The 2012 Bahrain 1st GP2 Series round was the second round of the 2012 GP2 Series. It was held on 21 and 22 April 2012 at Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain. The race supported the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix. The second round was held one week later as an independent round of the championship, the only one of its kind on the 2012 calendar.

The rounds were the first time the GP2 Series has visited the Bahrain International Circuit since 2007. The circuit was a regular fixture on the calendar of the now-defunct GP2 Asia Series from its inception in 2008 until 2011, when the race was cancelled due to anti-government protests. With the GP2 Asia series being discontinued at the end of the 2011 season and merged into its parent series, the Bahrain International Circuit returned to the larger GP2 Series as part of the series' expansion to include fly-away rounds.

In the week before the first race, Barwa Addax driver Josef Král was replaced by Dani Clos. Brendon Hartley also replaced Ocean Racing Technology's Jon Lancaster.

DAMS driver Davide Valsecchi qualified on pole for the first feature race, and won both the feature and sprint races.

The first race was also the first time that the series introduced the points system used by Formula One since 2010 for the feature race, with points awarded to the top ten drivers and twenty-five points awarded to the race winner. The points for the sprint race were changed too, with the winner receiving fifteen points and the top eight drivers scoring points. The points for pole and fastest lap were doubled as well.

Classification Qualifying Driver Team Time Grid 1 3 Davide Valsecchi DAMS 1:41.200 1 2 10 Esteban Gutiérrez Lotus GP 1:41.479 2 3 4 Felipe Nasr DAMS 1:41.785 3 4 5 Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 1:41.798 4 5 1 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Barwa Addax Team 1:41.858 5 6 16 Stéphane Richelmi Trident Racing 1:41.862 6 7 7 Marcus Ericsson iSport International 1:41.933 17 8 9 James Calado Lotus GP 1:41.939 7 9 23 Luiz Razia Arden International 1:41.962 8 10 26 Max Chilton Carlin 1:41.980 9 11 27 Rio Haryanto Carlin 1:42.097 10 12 12 Giedo van der Garde Caterham Racing 1:42.139 11 13 8 Jolyon Palmer iSport International 1:42.156 12 14 2 Dani Clos Barwa Addax Team 1:42.158 13 15 21 Tom Dillmann Rapax 1:42.190 14 16 15 Fabio Onidi Scuderia Coloni 1:42.374 15 17 11 Rodolfo González Caterham Racing 1:42.409 16 18 6 Nathanaël Berthon Racing Engineering 1:42.427 18 19 17 Julián Leal Trident Racing 1:42.456 19 20 18 Fabrizio Crestani Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:42.706 20 21 24 Brendon Hartley Ocean Racing Technology 1:42.782 26 22 14 Stefano Coletti Scuderia Coloni 1:42.853 21 23 25 Nigel Melker Ocean Racing Technology 1:42.895 22 24 22 Simon Trummer Arden International 1:43.014 23 25 19 Giancarlo Serenelli Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:43.907 24 26 20 Ricardo Teixeira Rapax 1:44.078 25 Notes: — Marcus Ericsson was given a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Davide Valsecchi at Sepang. — Brendon Hartley received a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Giedo van der Garde during the qualifying session.

Feature Race Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 Davide Valsecchi DAMS 32 59:31.115 1 31 () 2 23 Luiz Razia Arden International 32 +7.770 8 18 3 10 Esteban Gutiérrez Lotus GP 32 +13.528 2 15 4 26 Max Chilton Carlin 32 +14.088 9 12 5 9 James Calado Lotus GP 32 +16.278 7 10 6 21 Tom Dillmann Rapax 32 +16.559 14 8 7 5 Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 32 +17.243 4 6 8 15 Fabio Onidi Scuderia Coloni 32 +28.109 15 4 9 27 Rio Haryanto Carlin 32 +32.846 10 2 10 24 Brendon Hartley Ocean Racing Technology 32 +36.093 26 1 11 16 Stéphane Richelmi Trident Racing 32 +37.377 6 12 17 Julián Leal Trident Racing 32 +38.677 19 13 7 Marcus Ericsson iSport International 32 +40.627 17 14 18 Fabrizio Crestani Venezuela GP Lazarus 32 +41.009 20 15 11 Rodolfo González Caterham Racing 32 +44.028 16 16 22 Simon Trummer Arden International 32 +44.552 23 17 20 Ricardo Teixeira Rapax 32 +47.776 25 18 19 Giancarlo Serenelli Venezuela GP Lazarus 32 +52.464 24 19 2 Dani Clos Barwa Addax Team 30 Brakes 13 20 25 Nigel Melker Ocean Racing Technology 30 Accident damage 22 21 6 Nathanaël Berthon Racing Engineering 29 Accident damage 18 Ret 1 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Barwa Addax Team 16 Collision 5 Ret 4 Felipe Nasr DAMS 16 Collision 3 Ret 12 Giedo van der Garde Caterham Racing 16 Accident damage 11 Ret 14 Stefano Coletti Scuderia Coloni 2 Collision 21 DNS 8 Jolyon Palmer iSport International Electrical 12 Notes: — Dani Clos, Nigel Melker and Nathanaël Berthon were classified as having finished the race, as they had completed 90% of the winners race distance.

Sprint race Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 3 Davide Valsecchi DAMS 22 39:22.363 8 15 2 10 Esteban Gutiérrez Lotus GP 22 +0.399 6 12 3 9 James Calado Lotus GP 22 +10.617 4 10 4 23 Luiz Razia Arden International 22 +12.463 7 8 5 26 Max Chilton Carlin 22 +13.573 5 6 6 4 Felipe Nasr DAMS 22 +15.414 26 4 7 8 Jolyon Palmer iSport International 22 +22.950 25 2 8 22 Simon Trummer Arden International 22 +30.425 16 1 9 12 Giedo van der Garde Caterham Racing 22 +31.976 23 10 21 Tom Dillmann Rapax 22 +32.545 3 11 2 Dani Clos Barwa Addax Team 22 +32.632 19 12 5 Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 22 +32.856 2 13 20 Ricardo Teixeira Rapax 22 +36.275 17 14 15 Fabio Onidi Scuderia Coloni 22 +36.477 1 15 27 Rio Haryanto Carlin 22 +39.988 9 16 7 Marcus Ericsson iSport International 22 +40.386 13 17 17 Julián Leal Trident Racing 22 +47.410 12 18 25 Nigel Melker Ocean Racing Technology 22 +56.196 20 19 18 Fabrizio Crestani Venezuela GP Lazarus 22 +59.488 14 20 19 Giancarlo Serenelli Venezuela GP Lazarus 22 +1:53.295 18 21 11 Rodolfo González Caterham Racing 22 +2:12.968 15 22 1 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Barwa Addax Team 21 Retired 22 23 14 Stefano Coletti Scuderia Coloni 20 Retired 24 Ret 6 Nathanaël Berthon Racing Engineering 15 Retired 21 Ret 24 Brendon Hartley Ocean Racing Technology 2 Retired 10 Ret 16 Stéphane Richelmi Trident Racing 0 Retired 11 Notes: — Felipe Nasr was given a five-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Johnny Cecotto Jr. in the feature race. He later started from the pit lane. — Rodolfo González received a post-race 20-second penalty. — Johnny Cecotto Jr. and Stefano Coletti were both classified as having finished the race, as they had completed 90% of the winners race distance. — Tom Dillmann started from the pit lane.

Standings after the round

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Davide Valsecchi 70 1 2 Luiz Razia 57 1 3 Esteban Gutiérrez 45 1 4 James Calado 35 1 5 Max Chilton 22

Teams' Championship standings Pos Team Points 1 DAMS 92 2 Lotus GP 84 3 Arden International 58 4 Carlin 39 5 Racing Engineering 23

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

External links GP2 Series official website – Results