Qualifying for the forty four lap 2012 Belgian Grand Prix would see Williams F1 drivers Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna finish in third and seventeenth. But as a result of a three grid place penalty Pastor would start the race from sixth. On pole was Button with Kobayashi next to him. With Pastor dropping down the order Raikkonen was in
third with Perez fourth. Alonso was fifth followed by Pastor, Hamilton, Grosjean, Di Resta and Vettel in tenth. Some other notable drivers outside the top ten were Webber in twelfth, Schumacher thirteenth, and Massa fifteenth. All of the top ten would be starting on the medium tyre with the other tyre being the hard. Outside the top ten Hulkenberg and Rosberg were on the hard tyre. Almost half the field were on used tyres for the start.

The cars would move off on their parade lap and would return to the grid. Would we get past the first corner Le Source without an incident. Kobayashi had smoke coming from his brakes on the grid. The grid would form up and the lights would go off and it would be a massive crash at the first corner. Alonso was involved and he would slowly
get out of his car. Others involved were Grosjean, Perez, and Hamilton. Pastor was involved but was able to keep going. As a result Bruno was now ninth from seventeenth. Kobayashi and Pastor would pit with both returning to the track. Pastor had taken on the hard tyre. Replays showed Grosjean moving across on Hamilton with Hamilton running into the rear of the Lotus. Grosjean would fly over Alonso and Perez with parts of cars all over the track.