Race · Round 15 of 20 · 7 October 2012

2012 Japanese Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel won for Red Bull Racing from pole at Suzuka Circuit. 5 of the starters were not classified. It was the first championship podium for Kamui Kobayashi.

Dry · High of 24 °C, no rain on the day (modelled, Open-Meteo)

How it is modelled

ERA5's reanalysis, through Open-Meteo, of the circuit's whole local day and not the race's hours, for the grid cell the circuit sits in and not the track, so a shower can be missing from it. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.

Circuit: Suzuka CircuitSuzuka, Japan
Winner: Sebastian VettelRed Bull Racing
Pole: Sebastian Vettel
Fastest lap: Sebastian Vettel
Entries: 2419 classified

Classification

Classification
Pos	Driver	Constructor	Chassis	Grid	Laps	Out	Points	FL
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	RB8	1	53	Finished	25	fastest lap
2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	F2012	10	53	Finished	18
3	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	C31	3	53	Finished	15
4	Jenson Button	McLaren	MP4-27	8	53	Finished	12
5	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	MP4-27	9	53	Finished	10
6	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	E20	7	53	Finished	8
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	VJM05	15	53	Finished	6
8	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	FW34	12	53	Finished	4
9	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	RB8	2	53	Finished	2
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	STR7	14	53	Finished	1
11	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	F1 W03	23	53	Finished	0
12	Paul di Resta	Force India	VJM05	11	53	Finished	0
13	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	STR7	19	53	Finished	0
14	Bruno Senna	Williams	FW34	16	53	Finished	0
15	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	CT01	17	52	Finished	0
16	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	MR01	18	52	Finished	0
17	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	CT01	22	52	Finished	0
18	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	F112	20	52	Finished	0
19	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	E20	4	51	Gearbox	0
DNF	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	MR01	21	37	Engine	0
DNF	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	F112	24	32	Vibrations	0
DNF	Sergio Perez	Sauber	C31	5	18	Spun off	0
DNF	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	F2012	6	0	Collision	0
DNF	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	F1 W03	13	0	Collision	0

F1DB layout suzuka-2 · 5.807 km · 18 turns, F1DB’s figures
F1DB, CC BY 4.0 · drawn by Jules Roy
The outline is F1DB’s, for every layout; the trace is OpenStreetMap’s, where it exists.

Grid to flag

Lines run from grid slot to result, ending at the last lap completed. A dashed line ending in a cross is a driver not classified. Nothing between is recorded, so a crossing is not an overtake at that lap.

Grid to flag
Driver	Grid	Result	Laps
Sebastian Vettel	1	1	53
Felipe Massa	10	2	53
Kamui Kobayashi	3	3	53
Jenson Button	8	4	53
Sir Lewis Hamilton	9	5	53
Kimi Raikkonen	7	6	53
Nico Hulkenberg	15	7	53
Pastor Maldonado	12	8	53
Mark Webber	2	9	53
Daniel Ricciardo	14	10	53
Michael Schumacher	23	11	53
Paul di Resta	11	12	53
Jean-Éric Vergne	19	13	53
Bruno Senna	16	14	53
Heikki Kovalainen	17	15	52
Timo Glock	18	16	52
Vitaly Petrov	22	17	52
Pedro de la Rosa	20	18	52
Romain Grosjean	4	19	51
Charles Pic	21	DNF	37
Narain Karthikeyan	24	DNF	32
Sergio Perez	5	DNF	18
Fernando Alonso	6	DNF	0
Nico Rosberg	13	DNF	0

Qualifying

Qualifying
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Q1	Q2	Q3	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1	1:32.608	1:31.501	1:30.839	—	0 m	—
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	2	1:32.951	1:31.950	1:31.090	+0.251	16 m	+0.251
3	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	1:33.077	1:31.772	1:31.290	+0.451	29 m	+0.200
4	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	14	1:32.042	1:31.886	1:31.700	+0.861	55 m	+0.410
5	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	10	1:32.029	1:31.988	1:31.898	+1.059	68 m	+0.198
6	Sergio Perez	Sauber	15	1:32.147	1:32.169	1:32.022	+1.183	76 m	+0.124
7	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	1:32.459	1:31.833	1:32.114	+1.275	82 m	+0.092
8	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	9	1:32.221	1:31.826	1:32.208	+1.369	88 m	+0.094
9	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4	1:33.061	1:32.121	1:32.327	+1.488	95 m	+0.119
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	12	1:32.828	1:32.272	—	—	49 m	—
11	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	1:32.946	1:32.293	—	—	50 m	—
12	Paul di Resta	Force India	11	1:32.898	1:32.327	—	—	52 m	—
13	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	7	1:33.349	1:32.469	—	—	61 m	—
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	18	1:32.834	1:32.512	—	—	64 m	—
15	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	8	1:33.015	1:32.625	—	—	71 m	—
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	1:33.059	1:32.954	—	—	92 m	—
17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	17	1:33.370	1:33.368	—	—	118 m	—
18	Bruno Senna	Williams	19	1:33.405	—	—	—	87 m	—
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	20	1:34.657	—	—	—	166 m	—
20	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	24	1:35.213	—	—	—	201 m	—
21	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	22	1:35.385	—	—	—	212 m	—
22	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	25	1:35.429	—	—	—	215 m	—
23	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	21	1:35.432	—	—	—	215 m	—
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	23	1:36.734	—	—	—	297 m	—

Before knock-out qualifying arrived in 2006 there is one time per driver; from 2006, the best lap of each of the three sessions.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year. Each driver is measured against the fastest lap of the last part they set a time in.

Pit stops

Bars run in finishing order, ticked at each stop. An unticked bar may hide a stop: F1DB’s record has gaps. A cross is a driver not classified. Ticks and strip mark the lap, not cause, tyres or gain; the table gives times.

Pit stops
Driver	Result	Laps	Stops recorded	Stopped on lap	Pit-lane time (s)
Sebastian Vettel	1	53	2	17, 37	20.5, 20.3
Felipe Massa	2	53	2	17, 36	20.9, 20.8
Kamui Kobayashi	3	53	2	14, 31	20.8, 20.8
Jenson Button	4	53	2	13, 35	20.2, 21.1
Sir Lewis Hamilton	5	53	2	16, 31	21.1, 19.8
Kimi Raikkonen	6	53	2	13, 30	20.9, 21.2
Nico Hulkenberg	7	53	2	13, 31	21.0, 21.7
Pastor Maldonado	8	53	2	16, 33	21.4, 21.1
Mark Webber	9	53	2	1, 26	32.5, 20.7
Daniel Ricciardo	10	53	2	17, 34	21.9, 21.5
Michael Schumacher	11	53	2	17, 36	20.6, 20.4
Paul di Resta	12	53	2	13, 32	21.1, 21.3
Jean-Éric Vergne	13	53	2	18, 35	22.5, 21.4
Bruno Senna	14	53	4	1, 16, 21, 34	27.1, 21.5, 14.6, 21.5
Heikki Kovalainen	15	52	2	18, 41	22.8, 22.7
Timo Glock	16	52	2	20, 40	20.7, 21.5
Vitaly Petrov	17	52	3	19, 42, 48	21.4, 21.4, 14.3
Pedro de la Rosa	18	52	2	17, 36	26.3, 22.5
Romain Grosjean	19	51	3	1, 7, 22	32.3, 29.8, 21.1
Charles Pic	DNF	37	2	14, 31	21.3, 42.5
Narain Karthikeyan	DNF	32	1	15	23.2
Sergio Perez	DNF	18	1	15	21.3
Fernando Alonso	DNF	0	0	None recorded	—
Nico Rosberg	DNF	0	0	None recorded	—

A pit-lane time is all of a stop’s time in the pit lane, any wait or repair there included.

Who stopped first, between neighbours

Who stopped first, between neighbours
Drivers, in grid order	Grid	Result	First recorded stop, lap	Stopped first	Grid to flag
Sebastian Vettel · Felipe Massa	1 · 10	1 · 2	17 · 17	Same lap	Kept their order
Sebastian Vettel · Mark Webber	1 · 2	1 · 9	17 · 1	Mark Webber	Kept their order
Kamui Kobayashi · Felipe Massa	3 · 10	3 · 2	14 · 17	Kamui Kobayashi	Swapped places
Sir Lewis Hamilton · Felipe Massa	9 · 10	5 · 2	16 · 17	Sir Lewis Hamilton	Swapped places
Felipe Massa · Paul di Resta	10 · 11	2 · 12	17 · 13	Paul di Resta	Kept their order
Mark Webber · Kamui Kobayashi	2 · 3	9 · 3	1 · 14	Mark Webber	Swapped places
Kamui Kobayashi · Jenson Button	3 · 8	3 · 4	14 · 13	Jenson Button	Kept their order
Kamui Kobayashi · Romain Grosjean	3 · 4	3 · 19	14 · 1	Romain Grosjean	Kept their order
Kimi Raikkonen · Jenson Button	7 · 8	6 · 4	13 · 13	Same lap	Swapped places
Jenson Button · Sir Lewis Hamilton	8 · 9	4 · 5	13 · 16	Jenson Button	Kept their order
Kimi Raikkonen · Sir Lewis Hamilton	7 · 9	6 · 5	13 · 16	Kimi Raikkonen	Swapped places
Kimi Raikkonen · Nico Hulkenberg	7 · 15	6 · 7	13 · 13	Same lap	Kept their order
Pastor Maldonado · Nico Hulkenberg	12 · 15	8 · 7	16 · 13	Nico Hulkenberg	Swapped places
Daniel Ricciardo · Nico Hulkenberg	14 · 15	10 · 7	17 · 13	Nico Hulkenberg	Swapped places
Nico Hulkenberg · Bruno Senna	15 · 16	7 · 14	13 · 1	Bruno Senna	Kept their order
Mark Webber · Pastor Maldonado	2 · 12	9 · 8	1 · 16	Mark Webber	Swapped places
Paul di Resta · Pastor Maldonado	11 · 12	12 · 8	13 · 16	Paul di Resta	Swapped places
Mark Webber · Daniel Ricciardo	2 · 14	9 · 10	1 · 17	Mark Webber	Kept their order
Daniel Ricciardo · Michael Schumacher	14 · 23	10 · 11	17 · 17	Same lap	Kept their order
Paul di Resta · Michael Schumacher	11 · 23	12 · 11	13 · 17	Paul di Resta	Swapped places
Vitaly Petrov · Michael Schumacher	22 · 23	17 · 11	19 · 17	Michael Schumacher	Swapped places
Paul di Resta · Jean-Éric Vergne	11 · 19	12 · 13	13 · 18	Paul di Resta	Kept their order
Bruno Senna · Jean-Éric Vergne	16 · 19	14 · 13	1 · 18	Bruno Senna	Swapped places
Timo Glock · Jean-Éric Vergne	18 · 19	16 · 13	20 · 18	Jean-Éric Vergne	Swapped places
Jean-Éric Vergne · Pedro de la Rosa	19 · 20	13 · 18	18 · 17	Pedro de la Rosa	Kept their order
Bruno Senna · Heikki Kovalainen	16 · 17	14 · 15	1 · 18	Bruno Senna	Kept their order
Heikki Kovalainen · Timo Glock	17 · 18	15 · 16	18 · 20	Heikki Kovalainen	Kept their order
Timo Glock · Vitaly Petrov	18 · 22	16 · 17	20 · 19	Vitaly Petrov	Kept their order
Pedro de la Rosa · Vitaly Petrov	20 · 22	18 · 17	17 · 19	Pedro de la Rosa	Swapped places
Romain Grosjean · Pedro de la Rosa	4 · 20	19 · 18	1 · 17	Romain Grosjean	Swapped places

Pairs of classified drivers who started or finished next to each other, each with a stop recorded; the two names in a row are in grid order. Both are read from the stops F1DB records, which has gaps. It is the order things happened in and no more: with no lap times, the record cannot say whether stopping first won or lost a place.

Practice sessions Practice 1 · Practice 2 · Practice 3

Practice 1

Practice 1
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	1:34.507	—	0 m	—	20
2	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4	1:34.740	+0.233	14 m	+0.233	26
3	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	2	1:34.856	+0.349	21 m	+0.116	24
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	8	1:35.059	+0.552	34 m	+0.203	18
5	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	7	1:35.122	+0.615	38 m	+0.063	20
6	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	14	1:35.199	+0.692	43 m	+0.077	27
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	1:35.283	+0.776	48 m	+0.084	24
8	Paul di Resta	Force India	11	1:35.299	+0.792	49 m	+0.016	18
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	12	1:35.474	+0.967	59 m	+0.175	22
10	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	18	1:35.478	+0.971	60 m	+0.004	24
11	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	1:35.484	+0.977	60 m	+0.006	26
12	Sergio Perez	Sauber	15	1:35.584	+1.077	66 m	+0.100	24
13	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	9	1:35.691	+1.184	73 m	+0.107	22
14	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	10	1:35.724	+1.217	75 m	+0.033	21
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	1:36.123	+1.616	99 m	+0.399	19
16	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	17	1:36.222	+1.715	105 m	+0.099	25
17	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1	1:36.366	+1.859	114 m	+0.144	23
18	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	19	1:36.389	+1.882	116 m	+0.023	24
19	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	24	1:37.716	+3.209	197 m	+1.327	17
20	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	21	1:38.295	+3.788	233 m	+0.579	23
21	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	25	1:38.616	+4.109	252 m	+0.321	25
22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	23	1:39.043	+4.536	279 m	+0.427	25
23	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	20	1:39.374	+4.867	299 m	+0.331	22
24	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	22	1:39.688	+5.181	318 m	+0.314	19

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Practice 2

Practice 2
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	2	1:32.493	—	0 m	—	34
2	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4	1:32.707	+0.214	13 m	+0.214	32
3	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1	1:32.836	+0.343	22 m	+0.129	37
4	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	12	1:32.987	+0.494	31 m	+0.151	30
5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	1:33.093	+0.600	38 m	+0.106	28
6	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	10	1:33.107	+0.614	39 m	+0.014	35
7	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	1:33.349	+0.856	54 m	+0.242	22
8	Bruno Senna	Williams	19	1:33.499	+1.006	63 m	+0.150	35
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	1:33.614	+1.121	70 m	+0.115	32
10	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	7	1:33.750	+1.257	79 m	+0.136	13
11	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	8	1:33.866	+1.373	86 m	+0.116	19
12	Sergio Perez	Sauber	15	1:33.903	+1.410	89 m	+0.037	36
13	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	14	1:33.983	+1.490	94 m	+0.080	33
14	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	9	1:34.291	+1.798	113 m	+0.308	12
15	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	18	1:34.300	+1.807	113 m	+0.009	33
16	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	1:34.863	+2.370	149 m	+0.563	32
17	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	17	1:35.080	+2.587	162 m	+0.217	34
18	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	20	1:35.711	+3.218	202 m	+0.631	41
19	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	21	1:35.870	+3.377	212 m	+0.159	37
20	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	24	1:36.194	+3.701	232 m	+0.324	32
21	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	25	1:36.636	+4.143	260 m	+0.442	28
22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	22	1:37.342	+4.849	304 m	+0.706	30
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	23	1:37.701	+5.208	327 m	+0.359	35
24	Paul di Resta	Force India	11	—	—	—	—	2

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Practice 3

Practice 3
Pos	Driver	Constructor	No.	Best lap	Gap	≈ Distance	Interval	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing	1	1:32.136	—	0 m	—	17
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing	2	1:32.371	+0.235	15 m	+0.235	20
3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	6	1:32.824	+0.688	43 m	+0.453	13
4	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	7	1:32.918	+0.782	49 m	+0.094	23
5	Sergio Perez	Sauber	15	1:32.920	+0.784	49 m	+0.002	19
6	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	14	1:32.924	+0.788	50 m	+0.004	15
7	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	10	1:33.008	+0.872	55 m	+0.084	21
8	Jenson Button	McLaren	3	1:33.025	+0.889	56 m	+0.017	16
9	Paul di Resta	Force India	11	1:33.094	+0.958	60 m	+0.069	17
10	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	18	1:33.160	+1.024	65 m	+0.066	16
11	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	5	1:33.184	+1.048	66 m	+0.024	14
12	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus F1 Team	9	1:33.224	+1.088	69 m	+0.040	15
13	Sir Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	4	1:33.569	+1.433	90 m	+0.345	14
14	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso	17	1:33.722	+1.586	100 m	+0.153	18
15	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	8	1:33.899	+1.763	111 m	+0.177	23
16	Bruno Senna	Williams	19	1:33.984	+1.848	116 m	+0.085	19
17	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso	16	1:34.023	+1.887	119 m	+0.039	19
18	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	12	1:34.369	+2.233	141 m	+0.346	11
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	20	1:35.568	+3.432	216 m	+1.199	19
20	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham / Team Lotus (2010-14)	21	1:36.355	+4.219	266 m	+0.787	18
21	Timo Glock	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	24	1:36.389	+4.253	268 m	+0.034	11
22	Charles Pic	Virgin Racing / Marussia / Manor	25	1:36.517	+4.381	276 m	+0.128	18
23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	23	1:36.649	+4.513	284 m	+0.132	12
24	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	22	1:36.875	+4.739	299 m	+0.226	16

Each driver’s best lap of the session and the laps they ran: a classification, not lap timing.

How it is derived: distance

Distance at the session-best lap’s average speed, on the layout raced that year.

Photographs from this race

Filed on Wikimedia Commons under this race's own category, each shown with the photographer and licence its terms require. The filing is the Commons editors' and has not been checked here.

6 more photographs

Everything filed under 2012 Japanese Grand Prix on Wikimedia Commons

The cars in this race

The photograph each car's Wikipedia article leads with, from Wikimedia Commons: taken wherever and whenever that was, not necessarily at this race.

A photograph marked unchecked has a file name that does not name the car it is shown for. Most are still the right car, filed under the driver rather than the machine — but nobody has confirmed these one by one.

5 more photographs

Where this comes from

Round: 15 of 2012
Grand Prix: Japanese Grand Prix
Dates: 7 Oct 2012
Layout raced: —
Format: Standard weekend
Constructor: Red Bull Racing
Entrant: Red Bull-Renault
Confidence: reference

No layout is recorded for this round: this register has no layout timeline for the circuit, and a blank here is better than a guess.