain about at Spa, this is the most likely.

      1. It’s second most likely. The most is rain at some point!

  9. Stability? Yea right! I’m hoping for the championship’s sake that the ‘Bulls can fight Alonso or higher in the race. Vettel can go on an alternative strategy by starting on the hards and hopefully jump some of he pack.

  10. Raikkonen was a bit disappointing, but his wins in Spa have usually come from around rows 2 and 3. Really happy for Kobayashi, I hope he can get on the podium tomorrow.

  11. Every time there’s a climatological mess Buttom knows how to deal with it, in this case is ovbious how he has managed to get the best settup for the car without suittable practice session on friday.
    An every there’s a mess there’s also some kind of proffit for FA , jeje.

    1. An every “time” there’s a mess there’s also some kind of proffit for FA , jeje.

      1. “And” every time there is a mess, there is also some kind of profit for FA, jeje. Sorry, I just had to :)

  12. That was a really exciting Qualy session – more exciting than some of the races!
    Is there speed trap information avaialble anywhere?

  13. @tony031r

    lol…hopefuly he doesnt live by his new name ‘Crashter maldonado’ :) and in case he does that then kimi is goin to have his first win of ths season….

  14. James (@whichoneiwonder)
    1st September 2012, 14:23

    Watching an on-board replay of Jenson’s pole lap, It’s incredible the amount of time they spend sitting on the rev limiter in 7th along the second half of the kemmel straight and through blanchimont into the bus stop.
    I had thought they might have run a longer 7th gear to minimise that in qually, but obviously not. It must not be worth the slower high-gear acceleration in the race…

    1. It seemed to me that 7th was perfectly tuned for the last straight; it was mostly in the straight following Eau Rouge where the rev limiter kept kicking in.

  15. Maldonado… “Looking forward to recovering what we lost in the first part of the season” We?

  16. Impressive by PM. One can only compare where Senna finished. Saubers out qualified the Ferrari’s. And, I must say JB picked the right setup & nailed it for his driving style. He should be pretty strong for the race. I hope JB continues like this, maybe all that Triathlon really helped him!! Haha..

  17. A wonderfully mixed up grid. The Sauber’s will be a headache for the big teams and Maldonado might provide the fear factor. Honourable mentions go to De La Rosa for beating a Marussia, Vergne for beating Ricciardo and Kobayashi for beating Perez.

    1. @andrewtanner “Maldonado might provide the fear factor.”

      Haha, I like this one.

  18. I may be wrong, but i think JB has the 3 best laps of the afternoon !
    Am i right ?

  19. Prediction : Buttom-Raikkonen-Perez
    Fantasy : Alonso-Kobayashi-Webber jeje

  20. *Congrats to JB for having his first pole for Mclaren since 2009.
    *I’m quite happy with the grid because Alonso is in front of LH,MW and SV.

  21. “Raikkonen will get pole!” they said. “He’s the master of Spa!” they said.

    1. I’d wait until after the race if I were you…

      1. * was! Could swear I typed it correctly.

        1. you spelled it right the first time

          1. I think the real confusion on when to use the subjunctive or past simple really a question of intent. If it’s something hoped or wished for then use the subjunctive: If I were you I’d be the King of England. Past simple: If I was you I’d give up on being the King of England. Postreader’s comment makes me think of the latter, but there is no way to know without brutal interrogation of his tender fleshy parts! Hence, both work for me.

        2. It’s a common error in spoken as well as written English. It’s because the verb “to be” is between I and you. . “Were” is the correct conjugation for “you” when asking a question. When you add “if” in your sentence it becomes a bit of a question, so it’s a natural mistake and it’s one mistake that most will never notice. So no worries!

          1. If I was you is correct even though most use the subjunctive form “were” Was just doesn’t sound right. But that’s English!

          2. Thanks for those infos! English is not my native language, but i had learned in school that ‘if i was’ is a common mistake and that it should be ‘if i were’ instead. and yes, it does sound better!

    2. “And his teamamte will outqualify him”,you said…really PM,how could you expect him to get pole in a car thats clearly slower than the McLaren??

    3. I think its actually just the media’s fault, always building too much of a hype around Lotus before every race. Also, the idea that a driver is a master or non master of any circuit right now is sadly completely irrelevant, they can only be as good as their car is – or actually, as good as the setup and your rear wing is lol -> Button 8 tenths faster than Hamilton.

      1. @andrewf1 – That’s precisely why I don’t read Autosport anymore. Ever since Lotus started sponsoring the Autosport International Show, they’ve run an inordinate number of pro-Lotus stories and often make headline news out of Lotus-related items that most other news sources don’t even bother with.

    4. If i remember correctly he won Spa from grid pos 10 one year?

      1. @Sammo Yes, that was in 2004, and in an uncompetitive car. He also won from 6th in 2009 while driving a truck of a Ferrari.

      2. It makes no difference what he did in other years or which position he’s won from, what always matters is the car you have at hand.

        1. Yes, it does…BUT the cars don’t drive themselves. Clearly KR is comfy at Spa, and that counts for a lot. And then there is always the stratagem.

    5. Only one of Raikkonen’s wins at Spa was from pole.

    6. Why would he have to wait until after the race to debunk that Raikkonen would be on pole?

      1. @necrodethmortem I was refering to him debunking Raikkonen being the “Master of Spa”.

        1. Even with 4 wins out of 6, he still would be the “Master of Spa”, so there’s nothing to debunk there.

    7. They did went for the high downforce package and they are the highest of the ones with that strategy, anyway i wanted to write that first!

  22. Pastor-Perez-Hamilton line astern?? Ye Gods this can only end well :) ! Not to mention Kamui in there as well. You might as well play The Ride of the Valkyries at the start.

  23. I agree. After all the hype, I thought the lotus were going to be on pole. Unfortunately they were unable to do so and it is becoming the norm. Even though, they didn’t live up to the hyped , I reckon the lotus team to be a contender for the win since they along with the Ferraris always have better race pace that the likes of mclaren, Williams or even the Saubers.

  24. Karthikeyan nearly 2 seconds off of de la Rosa….he’s just not good enough.

    1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
      1st September 2012, 19:56

      No, but his money surely is.

      1. Rupees all over the place.

  25. Almost perfect for Alonso with his main title rivals behind him. Could he extend his lead yet again while not even finishing on the podium. Amazing run of form for him thus far!

  26. Maldonado penalty again, well he will be one dangerous driver tomorrow !
    For Alonso this grid end up as good as Pole !

  27. Sad to see another shocker from Senna, and also the Caterhams are nowhere.

    1. Shocker? For who?

      Seriously…we all knew somewhere deep inside Hungaroring was a one-off performance. He’s just back to his old slow self now. No shocker. :)

      1. At Hungary Senna disappointed as well that Williams has enough quality to be up top every race, we are talking about a driver that was beaten by Chandok, for Christ sake.

  28. I look at that grid and the first though in my mind is “MASSIVE CRASH!” like in 09 with Romain, Lewis and Button and some more guys, the guys that opted for high down wings are going to suffer so much right a the start it will bunch it up in one gigantic crash. You read this first here at 11:24pm

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