2012 Monaco Grand Prix
The 2012 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that took place in the principality of Monaco on 27 May 2012. It was the sixth round of the 2012 season, and the seventieth running of the Monaco Grand Prix. The race was supported by the GP2, GP3 and Formula Renault 3.5 series.
Mark Webber won the race after taking pole position; his victory created a new record for Formula One in that there had never been six different winners of the opening six Grands Prix of the season before. Mercedes' Nico Rosberg came in second place, his second podium in the 2012 season, while Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rounded out the podium in third.
Report
Background
Like the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix, tyre supplier Pirelli brought its yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the red-banded super-soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre. It was the first time for the season that the super-soft compound made an appearance at a race weekend.Circuit changes
The circuit underwent some extensive changes in the aftermath of Sergio Pérez's accident during qualifying for the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix. Pérez crashed heavily at the Nouvelle Chicane, suffering a concussion and a sprained thigh. He was unable to take part in the race. In response to this, the event organisers had the approach to the chicane smoothened by lowering the tarmac, and the barrier that Pérez hit was moved back a further. Other changes included the widening of the pit exit and the removal of nearby trees to allow a driver re-joining the race greater visibility. TecPro barriers were also added at Sainte Dévote and Piscine.Driver penalties
was given a five-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Bruno Senna during the Spanish Grand Prix. Pastor Maldonado was given a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Sergio Pérez during the final free practice session. He then received another five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change.Qualifying
Qualifying took place at 14:00 local time under fine and sunny conditions with an ambient temperature of and a track temperature of.Q1
and Jean-Éric Vergne were the first cars to emerge from pit lane once the twenty-minute session was given the green light to begin. Pic's first flying lap was ruined when he was blocked by the slow-moving HRT of Pedro de la Rosa at Rascasse, forcing the Frenchman to pit.Sauber's Sergio Pérez crashed heavily at the Swimming Pool, striking the outer barrier with enough force to remove a wheel. The session was red-flagged due to his crash for six minutes while the car was removed. During replays of the incident, commentators observed Pérez shouting "power steering!" over his radio moments before the crash. Pérez's left-front steering was damaged, leading to speculation that the crash had been a by-product of the incident with Pastor Maldonado in the third free practice session.
With eight minutes remaining Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher led teammate Nico Rosberg with several drivers close behind. Defending World Champion Sebastian Vettel opted for a set of super-soft tyres late in the session, as his time from his stint on the slower soft tyres had left him in 16th place. Both Lotus drivers waited late to set their first timed lap, both opting for soft tyres. However, while Romain Grosjean set a competitive lap time, Kimi Räikkönen was not so quick and was only half a second ahead Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen and in danger of being eliminated. Räikkönen switched to a set of super-soft compounds and was able to avoid elimination.
Nico Hülkenberg set the fastest time of the session while on super-softs, while at the back of the field, Kovalainen out-qualified teammate Vitaly Petrov by eight-tenths of a second, with Marussia's Timo Glock a further half-second behind. Pedro de la Rosa was also eliminated ahead of Pic and teammate Narain Karthikeyan. As he did not set a lap time, Sergio Pérez was twenty-fourth and last, though this became twenty-third when Maldonado's grid penalties were applied. Prior to the session, Pérez had been the only driver on the grid who had not been eliminated in Q1 since the introduction of the knockout qualifying system.
Q2
driver Paul di Resta was first out followed by Williams's Bruno Senna for the fifteen-minute session. All cars were out on track early, however Jean-Éric Vergne damaged his front wing and suspension after he hit the wall under braking on the exit of the tunnel. Vergne limped back to the pits where he was subsequently eliminated.After the early phases of timed laps, Rosberg was fastest on 1:15.022. Six minutes of the Q2 session remained when Vettel pitted with complaints about the front of his car "jumping like a rabbit". After opting for soft tyres early on, both Lotus cars eventually went for super-soft tyres along with the rest of the field. Late in the session, the first driver into the 1:14 bracket was Felipe Massa in his Ferrari.
As time ran out, McLaren driver Jenson Button, was 11th and in the elimination zone, along with the Lotuses, Toro Rossos, Di Resta and Senna. Grosjean and Räikkönen were able to set laps good enough to push German Nico Hülkenberg and the sole remaining Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi out of qualifying and into 11th and 12th places, respectively. Button was unable to improve on his previous lap and missed entry to the Q3 session by two-tenths of a second. It was the first time since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix that Button had missed Q3 in consecutive race weekends. Behind Button were Senna, di Resta and Daniel Ricciardo.
At the end of the period, just 0.967 of a second separated the top sixteen drivers.
Q3
The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg was the first car on track followed by Pastor Maldonado. The ten-minute session was split into two informal phases: initial competitive timed laps followed by short rest at the pits, then a frantic run at the end of the session. In the first five minutes, Vettel and the two Ferrari drivers were the only drivers not to set timed laps.Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton both went out on a brand new set of super-soft tyres, while others fitted used tyres of the same compound. After the initial runs, Rosberg led the Lotus of Grosjean, followed by Mark Webber. The gap between the top three was just over one tenth of a second, meaning that no driver had the comfort of knowing his lap time would be sufficient to hold his current position.
With three minutes left of the session, the top five cars at the time pitted and awaited for their final attack on qualifying. At this stage, both Ferraris went out onto the track for the first time in the session, along with Vettel. However, Vettel left the pit with the slower soft tyres fitted. It became clear by his slow pace that he would – as in Spain – not complete a timed lap so as to have the option of starting the race on either type of dry compound tyres.
Webber, Grosjean and Rosberg all went out again on an unused set of the red-banded super-soft compound, but their initial times remained unchallenged. All cars were by then on the track, with the exception of Vettel. As the chequered flag fell upon the session, it was Webber who was ahead of Rosberg, after having set the fastest second and third sector times. Hamilton and Massa fell short of Webber's time, leaving Schumacher, Rosberg and Grosjean the only drivers capable of taking pole from Webber, as they were the only drivers to still on a timed lap.
Schumacher was the only one to eclipse Webber's time and did so by only eight hundredths of a second. It was the first time he had been fastest in qualification since his comeback after he left the sport in 2006. Unfortunately for him, he would have to start from sixth on the grid due to his penalty from the previous race. This elevated Red Bull driver Webber to pole position, the tenth of his career. The second Mercedes of Rosberg was third, with Hamilton in fourth and Grosjean in fifth, although all, along with Fernando Alonso, would also gain a place due to Schumacher's penalty. Alonso was six-tenths of a second off the pole time, leading Massa, who qualified in the top ten for the first time in 2012. Kimi Räikkönen was eighth fastest, followed by Maldonado, whose ten-place grid penalty and subsequent penalty for a gearbox change would drop him from ninth to last on the grid. Vettel was promoted to ninth, and would start alongside the Force India of Nico Hülkenberg.
Post qualifying
Schumacher was extremely happy with his best qualifying performance since his return to Formula One racing. The seven time world champion stated "It is simply a wonderful feeling to set pole after such a long time, and particularly here in Monaco. Okay, it has taken a little bit longer than I might have wanted in the second chapter of my career, but that makes it even sweeter. It's just beautiful". Schumacher came into qualifying knowing that his five-place grid penalty would mean that his best possible grid position was sixth. Knowing this, in the Wednesday pre-race press conference Schumacher rather humorously stated he would have to qualify in first position. True to his word Schumacher later stated in the post-qualifying press conference "I told you guys already in the press conference, my situation is going to be pole, start the race in sixth and I'm going to win it".Struggling Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was upbeat about his best qualifying performance of the 2012 season saying "I am very happy with how things have gone in this Grand Prix so far. Finally, I am having fun at the wheel of the F2012".
Adding to Maldonado's ten-place grid penalty for colliding with Mexican Sergio Pérez in free practice three, the Williams team decided to make a gearbox change and incur a further five-place grid penalty. Pérez, who failed to set a qualifying time, also decided to take a gearbox change and was penalised with a five-place grid penalty. Maldonado started in 24th with the Mexican ahead of him in 23rd.