The 2012 German Grand Prix, formally the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland 2012, was a Formula One motor race that took place on 22 July 2012 as the tenth round of the 2012 season. After being held at the Nürburgring in , the race returned to the Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg, making the 2012 race the thirty-third time the circuit hosted the German Grand Prix, and the eighth time the shortened circuit hosted the race since its 2002 redesign.

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso got his 22nd pole position before going on to win the race, with McLaren's Jenson Button and Lotus' Kimi Räikkönen completing the podium. This race would see Michael Schumacher set his 77th and final fastest lap in Formula One, a record he still holds . By winning the German Grand Prix, Alonso achieved his 30th Grand Prix victory overall, becoming the fifth driver after Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Michael Schumacher to achieve this feat.

Alonso increased his points advantage to 34 points over Webber, bringing up their totals to 154 and 120, respectively. While Vettel remained in third with 110 points, Räikkönen overtook Hamilton in the standings for fourth spot, six points clear of Hamilton following the latter's retirement. Meanwhile, Ferrari narrowed their deficit to Red Bull to 53 points, while McLaren overtook Lotus for third in the standings having amassed 160 points, with Lotus being shy by only one point.

Report

Background As there was no race at Hockenheim in 2011, 2012 was the first year that the drag reduction system (DRS) and Pirelli tyres featured at the circuit. The DRS detection zone for the race was located at turn four, with the activation zone located further down the road, so that it could be used on the approach to the hairpin.

Tyre supplier Pirelli chose to run with the most commonly run tyre combination of the year to date, and brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre to the Hockenheim circuit.

Driver penalties Romain Grosjean took a five-place grid penalty after his team discovered a terminal issue in his gearbox. Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber were also given five-place penalties for gearbox changes. Sergio Pérez was given a five-place grid penalty for impeding Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen in the second qualifying session.

Drivers Dani Clos took over Narain Karthikeyan's HRT during the first free practice session. Jules Bianchi replaced Paul di Resta at Force India, while Valtteri Bottas once again drove Bruno Senna's Williams for the same session. This race marked Lewis Hamilton's 100th race and Kamui Kobayashi's 50th race.

Race The conditions on the grid were dry and sunny before the race; the air temperature ranged between and the track temperature was between . Fernando Alonso won the race, his 30th in Formula One to become the only driver to win three races at this point in the season, Jenson Button was 2nd after Sebastian Vettel was given a 20 second time penalty for passing the former by going off the track, the penalty dropped the German down to 5th. Michael Schumacher got the 77th and final fastest lap of his Formula One career.

Classification

Qualifying Driver Constructor Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 1 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:16.073 1:38.521 1:40.621 1 2 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:16.393 1:38.309 1:41.026 2 3 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:16.500 1:39.382 1:41.496 8 4 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:16.686 1:38.010 1:42.459 3 5 12 Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:16.271 1:39.467 1:43.501 4 6 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:16.181 1:38.731 1:43.950 5 7 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:16.507 1:38.659 1:44.113 6 8 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:16.221 1:37.365 1:44.186 7 9 11 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:16.352 1:39.703 1:44.889 9 10 9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:15.693 1:39.729 1:45.811 10 11 16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.516 1:39.789 11 12 15 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 1:15.726 1:39.933 17 13 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.481 1:39.985 12 14 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:16.265 1:40.212 13 15 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:16.685 1:40.574 19 16 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:16.426 1:40.752 14 17 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:15.988 1:41.551 21 18 17 Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:16.741 15 19 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:17.620 16 20 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:18.531 18 21 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:19.220 20 22 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:19.291 22 23 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:19.912 23 24 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:20.230 24107% time: 1:20.991Source: Notes: — Romain Grosjean, Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber were each demoted five places as a penalty for changing their gearboxes before the race. — Sergio Pérez was demoted five places as a penalty for impeding Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen in the second qualifying session.

Race

Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Points 1 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 67 1:31:05.862 1 25 2 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 67 +6.931 6 18 3 9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 67 +16.409 10 15 4 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 67 +21.925 12 12 5 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 67 +23.732 2 10 6 15 Sergio Pérez Sauber-Ferrari 67 +27.896 17 8 7 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 67 +28.970 3 6 8 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 67 +46.941 8 4 9 12 Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 67 +48.162 4 2 10 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 67 +48.889 21 1 11 11 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 67 +59.227 9 12 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 67 +1:11.428 13 13 16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 67 +1:16.829 11 14 17 Jean-Éric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 67 +1:16.965 15 15 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 66 +1 Lap 5 16 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 66 +1 Lap 18 17 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 66 +1 Lap 14 18 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 66 +1 Lap 19 19 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 65 +2 Laps 16 20 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 65 +2 Laps 20 21 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 64 +3 Laps 23 22 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 64 +3 Laps 22 23 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 64 +3 Laps 24 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 56 Puncture damage 7 Source: Notes: — Sebastian Vettel finished 2nd, but received a 20 second post-race drive-through penalty for an illegal overtaking manoeuvre on Jenson Button.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 154 2 Mark Webber 120 3 Sebastian Vettel 110 1 4 Kimi Räikkönen 98 1 5 Lewis Hamilton 92Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points 1 Red Bull-Renault 230 2 Ferrari 177 1 3 McLaren-Mercedes 160 1 4 Lotus-Renault 159 5 Mercedes 105Source:

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

See also 2012 Hockenheimring GP2 Series round 2012 Hockenheimring GP3 Series round

References