Brazil 2012 - Starting grid
Pastor Maldonado drops down the order, and moves Alonso up a place
Published by Christine Blachford
With the last race of the year being crucial for the championship battle, Fernando Alonso will be glad to have moved up a position thanks to Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan fell foul of a simple rule during qualifying, but that gives him three reprimands in a season.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:12.458 | 21 |
| 2 | Jenson Button | Vodafone McLaren Mercedes | 1:12.513 | 20 |
| 3 | Mark Webber | Red Bull Racing | 1:12.581 | 22 |
| 4 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing | 1:12.760 | 19 |
| 5 | Felipe Massa | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:12.987 | 25 |
| 6 | Nico Hülkenberg | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:13.206 | 23 |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:13.253 | 25 |
| 8 | Kimi Räikkönen | Lotus F1 Team | 1:13.298 | 22 |
| 9 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:13.489 | 26 |
| 10 | Paul di Resta | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:14.121 | 18 |
| 11 | Bruno Senna | Williams F1 Team | 1:14.219 | 21 |
| 12 | Sergio Pérez | Sauber F1 Team | 1:14.234 | 21 |
| 13 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:14.334 | 17 |
| 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber F1 Team | 1:14.380 | 24 |
| 15 | Daniel Ricciardo | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:14.574 | 22 |
| 16 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams F1 Team | 1:13.174 | 24 |
| 17 | Jean-Éric Vergne | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:14.619 | 23 |
| 18 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus F1 Team | 1:19.967 | 8 |
| 19 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham F1 Team | 1:17.073 | 14 |
| 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham F1 Team | 1:17.086 | 14 |
| 21 | Timo Glock | Marussia F1 Team | 1:17.508 | 13 |
| 22 | Charles Pic | Marussia F1 Team | 1:18.104 | 14 |
| 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT Formula 1 Team | 1:19.576 | 13 |
| 24 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT Formula 1 Team | 1:19.699 | 12 |
- 10 places. Pastor Maldonado - A penalty of a Reprimand is imposed for not stopping at the weighbridge. This is the third Reprimand of this season, which will result in a ten grid place penalty.
Pastor does'nt see the light in an unusual situation when nobody expect to get call for weight in.... weird that the FIA is always damaging the sport with this bs calls, why make surprise checks and no just do it fair and square for everybody. This looks as corrupted as the FIFA organization trying to put the big money makers in the final. F1 better clean up their act or the sport is going to go to the dumps
bolido, i like a good f1 conspiracy theory as much as the next person, but you're miles off with this one.
pastor did see the light turn red, he admitted as much. and drivers do expect to be called in to be weighed during qualifying. mark webber fluffed a similar call recently, but told his team immediately so they took the car back to be weighed, escaping sanctions. why pastor didn't do the same is anyone's guess.
additionally pastor's misdemeanour occurred halfway through the qualifying session, long before he was in a position to demote alonso down the grid. to suggest the fia preempted such a possibility is laughable.
finally, you cannot weigh every single car during qualifying, the queues would be ridiculous.
Plus, they would have had to have pre-empted this from the moment he got his first reprimand of the three... which is a big ask, even for the FIA!
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