F1 2012 — A Retrospective Part 13: Belgium
An opening lap incident defined this race, but how were the 43 laps that proceeded it?
Qualifying
Jenson Button earned his first pole position of the season in a mixed up Qualifying session. This was Button’s first pole since joining McLaren, last achieving the feat in his championship winning Brawn in 2009.
The rest of the field were all out of order in a session that showed just how evenly matched the grid was at this stage.
Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez both qualified inside the top five in the Sauber. Kobayashi was a career high second and Perez was fifth. The Mexican was promoted to fourth due to Pastor Maldonado receiving a three place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg in Q1.
That penalty moved the Williams driver down to sixth from third. Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso were also promoted, to third and fifth respectively.
This was a great chance for Alonso to gain on his title rivals, with Lewis Hamilton and both Red Bull drivers further back. Hamilton went a different way on setup. He ended up eight tenths slower, and was out-qualified by his teammate for only the third time in 12 races this season.
Hamilton made matters worse for himself when, following the session, he tweeted a picture revealing sensitive team data from the car’s performance.
This showed where Hamilton lost time to Button on their laps, but more importantly highlighted information the team absolutely wanted to keep secret from their rivals, such as the car’s settings and its ride height.
A team principal told Autosport that it was “gold dust” for his engineers, which Christian Horner of Red Bull backed up by claiming the data was “very valuable and I am sure every engineer in the pit lane would be having a close look at it.”
Hamilton also tweeted his dissatisfaction with the difference in pace, implying his team sabotaged his chances of pole position.
“Damn, WTF!! Jenson has the new rear wing on, I have the old. We voted to change, didn’t work out. I lose 0.4 tenths just on the straight. Nothing I could do. Now, it’s about picking up every point I can from there. Jenson should win easy with that speed,” wrote Hamilton.
McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh cooled the situation in the press, he insisted the matter was dealt with internally and the team had moved on by race day.
“He was asked to take [the picture] down and he did it immediately. He misjudged the situation. All the other [tweets] we didn’t ask him to remove, but that one he removed it and apologised. He wasn’t thinking clearly obviously,” said Whitmarsh.
The two parties were deep in contract negotiations, but it was believed by the BBC reporter Andrew Benson that this incident had no impact on the upcoming deal and Hamilton “rebuffed” offers from the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull.
Benson wrote that PR commitments and travel arrangements were the final details to be resolved before the contract was signed.
For Red Bull, they simply lacked the pace of their rivals. Mark Webber finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel, but was only quick enough for seventh. To make matters worse, he received a five place grid penalty for a change of gearbox, that meant he started the race in 12th.
Vettel was 10th after the first run of laps in Q2, but he failed to improve on his time and he fell down to 11th. He started the race in 10th.
Raikkonen only out-qualified Romain Grosjean for the fourth time this season, the Frenchman started the race down in eighth.
Paul di Resta rounded out the top 10 in the Force India. The two Mercedes drivers struggled for Saturday pace again, with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg down in 13th and 18th, with Rosberg also receiving a five grid place penalty for a change of gearbox moving him down to 23rd. Felipe Massa started 14th in the other Ferrari.
Pre-Race
It was believed that a one-stop was the quickest route around the 44 laps of the great Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Martin Brundle pointed out that the timing of when to pit was more important here than at any other track.
At seven kilometres, it is the longest circuit on the Formula One calendar. If a team misjudged when to stop by even one lap it could prove very costly. While the suggestion was that a one-stop was quickest, the expectation was that most teams were going to settle for a two-stop as it was the safer option.
The Medium and Hard compounds were the race tyres chosen by Pirelli, but it was unclear which was quickest in the race. Red Bull were setting similar times with both tyres during Qualifying, this meant the Hard tyre was likely to be the better option during the race.
Hulkenberg, in 11th, and Rosberg were the only drivers who opted to start the race on the Hards.
Race
This was the most dramatic 60m of the season. The run up to La Source (Turn One) is the shortest of any track of the season, but it packed a heavy punch as the five red lights went off and the race got underway.
Initially, Maldonado got off to a lightning start. He was up to second from sixth before they even approached the turn into the first corner. Brundle was suspicious of his getaway, claiming the Venezuelan jumped the start.
It was quickly overshadowed by a horrific crash that involved six cars.
Grosjean got a great launch off the start and moved to cut off Hamilton behind him. However, he misjudged the situation entirely and failed to leave any room for the McLaren driver who was then squeezed into the wall.
Contact was made between Hamilton and Grosjean, causing both of them to lose control of their cars as Grosjean went airborne, taking out Perez and Alonso in the process. They collected Kobayashi and Maldonado on the way down, both were able to limp on, but the other four were all out of the race.
Alonso was fortunate to avoid a serious injury as Grosjean’s car flew across the front of his Ferrari, missing him by only a matter of inches. This was the championship leader’s first DNF of the season, and through no fault of his own.
There was simply nothing Alonso, Maldonado and the two Saubers could do in this situation, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Predictably, the Safety Car (SC) was brought out as the marshals cleaned up the massacre of debris. Hamilton even played his part, collecting some of his own front wing, which he brought back to the team in the paddock.
A replay showed Hamilton bashing his helmet in the direction of Grosjean to indicate the universal signal for “use your brain,” before having words with the Lotus driver. Brundle squarely put the blame for the incident at Grosjean’s feet, the incident was under investigation by the stewards.
Amid all the chaos, with six cars now either out of the race or limping at the back of the grid, there was now a massive gap in the points positions that opened up for the rest of the field to make the most of.
The Force Indias were the biggest winners of the incident. Hulkenberg and di Rest were promoted to third and fourth, having started in 11th and ninth. Schumacher also gained massively, moving from 13th to fifth.
Brundle was clearly stunned by the incident. As a former driver in the 80’s and 90’s, he knows all about the dangers the sport poses and he takes safety extremely seriously. He described it as “nasty” and “scary.” He was very critical of Grosjean, who he said “doesn’t seem spatially aware of his car.”
“This frightens me,” he added. Particularly, the replays of Alonso’s perspective clearly affected the co-commentator.
The cars were completely destroyed in the wreckage, Vettel was lucky not to sustain any damage as he was forced to drive over a long stretch of debris as he navigated his way around the incident.
The SC stayed out for the first four laps, which accounted for almost 10% of the entire 44 lap race. This meant that the one-stop was now potentially much easier for cars to pull off as this period allowed them to preserve their tyres an extra few laps.
By the time the race got back underway, Button comfortably led the race from the restart. He immediately got to work on opening up a gap to Raikkonen in second.
Vettel tried to overtake Massa on the exit of Raidillon (Turn Five) but the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen was in the way, which allowed Massa to maintain position over the Red Bull as they both passed the Finn for 10th and 11th.
Hulkenberg moved ahead of Raikkonen for second at Le Combes (Turn Seven).
Maldonado was out of the race after an incident at the same corner left him without a front wing. Replays showed Charlie Whiting clearly spotted Maldonado’s jumpstart, he was under investigation for that and for causing the incident that ended his race.
The gap out front was already up to 3s by the start of lap six. Button’s biggest threat, Raikkonen, losing out to Hulkenberg was a massive advantage for the 2009 World Champion. With the likes of Alonso, Hamilton and the two Saubers also out, this race was lining up perfectly for Button.
Schumacher passed di Resta at Les Combes for fourth. Behind, there were four cars battling for eighth place. Bruno Senna led the way, with Webber, Massa and Vettel all very close.
Other big winners of the first lap incident were the two Toro Rosso drivers. Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne were sixth and seventh. Senna’s battle behind was helping their cause even further.
Rosberg also gained from the crash, he was already up to 12th place from 23rd.
On lap seven, Vettel passed Massa down the inside of the Bus Stop chicane (Turn 19) to move into 10th.
Webber was unable to get ahead of Senna despite picking up a slipstream out of Raidillon and having DRS. The straight line speed of the Red Bull hit the limiter too quickly which meant Senna’s power advantage was significant enough to keep him ahead of the Australian.
As a result, Vettel was onto his radio requesting his team to find a gap for him in the traffic that could allow him to come in for a pit stop. He wanted to get into some clean air in the hope that it could allow him to jump both of these cars on strategy.
However, on lap nine, Vettel managed to overtake Webber. This time he dived down the outside of the Bus Stop chicane. This moved him up to ninth.
This was the race earmarked by Lotus that they were confident they could win, but according to Peter “Bono” Bonnington, Schumacher’s race engineer, Raikkonen was struggling with front locking on his car, which was dampening his performance.
On lap 10, Ricciardo passed di Resta under DRS at the Kemmel Straight. This moved the Toro Rosso driver up to fifth. Di Resta responded by coming in at the end of that lap for a set of Hard tyres. He came out in 11th.
On lap 11, Schumacher passed Raikkonen at the outside of Les Combes. It was a lovely overtaking move that required a trust in the Finn to not collide into the side of his Mercedes.
Raikkonen once again was living up to his reputation of always being tough but fair during an on-track battle. The Lotus driver came in for his first stop at the end of that lap. Webber joined him in the pits, they both changed for a set of Hards.
Vettel was suffering the same problem as Webber on the Kemmel Straight when trying to overtake Senna. Brundle described the Red Bull as “not working well on this track,” and this was a clear example of how that was the case.
Raikkonen went quickest by 1.5s on his first proper timed lap on the new set of tyres. Ricciardo responded to the pace by coming in on lap 12. The speed of the Lotus meant that Button was going to have to come in soon or commit to a one-stop.
On lap 13, Vettel made yet another move at the Bus Stop chicane. He successfully passed Senna by going around the outside of the Williams, just as he did to his teammate a few laps earlier.
Hulkenberg came in for his first stop, which meant that Vettel was promoted to fourth place. Hulkenberg came out behind Kobayashi.
Rosberg was holding up Raikkonen, which was working out in favour of his teammate. This was costing the Finn time in his pursuit of the seven time World Champion. Hulkenberg cleared the traffic and was gaining on them fast.
On lap 15, Raikkonen got ahead of Rosberg for sixth place. Vettel also moved ahead of Vergne and was up into the podium positions. It now looked increasingly like Vettel and Button were attempting a one-stop.
On lap 16, Hulkenberg also got by Rosberg whose tyres were starting to feel the wear of near half race distance. The difference in strategies was mixing up the field, it wasn’t going to be until much later that we knew everyone’s ‘true’ position. Senna pitted at the end of that lap.
Rosberg was really struggling by the end of lap 16, he was overtaken by both Ricciardo and Webber in the run up to the Bus Stop chicane. Webber then was able to get ahead of his fellow Australian at Les Combes.
Next up to overtake Rosberg was Massa, who moved into eighth.
By lap 19, Vettel caught up to Schumacher and was threatening an overtake. Schumacher defended at the Bus Stop chicane. He locked up massively and took position on the outside of the corner. This invited Vettel to dive down the inside, but Schumacher held his ground coming out of the corner.
However, Schumacher cut across the Red Bull and went into the pits, they were fortunate not to make contact. Vettel was told to do the opposite of Schumacher so stayed out. The lock up from the Mercedes was as good a sign as any that those tyres were finished.
Schumacher arrived back on track ahead of Rosberg in eighth place. Button pitted on the following lap, he retained his position as race leader. He successfully opened up the gap to give himself what was effectively a free pit stop. Rosberg also came in on that lap.
Rosberg pitting freed di Resta, Vergne and Senna, who had all formed a queue behind the German. Vergne took advantage of this by overtaking di Resta at Les Combes for ninth place.
Vettel was last to come in, he changed tyres on lap 21. He came out in sixth but, more importantly, he was ahead of Schumacher and Ricciardo. The top five now read: Button, Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, Webber and Massa.
Hulkenberg was told he had to make the two-stop work if they were to have a successful race. Meanwhile, Button was told “plan A is good,” implying he was settling on a one-stop strategy.
On lap 23, Senna overtook di Resta for 10th. Vettel passed Massa at the Bus Stop chicane again. This time he went around the outside, completing his hat trick for that maneuver. Vettel and Schumacher were under investigation for the last corner incident that saw Schumacher come into the pits, but it was going to be looked at after the race.
Perez was the first of those involved in the lap one incident to speak out about the crash. He was bitterly disappointed to lose out on the chance to make the most of his fourth place grid position.
“We paid for the mistake of one driver,” he said. “I hope the stewards react,” he added. That was a pretty blunt but entirely appropriate response to the accident. He also mentioned that Alonso was shook up over what happened. The Spaniard visited the medical centre but was deemed ok during the race.
By lap 25, Button’s lead was now 10s over Raikkonen. On lap 26, di Resta signalled the start of the next phase of pit stops by coming in for his second change of tyres. Hulkenberg, Webber and Massa all responded by coming in on the following lap.
Ricciardo split Hulkenberg and Webber as they now took fifth, sixth and seventh. Further ahead, Vettel was now gaining on Raikkonen by around one second per lap, with the Finn also likely to stop again. In fact, he arrived for his second stop on lap 28. He came back out in fourth behind Schumacher.
Massa was the next to make an overtaking move — this race very much the antidote to the much more sedate Hungarian Grand Prix — as he passed Senna for ninth. Vergne came in for his second stop.
It was announced Webber was under investigation for an unsafe pit release. When he came out of his pit box, Massa was just passing through. They narrowly avoided contact and the stewards deemed it worthy of a second look.
On track, Raikkonen got ahead of Schumacher at the Bus Stop chicane. He locked up slightly as he moved around the outside. Schumacher had a look down the inside of La Source, but he was too far back to regain the position. There were four cars in this battle for the final podium place.
As they came up to the exit of Raidillon, Hulkenberg had a look at overtaking Schumacher but the Mercedes driver was only intent on winning back his third place from Raikkonen. He picked up a healthy tow from the Lotus and easily retook the position before the turn into Les Combes.
Massa was right behind this bunch and was quickly gaining to make it a five way battle for third.
On lap 34, Raikkonen got back at Schumacher once again. The 2007 World Champion had great traction out of La Source and got alongside the German on the run up to Eau Rouge (Turn Three) and passed him around the outside on the famous hill.
That was a brave move, particularly against the ruthless Schumacher, but this time he made it stick. Raikkonen was finally up to third.
On lap 35, Hulkenberg passed his fellow countryman for fourth. He moved around the outside at La Source. However, Schumacher overtook the Force India driver under DRS on the run up to Les Combes.
Schumacher was then informed he was switching to Plan B. That meant he was doing a two-stop, he came in for his second stop at the end of that lap and was now in seventh.
On lap 36, Massa caught up and passed Webber on the Wellington straight. Both of the Toro Rossos moved ahead of Rosberg at the same corner. Vergne overtook Ricciardo in the process to get up to ninth.
Up ahead for the Frenchman was Senna, who was struggling massively for grip on his worn tyres. Vergne got by the Williams and moved up to eighth. Ricciardo followed suit and took ninth before Senna duly pitted, taking him out of the points. Di Resta inherited 10th.
Schumacher was complaining about a lack of sixth gear, he was going to have to finish the race without it. However, this wasn’t quite Spain 1994 and there was to be no heroic podium finish.
Raikkonen was sounding frustrated over the radio. His team urged him to push hard for the remaining few laps, so as to maintain the gap to Hulkenberg. He requested more power from the car, this was yet another day where Lotus were left thinking what could have been.
Button coasted home for his second victory of the season, his first since winning at the opening race in Australia. So much went wrong for Button between those two Sundays, but he was impervious as F1 returned from its Summer break. He won by a comfortable 14s on Vettel, and 26s on Raikkonen.
For the first time this season, the victory was taken by the driver who led every single lap of the race. This was a dominant performance from the McLaren driver.
The final standings were as follows
Championship Standings Top Five (Round 12)
The absence of Alonso following the opening lap incident meant this was a great chance for the chasing pack to make up ground. The Spaniard was the only one of the top five to finish in the points at every round up to now, so this was an evening out process which Vettel took full advantage of.
Webber couldn’t pull out the same performance as his teammate and dropped down the order. Hamilton didn’t get the chance to catch up given his role in the crash.
The Briton won last time out, but this DNF set him back despite not actually losing any ground on Alonso points-wise. However, it was one less race for him to reel in the Ferrari driver. In the teammate battle, he also had his 41 point lead over Button carved down to only 16.
Raikkonen might not have earned a win to his name in 2012 yet, but his consistency was paying off. He moved to within 33 points with eight races remaining. If the Lotus could start converting opportunities into wins then they could become a serious threat for the championship.
Post-Race
“Is that a celebration tinged with relief?” asked David Croft. Button’s troubles were obvious to everyone on the grid at this point. He was so strong in 2011, and was comfortable in victory in Australia. It was all downhill from there, all the while Hamilton’s star shone much brighter.
Meanwhile, Brundle was unsure if he’d ever seen Vettel so happy to finish second in a race. Red Bull’s car wasn’t suited to this track, but circumstances threw up a great chance to gain on championship rivals unexpectedly and he took the reins as Alonso’s closest challenger.
Raikkonen and Vettel exchanged friendly words in the cooldown room. Both tussled with Schumacher during the race, and Raikkonen relayed his story of trying to overtake the seven time World Champion.
Button pointed out on the timing screen the DNF of Alonso. Vettel responded by asking how many Button had this season, to which Vettel answered his own question with an emphatic “Three??”
Button and Vettel were both clearly relieved to see the Ferrari not finish a race for once. It was proving to be one of the most durable cars on the grid so far this season.
Jacky Ickx conducted the podium interviews. Button said he still felt “weird” about this new addition to the sport, but Sky’s commentary team were all in favour of getting the drivers’ reactions as quickly as possible.
“This circuit is such a special one for most drivers. To lead from lights to flag is very special,” said Button.
Driver in Focus
The focus of the aftermath of this race was firmly pointed right at Romain Grosjean for his role in the opening lap crash. The accident was squarely his fault, for which he was reprimanded with a one race suspension. This meant he was unable to feature at the Italian Grand Prix that followed.
This was one of the most horrific crashes of the 2010s decade, though unfortunately it was not the worst we saw. Up until that point, the safety of F1 cars had improved significantly in the time between that race and the tragic San Marino Grand Prix of 1994 that rook Ronald Ratzenberger and Aryton Senna’s life.
In the time between Belgium and Singapore, the sport lost Professor Sid Watkins. He is credited with playing a significant role in improving those safety standards.
If it wasn’t for his work, then perhaps this accident would have been a lot more serious than it ended up being. All six drivers involved were able to walk away safely and without harm. For that we have Watkins to thank.
Grosjean, most notably, was also involved in a crash in Bahrain 2020 where he was extremely fortunate to walk away with only minor burn wounds on his hands.
This race was a big moment for Grosjean’s F1 career. His first full season in the sport was mixed, with some standout performances and with some worrying incidents such as in Belgium.
He earned his first podiums in Bahrain and Canada, coming third and second, and was unlucky to have a mechanical issue from second place in Valencia. But he was also involved in multiple opening lap incidents. He ruined Schumacher’s race in Malaysia and di Resta’s in Britain.
This was the dichotomy that marred Grosjean’s career. He has likely driven his last race in the sport with no seat available for 2021. But, in 2012, he held his own with Raikkonen. He even displayed better qualifying pace than the 2007 World Champion, but he lacked the race craft to bring him to the next level.
Due to Bahrain 2020, this incident will no longer define his career, but for many years it left a cloud that hung over him whenever he had an accident. He was prone to mistakes and this was the most high profile of those.
“Some people are good racing drivers and others are just fast racing drivers. And I think at this stage, it was quite clear that Romain was quick but he wasn’t good when it came to close quarter racing,” said David Coulthard, reflecting on the crash for the BBC.
For Grosjean’s legacy in F1, this view is likely the most strongly held among experts and viewers alike.
His character was never in question, Grosjean always came off as a nice and well-meaning guy. Even in the immediate aftermath of this accident, he was quick to reflect on his mistake that led to the incident.
“I misjudged the gap with Lewis [Hamilton]. I thought I was in front of him. It was a small mistake, but a big incident. I’m very sorry, and I’m just glad nobody is hurt. That’s the main thing,” said the Frenchman.
“For sure I don’t want to do any more [crashes], so I will work as much as I can to try and avoid those. It’s just most of the time misjudgment of the space I have in front or the space I have on the side.
“It’s true we don’t see much in the mirrors and stuff like that and it goes very quick at the start. I was 100% sure I was in front of Lewis , but I was not so I need to rethink about my view of the car. I am most angry at myself to have misjudged the gap with Lewis’ car.”
Race Verdict
This race was obviously most notable for its opening lap incident. However, the race itself was still very solid. Perhaps we were robbed of a more thrilling affair considering the quality of drivers and machines lost to the accident, but it was still entertaining.
Any race will suffer from losing the likes of Hamilton and Alonso. The two Saubers were also very quick in qualifying and could have applied greater pressure to Button than Vettel or Raikkonen ever did.
Despite that, the racing was still close and consistent. DRS never seemed to devalue overtaking, with drivers still finding ways to defend against it. There were also plenty of overtaking moves at other parts of the track, most obviously at the Bus Stop chicane where Vettel made four overtaking maneuvers and almost completed a fifth.
It wasn’t quite Valencia, or even Canada, but it was a much better and more competitive contest than last time out in Hungary. In another season, this might have been marked as one of the best of the campaign, but given the quality of some of the Grands Prix that preceded it, it wasn’t quite up to the same standard. After all, Button led from lights to flag which hadn’t been done in any of the first 11 races.
Result: 3/5
Next up: ITALY
Previous entries in the series can be found here:
Part 10: Britain
Part 11: Germany
Part 12: Hungary
(links to the rest can be found inside Part 10 or by clicking into my profile)
