page_title: Romain Grosjean
section_title: 2012
hierarchical_section_title: Romain Grosjean / Racing career / Return to Formula One / Lotus (2012–2015) / 2012
caption_attribution_description: English: Formula One 2012 Rd.15 Japanese GP: opening lap. Romain Grosjean and Mark Webber crush. Русский: Старт Гран-при Японии 2012 года. Столкновение Романа Грожана и Марка Уэббера.
context_page_description: Romain Grosjean is a French-Swiss racing driver currently competing in Formula One with the Haas F1 Team, racing under the French flag.
  He dominated the 2005 French Formula Renault championship at his first attempt and joined the Renault young driver programme. He was the 2007 Formula 3 Euro Series drivers' champion. In 2008 he became the inaugural GP2 Asia Series champion and came 4th in his first year in GP2. In 2009 he made his Formula One debut for Renault at the European Grand Prix and came 4th again in GP2 despite missing the final eight races.
  After being dropped by Renault he returned to junior formulae, winning the 2010 Auto GP championship at the first attempt and winning the 2011 GP2 Asia Series and GP2 Series becoming the first – and as of 2018, only – two-time GP2 Asia champion and the only driver to hold both the GP2 Asia series and main GP2 series titles simultaneously. Due to the Asia and Main GP2 series being combined, it is likely that this will remain true for the foreseeable future.
  In 2012, Grosjean returned to Formula One with the Lotus F1 Team, alongside Kimi Räikkönen.
context_section_description: At the Australian Grand Prix, Grosjean set the second fastest time in the final free practice session, and while teammate Räikkönen was eliminated in the first part of qualifying, Grosjean made it into the top ten – for the first time, as his previous best was twelfth place – and ultimately qualified in third position. He fell to sixth at the start and retired on the second lap after a collision with Pastor Maldonado, which broke his right-front suspension. At the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix he finished third, collecting his first Formula One podium and the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. In Spain Grosjean started third, finished fourth and set his first fastest lap in Formula One; the first for a French driver since Alesi at the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix. At the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix, he collected his second Formula One podium with a career best finish of second, behind Lewis Hamilton.
  At Valencia, Grosjean was running second when the car's electronics malfunctioned forcing Grosjean's first mechanical-related retirement of the season. At the British Grand Prix, Grosjean topped the timesheets during the first free practice session, but qualifying did not go as well; at the end of Q2 he spun into the gravel at the final corner after managing to get into Q3, this meant he could not take any further part in qualifying and started from tenth, although he was promoted to ninth after Nico Hülkenberg received a grid penalty. At the start of the race he was involved in an incident with Paul di Resta, which forced a pit stop for a new front wing. However Grosjean fought back through the field to finish in sixth just behind his teammate. At the German Grand Prix, Grosjean started nineteenth due to a gearbox penalty and finished eighteenth after picking up a puncture on lap one. A week later, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Grosjean qualified second, the first time a French Formula One driver had started on the front row of the grid since Alesi at the 1999 French Grand Prix; Grosjean finished third in the race behind Hamilton and teammate Räikkönen.
  At Spa Grosjean caused a multi-car pile-up at the start of the race, with Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez all eliminated from the race as well as Grosjean; the incident was started when Grosjean drove into Hamilton on the approach to the La Source corner. Grosjean was given a one race ban post-race (the first driver to be banned since Michael Schumacher in 1994), as well as a fine of €50,000, with the FIA saying in a statement "The stewards regard this incident as an extremely serious breach of the regulations, which had the potential to cause injury to others. It eliminated leading championship contenders from the race. The stewards note [that] the team conceded the action was an extremely serious mistake and an error of judgement. Neither the team nor the driver made any submission in mitigation of penalty." He was replaced for the 2012 Italian Grand Prix by Lotus test and reserve driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio. His team boss, Éric Boullier said that Grosjean learned an important lesson following his ban, however at the Japanese Grand Prix, Grosjean crashed into Mark Webber at the first corner with Webber branding him a "first lap nutcase". Grosjean's actions were condemned by many drivers in the paddock. At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Grosjean was involved in another first lap incident. In São Paulo Grosjean hit the back of Pedro de la Rosa's HRT in qualifying.
  On 14–16 December Grosjean won the Race of Champions after a Grand Final victory over Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok. The day before Grosjean finished in second place in the Nations' Cup event along with his teammate Sébastien Ogier in the French team, after defeat by Germany's Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher.
  On 17 December 2012, it was confirmed to Grosjean would stay at Lotus for the 2013 season.
caption: Grosjean was involved in a number of first-lap accidents in his first full season of Formula One, including this collision with Mark Webber at the first corner of the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.
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