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105-546: Before the start of the season, it was reported that the team were in no hurry to copy the reactive ride-height system developed by Lotus into the design of the RB8. Team principal Christian Horner stated that "things have to work as a package rather than as individual components". The system was later banned by the FIA. Like most 2012-specification cars, the RB8 features a 'stepped-nose' to conform with new regulations to improve safety in

210-511: A "cry-baby". Later, Karthikeyan decided to call a truce with Vettel, stating his respect for Vettel's abilities and saying "I think we have to deal with it in a mature way and forget about it." The event took place between the 22–25 March where throughout the weekend there was a range of support events. Taking part in the Malaysian Grand Prix program was the opening round of the 2012 GP2 Series (1 feature race, 1 sprint race);

315-610: A 10% stake to Yotaphone , whose logos would appear on the car in 2014. The team's CEO left the team, as did team principal Eric Boullier , who joined McLaren . Ruhan installed Matthew Carter as the new chief executive, who would run the team despite having no previous F1 experience. Gérard Lopez became the titular team principal, and long-term employee Federico Gastaldi became deputy team principal. Lotus kept Romain Grosjean for 2014, and Pastor Maldonado would join bringing sponsorship from PDVSA . The team struggled throughout

420-571: A Ferrari with improved pace, but was still at a disadvantage in terms of pace to Red Bull and McLaren. At the Indian Grand Prix , Vettel took pole and Webber qualified second to take the team's third successive front row lock-out. It was the first time Red Bull had done this, and the first time anyone had since 2007 . Vettel led the race from start to finish, as he had done in Japan and Korea, and took his fourth consecutive win and his fifth of

525-547: A black-and-gold livery inspired by that of Team Lotus  – the motorsport sister company of its naming and branding partner Group Lotus  – when it was sponsored by tobacco brand John Player Special during the 1970s and 1980s. However, in April 2012 it was announced this sponsorship agreement had been prematurely terminated although the team would continue to use the Lotus name until at least 2017. In March 2013, days before

630-467: A few laps later. Despite only qualifying 16th and 10th, by lap 41 of the Bahrain Grand Prix , Maldonado and Grosjean had been running in 7th and 8th places respectively, until an issue during the pit entry for Maldonado's last stop meant his car had to be reset and restarted, dropping him to 15th and promoting Grosjean to 7th. In Spain , both drivers had a great start from 11th and 12th on

735-469: A final ruling on the system ahead of the race at Sepang. On the Thursday before the race the FIA rejected all claims that the system was illegal, allowing Mercedes to compete with an unaltered car. Caterham driver Heikki Kovalainen was given a five-place grid penalty for the race for being in breach of Article 40.8 of the sporting regulations. Article 40.8, which governs procedures for restarts under

840-508: A good start and was third into turn 1. Schumacher and Grosjean made contact at turn 4 and both spun, losing several positions in the process and Grosjean eventually retired on lap 4 after spinning into a gravel trap. On the first lap, turn 9 to 11 was almost completely dry but the rest of the track was very wet. Pérez stopped after the first lap to change to full wets in a move that would elevate him to an eventual podium scoring position. With almost all drivers having pitted onto full wets by laps 5,

945-431: A grid penalty, until an aggressive overtake attempt by Max Verstappen on the start of lap 64 sent Verstappen flying into the barriers and Grojsean into a spin. Grojsean ultimately finished 12th and out of the points. In Canada , Grosjean and Maldonado qualified in 5th and 6th places respectively on a track where all Mercedes powered cars had a clear advantage over the rest of the field. Maldonado finished 7th after losing

1050-600: A healthy lead in the Constructors' standings over McLaren and Ferrari. At the Korean Grand Prix , the Red Bull cars once again achieved a front row lock-out, except the cars were reversed with Webber in pole position. Vettel took the lead at the first corner, though, and took the victory and a 6-point championship lead whilst Webber completed a 1–2. Vettel's main rival for the title, Alonso, finished third in

1155-534: A lead he only briefly relinquished with a lap 40 pit stop. Rosberg was in fourth on lap 23 but slowly slipped backwards when his tyres overheated and he consequently pitted early for more inters. As the track slowly dried further, the top five all had comfortable gaps between them. During this period Senna was posting quick lap times and moving up through the midfield. By lap 31 heavier rain was again forecast but never eventuated. After being 7.795 seconds behind Alonso in 2nd, Pérez began to set consecutive fastest laps and

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1260-525: A lowly nineteenth position, but fought back during the race to finish an impressive fourth; Vettel retired from the lead on lap 33, with an alternator failure which would become a recurring issue for Renault engines and particularly the RB8, having led the whole race up to that point. At the British Grand Prix , Webber qualified in second and Vettel was fourth at a wet Silverstone, where new championship leader Alonso took his first pole position of

1365-504: A new chassis for the weekend) was 12th, closing the gap between himself and Fernando Alonso from one second, as it had been in Australia, to four tenths. Alonso, however, managed to make it into the final session. The two Force Indias qualified in 14th and 16th positions, with di Resta fractionally beating Nico Hülkenberg 's time. Daniel Ricciardo was 15th for Toro Rosso , three places ahead of Vergne, whilst Kamui Kobayashi took up

1470-462: A place to Hülkenberg at the start. Grosjean was forced to pit again after cutting his rear left tyre while attempting to lap the Marussia of Will Stevens and dropped from 6th to 11th in the process, but recovered to take 10th place and nevertheless secured Lotus's first double points finish of the season. In Austria , Grosjean retired with gearbox issues while Maldonado finished 7th from 10th on

1575-404: A second. Forty minutes before the race the pitwall radar read that more than thirty minutes of steady 2-3 (0 = no rain and 4 = heavy shower) intensity rain was expected at 15:50 pm local time (ten mins before race start). All drivers except the two HRT's began the race on the green banded intermediate tyre. The HRT team opted for the blue banded full wet tyres. Grosjean starting from 7th, made

1680-511: A slight off. This cost him at least five seconds and ensured he remain in 2nd position. Commentators questioned whether Sauber - whose engine is supplied by Ferrari - gave a coded message to Pérez asking him to allow the engine supplier to take victory. Sauber denied this emphatically after the race. Late in the race, Vettel received a puncture against the front wing of Narain Karthikeyan, and he pitted from 4th place, finishing 11th; Karthikeyan

1785-538: A two-year stint away from Formula One which he spent competing in the World Rally Championship ; Räikkönen signed for two years with a third year option. On 9 December 2011 the team announced that GP2 Series champion and 2009 Renault F1 driver Romain Grosjean would race alongside Räikkönen. At the start of the season, the team was involved in a protest over the use of a "radical" rear wing concept on Mercedes AMG 's Mercedes F1 W03 , later dubbed

1890-659: The 2008 Italian Grand Prix in a Ferrari-engined Toro Rosso . Jean-Éric Vergne scored his first ever points in Formula One in his second race by finishing in eighth position. Following extended debate over the legality of the Mercedes rear wing and front-wing F-duct on the F1 W03 during the Australian Grand Prix , and the threat of a protest against the system, Red Bull Racing and Lotus F1 requested

1995-404: The 2012 Belgian Grand Prix , Grosjean was involved in a multiple car pileup at the start of the race, resulting in Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton , Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez all being eliminated from the race and Kamui Kobayashi missing out on a possible podium after starting from the front row for the first time of his career. The incident was started when Grosjean collided with Hamilton on

2100-410: The 2013 United States Grand Prix . On lap 33, Pastor Maldonado, who had been running ahead of his teammate, missed the pit entry on lap 33 and lost time, dropping several positions. He then proceeded to spin his car on lap 39 as he attempted to make up for lost time, and on lap 48 had a collision with Jenson Button following a long battle for position, damaging his car and retiring with rear brake failure

2205-719: The Benetton family . In 1992/3, the team moved a few miles to a new base in Enstone . Michael Schumacher won the Drivers' Championship with the team in both 1994 and 1995 . In 1995, the team also won the Constructors' Championship, with Johnny Herbert driving alongside Schumacher. Renault purchased the Benetton team in 2000, and in 2002, they renamed it the Renault F1 Team . In both 2005 and 2006, Fernando Alonso won

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2310-466: The Constructors' Championship was concerned, McLaren still led, and had increased the gap to Red Bull to 13 points. Ferrari overtook Sauber to take third in the standings. Sergio Pérez achieved his first podium finish. The Sauber team recorded their best ever result (excluding their time as BMW Sauber ) and also the first podium for a Ferrari customer engine since Sebastian Vettel 's victory at

2415-794: The El Greco exhibition at the Spanish Grand Prix. Its sponsors included French car brand Renault (though during the 2015 season, the team had Mercedes power), oil company and Romain Grosjean sponsor Total (though not shown on the car in the 2015 season as the Mercedes engines used Petronas fuel), Chinese solar energy company Trina Solar , Advanced Global Trading , Microsoft Dynamics , French fashion brand Japan Rags, luxury watch brand Richard Mille , Symantec , Avanade and Unilever Personal care brands Rexona and Clear. The later two companies switching to Williams F1 for 2015. For

2520-487: The HRT F112 to yield up to a second per lap in qualifying. Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas replaced Bruno Senna for the first practice session on Friday morning. The race used a single DRS zone, unchanged from the 2011 race , with the detection point located on the back straight and the activation point immediately after the final turn. Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its silver-banded hard compound tyre as

2625-603: The Hungarian Grand Prix , once again forcing Red Bull to make changes to their car. A third dispute came less than a week later, as the teams prepared to race in Hungary. Red Bull were accused of having illegally made changes to the ride height of their car while under parc fermé conditions at the Canadian Grand Prix after the FIA asked them to make changes to the RB8. The technical regulations at

2730-477: The Lotus team. This promoted Sebastian Vettel to fifth position, who had chosen to set his lap on the harder 'prime' tyres. The second Lotus of Romain Grosjean had another good qualifying with sixth place, after Räikkönen's penalty. Rosberg, Alonso and Pérez took seventh, eighth and ninth respectively on the grid. The final session was so closely fought out that the top eight drivers were separated by less than half

2835-552: The Mugello Circuit . The RB8 did not enjoy a weekend as successful as its last though, with Webber starting the race eleventh and Vettel seventh. Webber finished in the same place he started and Vettel gained one place to finish sixth after both drivers had to pit for the pit crew to replace the front wings on their cars due to a problem. Two weeks later at the Monaco Grand Prix , things were looking far better for

2940-625: The Williams FW34 and the Sauber C31 had produced good results, but looked unlikely to make a title challenge. Also, as a consequence of the race, Vettel lost his lead in the Drivers' championship. After the FIA had deemed a hole in the floor of the RB8 illegal, the team had arrived at the Canadian Grand Prix with a slightly altered car. Vettel qualified on pole position, and after a close fight with Hamilton and Alonso for

3045-557: The ' F-duct rear wing' or 'Double DRS '. The dispute was not settled until the third race in China when the stewards unanimously rejected their formal protest and Lotus subsequently confirmed they would not appeal against the decision. Lotus started the season strongly with Grosjean qualifying third in Australia but first lap incidents in Australia and Malaysia ruined his chances of his first Formula One points. In China Räikkönen

3150-513: The 20 races, and achieving 7 podiums (including the win in Abu Dhabi) Räikkönen finished 3rd in the Drivers' Championship with Lotus 4th in the Constructors' Championship. On 29 October 2012, Lotus F1 team confirmed that Räikkönen would be racing with the team in 2013. The news came after several weeks of speculation that Räikkönen had several other options for 2013 including other forms of motorsport. Romain Grosjean partnered him in

3255-465: The 2013 season Lotus signed a deal with the Coca-Cola group brand Burn energy drink and Pastor Maldonado sponsor PDVSA . For 2014, Lotus signed a deal with Saxo Bank . The team was previously owned by Genii Capital with property investor, Andrew Ruhan having a two percent stake and Russian phone company, Yota Devices having a speculated ten percent share in the company. The company later on

Red Bull RB8 - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-579: The 2013 season. The 2013 Lotus, the E21, was launched on 28 January at the team's headquarters in Enstone, Oxfordshire, UK. The livery was a little bit different from the previous year's; this year Lotus has a black, gold and red livery, with more visible red as the sidepods, air intake, rear wing and front wing have red on them. In the 2013 Australian Grand Prix , Lotus achieved a first-place finish for Räikkönen despite qualifying in 7th place, thus giving Lotus F1

3465-690: The British Government. Seventh and eighth places in the race itself gave the team their first double top eight finish since the 2013 Indian Grand Prix . On 21 December 2015 it was officially confirmed on the Lotus F1 Team website that Groupe Renault had re-purchased the Enstone-based team and planned on entering the 2016 season as the official Renault factory team. Renault appointed Jérôme Stoll as chairman and Cyril Abiteboul as managing director. The Lotus F1 Team competed in

3570-535: The Constructors' Championship and were firm favourites holding a 53-point lead over McLaren. Lotus and Ferrari were also contenders as both were within 3 points of McLaren; Mercedes's poor mid season had left them trailing. Over one month later, Formula One returned to Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix . Vettel missed out on Q3 and qualified in eleventh for the second time in 2012, whilst Webber did slightly better to take eighth. Starting tenth on

3675-494: The Drivers' Championship with the team, and the team won the Constructors' Championship (with Giancarlo Fisichella as their other driver). Starting with the Lotus E20 , the team has recognised these achievements by placing three gold stars in the livery of their car, located just forward of the cockpit. At the end of 2009, Renault sold a majority stake in the team to Genii Capital . Since 2011, Lotus Cars became involved with

3780-537: The Lotus cars were temporarily seized post-race due to a legal dispute with former test driver, Charles Pic . During the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix , Lotus were locked out of their hospitality unit, stemming from unpaid bills from the race organizers in Japan from the previous year. On 30 September, it was announced that Renault had signed a letter of intent to buy a controlling stake of Lotus F1 from Genii Capital. This came after Lotus were bailed out by Renault after falling behind in income tax and insurance payments to

3885-565: The RB8 in Toro Rosso STR13 livery at the Red Bull Ring circuit. ( key ) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed greater than 90% of the race distance. Lotus F1 Lotus F1 Team was a British Formula One racing team. The team competed under the Lotus name from 2012 until 2015 , following

3990-486: The RB8, in which Webber was seventh and Vettel ended up down in eleventh place. The two drivers gained places in the race though, with Webber overtaking Vettel on the final lap to take fourth place, leaving Vettel fifth. The 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix was the race at which the RB8 took its first pole position and victory, both courtesy of Vettel. He led all of the race, excluding the pit stop phases, despite pressure from

4095-509: The United States Grand Prix, something which was ruled out by Schumacher's manager. The team undertook a management and ownership change ahead of the 2014 season. Andrew Ruhan , a British property developer who had become co-chairman the previous year, had loaned money to the team, and at the start of the year turned his loans into equity to take effective control of the company from Genii Capital. In addition, Genii sold

4200-596: The approach to the La Source corner. After the race, Grosjean was issued with a one race ban covering the next Round at Monza. He was replaced for the race weekend by Lotus reserve driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio . After a near win in Bahrain, Räikkönen took the team's first victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix . It was also his first race win after returning to Formula One. After finishing in the points in 19 of

4305-527: The car had better race pace and both drivers subsequently finished on the podium. The race saw the same top 3 as the previous year . After first corner contact at the start of the 17th round of the championship in Abu Dhabi, Kimi Räikkönen announced that he would be undergoing back surgery and would miss the final two races of the season. His place was taken by Heikki Kovalainen despite initial speculation suggesting that Michael Schumacher would replace him for

Red Bull RB8 - Misplaced Pages Continue

4410-472: The cars were suspended on the grid, many teams brought out gazebos to place over their cars to keep them and team equipment (i.e. laptops and tyre warmers) dry. The race restarted under the safety car around local time 17:15. As the track steadily dried pit crew members attempted to dry the team pit box. After 4 laps behind the safety car, the majority of the drivers once again pitted to change to intermediate tyres, meanwhile Vettel lost his radio so he had to use

4515-447: The day sixth-fastest, though his lap time was only a tenth of a second faster than his time in the first session. Teammate Massa languished in sixteenth, considerably slower in the afternoon than he was in the morning. Both HRT drivers managed to improve their morning times by two seconds, to end the session five seconds adrift. A fire broke out in the premises of Lotus early on Saturday morning. The fire started with an electrical fault in

4620-407: The event of a collision with another car. The RB8 features a slot cut into the step of the nose section, although Adrian Newey claimed this has no use other than to aid cooling for the driver. Sebastian Vettel, who (since joining Scuderia Toro Rosso ) makes it a habit to give his racing cars names, named his RB8 'Abbey'. Its name is based neither on his favourite band's album Abbey Road , nor on

4725-446: The famous Silverstone corner. According to him, "it's just a cool name". At the 2012 British Grand Prix , the livery featured 25,000 fan-submitted images for Wings For Life Foundation. The legality of the RB8 would become an ongoing theme as the 2012 season progressed. Before the Monaco Grand Prix , several teams complained over the legality of a slot in the rear floor of the RB8. However, Red Bull dismissed claims and pointed out that

4830-476: The following round, in Malaysia , the cars had a similar qualifying performance to Australia, but wet weather prevented them from replicating the previous race result. Vettel, running in fourth place with a handful of laps to go, was involved in a collision which resulted in a puncture, placing him outside the points. Webber inherited the fourth place. The Chinese Grand Prix had a difficult qualifying in store for

4935-796: The gearbox in his car after Friday practice. After struggling in the Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari prepared a brand-new F2012 chassis for Felipe Massa , with the team citing "unusual performance" of the chassis he used in Melbourne as the reason for the change. The team denied reports that they were planning to replace Massa with Sauber driver Sergio Pérez – who is a part of the Ferrari Driver Academy – while both Sauber and Pérez claimed that they had not been contacted by Ferrari. HRT driver Pedro de la Rosa expressed confidence that his team would qualify for

5040-459: The grid to be running comfortably inside the top ten. Then on lap 4, contact between the two drivers left Maldonado with a heavily damaged rear wing and, despite a lengthy pitstop in order to reposition the wing, ultimately retired; Grosjean recovered to 8th with only minimal damage. Maldonado qualified 9th for the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix , but suffered from brake problems in the early laps and retired on lap seven. Grosjean looked set for 10th despite

5145-555: The grid, Vettel moved up to second during the race helped by a large collision at the start. Webber finished sixth as polesitter Button took the race victory, showing an improved McLaren pace. This improved pace in the RB8's main rival continued at the Italian Grand Prix as Hamilton took the McLaren MP4-27 to its third successive victory. After Vettel and Webber took sixth and eleventh respectively during qualifying,

5250-584: The grid, both courtesy of Kimi Räikkönen . The team was sold back to Renault on 18 December 2015. The Lotus F1 Team name was officially dropped on 3 February 2016, as Renault announced that the team would compete as Renault Sport Formula One Team . The team's Formula One history started in 1981 as the Toleman Motorsport team, based in Witney , Oxfordshire, England. In 1986, the team was renamed to Benetton Formula , following its purchase in 1985 by

5355-487: The grid. Both cars retired from the British Grand Prix , after a late breaking Daniel Ricciardo forced Grosjean into Maldonado during the first few corners of the opening lap. During the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi confirmed that team owner Gérard Lopez was in deep discussion with Renault board members in an effort to sell the team back to its former owners. Lotus had received their allocation of tyres less than an hour before

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5460-412: The harder "prime" tyre and the white-banded medium compound as the softer "option" compound, whereas last year the "soft" compound was the yellow-banded soft compound tyre. Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver in the first practice session, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg . Romain Grosjean finished the session fifth-fastest despite his car becoming stuck in seventh gear. Jenson Button

5565-581: The hole was within the regulations, as the part in question has been introduced at the Bahrain Grand Prix and had subsequently passed every scrutineering session. Nevertheless, the FIA passed regulation changes before the Canadian Grand Prix that outlawed the use of a hole in the floor, forcing the team to change its design. The team was involved in a second, more serious dispute at the German Grand Prix when FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer referred

5670-429: The last place (17th). Kobayashi's Sauber teammate, Sergio Pérez , did manage to make it into the final part if qualifying. When the chequered flag was waved Schumacher held 11th place provisionally, behind Maldonado (9th) and teammate Nico Rosberg . However, both Mercedes cars were already on hot laps before the flag was waved, and were able to complete their laps to improve their times. This pushed Maldonado outside of

5775-421: The launch of the new Lotus E21 , American conglomerate Honeywell pulled out of a reported €50 million sponsorship agreement with the team. In 2014, again without a title sponsor, each car's title sponsor space was instead shared race by race by existing sponsors alongside temporary sponsors Interwetten (Germany and Hungary) and Hisense (Italy, United States and Abu Dhabi), as well as paying homage to

5880-477: The leading driver in the Drivers' Championship and second place in the Constructors' Championship. Romain Grosjean, who started the race in 8th place, finished the race in 10th and took one point despite having problems with his car. After Räikkönen was penalised for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in qualifying and Grosjean failed to make Q3, the Malaysian Grand Prix saw Lotus sit only 10th and 11th on

5985-529: The majority of the race, finished fourth after making an extra stop due to poor tyre degradation. Webber encountered similar problems and dropped to seventh after starting fourth. Hamilton became the seventh winner in seven races and took over the lead in the drivers' standings as a result. At the following race, the European Grand Prix , Vettel qualified in pole position for the third time in 2012, three tenths faster than Hamilton. Webber qualified in

6090-495: The name on licence from Group Lotus. Group Lotus later terminated the licence for the 2011 season, but Fernandes acquired the privately owned Team Lotus name and used it. For 2012, Team Lotus changed their name to Caterham F1 Team , clearing the way for the Lotus Renault GP team to be renamed as "Lotus F1 Team". On 29 November 2011, the team announced that Kimi Räikkönen would race for them in 2012 as he returned from

6195-413: The necessity of a pit stop. The HRT of Karthikeyan benefited from starting the race on full wets, having not needed to pit stop and was in tenth when the race was suspended. Grosjean's car was rescued from the gravel and brought back in the pits during the suspension. The race suspension last around fifty minutes and in that time many drivers opted to leave their car and some (Rosberg) changed footwear. While

6300-430: The off-track excursions, the session was not interrupted by red flags. Rosberg topped the sixty-minute session, the only driver to go below one minute thirty-seven for all practice sessions, ahead of Vettel and Mark Webber . The Ferraris once again struggled, with Alonso in thirteenth place, 1.3 seconds behind Rosberg, and Massa in sixteenth, a further second behind. The two HRT drivers continued to languish five seconds off

6405-472: The opening session at the Hungaroring after Pirelli refused to release the tyres over unpaid bills, amid the team's growing financial difficulties. In the race, Grosjean finished 7th while Maldonado finished 14th after accumulating three penalties during the race. Grosjean finished third in the Belgian Grand Prix gaining the team's first podium finish since the 2013 United States Grand Prix . However,

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6510-533: The pace, but were within sight of the Marussias of Timo Glock and Charles Pic . Unlike the cooler conditions of the previous race in Melbourne , qualifying was run under hot and sunny conditions with an ambient temperature of 32 °C (90 °F) and a track temperature of 46 °C (115 °F). The first qualifying period began with Paul di Resta leading a host of cars for their first flying lap. As expected, most teams posted their early timed laps on

6615-406: The pit confirmation button on his steering wheel for most of the race. On lap 15, Jenson Button clumsily locked up the rear wheels and made contact with Karthikeyan, forcing him to pit again to change the front wing, ending his podium chances. Subsequently, he made up a few places but was unable to finish in the top 10. Alonso emerged from this as the new leader when he overtook Sergio Pérez on lap 16,

6720-420: The pitstop had been within two seconds, now dropped to 7.180 seconds off Alonso. After the change to slicks, Pérez on the prime tyre, again consistently cut down on Alonso's (medium tyre) lead to within half a second. Controversially on lap 50, Pérez was told on the radio "be careful, we need this position" referring to the 18 points on offer for 2nd place. On the same lap Pérez took too much curb on turn 14 and had

6825-410: The pitwall radar was shown to read "the intensity will increase to 4 from time to time" meaning heavy rain was still to come. The safety car was deployed on the 7th lap, purely because of the heavy rain, and the race was suspended on lap 9. This worked in favour of Jean-Éric Vergne, the only driver still running on intermediates, who was able to change to full wets (as required by race officials) without

6930-544: The podium with third place after starting in pole position. By winning the race, Fernando Alonso took the lead in the Drivers' Championship , having been fifth in the standings before the race. Lewis Hamilton moved up to second in the standings on 30 points, 5 behind Alonso. Button dropped from the lead in standings to third, now 5 points behind Hamilton. Red Bull driver Mark Webber remained fourth, 1-point behind Button, whilst Pérez moved himself up to fifth place. As far as

7035-583: The race, and set the fastest lap, to become the first driver to take successive wins in the 2012 season. Webber lost one place at the first corner and then was spun by Romain Grosjean meaning he had to fight his way through the grid to finish ninth. As a consequence of Alonso's retirement at the start, Vettel narrowed the gap between himself and the Ferrari driver from 29 to just 4 points in the drivers' standings with 5 races remaining. Webber remained just in contention behind Räikkönen and Hamilton. Red Bull remained

7140-554: The race. After three pre-season tests, one in Jerez and two in Barcelona , the RB8 arrived at the opening round of the 2012 Formula One season and its first race - the Australian Grand Prix . Webber and Vettel qualified the car on the third row of the grid, setting the fifth and sixth fastest times respectively. During the race their pace improved in comparison to the other cars, allowing Vettel to finish second, and Webber fourth. At

7245-467: The race. HRT failed to qualify for the Australian Grand Prix the week before the race in Malaysia, with both de la Rosa and teammate Narain Karthikeyan failing to set a lap time within 107% of the fastest time set in the first qualifying period. De la Rosa admitted that the team did not have a Drag Reduction System (DRS) device available to them in Australia, and expected the addition of the system to

7350-421: The race. Vettel was running in third place in the closing moments of the race when he made a controversial manoeuvre around the outside of Jenson Button to take second place, where he appeared on the podium. After the race, however, Vettel was issued a penalty which dropped him to fifth because his car was completely off the track during the overtake. The 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix was the eleventh and last round of

7455-460: The refrigerator. Lotus's reception unit and the stable's kitchen were destroyed in the fire. No one was injured in the fire. The circuit was declared damp for the third and final practice session on Saturday afternoon after light rain fell during the GP2 support race . The damp conditions saw several drivers – most notably Lewis Hamilton – running wide early on, before a dry line was established. Despite

7560-536: The renaming of the former Renault team based at Enstone in Oxfordshire. The Lotus F1 Team was majority owned by Genii Capital . Lotus F1 was named after its branding partner Group Lotus . The team achieved a race victory and fourth position in the Formula One Constructors' World Championship in their first season under the Lotus title. Lotus F1 achieved 2 race victories in their time on

7665-437: The safety car, states that no driver may overtake another until such time as he has crossed the first safety car control line on the circuit (except in the case of race control allowing lapped traffic to be released from behind the safety car). Kovalainen was penalised for passing two cars before he crossed this line during the Australian Grand Prix. Kimi Räikkönen was also given a five-place grid penalty after his team changed

7770-469: The season before the Summer break. Hamilton qualified in pole position and won the race, whilst Vettel started third, but finished fourth and Webber started eleventh and finished eighth. This left Webber and Vettel second and third in the Drivers' Championship, only two points apart but forty adrift of Alonso. Hamilton and Räikkönen also remained title contenders with Button slipping further behind. Red Bull led

7875-479: The season saw driver error and poor reliability cost the team important race results: The Australian Grand Prix was disappointing start for the Lotus team; by lap 2 both cars had retired. Maldonado retired on lap 1 after a three-car wide tussle resulted in him crashing out at turn two and Grosjean lost power on lap 2. In Malaysia , Grosjean finished 11th but Maldonado retired due to brake problems. Grosjean finished 7th at China , his and Lotus's best result since

7980-438: The season, finishing eighth in the Constructors' Championship compared to the fourth place they achieved in 2013. On 5 July 2014, Lotus announced that they would be switching to Mercedes engines from the 2015 season, ending the team's 20-year association with Renault. Grosjean and Maldonado remained at the team, with Jolyon Palmer and Carmen Jordá being signed as test and development drivers respectively. The early part of

8085-489: The season. Webber overtook Alonso for the lead of the race with a handful of laps remaining and Vettel finished in third place after losing ground at the start and making it back up to finish 5 seconds behind Webber. The German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring was won by Alonso from pole position. Vettel and Webber qualified well behind him in second and third respectively, but Webber dropped down to eighth throughout

8190-472: The season. Webber remained in second place for the majority of the race, but Alonso overtook him after he suffered a KERS problem near the end of the race. Webber held off Hamilton in the final two laps to remain on the podium. After the 2012 season, the RB8 was frequently used in demonstration in liveries of the RB11 , RB13 , RB15 and so on. In 2018, MotoGP champion Marc Márquez and Dani Pedrosa drove

8295-507: The second McLaren front row lock-out in the season's two races. Michael Schumacher demonstrated the improved pace of the Mercedes car since 2011 by achieving his highest qualifying position since his return to the sport, with third place. Webber and Räikkönen set an identical time, but Webber was granted fourth position because he set his time first. Räikkönen's five place grid penalty for gearbox change meant he dropped from fifth to tenth place, despite an otherwise impressive performance from

8400-465: The second session, setting a lap time one-tenth of a second slower than the time he posted in the first session. Michael Schumacher was second-fastest, with Jenson Button third. Bruno Senna returned to the cockpit after Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas completed the morning session in Senna's car; Senna placed nineteenth overall. After placing fifteenth in the first session, Fernando Alonso ended

8505-602: The session 18th ahead of the Caterham cars of Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov . Kovalainen was later demoted from his 19th place slot to the back of the grid, for the first time in his career, because of a five place grid penalty he incurred at the last race for overtaking under safety car conditions. The HRTs occupied the two places in front of him, the two Marussia cars were in front of them (with Timo Glock out-qualifying rookie Charles Pic ) and teammate Petrov moved up into 19th. Schumacher and Jenson Button rounded out

8610-531: The sixth driver to win a race in the first six races, and the RB8 becoming the only car to win multiple races, it was becoming clearer who the team's rivals for the championship title would be. The McLaren MP4-27 , the Ferrari F2012 , the Mercedes F1 W03 and the Lotus E20 joined the RB8 near the top of the Constructors' Championship, and looked likely to make a bid for the title; other cars like

8715-406: The slower 'prime' tyre and after ten minutes the four Mercedes powered cars from McLaren and Mercedes were ahead, led by Michael Schumacher . As in Melbourne, Felipe Massa was again in danger of being eliminated and as a result he and teammate Fernando Alonso both used a set of the medium 'option' tyre to avoid an embarrassing elimination. Late on in the session, Mark Webber also switched to

8820-475: The softer tyres and consequently set the fastest time of 1-minute 37.172 seconds. Significantly, both the HRT Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan were within the 107% time needed to qualify because of Webber's lap. A front right wheel lock-up going into the braking zone of turn 1 resulted in severe vibration and effectively eliminated Toro Rosso 's Jean-Éric Vergne on his final timed run. He finished

8925-537: The start of the season, causing a stir due to an effect it created similar to that of the F-duct system, banned after 2010 season. The teams unanimously agreed to ban its use for the 2013 season after the Hungarian Grand Prix , but despite this Lotus made a version which they attempted to use before Red Bull. McLaren still looked to have a strong car with Hamilton in pole. Vettel and Webber qualified third and seventh respectively, and after Hamilton's gearbox failed when he

9030-504: The starting grid. They ultimately finished 7th and 6th respectively. At the Chinese Grand Prix , Räikkönen qualified and finished 2nd, despite having to regain places after losing two at the start and having damaged the front of his car while battling Sergio Pérez for position; Grosjean finished 8th. The Bahrain Grand Prix saw a bad qualifying result for both Lotus drivers, but as team principal Eric Boullier had expected,

9135-590: The team and the team was renamed, first to " Lotus Renault GP " for 2011 season, and then to "Lotus F1 Team" for 2012 season. When discussing the history of the organisation as a whole rather than those of specific constructors it has operated, the colloquialism " Team Enstone " is generally used. Team Lotus , a sister company of Lotus Cars, competed in Formula One between 1958 and 1994, winning seven constructors' titles and six drivers' titles between 1963 and 1978. The Lotus name returned to Formula One in 2010 through Tony Fernandes 's Lotus Racing team, which used

9240-513: The team suffered their first double retirement since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix . Vettel suffered another alternator failure and Webber spun violently at the Ascari chicane, with the resultant damage to his tyres sending vibrations through the car that forced him to retire. Red Bull arrived in Singapore with a new "double- DRS " device fitted on the car. The system had been used by Mercedes near

9345-399: The team to the race stewards over what he felt was an illegal throttle map. The 2011 season saw teams produce more downforce by programming their engines to force more air through the exhaust and over the diffuser. This practice was banned for 2012, with the regulations dictating the position of the exhaust outlet and requiring teams to observe a linear relationship between the degree to which

9450-420: The team, as Webber took pole position after Michael Schumacher was penalised. Vettel, for the second race in succession, intentionally did not complete a full timed lap in the final part of qualifying, and started ninth. Webber eventually won the race to take the team's third successive win in the principality, while Vettel moved up to fourth and finished just 1.3 seconds behind the winner. Despite Webber becoming

9555-408: The throttle was opened and the amount of torque being produced by the car. Red Bull were accused of abusing this relationship in medium-speed corners, allowing their throttle to be more open than it should be for the amount of torque being produced. This would allow more air to flow through the engine and out the exhaust, which was angled to direct exhaust gasses towards the diffuser. Although the effect

9660-440: The time dictated that any adjustments to the ride height of the car must be made with the use of a tool, but the FIA had requested that the team change a part of the car that would enable them to change the front ride height by hand. Team principal Christian Horner admitted that the team had been asked to change the offending part, but denied that the team had illegally changed the front ride height of their cars after qualifying for

9765-420: The timescreens. He set the fastest lap by some three seconds on Pérez and that initiated the change from wet to dry tyres for everyone else. By lap 39, Pérez had excellent pace and cut the gap to Alonso back down to 1.339 seconds. Between laps 39 and 42 there was yet another round of pit stops, this time onto slick tyres. Alonso pitted on lap 40 while Pérez waited until the next lap. In that time Pérez, who prior to

9870-450: The top ten fastest times, meaning he couldn't participate in the final session any more. Despite a front left wheel lock-up at the final corner, Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time by four tenths of a second upon his first attempt. He subsequently returned to the pits during his second, knowing that he already had pole position. The second McLaren of Jenson Button set the second fastest time, one tenth behind Hamilton's time, to complete

9975-445: The top three. The second session began with Sergio Pérez the first to set a timed lap. All drivers opted for the softer compound medium tyre. Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest time in a session which saw all the cars set closely matched times. Pastor Maldonado had a minor off before turn 11 and was the quickest driver not to make the final session; his Williams teammate Bruno Senna was 13th. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa (who had

10080-415: The two Lotus cars. Webber, after qualifying third, finished the race behind these two cars to take his fourth successive fourth place in as many races. The result of the race moved Vettel into the lead of the Drivers' Championship and Red Bull into the lead of the Constructors' Championship for the first time in the season. The Spanish Grand Prix was the first race after the only allowed in-season test at

10185-426: Was closing the gap to the leader. The forecast rain prevented most cars from changing to slicks when the track was dry. An image of Hamilton's front tyre revealed that drivers were essentially racing on slicks anyway as the intermediate tread had worn off. Daniel Ricciardo was the first to take the gamble and change to dry tyres on lap 37. The teams watched his lap times go purple (fastest for the day) for every sector on

10290-409: Was given a 20-second post-race penalty for his part in the collision. Pastor Maldonado, who was running 10th, was forced to retire on the penultimate lap when his engine gave way, allowing Michael Schumacher his first points of the season. Vettel and Red Bull boss Christian Horner criticised Karthikeyan's driving, with Vettel calling Karthikeyan an "idiot". Karthikeyan hit back at Vettel, calling him

10395-558: Was leading the race, Vettel inherited the victory. Webber finished in eleventh after taking a time penalty and losing the tenth place slot he initially finished in. The RB8, like the previous three of its predecessors, seemed very well suited the Suzuka Circuit at the Japanese Grand Prix . Vettel took pole position and Webber qualified second to take the team's first row lock-out of the season. Vettel led every lap of

10500-421: Was less than that created in 2011, Bauer felt that this practice had the potential to produce more downforce, and even serve as a rudimentary form of traction control if applied under certain conditions. The race stewards cleared Red Bull of any wrongdoing, stating that the team had not broken any of the rules, and the team was permitted to start the race. However, the FIA passed further regulation changes ahead of

10605-599: Was majority owned by Groupe Renault , with Jérôme Stoll as chairmen and Cyril Abiteboul appointed managing director. ( key ) 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix Heavy rain clearing to cloudy and dry Air Temp 26 °C (79 °F) The 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix (officially the 2012 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix ) was a Formula One motor race held on 25 March 2012 at the Sepang International Circuit in Selangor , Malaysia . It

10710-481: Was ninth overall, but was forced to end his session early after the team discovered an oil leak. Ferrari 's difficult start to the season continued with Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso finishing thirteenth and fifteenth respectively, while HRT encountered further difficulties, with Narain Karthikeyan 's car crippled by transmission problems; both Karthikeyan and de la Rosa finished the session seven seconds slower than Hamilton. Hamilton repeated his performance in

10815-408: Was running in second until a mechanical problem put him out of the race after a safety car period leaving Räikkönen to take another podium for second. In Germany , Hungary and Belgium Räikkönen took 3 podiums in a row. In Hungary he and Grosjean had an inter-team battle after a round of pit stops. In the end Räikkönen finished ahead in second with Grosjean scoring his third podium with third. At

10920-590: Was running in second until his tyres 'fell off the cliff' pushing him out of the points for the only time of the season. In Bahrain , Lotus achieved their first podiums of the season with Räikkönen very close to the winner Vettel and Grosjean behind in third. In Monaco Grosjean was involved in another first lap incident but in Canada he worked a one-stop strategy perfectly to take second position, his best Formula One finish. A race later in Valencia Grosjean

11025-539: Was the fourteenth running of the Malaysian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship, and the thirty-second time the event has been held. The 56-lap race was the second round of the 2012 Formula One season and was won by Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso . Sergio Pérez of the Sauber team finished the race in second position, and McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton completed

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