The 2012 FIM MotoGP World Championship was the premier class of the 64th Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) Road Racing World Championship season, the highest level of competition in motorcycle road racing. Casey Stoner started the season as the defending World Champion, while Honda was the defending Manufacturers' Champion.
In the premier MotoGP class, the championship battle revolved around Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo and Honda pairing Dani Pedrosa and defending champion Stoner. Lorenzo won four of the first six races to be held in the campaign to open up an advantage over Stoner, before he was taken out of the Dutch TT on the first lap by Álvaro Bautista; Stoner won the race to eradicate the points lead. In the next race, Stoner crashed out of the German Grand Prix on the final lap and allowed Pedrosa to take his first win of the season. Stoner struggled in the next few races – despite a victory at the United States Grand Prix – with his championship challenge ended by a qualifying crash at Indianapolis. After ankle surgery, he returned to the series and won his final race of his career at his home race, the Australian Grand Prix, for the sixth successive season. Pedrosa went on a run of five victories in six races, with the streak being interrupted by a first-lap crash at Misano, where he was taken out by Héctor Barberá. Lorenzo finished second to Pedrosa on each occasion that he had won, and he took advantage of Pedrosa's accident to win at Misano. Lorenzo ultimately won the title with a second-place finish to Stoner in Australia, after Pedrosa had crashed out of the lead early on.
Changes Class changes The MotoGP class saw the introduction of engines with in capacity, with a limit of 4 cylinders and a maximum cylinder bore.
Claiming Rule Teams In 2012 the MotoGP class saw the introduction of Claiming Rule Teams (CRT) to allow for participation by independent teams with lower budgets. CRTs were given twelve engines per rider, six more than the other teams and more fuel – instead of – but were subject to a factory team buying, or "claiming", their engines for €15,000, or €20,000 with the transmission. The sport's governing body received applications from sixteen new teams looking to join the MotoGP class.
Calendar The following Grands Prix were scheduled to take place in 2012:
The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme released an 18-race provisional calendar on 14 September 2011. Another provisional calendar was released three months later, with the Qatar Grand Prix moved forward by a week. RoundDateGrand PrixCircuit 1 8 April ‡ Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar Losail International Circuit, Lusail 2 29 April Gran Premio bwin de España Circuito de Jerez, Jerez de la Frontera 3 6 May Grande Prémio de Portugal Circuito Estoril Autódromo do Estoril, Estoril 4 20 May Monster Energy Grand Prix de France Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans 5 3 June Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya Circuit de Catalunya, Montmeló 6 17 June Hertz British Grand Prix Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone 7 30 June †† Iveco TT Assen TT Circuit Assen, Assen 8 8 July eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland Sachsenring, Hohenstein-Ernstthal 9 15 July Gran Premio d'Italia TIM Mugello Circuit, Scarperia e San Piero 10 29 July Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey 11 19 August Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway 12 26 August bwin Grand Prix České republiky Brno Circuit, Brno 13 16 September 14 Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón MotorLand Aragón, Alcañiz 15 14 October AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi 16 21 October Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix Sepang International Circuit, Sepang 17 28 October AirAsia Australian Grand Prix Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Phillip Island 18 11 November Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia
‡ = Night race †† = Saturday race
Calendar changes The Czech Republic and Indianapolis Grand Prix swapped places.
Teams and riders A provisional entry list was released by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme on 13 January 2012.
Prototype entriesTeam ConstructorMotorcycleRiderRounds Ducati Team Ducati 46 Valentino Rossi All 69 Nicky Hayden 1–11, 13–18 Pramac Racing Team 8 Héctor Barberá 24 Toni Elías 10–12 Cardion AB Motoracing 17 Karel Abraham 1–7, 10–18 2 Franco Battaini 8 Repsol Honda Team Honda RC213V 1 Casey Stoner 1–11, 15–18 56 Jonathan Rea 13–14 26 Dani Pedrosa All LCR Honda MotoGP 6 Stefan Bradl All San Carlo Honda Gresini 19 Álvaro Bautista All Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha YZR-M1 11 Ben Spies 1–16 21 Katsuyuki Nakasuga 18 99 Jorge Lorenzo All Yamaha YSP Racing Team 21 15 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 4 Andrea Dovizioso All 35 Cal Crutchlow All Claiming Rule Teams (CRT) entriesTeamConstructorEngineMotorcycleRiderRounds Attack Performance APR Kawasaki APR 15 Steve Rapp 10–11 Power Electronics Aspar ART Aprilia GP12 14 Randy de Puniet All 41 Aleix Espargaró All Speed Master 54 Mattia Pasini 1–14 84 Roberto Rolfo 15–18 Paul Bird Motorsport 77 James Ellison All GPTech BCL Suzuki GP212 20 Aaron Yates 11 Avintia Blusens BQR-FTR Kawasaki BQR 22 Iván Silva 1 68 Yonny Hernández 1 BQR 22 Iván Silva 2–12, 15–18 44 David Salom 13–14 73 Hiroshi Aoyama 18 68 Yonny Hernández 2–16 43 Kris McLaren 17 Inmotec Inmotec 71 Claudio Corti 18 San Carlo Honda Gresini FTR Honda MGP12 51 Michele Pirro All Came IodaRacing Project Ioda Aprilia TR003 9 Danilo Petrucci 1–12 BMW MMX1 13–18 Suter 5 Colin Edwards 1–3, 5–18 7 Chris Vermeulen 4Key Regular Rider Wildcard Rider
All the bikes used Bridgestone tyres.
New entries In June 2011, the FIM announced that six teams from Moto2 – Interwetten Paddock, Forward Racing, Marc VDS, Kiefer Racing, Speed Master and BQR-Blusens (later renamed Avintia Racing) – had been granted entries to the 2012 grid; two additional entries – Paul Bird Motorsport and Ioda Racing – announced that they had been accepted to the grid, running under CRT regulations. However, Interwetten Paddock, Marc VDS, and Kiefer Racing were absent from the revised grid released by FIM in January 2012.
Rider changes Andrea Dovizioso left Repsol Honda Team to join Monster Yamaha Tech 3. Colin Edwards moved from Monster Yamaha Tech 3 to NGM Mobile Forward Racing. Stefan Bradl moved up from Moto2, joining LCR Honda MotoGP. Héctor Barberá still rode a Ducati, but he moved from Aspar Team to Pramac Racing Team. 2011 FIM Superstock 1000 Cup runner-up Danilo Petrucci debuted in the MotoGP category with Came IodaRacing Project. Randy de Puniet exchanged with Barberá, entering Power Electronics Aspar from Pramac Racing Team. Álvaro Bautista, who lost his place at the retiring Suzuki MotoGP team, joined San Carlo Honda Gresini. Iván Silva rode for Avintia Blusens. Aleix Espargaró stepped up from Pons Racing in Moto2 to Power Electronics Aspar. Michele Pirro was confirmed by San Carlo Honda Gresini, promoted from Moto2 to MotoGP. Mattia Pasini debuted from Moto2 with Speed Master. Avintia Blusens promoted Yonny Hernández from Moto2 to MotoGP. James Ellison returned to MotoGP from the British Superbike Championship, riding for Paul Bird Motorsport. Hiroshi Aoyama was moved by Honda to the Superbike World Championship. However, the Japanese rider replaced Yonny Hernández in Valencia. Toni Elías returned to Moto2 from LCR Honda MotoGP. During the season, Elías replaced Barberá (injured) for three rounds. On 1 September 2011, Loris Capirossi announced his retirement from racing to join the MotoGP Safety Commission.
Results and standings Grands Prix Round Grand Prix Pole position Fastest lap Winning rider Winning team 1 Qatar motorcycle Grand Prix Jorge Lorenzo Casey Stoner Yamaha Report 2 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix Jorge Lorenzo Cal Crutchlow Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 3 Portuguese motorcycle Grand Prix Casey Stoner Jorge Lorenzo Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 4 French motorcycle Grand Prix Dani Pedrosa Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha Report 5 Catalan motorcycle Grand Prix Casey Stoner Jorge Lorenzo Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha Report 6 British motorcycle Grand Prix Jorge Lorenzo Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha Report 7 Dutch TT Casey Stoner Dani Pedrosa Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 8 German motorcycle Grand Prix Casey Stoner Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 9 Italian motorcycle Grand Prix Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha Report 10 United States motorcycle Grand Prix Jorge Lorenzo Dani Pedrosa Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 11 Indianapolis motorcycle Grand Prix Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 12 Czech Republic motorcycle Grand Prix Jorge Lorenzo Jorge Lorenzo Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 13 Dani Pedrosa Jorge Lorenzo Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha Report 14 Aragon motorcycle Grand Prix Jorge Lorenzo Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 15 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix Jorge Lorenzo Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 16 Malaysian motorcycle Grand Prix Jorge Lorenzo Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 17 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix Casey Stoner Casey Stoner Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Team Honda Report 18 Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda Report
Riders' standings Scoring system Points were awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider had to finish the race to earn points.
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th Points 25 20 16 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1