Fernando Alonso won the final Formula One race held in Valencia, ahead of Raikkonen and Schumacher, after a race shaped by a safety car, a collision and late retirements.
Alonso took the 2012 European Grand Prix on the Valencia circuit, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher. It was the last Formula One race held there, and the result put Alonso at the top of the championship with 111 points, ahead of Webber.
Fernando Alonso won the 2012 European Grand Prix at Valencia, the last Formula One race the city ever staged. Kimi Raikkonen was second and Michael Schumacher third in a race that was shaped by a safety car, a late collision and several retirements. The result handed Alonso the championship lead.
What was the 2012 European Grand Prix?
The event was held on 24 June 2012 on the Valencia Street Circuit and formed the eighth round of the championship. Valencia would not stage another Formula One race after this meeting, so it marked the circuit's farewell. The meeting drew a large home crowd for Alonso's victory.
For Alonso, the win was his second in Spain, following his success at the 2006 Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona. He became the first driver since Michael Schumacher in 2006 to win his home race, a fact that the crowd welcomed warmly.
At 43 years and 173 days, Schumacher was the oldest man to reach a podium since Brabham's runner-up finish at the 1970 British Grand Prix. It was his best result since returning to the sport in 2010, and it proved to be the last podium of his career.
A home win for Alonso, a last podium for Schumacher and one final race at Valencia: the 2012 European Grand Prix closed a chapter.
What changed with the DRS zone for 2012?
The FIA had tested two DRS zones with one detection point in 2011, but for 2012 it chose a single longer zone, copying the Canadian layout. The detection point sat on the approach to Turn 8, and the activation point lay between Turn 10 and Turn 11.
The point had been moved forward 70 metres (230 ft) from its 2011 position, giving drivers the system earlier. The second zone that had existed after Turn 14 in 2011 was dropped. Pirelli brought the same tyre pairing as the previous European round, with a white-banded medium as the harder prime and a yellow-banded soft as the option.
Driver changes were limited. Bianchi drove Hulkenberg's Force India in the opening practice session, and Bottas was again at the wheel of Senna's Williams.
How did qualifying play out at Valencia?
Timo Glock sat out qualifying with food poisoning. His teammate Charles Pic therefore took 23rd and last place on the grid. The two HRTs filled the row ahead, with Pedro de la Rosa beating Narain Karthikeyan. Several drivers were caught out by tyre and hydraulic issues during the session.
Mark Webber had a bad session. Hydraulic trouble left him unable to use the DRS rear wing, and he qualified 19th. Vitaly Petrov was 20th, and the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne was 18th, while Daniel Ricciardo reached the second session but lined up 17th.
Heikki Kovalainen made Q2 and started 16th, which was his joint-best qualifying of the season. He was more than a second behind Sergio Perez, who took 15th for Sauber. Ferrari had used only one set of soft tyres for its drivers, and Alonso qualified 11th while Massa managed 13th. Schumacher sat 12th, and Senna took 14th.
The margin was small in the midfield. Just three-tenths of a second separated Grosjean's fastest time from Massa's 13th-place lap, a sign of how tight the 2012 field had become.
Who took pole and how tight was the front?
Sebastian Vettel took pole by four-tenths of a second, his second of the season. It was his 33rd career pole, which lifted him into joint third on the all-time list with Alain Prost and Jim Clark. It was also his third consecutive pole at the Valencia circuit, on its final appearance.
Starting second, Hamilton had made his fifth front-row start of the year. Pastor Maldonado qualified third, eleven places ahead of his Williams teammate, and ahead of the two Lotus cars. Grosjean took fourth and Raikkonen fifth, Rosberg sixth and Kobayashi seventh.
Rosberg felt Hamilton had obstructed him on his out-lap, costing him a final attempt; the stewards reviewed it and did nothing. The stewards looked into the claim but took no action. Four drivers in the top ten, Vettel, Hamilton, Maldonado and Raikkonen, were slower in Q3 than they had been in Q2.
Because no penalties were applied, every driver started the race from the position in which they had qualified.
How did the opening laps of the race unfold?
The top ten all began on the soft tyres they had used in Q3, while Schumacher, Perez and Webber chose the medium compound. Vettel launched well from pole and led into the first corner, and Hamilton held second. Raikkonen made a strong start from fifth, but Grosjean took third at the first corner, with Kobayashi fourth.
Alonso climbed from 11th to eighth on the opening lap, and Massa moved up from 13th to tenth. Rosberg dropped from sixth to 11th, and Button lost four places to 13th. Vettel had a 4-second cushion within two laps and kept adding roughly a second per lap.
Grosjean used DRS to get past Hamilton on lap 10. Alonso followed Hulkenberg through on lap 11 with a similar move. Button stopped first for new medium tyres on lap 11, and Massa, who was stuck behind di Resta, pitted for softs a lap later.
Vettel and Grosjean stopped on lap 15, and Vettel rejoined still in the lead. Kobayashi and Senna then made contact, which damaged Kobayashi's front wing and gave Senna a puncture, and both were forced into the pits.
What did the safety car change?
Lap 27 turned the race upside down. Vergne tried a DRS-assisted pass on Kovalainen through turn 12, but he misjudged the move and landed on the back of Kovalainen's car. Both drivers suffered punctures, and debris from the shredded tyres covered the track, which brought out the safety car.
Vergne retired with suspension damage, while Kovalainen was able to continue. The safety car bunched the field together and erased Vettel's lead of 20 seconds. Most leaders, including Vettel, then pitted for their second set of tyres.
Hamilton had further trouble at his stop, as a problem with the front jack cost him places, and he dropped behind both Alonso and Raikkonen. Massa, Button and Perez had made second stops just before the safety car, and they lost many positions, finishing in the 14th to 16th range. Ricciardo, who had not yet stopped, moved into fourth behind Vettel, Grosjean and Alonso.
How did the race change after the restart?
The race restarted on lap 34. Alonso took advantage immediately and passed Grosjean round the outside at turn 1. The restart also reshuffled the order and created several new battles. Rosberg, who was seventh on older tyres, quickly lost five places to Schumacher, Webber, Maldonado, Hulkenberg and di Resta.
Massa and Kobayashi collided while fighting for 13th. Massa suffered a puncture and Kobayashi was left with terminal suspension damage. Race leader Vettel also lost drive as he left turn 10 and retired, in a failure later said to involve the alternator.
Ricciardo's tyres faded, and after Hamilton and Raikkonen passed him he had to pit. Webber was suffering badly with tyre wear, and he was passed by Maldonado and both Force Indias in quick succession before going into the pits himself.
On lap 41 Grosjean, who had been within a second of Alonso, retired with an alternator failure that resembled Vettel's. That left Alonso three seconds clear of Hamilton, who was now under pressure from Raikkonen.
What happened in the closing laps?
Alonso led comfortably, while Hamilton kept Raikkonen at bay for second, although Raikkonen rarely let the gap grow beyond a second. Schumacher and Webber, running on fresh softer tyres, were about two seconds a lap quicker than those ahead, and they passed Button on lap 49.
Their pace carried them on through Perez and then di Resta, moving them into sixth and seventh. Hulkenberg was caught on the penultimate lap, which put Schumacher fifth and Webber sixth. Hamilton's tyres had been worked hard in defence, and they were close to finished.
Raikkonen passed Hamilton on lap 55 with two laps remaining. On the penultimate lap Maldonado went for Hamilton at turn 1, and Hamilton held firm with solid defending. Maldonado tried again into turn 13 with DRS, going around the outside into a closing gap, and as he bounced over the kerb he struck Hamilton and forced him into the wall, ending his race.
Alonso became the first driver to win two races that season. With Vettel and Hamilton out, he also took the championship lead.
Why was Maldonado penalised?
Even without a front wing Maldonado crossed the line 10th, yet a 20-second penalty for rejoining unsafely and for hitting Hamilton dropped him to 12th. That demoted him to 12th, which handed the final point to his teammate Senna, who was the last driver to score.
The race also produced a notable milestone. The podium's average age, 35 years, 8 months and 8 days, was the oldest of any 21st-century race. The three podium finishers together held 10 world titles, a record that was equalled at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix before being surpassed in 2023.
Who finished where at Valencia?
| Position | Driver | Team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | Home-crowd win and first driver to win two races that year |
| Second | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | Passed Hamilton with two laps remaining |
| Third | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | Last podium of his career, at 43 years and 173 days |
| Fourth | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | Tyre trouble mid-race, then a strong recovery |
| Fifth | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | Caught by Schumacher and Webber late on |
| Sixth | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | Charged through on new tyres in the last two laps |
What did the result mean for the championship?
Alonso moved to the head of the Drivers' Championship on 111 points, which put him 20 ahead of Webber. Webber had just missed out on the podium, but he moved into second in the standings after the retirements of Hamilton and Vettel.
The Constructors' Championship top five stayed the same. Red Bull extended its lead to 39 points over McLaren, which had 137 points. Lotus and Ferrari were 11 and 15 points behind McLaren in third and fourth.
Why was this the last race at Valencia?
The Valencia event was the last Formula One race held at the circuit. Drivers and fans had long been critical of it, and the race was a farewell to the street course. It had proved unpopular with drivers and fans because of its layout, which offered few real overtaking places and too often produced processional races.
A 2013 deal would have shared the Spanish Grand Prix between Barcelona and Valencia, but Valencia later left the arrangement.
