The 2012 Japanese Grand Prix (formally known as the 2012 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Suzuka Circuit in Mie Prefecture, Japan on 7 October 2012 at 15:00 local time. The race was the fifteenth round of the 2012 season, and marked the 38th running of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel started the race from pole position for the fourth successive year at Suzuka, eventually leading the race from start to finish, winning by 20 seconds over Felipe Massa – who achieved his first podium since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix – in second place. Kamui Kobayashi achieved his first and only Formula One podium, the first for a Japanese driver since Takuma Sato in 2004, and the first for a Japanese driver at their home Grand Prix since Aguri Suzuki in 1990. As of 2025, this was the last podium for a Japanese driver, and the last for team Sauber until the 2025 British Grand Prix. It was also the last podium for an Asian driver until the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix. The race was also Vettel's second career grand slam (leading every single lap from pole position and finishing with the fastest lap of the race). His first was the 2011 Indian Grand Prix.
Following his second consecutive victory, Vettel was only four points behind Alonso in the championship with five races to go after the latter's first-lap retirement. Third-placed Räikkönen amassed a total of 157 points, five points clear from Hamilton. The top five in the Constructors' Championship remained unchanged, however, Red Bull extended their points advantage over McLaren to 41 points, with Ferrari a further 20 points behind in third.
Report
Background Michael Schumacher received a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Jean-Éric Vergne during the Singapore Grand Prix, while Jenson Button and Nico Hülkenberg were both demoted five places for making unscheduled gearbox changes.
Entering the Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari led the Drivers' Championship on a total of 194 points, 29 points clear of the second-placed Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel. Lotus driver Kimi Räikkönen was third in the standings, and 16 points adrift of Vettel, despite not having won a race in 2012. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton's championship hopes were becoming increasingly slim as he lay 50 points behind Alonso in fourth place, albeit 10 points ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber and 23 ahead of his own teammate, Jenson Button. Red Bull led the Constructors' Championship on 297 points, 36 ahead of nearest challengers McLaren, 52 ahead of Ferrari and 66 ahead of Lotus with six rounds remaining. Mercedes had lost a large amount of ground as they had just 136 points.
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound tyre as the softer "option" tyre, as opposed to the previous year where the medium compound was used as the "prime" tyre.
In the week leading up to the race it was announced, amidst many rumours, that Lewis Hamilton would leave McLaren (who he had been contracted with since age 13) when his contract expired at the end of the season, and join Mercedes for the following three years. After his three podium finishes for the Sauber team, it was announced that Sergio Pérez would be Hamilton's replacement, and accompany Button, at McLaren. After losing his seat at Mercedes, Michael Schumacher announced his second retirement from Formula One on the Thursday before the race.
Practice
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton set the first and second fastest times respectively during the first session for McLaren. The Red Bull of Mark Webber finished the session with the third fastest time, three tenths slower than Button's quickest time. His teammate, Sebastian Vettel, finished the session down in seventeenth place. The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg set the fourth fastest time of the session, despite having to abandon his car out on track at the Esses with one minute remaining. Championship leader, Fernando Alonso, was eleventh, ahead of Sergio Pérez and both Lotus cars, who had just introduced their new Double DRS to their car. Williams' reserve driver Valtteri Bottas filled in for Bruno Senna and finished the session eighteenth; Giedo van der Garde did the same for Heikki Kovalainen at Caterham and set the twenty-third fastest time. There were no incidents damaging any of the cars during the session; the most notable things to happen were Michael Schumacher and Timo Glock running across the gravel at Degner, and Romain Grosjean running wide at Spoon.
Qualifying The Force India of Paul di Resta was the first car out on track for the first part of the qualifying session, initially using the harder compound prime tyres. The Sauber team also adopted that tactic, and their driver, Sergio Pérez, ran wide at the end of the Esses and bounded across the gravel before wrestling the car back to track. Later in the session, after Sebastian Vettel provisionally set the fastest time on prime tyres as well, Bruno Senna, in his Williams, was impeded by the Toro Rosso of Jean-Éric Vergne. On the approach to the final chicane Senna, on a flying lap, was held up by the slow-moving Vergne and gesticulated wildly out of his cockpit, forsaking his next flying lap in frustration. Vergne was issued with a three-place grid penalty for the race after he made the cut for the second part in qualifying in seventeenth. Vergne said that he had to slow down because he was catching Timo Glock before his flying lap. Michael Schumacher left his flying laps until the dying moments of the session, and after making a mistake at the second Degner curve, he found himself in last place with one last lap to make it into Q2; he was slower than Senna in the first two sectors of the circuit before crossing the line with the sixteenth fastest time, pushing Senna out. The Lotus of Romain Grosjean set the session's fastest time on the softer compound tyres, followed by the two Saubers and his teammate Kimi Räikkönen, who also needed to use those tyres.
Behind Senna was the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen in nineteenth, albeit with a time more than a second slower than Senna. His teammate, Vitaly Petrov, had a disappointing session qualifying in twenty-third place, as the two Marussia cars sandwiched an impressive HRT of Pedro de la Rosa, with Timo Glock taking twentieth and Charles Pic taking twenty-second. Petrov was, however, only two tenths slower than Glock, but three tenths faster than Narain Karthikeyan who took last place on the grid. As Vergne qualified in seventeenth place in Q2, and Michael Schumacher came to the race with a ten-place grid drop penalty for causing an avoidable incident in Singapore after eventually qualifying 13th – Senna, Kovalainen and Glock started two places further up on the grid in 16th, 17th and 18th respectively, and behind Vergne, de la Rosa, Pic and Petrov moved up one place on the grid to start from 20th, 21st and 22nd respectively in front of Schumacher and Karthikeyan.
Every car used the option tyres during the second part of qualifying. Di Resta complained over his pit-to-car radio after he had to weave in and out of Webber and Grosjean on a flying lap approaching the final chicane. This was not his fastest time, however, as he missed out on reaching the final part of qualifying by just half a tenth of a second, in twelfth place. The Toro Rossos failed to progress in the session in sixteenth and seventeenth, with Daniel Ricciardo out-qualifying Vergne for the eleventh time in 2012, and the Mercedes duo of Schumacher – attempting to save tyres again with a last minute effort – and Nico Rosberg in thirteenth and fifteenth respectively, with the Williams of Pastor Maldonado splitting them. Felipe Massa was the last man out on track at the end of the session, and looked likely to beat Nico Hülkenberg's tenth place time but abandoned his lap and was eleventh. After Hülkenberg elected not to set a time in Q3, his five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change came into effect, dropping him to fifteenth on the grid.
The third and final session of qualifying began with a lack of action on track. However, the McLarens, Red Bulls and Lotuses all chose to do two separate flying lap efforts. After the first of these were complete, Vettel and Webber had set the first and second fastest times respectively. Webber was two tenths behind, hampered by an error at the hairpin; Button was third, followed by the Lotus cars of Grosjean and Räikkönen and Hamilton's McLaren, who despite being on a scrubbed set of tyres, was still one and a half seconds slower than Vettel. During the second phase and with time running out in the session, Räikkönen ran wide at Spoon curve, and whilst returning onto the track, spun again and stopped at the edge of the track. Yellow flags were brought out, and Pérez was the only driver in front of Räikkönen who did not have to slow down.
Vettel and Webber were both on faster laps than their previous ones, but were unable improve their times because of the yellow flags. They maintained their grid slots, though, as the team took their first front row lock-out of the season. Vettel claimed his fourth successive pole at the Suzuka circuit, maintaining his 100% record there and, with the 34th pole position of his career, he moved into third in the all-time list for pole positions, behind Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna. It was decided by the stewards that Vettel had held Fernando Alonso up during his flying lap, but he was only given a reprimand. Button marginally improved his time, remaining in third place which would eventually become eighth on the grid due to a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. Kamui Kobayashi took an impressive fourth place for Sauber, but immediately after he set the time it was suggested that he had not slowed down in the yellow flag area. He was allowed to keep the place on the grounds he had not used KERS or DRS as normal. After Button's gearbox penalty, this became third place, the best ever qualifying position from a Japanese driver at his home race. Grosjean's time was next fastest, in front of Pérez, Räikkönen and Alonso. Räikkönen was sixth, and Alonso said he could have easily been higher up the grid were it not for Räikkönen's spin. Hamilton, who qualified ninth, bemoaned a poorly handling car after a set-up change.
Race
It was a bright and sunny afternoon in Suzuka, for the race which started a 15:00 (local time). Every driver except Jean-Èric Vergne, Charles Pic and Michael Schumacher started the race on the softer compound 'option' tyres.