2012 (film), Cancelled television spin-off
In 2010 Entertainment Weekly reported a planned spin-off television series, 2013, which would have been a sequel to the film. 2012 executive producer Mark Gordon told the magazine, "ABC will have an opening in their disaster-related programming after Lost ends, so people would be interested in this topic on a weekly basis. There's hope for the world despite the magnitude of the 2012 disaster as seen in the film. After the movie, there are some people who survive, and the question is how will these survivors build a new world and what will it look like.


2012 (film), Cancelled television spin-off
That might make an interesting TV series." However, plans were later cancelled for budgetary reasons. It would have been Emmerich's third film to spawn a spin-off; the first was Stargate (followed by Stargate SG-1, Stargate Infinity, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe), and the second was Godzilla (followed by the animated Godzilla: The Series).


2012 1. deild karla
The 2012 season of the 1. deild karla (English: Men's First Division) was the 58th season of second-tier football in Iceland and ran from 12 May 2012 until 22 September 2012. The league title was won by Þór Akureyri, who ended the campaign with a record of 16 wins, 2 draws and 4 defeats, giving them a total of 50 points. The Akureyri club, who had been relegated from the Úrvalsdeild in 2011, thereby achieved promotion back to the top level of Icelandic football at the first attempt. Also promoted to the Úrvalsdeild for the 2013 season were runners-up Víkingur Ólafsvík, who finished nine points clear of third-placed Þróttur Reykjavík.


2012 1. deild karla
At the other end of the table, ÍR finished bottom of the division after taking only 14 points from their 22 league matches and were thereby relegated to the 2. deild karla. Höttur were also relegated on the final day of the season after losing 0–1 away at Þór.


2012 1. deild karla
The top goalscorer for the 2012 season was Víkingur Ólafsvík midfielder Guðmundur Steinn Hafsteinsson, who netted 10 goals in 20 league appearances. Four other players were one behind on nine goals. In total, 387 goals were scored during the campaign at an average of 2.93 per match.


2012 1. deild karla, Club information
The league was contested by 12 clubs, eight of which had played in the 2011 season. There were four new clubs from the previous campaign:


2012 1. deild karla, Statistics, Results
Each team played every opponent once home and away for a total of 22 matches.


2012 1. divisjon (women)
The 2012 1. divisjon (women)  season kicked off on 14 April 2012, and ended on 28 October 2012.


2012 1. divisjon (women)
2011-champions Vålerenga and runner-up Fart were promoted to the Toppserien at the end of the 2011 season. They were replaced by Medkila and Linderud-Grei. Haugar and Manglerud Star were relegated at the end of the 2011 season after finishing in the bottom two places of the table. They were replaced by the two playoff-winners Kongsvinger and Åsane.


2012 1. divisjon (women), Outcome
At the end of the season the top team was to win promotion to Toppserien, the second team was to play off against the second from bottom team in Toppserien for promotion, while the bottom two teams were to be relegated to the 2. divisjon. In the event, Avaldsnes were champions and were promoted. Medkila came second, but lost the promotion playoff. However, the playoff winner, Kattem, subsequently withdrew their team, and Medkila were then promoted. Alta were offered the vacant place in the 2013 1. divisjon, but declined, opting for relegation. Voss were then offered the vacant place, and accepted it, thus avoiding relegation.


2012 1. divisjon (women), League table, Promotion play-offs
Medkila faced Kattem, who finished second last in Toppserien, in a two-legged play-off match for the right to play in the 2013 Toppserien. Kattem won the playoff, but subsequently withdrew their team from the league. Medkila were promoted to take their place in Toppserien.


2012 1000 Guineas
The 2012 1000 Guineas Stakes was a horse race held at Newmarket Racecourse on Sunday 6 May 2012. It was the 199th running of the 1000 Guineas.


2012 1000 Guineas
The winner was Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith's Homecoming Queen, a three-year-old bay filly trained at Ballydoyle in Ireland by Aidan O'Brien and ridden by Ryan Moore. Homecoming Queen's victory was the first in the race for Moore, and the second for O'Brien after Virginia Waters (also owned by Magnier and Tabor) in 2005. Her nine length margin of victory was the widest since 1859.


2012 1000 Guineas, The contenders
The race attracted a field of seventeen runners, eleven trained in the United Kingdom, five in Ireland and one in France. The favourite was the Aidan O'Brien-trained Maybe, the European Champion Two-Year-Old Filly of 2011 whose wins included the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes. She was accompanied by her stable companion Homecoming Queen, who had won three of her thirteen races, most notably the Leopardstown 1,000 Guineas Trial Stakes. The Godolphin stable was represented by the undefeated pair Lyric of Light (Fillies' Mile) and Discourse (Sweet Solera Stakes).


2012 1000 Guineas, The contenders
The French challenger was Mashoora, the winner of the Prix Imprudence at Maisons-Laffitte on her most recent start. Other contenders included the Fred Darling Stakes winner Moonstone Magic and the Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lightening Pearl. Maybe headed the betting at odds of 13/8 ahead of Mashoora and Moonstone Magic (13/2), Lyric of Light (8/1) and Discourse (10/1). Homecoming Queen started a 25/1 outsider.


2012 1000 Guineas, The race
The start of the race was considerably delayed after Gray Pearl collapsed in the starting stalls, sustaining a fatal spinal injury. Homecoming Queen, the last filly to enter the stalls, broke very quickly and immediately took the lead from Alla Speranza, Lightening Pearl and Nayarra. After splitting into two groups across the wide, straight course, in the first quarter mile the field reunited and raced down the centre of the track. The order was maintained until three furlongs from the finish, at which point Ryan Moore increased the pace on Homecoming Queen and opened up a clear advantage.


2012 1000 Guineas, The race
The Ballydoyle outsider never looked in any danger of defeat despite drifting to the right in the closing stages and steadily increased her lead to win by nine lengths. Another outsider, Starscope, chased her in vain throughout the final furlong and took second place by a length ahead of Maybe and The Fugue. None of the other fancied runners ever posed a threat, with Mashoora finishing twelfth, Moonstone Magic fifteenth, Discourse sixteenth and Lyric of Light seventeenth and last.


2012 1000 Guineas, The race
Lyric of Light, was subsequently disqualified after a post-race urine sample revealed traces of Propoxyphene, a prohibited analgesic substance.


2012 12 Hours of Sebring
The 60th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring was the 60th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring, an auto race held at the Sebring International Raceway from 15–17 March 2012. The race served as the opening round for both the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship and American Le Mans Series seasons. The field of 64 entries was divided into nine classes: five from the American Le Mans Series and four from the World Endurance Championship.


2012 12 Hours of Sebring, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2012 12 Hours of Sebring, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance (227 laps) marked as not classified (NC).


2012 15U Baseball World Championship
The 2012 15U Baseball World Championship was the first under-15 international baseball competition held in Chihuahua, Mexico, from August 16 to August 26, 2012.


2012 15U Baseball World Championship, Teams
The tournament was slated to include 16 teams from across the world as three groups have been formed. After Colombia and Uganda withdrew from the competition, IBAF swapped Honduras and Argentina. Due to the non-appearance of Bahamas, the organizers updated the schedule.


2012 15U Baseball World Championship, Teams
Chinese Taipei is the official IBAF designation for the team representing the state officially referred to as the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan. (See also political status of Taiwan for details.)


2012 18U Baseball World Championship
The 2012 IBAF 18U Baseball World Championship was an international baseball competition held in Seoul, South Korea from August 30 to September 8, 2012.


2012 18U Baseball World Championship, Teams
Chinese Taipei is the official IBAF designation for the team representing the state officially referred to as the Republic of China, more commonly known as Taiwan. (See also political status of Taiwan for details.)


2012 2. deild karla
The 2012 2. deild karla was the 47th season of third-tier football in Iceland. The league, which was contested by 12 clubs from across Iceland, began on 11 May 2012 and ended on 22 September 2012.


2012 2. deild karla
The champions of the 2. deild karla in the 2012 season were Völsungur, who sealed the title on the final day of the season with a 2–1 home win against Njarðvík. Völsungur were consequently promoted to the 1. deild karla for the 2013 season along with runners-up KF, who finished ahead of third-placed HK because of their superior goal difference. At the opposite end of the table KFR, who had been promoted to the 2. deild for the 2012 campaign, finished bottom of the league after winning only one of their 22 matches. Also relegated to the 3. deild karla (which will be played in a new format in 2013) were Fjarðabyggð, who ended the season five points from safety.


2012 2. deild karla
There were two joint top goalscorers for the season who both scored 18 goals in the league: KF striker Þórður Birgisson and Bessi Víðisson of Dalvík/Reynir, who reached the tally with a five-goal haul in the 9–0 victory over KFR on the last day of the campaign. Bessi played fewer games though and as such was named as the top scorer.


2012 2. deild karla, Teams
A total of 12 clubs contested the 2012 2. deild karla, eight of which had played in the division during the previous campaign. The changes from the 2011 season were:


2012 2. deild karla, Statistics, Results
Each team play every opponent once home and away for a total of 22 matches.


2012 2. deild karla, Awards
On 5 October 2012, an awards evening was held at which the 2. deild karla Player of the Year, Most Promising Player, Manager of the Year and Team of the Year were announced. The team consisted of eleven players and seven substitutes and was voted for by the managers and captains of each of the clubs in the division.


2012 2. deild karla, Awards, Player of the Year
The Player of the Year accolade was awarded to Serbian goalkeeper Dejan Pešić, of Völsungur. The 35-year-old, playing his first season in Icelandic football, appeared in every match for the side as they won the division. Pešić, who played in the UEFA Champions League with Red Star Belgrade during his earlier career, conceded less than a goal per game over the season and was voted one of the best goalkeepers in all of Iceland in 2012.


2012 2. deild karla, Awards, Most Promising Player
Hrannar Björn Steingrímsson, the Völsungur midfielder, was named the Most Promising Player of the 2012 season. Aged 20, he was made club captain following the departure of Elfar Árni Aðalsteinsson to Úrvalsdeild side Breiðablik at the end of the previous summer.


2012 2. deild karla, Awards, Most Promising Player
Despite missing the opening weeks of the campaign through injury, Hrannar returned to the team in the 4–2 win over Afturelding on 2 June and went on to score 6 goals in 19 appearances over the remainder of the season, including a goal direct from a free-kick in the 2–1 final-day victory over Njarðvík that sealed the league title for Völsungur.


2012 2. deild karla, Awards, Manager of the Year
Serbian coach Dragan Stojanovic was awarded Manager of the Year after leading Völsungur to the 2. deild karla championship, thereby returning the club to the second tier of Icelandic football for the first time since relegation from the 1. deild karla in 2005. The former Fjarðabyggð, Þór Akureyri and Þór/KA manager brought a number of fellow Serbian players to the club during the close season including Dejan Pešić and Marko Blagojević, and guided the team to victory in nine of their eleven home matches, conceding only four goals in the process.


2012 2. divisjon
The 2012 2. divisjon season began on 14 April 2012 and ended on 27 October 2012. The league consisted of 56 teams divided into 4 groups of 14 teams. The four group-winners, Elverum, Kristiansund, Vard Haugesund and Follo was promoted to the 1. divisjon, while the bottom three teams in each groups was relegated to the 3. divisjon.


2012 2. divisjon, Teams
Asker, Løv-Ham (replaced by Fyllingsdalen), Nybergsund-Trysil and Randaberg were relegated from the 2011 1. divisjon, while Ullensaker/Kisa, Bærum, Notodden and Tromsdalen were promoted to the 2012 1. divisjon.


2012 2. divisjon, Teams
Tiller, Strindheim, Steinkjer, Herd, Jevnaker, Viking 2, Førde, Austevoll, Harstad, Hasle-Løren, Skarp along with Manglerud Star, who withdrew their team, were relegated from 2011 2. Divisjon.


2012 2. divisjon, Teams
Østsiden, Gjøvik FF, Grorud, Birkebeineren, Jerv, Egersund, Brann 2, Fana, Træff, Buvik, Mo and Finnsnes were promoted from 2011 3. Divisjon as winners of their groups.


2012 2000 Guineas Stakes
The 2012 2000 Guineas Stakes was the 204th running of the 2000 Guineas Stakes horse race. It was run over one mile at Newmarket Racecourse on 5 May 2013.


2012 2000 Guineas Stakes, Full result
* The distances between the horses are shown in lengths or shorter – nk = neck


2012 2000 Guineas Stakes, Form analysis, Two-year-old races
Notable runs by the future 2000 Guineas participants as two-year-olds in 2011:


2012 2000 Guineas Stakes, Form analysis, The road to Newmarket
Early-season appearances in 2012, prior to running in the 2000 Guineas:


2012 2000 Guineas Stakes, Form analysis, Subsequent Group 1 wins
Group 1 / Grade I victories after running in the 2000 Guineas:


2012 2000 Guineas Stakes, Subsequent breeding careers, Other Stallions
Born To Sea (12th) - Sea Of Grace (2nd Poule d'Essai des Pouliches 2017)Hermival (3rd) - Minor flat runner - exported to MoroccoCaspar Netscher (9th) - Minor flat runner before returning to training after proving subfertile


2012 24 Hours of Daytona
The 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona was a long-distance motor race for sports cars conforming to the regulations of the Grand-Am Road Racing series. The race was held over a duration of 24 hours, starting at 3:30pm on Saturday, January 28, finishing at 3:30pm the following day. The race was held on the sports car version of Daytona International Speedway, which includes only a portion of the NASCAR Superspeedway course and a loop of circuit which winds through the infield of the speedway.


2012 24 Hours of Daytona
2012 was the 50th running of the race which had begun as a three-hour duration sports car race in 1962. The race was also the opening round of the 2012 Rolex Sports Car Series season. A field of 14 Daytona Prototypes took the start of the race along with a grid of 44 of the slower roadcar-based Grand Touring class cars.


2012 24 Hours of Daytona
This race also was part of the inaugural North American Endurance Championship.


2012 24 Hours of Daytona, Qualifying
Pole position for the race was taken by British racing driver Ryan Dalziel driving the Starworks Motorsport run Riley Technologies Mk.XXVI Daytona Prototype sports car recording a lap time of 1:41.119.


2012 24 Hours of Daytona, Qualifying
In the Grand Touring class, pole was claimed by the Brumos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup driven by American driver Andrew Davis.


2012 24 Hours of Daytona, Winners
The Michael Shank Racing entry of A. J. Allmendinger, Justin Wilson, Oswaldo Negri Jr., and John Pew took victory in their No. 60 Riley Mk. XXVI Ford, completing 761 laps over the course of the 24-hour race. They enjoyed a spirited battle with the No. 8 Starworks Motorsport Riley Mk. XXVI Ford of Ryan Dalziel, Lucas Luhr, Allan McNish, Enzo Potolicchio, and Alex Popow, which led the most laps and posted the quickest time of the race, but suffered a minor accident in the 17th hour.


2012 24 Hours of Daytona, Winners
In GT, Magnus Racing earned its first-ever Rolex Sports Car Series victory, with the lineup of Richard Lietz, Andy Lally, René Rast, and John Potter in the No. 44 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. It was Lally's fourth Rolex 24 class victory, and the first for the other three drivers.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 80th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 80e 24 Heures du Mans) was an 24 hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 16 to 17 June 2012 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France. It was the 80th running of the event, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. The race was the third round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship, with 30 of the race's 56 entries contesting the championship. Approximately 240,000 people attended the race. A test day was held two weeks prior to the race on 3 June.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans
A Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer started from pole position after Lotterer set the fastest overall lap time in the third qualifying session. The team were untroubled in the opening hours of the race until a Toyota TS030 Hybrid shared by Alexander Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima and Nicolas Lapierre took the lead. Toyota relinquished it during a safety car period for a major accident at the start of the sixth hour.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans
Audi's other team of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello became their teammate's lead challengers until McNish crashed while lapping slower traffic in the 22nd hour and providing Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer with a lead they maintained to the end of the race. It was Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer's second Le Mans win, Audi's eleventh and the first for a hybrid electric vehicle. The second Audi finished one lap behind in second place and a R18 ultra of Oliver Jarvis, Marco Bonanomi and Mike Rockenfeller completed an Audi sweep of the podium positions in third.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class was won by the Starworks Motorsport team of Enzo Potolicchio, Ryan Dalziel and Tom Kimber-Smith in a HPD ARX-03b after they led the final 215 laps of the event. The trio finished ahead of Thiriet by TDS Racing's Oreca 03 car shared by Pierre Thiriet, Mathias Beche and Christophe Tinseau and Pecom Racing's Luís Pérez Companc, Pierre Kaffer and Soheil Ayari.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans
Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander in an AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia held a three-lap lead in Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) over Luxury Racing's trio of Frédéric Makowiecki, Jaime Melo and Dominik Farnbacher. The Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Larbre Compétition's Chevrolet Corvette C6.R of Patrick Bornhauser, Pedro Lamy and Julien Canal after Lamy overtook Anthony Pons, Nicolas Armindo and Raymond Narac's IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3-RSR in the final hour.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans
Due to the result of the race, McNish, Kristensen and Capello were elevated to the lead of the Drivers' Championship, 6½ points over the race winners Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer in second position. The leaders entering the event, Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval fell to third. Marc Gené was in fourth place and the Rebellion trio of Nick Heidfeld, Neel Jani and Nico Prost completed the top five after finishing in fourth position. Audi continued to lead the non-scoring Toyota in the Manufacturers' Championship with five races left in the season.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background
The automotive journalist Charles Faroux conceived the 24 Hours of Le Mans to Georges Durand, the president of the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and the industrialist Emile Coquile for car manufacturers to test race vehicle reliability and fuel efficiency. It is considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background
The ACO moved the 2012 Le Mans schedule forward by one week in order to avoid a date conflict with races in the 2012 Formula One World Championship and to allow teams to establish their facilities at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France. It was the 80th annual edition of the event, as well as the third of eight automobile endurance races of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Background
After the preceding 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Audi drivers Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval led the Drivers' Championship with 43 points, two ahead of their teammates Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish in second place. Marc Gené was in third position with 25 points, the trio of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer were in fourth place with 19+1⁄2 points and Timo Bernhard was fifth with 18 points. Audi led the non-scoring Toyota in the Manufacturers' Championship by 52 points.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Regulation changes
With the introduction of hybrid electric vehicles for the first time at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012, the ACO and the world governing body of motor racing, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), created seven zones on the Circuit de la Sarthe for those cars to recuperate electrical energy under braking. Each zone was situated 50 m (160 ft) before the entry to a corner. The ACO and the FIA imposed a mandatory limit of 500 kJ (140 Wh) to restrict the amount of energy capable of being harvested by an energy recovery system between two braking zones and to regulate the capital needed to develop such systems.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Automatic entries
Automatic entries were earned by teams which won their class in the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans. Teams who won Le Mans-based series and events such as the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Le Mans Series (LMS), and the Petit Le Mans were also invited. Some second-place finishers were also granted automatic entries in certain series. Entries were also granted for the winners of the Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge in both the ALMS and the LMS.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Automatic entries
A final entry was granted to the champion in the Formula Le Mans category of the LMS, and the winner received their invitation in Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). As automatic entries were granted to teams, teams were allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next, but not their category. Automatic invitations in the two GTE categories could be swapped between the two based on the driver line-ups chosen by those teams. As the ALMS did not separate between the Pro and Am categories, only a single GTE invitation was granted for their class champion.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Automatic entries
On 24 November 2011, the list of automatic entries was announced by the ACO. Peugeot Sport chose not to accept their automatic invitation as they withdrew from sports car racing in January 2012 due to financial difficulties. BMW Team RLL and Pegasus Racing were the other two teams who did not take up their entries because both teams elected to focus on their respective series during the 2012 season.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Entry list
In conjunction with the announcement of entries for the 2012 FIA WEC, the ACO announced the full 56-car entry list and nine-vehicle reserve list at a press conference in Paris on 2 February. In addition to the 30 guaranteed entries from the WEC, 5 came from the ALMS, 3 from the LMS, while the rest of the field was filled with one-off entries only competing at Le Mans.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Garage 56
For the 56th and final entry for the 2012 Le Mans race, the ACO promoted cars which featured advancements in technology, either for performance or ecological improvement. Three projects were submitted to the ACO, with the automatic entry being granted to an American group by the name of Project 56 who developed the DeltaWing concept originally proposed for the American IndyCar Series. The extremely lightweight car features a layout that is far removed from the style of Le Mans Prototypes. The project was backed by Highcroft Racing, All American Racers and the Panoz Group. Two other entries had been granted reserve status if the DeltaWing team withdrew: the Swiss-developed GreenGT LMP-H2, which utilized a hydrogen fuel cell to run electric motors within a Le Mans Prototype style body, and the French Courage 0.12 used stored energy to drive electric motors.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Entries, Reserves
Nine reserves were initially nominated by the ACO, limited to the LMP2 (five) and both of the LMGTE (four) categories. The Dyson Racing teams withdrew both of their Lola B12/60-Mazda cars from the entry list on 16 April, citing a financial difficulty preventing the team from obtaining the necessary budget to compete at Le Mans and a desire to focus on the ALMS. This promoted the No. 30 Status Grand Prix Lola B12/80 and the No. 48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03-Nissan cars to the race entry list. That same day, the ACO released a revised entry list confirming the withdrawal of the Dyson entries as well as the Jetalliance, Hope Racing, Lotus Cars and Aston Martin Racing reserve entries. By the start of the event, three reserved entries had not been promoted to the race entry.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing and practice
A test day was held on 3 June, two weeks prior to the race, and required all entrants for the race to participate in eight hours of track time divided into two sessions. A second Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b for Scott Tucker, the No. 32 Lotus Lola B12/80 and the IMSA Performance Porsche 997 GT3-RSR reserve entries took part. Sébastien Loeb Racing and two DAMS-entered Le Mans Prototype Challenge Oreca-FLM09s also participated. Stéphane Sarrazin of Toyota was unable to take part in testing after sustaining facial injuries from a bike accident on the afternoon of 2 June.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing and practice
Duval set the fastest lap in the first session at 3 minutes, 27.738 seconds in the No. 3 Audi R18 Ultra. McNish later improved to a 3 minutes, 25.927 seconds lap in the No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro though he crashed at Tertre Rouge corner with one hour remaining and was unable to continue. He was followed by Lotterer's No. 1 Audi in second and Duval fell to third. The fastest Toyota TS030 Hybrid was fourth courtesy of a lap from Alexander Wurz and the fastest privateer LMP1 entry was Danny Watts' No. 21 Strakka Racing HPD


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing and practice
ARX-03a car in sixth. At the end of the first session, Guillaume Moreau crashed the No. 15 OAK Racing Pescarolo car heavily against a concrete barrier in the Porsche Curves, sustaining a fracture to the T12 vertebrae on his spinal cord. He underwent an operation at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers to reduce the pressure on his spinal cord and was ruled out of the race. His place was taken by former Peugeot driver Franck Montagny.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing and practice
Olivier Pla's OAK Morgan LMP2 car led in LMP2 as Frédéric Makowiecki in the No. 59 Luxury Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 was the fastest driver in LMGTE Pro and Allan Simonsen helped Aston Martin to be fastest in LMGTE Am. Separate crashes from Piergiuseppe Perazzini, Rui Águas, Jordan Taylor, Pierre Thiriet and Gianmaria Bruni led to disruptions during the second session.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing and practice
After the test several prototype teams, including all Audi, Toyota, Pescarolo and Starworks Motorsports cars participated in an unofficial test on the shorter Bugatti Circuit on 6 June to ensure car components were working efficiently before the race. Official practice was held on 13 June with the full 56-car field on track for four hours. Audi led from the start once again, with Duval and later Tréluyer setting the early pace. Kristensen went faster before a lap of 3 minutes, 25.163 seconds from Lotterer at the end of the session made him quickest and Audi took the first four places.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing and practice
Kazuki Nakajima was the fastest Toyota driver in fifth and his teammate Anthony Davidson was sixth. A powertrain issue stopped the No. 8 Toyota on the Mulsanne Straight and it required an engine change. Watts was the fastest LMP1 privateer in seventh and Sébastien Bourdais's No. 17 Pescarolo Dome-Judd placed eighth. The No. 16 Pescarolo car of Jean-Christophe Boullion spun and crashed into a guardrail at 268 km/h (167 mph), damaging his ribs and leaving him unable to compete for the rest of the race meeting. Tom Kimber-Smith in the No. 44 Starworks HPD


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing and practice
ARX-03b vehicle led in LMP2 with a 3 minutes, 39.669 seconds lap, ahead of the No. 38 Jota Zytek Z11SN car of Sam Hancock and Warren Hughes' No. 48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca entry. The LMGTE Pro category was led by the No. 97 Aston Martin of Darren Turner with a time of 3 minutes, 57.036 seconds and Patrick Pilet in the No. 79 Flying Lizard Porsche was fastest in LMGTE Am and was within 1.2 seconds of Turner's pace. The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari caused a stoppage after Giancarlo Fisichella pirouetted and heavily damaged the car's rear-left corner in the Porsche Curves. The ACO and the FIA applied force majeure and allowed the car's chassis to be transported to AF Corse's factory in Piacenza for reconstruction.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The first of three two-hour qualifying sessions began late 13 June night under clear conditions. Audi led from the first minutes of the session with a flying lap from Oliver Jarvis in the No. 4 Audi, followed by Kristensen overtaking Jarvis soon after. He was followed by Lotterer whose final timed lap of 3 minutes, 25.453 seconds earned the No. 1 Audi team provisional pole position. Kristensen's time put the No. 2 car second and Duval's No. 3 entry finished the session third. The No. 7 Toyota of Nicolas Lapierre was 1.7 seconds adrift of the fastest Audi in fourth.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Mike Rockenfeller's No. 4 Audi took fifth and Davidson's No. 8 Toyota in sixth was the slowest of all the hybrid cars. Watts, driving the No. 21 Strakka HPD, was the top non-hybrid LMP1 vehicle in seventh. Mathias Beche drove the No. 46 Thiriet by TDS Oreca to provisional pole in LMP2 with a lap of 3 minutes, 39.252 seconds ahead of the Murphy Oreca car of Brendon Hartley and Kimber-Smith's Starworks HPD vehicle. Keiko Ihara crashed the No. 29 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola car at the Dunlop Curves and was extricated from a barrier by recovery vehicles.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The Pro class of LMGTE had Chevrolet lead from the start with the fastest lap set by Oliver Gavin in the No. 74 C6.R at 3 minutes, 55.910 seconds. Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche all had cars within two seconds of the Corvette. Pilet's Flying Lizard Porsche set the pace in LMGTE Am, followed by Sean Edwards' No. 75 Prospeed Competition car and Simonsen's Aston Martin. The experimental DeltaWing car driven by Michael Krumm suffered a heavy jolt on a kerb that activated its onboard fire extinguisher and the master electrical switch, disabling the engine.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The weather was clear for the second session on the evening of 14 June. Duval's Audi R18 Ultra was quickest in the session with a lap of 3 minutes, 24.098 seconds on 30 minutes to go and passed Lotterer's No. 1 Audi for provisional pole position. McNish's No. 2 car finished the session third at the conclusion of a final six-lap stint as Davidson prevented Audi from taking the first four positions in the No. 8 Toyota.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The No. 4 Audi of Marco Bonanomi fell to fifth and Toyota's No. 7 entry driven by Nakajima dropped to sixth after Lapierre lost control of its rear and spun into some grass entering the Ford Chicane. Watts' Strakka HPD improved its best lap to ensure it remained the fastest non-hybrid LMP1 vehicle in seventh with Neel Jani's No. 12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota eighth.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
One second covered the first six vehicles in LMP2 as Pla gave OAK's Oreca car provisional pole in class at the session's conclusion with a time of 3 minutes, 38.598 seconds despite a driver error into a gravel trap at Indianapolis corner. Nelson Panciatici's No. 26 Signatech car was second. In LMGTE Pro, Makowiecki moved the No. 59 Luxury Ferrari to the provisional category pole position. Turner helped Aston Martin to finish the session second and Tommy Milner's No. 74 Corvette took third. The No. 58 Luxury Ferrari was the fastest LMGTE Am car of the session yet it was more than 1.2 seconds behind the Flying Lizard Porsche's pole lap.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
In the third session, Lotterer in the No. 1 R18 e-tron quattro set a new fastest lap of 3 minutes, 23.787 seconds after 13 minutes and held the top of the time sheets to take pole position for Audi. Audi was the first manufacturer to earn pole position with a hybrid electric vehicle at Le Mans and took its seventh overall pole at the race. Duval improved the No. 3 Audi's lap to sit alongside the No. 1 car on the grid's front row.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The No. 8 Toyota of Davidson closed to almost within a second of the pole sitting Audi with 15 minutes remaining to take third position. Kristensen separated the two Toyota entries in fourth place as Nakajima qualified the No. 7 TS030 Hybrid fifth. The final manufacturer vehicle was Jarvis' No. 4 Audi in sixth. Watts' Strakka won against the Rebellion car of Jani to be the fastest non-hybrid LMP1 car in seventh.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Seiji Ara in the No. 17 Pescarolo Dome car made impact with a barrier at the Porsche Curves and brought out the sole stoppage of 10 minutes in all three sessions. In LMP2, John Martin's No. 26 ADR-Delta Oreca vehicle set a time of 3 minutes, 38.181 seconds in the first minutes of the session to move the team to pole position and its lap was unchallenged thereafter. Pla's OAK Oreca car fell to second and Panciatici's Signatech vehicle started from third after an error during the session.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The No. 97 Aston Martin of Turner was unable to better the car's time to displace Makowiecki's No. 59 Luxury Racing Ferrari at the top of LMGTE Pro and Milner's No. 74 Corvette remained third in category. The lead in LMGTE Am remained with the Flying Lizard Porsche, 0.012 seconds ahead of the No. 77 Team Felbermayr-Proton Pro category car.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying, Qualifying results
Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold. The fastest time set by each entry is denoted in gray.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Warm-up
The cars took to the circuit on the morning of 16 June for a 45-minute warm-up session on a waterlogged track. The No. 3 Audi driven by Duval set the fastest lap of 4 minutes, 3.933 seconds with the sister No. 2 car of Capello second and the pole sitting No. 1 of Lotterer third. Jarvis' No. 4 Audi was fourth and the quickest Toyota was fifth after a lap from Wurz. The fastest LMP2 lap was recorded by the No. 42 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan car of Lucas Ordóñez.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Warm-up
AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari driven by Toni Vilander was the fastest car in LMGTE Pro while Joël Camathias of JWA-Avila helped Porsche to lead in LMGTE Am. During the session, where several cars aquaplaned on the track, Marc Rostan spun the No. 29 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola car on the start/finish straight and Jan Charouz beached the No. 25 ADR-Delta Oreca vehicle in a gravel trap at Dunlop Curve leading to the session being stopped for ten minutes.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
The weather was dry and sunny before the race with an air temperature between 10.5 to 21 °C (50.9 to 69.8 °F) and the track temperature from 15.5 to 26 °C (59.9 to 78.8 °F). Approximately 240,000 spectators attended the race. The French tricolour was waved at 15:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00), by Takeshi Uchiyamada, the vice president and director of Toyota, to start the race, led by the starting pole sitter Lotterer.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
A total of 56 cars planned to take the start but the No. 16 Pescarolo 03-Judd car underwent an engine change in the pit lane after it failed during the warm-up session and the No. 21 Strakka HPD vehicle had a gearbox oil leak caused by a seal connecting the driveshaft and the gearbox failing. Lotterer maintained his lead on the opening lap and he pulled away from the rest of the field. McNish's No. 2 Audi overtook Sarrazin's No. 8 Toyota for third and he held off a counter-challenge from Sarrazin to keep the position. Light rain that fell on the north section of the track did not affect the race.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
In LMP2, John Martin led the first nine laps until Pla's OAK car passed him during pit stop rotation. The No. 59 Luxury Racing Ferrari of Jaime Melo fell to fifth in the opening laps as LMGTE Am began as a multi-car battle between representatives of Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin with the lead of the class changing multiple times during the first hour.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
The LMGTE classes continued to be closely contested in the second hour with the No. 97 Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke, AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari of Bruni and Gavin's No. 74 Corvette duelling for the head of the Pro category. Kimber-Smith was lapping faster than Soheil Ayari's No. 49 Pecom vehicle in the LMP2 category at the time and he moved the Starworks team to second in class. The hour had the first retirement with Rostan's No. 29 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola car sustaining a broken front-left wheel alignment from an accident leaving the Porsche Curves.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
Pilet and later Spencer Pumpelly's No. 79 Flying Lizard car took a clear lead in LMGTE Am after the No. 99 Aston Martin of Simonsen developed a misfire. LMGTE Pro continued to be a close battle between Milner's No. 74 Corvette, Turner's No. 97 Aston Martin and Bruni's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari with the three cars nose-to-tail on the circuit and the lead changed frequently. The Ferrari was subsequently able to remain on track for longer than its competitors during a sequence of pit stops.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
Nearly four hours into the race, Kristensen's No. 2 Audi returned to the garage so that the team's mechanics could remove a large amount of rubber debris lodged in its right-rear suspension arm and created a vibration. Kristensen returned to the race in fifth position and a routine pit stop for Duval's No. 3 car promoted the Toyota cars of Lapierre and Buemi to second and third. Although Toyota had less fuel economy than Audi, Buemi and later his teammate Lapierre were able to attack in the fourth hour and lowered Tréluyer's lead to twenty seconds.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Start
Jody Firth in the No. 48 Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan vehicle passed Ryan Dalziel's Starworks HPD car for third in LMP2 and he pulled away from Dalziel to lead him by twenty seconds. Lapierre sustained damage to the No. 7 Toyota's right rear wing endplate which later detached and he continued in second position. Not long after Dumas was lapping the LMGTE-Am leading No. 79 Flying Lizard Porsche of Seth Neiman at the first Mulsanne Straight chicane and he understeered heavily into a tyre barrier with the No. 4 Audi's front-right corner. The car sustained heavy damage to its front bodywork, and required a 26-minute and 34-second pit stop to replace it and dropping the car down the race order. The fifth hour ended with Lapierre prevailing against Tréluyer in a duel for the lead.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
At the start of the sixth hour Davidson in third was lapping Perazzini's No. 81 AF Corse Ferrari when the left-rear of the No. 8 Toyota made contact with the front-right of the Ferrari at the end of the Mulsanne Straight. The Toyota rotated through 360 degrees, lifted into the air after its right-rear wheel detached in the collision with the Ferrari and allowed air to penetrate its floor, It struck the tarmac with its front-left corner and hurtled upright at high speed towards a tyre wall at Mulsanne corner.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
Perrazzini's Ferrari made heavy side contact with an armco metal barrier that deformed it and the vehicle was turned onto its roof. The safety cars were deployed to slow the race as marshals worked for 70 minutes to replace and repair the damaged barriers and extricate the two cars from the track. Both Davidson and Perrazzini vacated their vehicles without external assistance; Davidson was transported to a local hospital from the circuit's medical centre complaining of shock and back pain. Davidson fractured his T11 and T12 vertebrae while Perrazzini was unhurt.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
Half a minute after racing resumed the overall leading No. 1 Audi of Fässler was delayed by slower traffic, causing Nakajima's No. 7 Toyota to collide with the left-hand corner of the No. 0 DeltaWing car of Satoshi Motoyama and sent the latter into a concrete barrier beside the circuit. The DeltaWing sustained damage to its steering arm, powertrain and rear bodywork; track marshals pushed it behind the wall to allow mechanics from Highcroft Racing to advise Motoyama on how to repair the car.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
He spent 90 minutes repairing the car with garage equipment though he was unable to make it mobile and retired. Brendon Hartley was the fastest LMP2 driver at the time and he brought the No. 48 Greaves Oreca to the lead of the category. The No. 7 Toyota was driven into the pit lane for repairs to its rear and the crash promoted Audi to the first three positions.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
Pedro Lamy in the No. 50 Larbre Compétition got involved in a battle with Nicolas Armindo's No. 67 IMSA Performance Porsche for the lead of LMGTE Am. Maxime Martin returned OAK's No. 24 Oreca car to the lead in LMP2 until a puncture during his first lap out of the pit lane after a routine stop allowed the No. 48 Murphy Oreca-Nissan vehicle of Hughes back to the front of the category.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
Lotterer had an anxious moment when he made a driver error during the first third of a lap in the No. 1 Audi; he returned to the track without losing the overall lead. Further down the field the fuel efficiency of the Ferrari 458 Italia allowed the No. 51 AF Corse of Bruni to remain in contention with the LMGTE Pro leading Corvette of Milner.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
As it turned 17 June, the No. 48 Murphy Oreca-Nissan relinquished the lead of LMP2 when driver Hughes entered the pit lane with a right-rear puncture that sent the car into a spin at the exit to Arnage corner and caused damage to its rear wheel arch and deck.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
Pla retook the class lead in the No. 24 OAK Oreca until he too was forced to slow and enter the pit lane with a sudden loss of oil pressure that was unable to be rectified and forced the car's retirement, returning the No. 44 Starworks HPD car of Kimber-Smith and later Dalziel to the category lead.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
In the eleventh hour, Westbrook had just relieved Milner in the No. 74 Corvette when its left-rear tyre detached in the Dunlop Esses and slowing him for the rest of the lap en route to the pit lane for repairs to the car's bodywork and underwent a change of brake discs. The car relinquished the lead of LMGTE Pro it had held for 66 consecutive laps to the No. 51 AF Corse.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
Toyota lost its one remaining entry when the No. 7 car retired after 10½ hours with an engine failure. The No. 74 Corvette emerged on the track soon after though it was once again involved in an incident when Westbrook crashed at the first Mulsanne Straight chicane and necessitating repairs to its bodywork and a change of differential and halfshaft. A major accident for Frankie Montecalvo's No. 58 Luxury Racing Ferrari caused the car to retire with heavy left-hand side damage and its front wing removed.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Evening to night
As the race approached half distance, the No. 1 Audi of Fässler led Kristensen's No. 2 car by 40 seconds before a driver change, Bonamoni's No. 3 entry was in third position and the recovering No. 4 driven by Dumas was fourth after contact with the No. 70 Larbre Corvette at the Ford Chicane. Makowiecki lost ground to the LMGTE Pro leading AF Corse Ferrari of Fisichella in the No. 59 Luxury Racing car after a driver error put him into a gravel trap at Indianapolis corner. McNish took over the No. 2 Audi and lapped in the 3 minutes and 30 seconds range to which Fässler's No. 1 entry responded to stabilise a gap to 1 minute and 20 seconds at the conclusion of the 13th hour.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
In the early morning the No. 1 Audi of Fässler spun in the Porsche Curves and made contact with the rear of the car against a barrier, relinquishing first place to McNish's No. 2 car. During this period a broken left-rear transmission on Hartley's No. 48 Murphy Oreca-Nissan failed and caused one of the car's rear wheels to lock before track marshals pushed it towards the pit lane for it to be retired from the event.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Abdulaziz Al Faisal spun and crashed backwards against a concrete barrier in the Porsche Curves causing enough damage to retire the vehicle and required the deployment of the safety cars for the second time in the race. When racing resumed Harold Primat's No. 13 Rebellion Lola car spun on cold tyres exiting the Porsche Curves; he avoided contact with a circuit barrier. The car lost a large amount of time while it was recovered by track marshals and Primat continued in sixth overall.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
The safety cars allowed Lotterer's No. 1 Audi to return to the lead after McNish entered the pit lane for a routine pit stop. Mücke, holding second place in LMGTE Pro, lost control of the No. 97 Aston Martin, went straight on and made contact with the car's right-hand side against a tyre wall to the right of the track. The car sustained minor damage and after repairs which dropped it four laps, returned to the track third in class. AF Corse had their lead in LMGTE Pro further strengthened when Makowiecki's Luxury Racing Ferrari picked up a right-rear puncture and required the team's mechanics to replace it.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Duval in the No. 3 Audi became the lead challenger to the No. 12 Rebellion Lola car, twice resetting the race's fastest lap and passing the Rebellion for fourth overall. Brian Vickers made minor contact against a wall at Tetre Rouge corner and the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari sustained a left-front puncture. As he entered the pit lane, the front-left wheel caught fire, which fire marshals extinguished. The car was transported into the garage for repairs to its bodywork. Over three hours after reclaiming the race lead, Fässler encountered the No. 74 Corvette, which spun at Mulsanne corner.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
He damaged the No. 1 Audi's rear bodywork against a barrier in avoidance. Audi told Fässler to remain on the circuit until his next scheduled stop to replace the damaged component. Repairs took more than two minutes to complete and allowed Kristensen's No. 2 car to reclaim the lead following a pit stop for fuel. Kristensen overhauled Fässler in a duel for the lead on the Mulsanne Straight after a driver error sent the latter into a gravel trap.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Separate pit stop strategies for the No. 1 and 2 Audi cars saw the lead exchange several times, while the No. 13 Rebellion car was forced into the pit lane for a clutch change and forfeiting sixth place to the No. 22 JRM HPD vehicle. Ayari, driving the No. 49 Pecom Oreca, held second place in LMP2 until he ran wide at Indianapolis corner and beached the car in a gravel trap. The car dropped to fourth after recovery vehicles extricated it from the gravel and Ayari made a pit stop to remove debris from it.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Bonanomi's No. 4 Audi twice stopped on the circuit with a transmission fault that he rectified by resetting the ignition system and kept the car in third position. Not long after an accident for Simon Dolan's No. 38 Jota Zytek in the Porsche Curves caused its retirement in the garage due to extensive damage to its rear. The race-leading No. 1 Audi of Tréluyer spun at the entry to the pit lane as he slowed to comply with the pit lane speed limit. He lost the lead to McNish's No. 2 car who extended it to 47 seconds.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Audi suffered two accidents in the 22nd hour that warranted the third deployment of the safety cars. Gené in the No. 3 Audi repeated his co-driver Dumas' accident from the fifth hour, understeering into a wall at the exit to the first Mulsanne Straight chicane and damaged the car's front bodywork and front-right suspension. McNish's No. 2 car had rear oversteer while lapping the No. 59 Luxury Racing Ferrari and punctured a hole on an armco metal barrier in the Porsche Curves.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning to early afternoon
Repairs to the No. 2 Audi dropped McNish one lap behind Lotterer and Gené fell behind the No. 13 Rebellion car in fourth place. After racing resumed, Anthony Pons' No. 76 IMSA Performance Porsche ceded the lead of LMGTE Am to Lamy's No. 50 Larbre Corvette which it maintained to the finish to earn the team's fifth victory in the class after Pons sustained a left-rear puncture on the final lap.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
The No. 1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Fässler, Lotterer and Tréluyer maintained the race lead without trouble for the final two hours of the race, taking the trio's second consecutive win and Audi's eleventh overall in a distance of 5,151.8 km (3,201.2 mi) and 378 laps. Audi completed a sweep of the podium positions with the No. 2 and No. 4 cars in second and third. The Audi R18 e-tron quattro was the first hybrid electric and non-permanent four-wheel drivetrain vehicle to win the 24 Hour race.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
The Starworks Motorsport team was undaunted in LMP2 and maintained the first-place position it had held for 215 consecutive laps to win, earning Kimber-Smith his third victory in the class and Dalziel and Pottolicchio's first. The Thiriet by TDS Racing and Pecom Racing teams were second and third in LMP2. AF Corse held their three-lap lead over Luxury Racing in LMGTE Pro and took their first class win. It gave Bruni his second category win, and Fisichella and Vilander's first. Aston Martin came third in the category.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
The IMSA Performance team were able to secure a second-place finish in LMGTE Am after the team's late event puncture and the Krohn Racing squad followed in third. There were eighteen outright lead changes amongst three cars during the race. The No. 1 Audi's 326 laps led was more than any other car.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
The top three teams in each of the four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in the later press conferences. Lotterer said Audi's victory over Peugeot in the 2011 edition provided him with the confidence to challenge Toyota, "For me, I'm more new in Le Mans so to be in that situation was amazing, so this year we had a bit more confidence within the team. We know we can trust each other even more and this gave us good potential.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
But you come to Le Mans and you can't expect to win, you just do your best and hope that it will work." McNish apologised for the accident that caused the crew of the No. 2 Audi to lose a chance at victory, "I'm sorry for our team: Dindo, Tom, the engineers and the mechanics. They did a perfect job throughout the race. Despite a few problems we were in contention for victory up to my accident."


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Capello revealed that he said to McNish that the crash could have occurred to any driver, "For sure I felt disappointed when I saw the car in the wall, but as a driver immediately my thoughts went to Allan because I know he was giving 100% to try to close the gap as much as possible to the #1 car."


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Davidson was flown back to his home in Oxford on 20 June to begin a three-month recovery period. He attributed the design of his race seat and head rest to saving him from paralysis, "It held me, supported me and arguably was the thing that saved me from further compression and maybe the worst case scenario of being paralysed now instead. When you look at everything involved, I think I got away with it the lightest I was ever going to."


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Members of the Toyota team went to the Nissan garage to apologise for the collision that resulted in the retirement of the DeltaWing. The team principal, Pascal Vasselon, stated Toyota's pace in the first half of the race was a realistic of what it could achieve, "We were not looking for an aggressive start and leading for 10 minutes. I know some people were expecting us to try to do that at the start, but no. The drivers knew they had to be safe at the start, then at the beginning the balance was not perfect. It was changing, the track was changing. We started on a very green track [because of the rain overnight] and it's important to be balanced for when the grip builds up, that was our target."


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Due to the result of the event, McNish, Kristensen and Capello moved to the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 77 points, 6½ ahead of the race winners Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer in second place. Dumas and Duval fell from first to third with 67 points, Gené stood in fourth position with 49 points and the Rebellion trio of Nick Heidfeld, Jani and Nico Prost rounded out the top five with 42½. Audi continued to maintain their lead over the non-scoring Toyota in the Manufacturers' Championship with five races left in the season.


2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race, Race classification
Class winners are marked in bold Cars failing to complete 70 per cent of winner's distance (264 laps) are marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The 2012 ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring was the 40th running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It took place over May 19–20, 2012.


2012 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Resume
For 2012:  The race was limited to a maximum of 190 cars/entries (down from a limit of 250 entries in 2011), which started in 3 groups of up to 70 cars (maximum). Each entry must have between 2 drivers (minimum) and 4 drivers (maximum). Drivers may drive more than one car (2 maximum). All drivers were permitted to drive 3 hours per stint (maximum) with all refuelling and pit stops included. All drivers were required to take a MINIMUM REST TIME of 2 hours (whether driving 1 or 2 cars).


2012 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Resume
New in 2012:  There was an exciting new "Top-40" qualifying format for the 40 fastest cars on the starting grid, which took place, Friday, after the first 2 qualifying sessions:  "the 40 fastest teams will battle it out on Friday afternoon for the positions at the front end of starting group 1".


2012 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Resume
As in previous years, the Top 40 Qualifying cars eligible to start, must have flashing lights installed (for better identification of the Top 40 competitors) behind the windscreen on the passenger’s side.


2012 24 Hours of Nürburgring, Resume, Classes for 2012
In 2012, there were 28 classes split into 4 divisions.


2012 24 Hours of Spa
The 2012 Total 24 Hours of Spa was the 65th running of the 24 Hours of Spa. It was the fourth round of the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series season and was held over the 28 and 29 of July at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. The race was won by Andrea Piccini, Rene Rast and Frank Stippler driving an Audi.


2012 24 Hours of Spa, Entry List
On 4 July, the RACB and SRO Belgium released the provisional entry list.


2012 24 Hours of Spa, Race
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 3. divisjon
The 2012 season of the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest association football league for men in Norway.


2012 3. divisjon
Between 22 and 26 games (depending on group size) are played in 12 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws. Twelve group winners are promoted to the 2. divisjon.


2012 3. divisjon
The 3. divisjon was streamlined to only 12 groups, compared to 24 groups in 2010.


2012 4 Nations Cup
The 2012 Four Nations Cup is a women's ice hockey tournament that was held in Tikkurila, Finland.


2012 41st International Pokka 1000km
The 41st International Pokka 1000km was the fifth round of the 2012 Super GT season and the 41st running of the 1000 km Suzuka. It took place on August 19, 2012.


2012 6 Hours of Bahrain
The 2012 6 Hours of Bahrain was an auto race held at Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain on Saturday 29 September 2012. It was the inaugural running of the 6 Hours of Bahrain and the sixth round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season.


2012 6 Hours of Bahrain
The race was dominated by Audi Sport Team Joest who swept to a 1-2 victory with Benoît Tréluyer, Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer taking a one lap win over the Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen. Nicolas Lapierre for Toyota lead early in the race only to pit with faulty number plate illumination, losing over ten minutes in the pits before ultimately retired after a collision. The Strakka Racing HPD claimed third, six laps behind the winners.


2012 6 Hours of Bahrain
The LMP2 category was won by the Pecom Racing Oreca 03 driven by Pierre Kaffer, Nicolas Minassian and Luís Pérez Companc, who held a two lap gap over the bulk of the class Signatech's of Jordan Tresson, Olivier Lombard and Franck Mailleux finished in second place. The AF Corse Ferrari pair of Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella won LMGTE Pro by a lap over Aston Martin Racing, which allowed AF Corse to wrap up the class championship. AF Corse's Olivier Beretta, driving another Ferrari, was excluded from the event after making avoidable contact with Greaves Motorsports' Ricardo González. Porsche won LMGTE Am class with the Team Felbermayr-Proton 997 of Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti leading by a lap over the Waltrip Ferrari.


2012 6 Hours of Bahrain, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2012 6 Hours of Bahrain, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 6 Hours of Castellet
The 2012 6 Hours of Castellet (6 Heures du Castellet) was the opening round of the 2012 European Le Mans Series season. It took place at Circuit Paul Ricard on 1 April 2012. Previously known as the Le Mans Series, it was the first race in the series' history where LMP1 was not contested in as LMP2 has taken over as the top prototype class. The Formula Le Mans (FLM) spec  class has been renamed to Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC), the same name used in the American Le Mans Series. A new Grand Touring class was meant to participate in the opening round which was Grand Touring Challenge (GTC), but lack of entrants meant it did not participate.


2012 6 Hours of Castellet, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2012 6 Hours of Castellet, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 6 Hours of Donington
The 2012 6 Hours of Donington was an auto race held at the Donington Park Circuit, Leicestershire, United Kingdom on 13–15 July 2012. It was the second round of the 2012 European Le Mans Series season, and the first time that the European Le Mans Series held the 6 Hours of Donington since 2006. The race was won by Olivier Pla, Demitri Enjalbert, and Bertrand Baguette driving for OAK Racing in a Morgan-Nissan.


2012 6 Hours of Donington, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Note: The No. 66 JMW Ferrari was moved to the back of the starting grid for substituting a driver after the qualifying session.


2012 6 Hours of Donington, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 6 Hours of Fuji
The 2012 6 Hours of Fuji is an endurance auto race held at the Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Shizuoka, Japan on 14 October 2012. The race is the seventh round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season, and marks the return of the former Fuji 1000 km event for the first time since 2007.


2012 6 Hours of Fuji, Qualifying
Toyota earned their second pole position of the season in front of the home crowd at the circuit also owned by the company. Kazuki Nakajima set a lap time of 1:27.499 in the Toyota TS030 Hybrid, nearly two tenths of a second ahead of Marcel Fässler's Audi. Neel Jani gave Rebellion Racing the top spot amongst the LMP1 privateers to put another Toyota motor on the second row of the starting grid, just ahead of Strakka Racing's Honda. Starworks Motorsport continued their streak of four consecutive pole positions in the LMP2 category, with a 1:32.367 lap set by Stéphane Sarrazin in the team's Honda, with the ADR-Delta Oreca-Nissan second in the category.


2012 6 Hours of Fuji, Qualifying
In LMGTE Pro, Marc Lieb gave Porsche their second pole of the season with Team Felbermayr-Proton, three tenths of a second ahead of Gianmaria Bruni's AF Corse Ferrari. The LMGTE Am category was led by Jean-Philippe Belloc who earned Larbre Compétition their first pole of the year in the Chevrolet Corvette.


2012 6 Hours of Fuji, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2012 6 Hours of Fuji, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 6 Hours of Shanghai
The 2012 6 Hours of Shanghai was an endurance auto race held at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China on 28 October 2012. The race was the eighth and final round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season, and was the inaugural running of the 6 Hours of Shanghai.


2012 6 Hours of Shanghai
The race was won by Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre driving  the No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Toyota Racing. André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler of Audi Sport Team Joest won the Drivers' World Championship at the event after finishing in third place. Larbre Compétition won the LMGTE Am Trophy following a class win.


2012 6 Hours of Shanghai, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2012 6 Hours of Shanghai, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 6 Hours of Silverstone
The 2012 6 Hours of Silverstone was held at Silverstone on 26 August 2012, and was the fourth round in the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Audi claimed the LMP1 Manufacturers' World Championship with an overall victory at the event.


2012 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2012 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Race result
Note: After finishing 2nd in LMGTE Am class, the No. 50 Larbre Corvette was excluded following the race for a failure to meet safety requirements (validity of the fire extinguisher).


2012 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The 2012 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was held at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on May 5, 2012. It was the second round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Following the cancellation of  the Zolder round of 2012 European Le Mans Series season, some ELMS teams were invited to enter the race. Two major entries on the original entry list withdrew from the event before the race week: the No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid due to a testing accident, and the new Pescarolo 03 of Pescarolo Team, due to a delay in production.


2012 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Qualifying, Qualifying Result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2012 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance (112 laps) marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 6 Hours of São Paulo
The 2012 6 Hours of São Paulo was held at Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo on Saturday 15 September 2012, and was the fifth round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Toyota claimed its first FIA World Endurance Championship victory at the event.


2012 6 Hours of São Paulo, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2012 6 Hours of São Paulo, Race, Race result
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).


2012 6 Hours of São Paulo, Race, Race result
Note: After finishing 1st in LMGTE Am class, the No. 50 Larbre Corvette was excluded following the post-race technical checks. The team has appealed the Stewards' Decision.


2012 7s Premier League
The 2012 7s Premier League (also known as the NBM 7s Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the first edition of the 7s Premier League tournament and was held at Outeniqua Park, George on 14 and 15 December 2012.


2012 7s Premier League, Format
The teams will be divided into four pools of three teams. On Day 1, each team in Pool A and Pool B will play cross-conference games against the three teams in the other pool. Similarly, each team in Pool C and Pool D will play cross-conference games against the three teams in the other pool.


2012 7s Premier League, Format
The top two teams in each pool will qualify for the Cup Quarter Finals and the bottom team in each pool will qualify for the Bowl Semi-Finals. The winners of the Cup Quarter Finals will advance to the Cup Semi-Finals, while the losers of the Quarter Finals will advance to the Plate Semi-Finals. In the Cup, Plate and Bowl Semi-Finals, the winners will advance to the Final, while the losers will advance to the 3rd Place Play-Off.


2012 7s Premier League, Fixtures and Results, Cup, Quarter Finals
The four Cup Quarter Final winners will advance to the Cup Semi-Finals. The four losers will advance to the Plate Semi-Finals.


2012 A Lyga
The 2012 A Lyga, also known as General Financing A Lyga for sponsoring purposes, was the 23rd season of the A Lyga, the top-tier football league of Lithuania. The season started on 10 March 2012 and ended on 11 November 2012. Ekranas were the defending champions.


2012 A Lyga, Changes from 2011
The league changed its number of teams for the third time in a row, reducing it from twelve teams in 2011 to ten sides. As a consequence, the schedule expanded from 33 to 36 matches per team, which each team playing every other team four times in total, twice at home and twice away.


2012 A Lyga, Teams
On 2 February 2012, the Lithuanian Football Federation announced the teams which had passed the licensing criteria for the 2012 season. Among them were the best eight teams of the 2011 season, eleventh-placed FK Atlantas from Klaipėda and 2011 First League champions FK REO Vilnius. Tenth-placed side FBK Kaunas were only granted a First League licence, while FK Mažeikiai and FC Klaipėda did not apply for a licence in any of the top two Lithuanian football leagues. In July 2012, LFF banned REO from registering new players due to the club's debts to referees.


2012 A Lyga, Teams
On 21 July 2012, REO failed to appear on the match against Ekranas, and the game was awarded 3–0 to Ekranas with REO receiving a fine of 6000 Lithuanian Litas. REO have withdrawn from the competition in August 2012, after they were unable to attract investors. Since they have played more than half of matches in the season, according to the LFF rulebook, those matches were considered valid and all REO's upcoming matches were awarded 3–0 to their opponents.


2012 A-League Grand Final
The 2012 A-League Grand Final was the seventh A-League Grand Final, which took place on 22 April 2012 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane for the second year running. Brisbane Roar played in their second Grand Final in two years, and were aiming to become the first A-League team to win back-to-back Championships. Perth Glory played in their first Grand Final since the 2004 NSL Grand Final, and their first A-League Grand Final. Additionally, it was the second Grand Final since 2006 that did not include the Premiers.


2012 A-League Grand Final
Brisbane Roar won the game, coming from behind after conceding an own goal, through Besart Berisha's two late goals including a controversial penalty in the final minute of injury time after the Glory had been reduced to ten men two minutes earlier. As the Grand Final winner, Brisbane Roar qualified for the 2013 AFC Champions League.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Route to the final
The Roar went into the 2012 A-League Grand Final as clear favourites, with most pundits expecting an easy victory for the reigning Champions who were hosting the Grand Final for the second consecutive season. The Roar had easily accounted for 2011 runners-up, Central Coast Mariners 5-2 on aggregate in the major semi final, as they had done in the previous season to earn the rights to host the Grand Final at Suncorp Stadium. Perth also qualified for the final by defeating the Mariners; the Glory won the 2012 Premiers in a tense Penalty Shoot-out in the Preliminary Final at Bluetongue Stadium.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
In front of an official-sellout crowd of 50,334, it would be Brisbane Roar who would become the first A-League team to win back-to-back titles, at the expense of their West coast opponents, in the dying minutes of the game.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
The opening half an hour was evenly contested with both sides not really threatening, the best chance for either team fell to Sayed Mohamed Adnan who mistimed a free header over the crossbar from a Thomas Broich corner. Perth suffered a scare after 15 minutes when the A-League's all-time leading goal-scorer, Shane Smeltz suffered a deep laceration to the face following an accidental collision with Roar captain, Matt Smith. The Kiwi striker was treated on the pitch and played on but was substituted, for tactical reasons, in the 80th minute. Smeltz would later be taken to hospital where he would be treated by a plastic-surgeon and receive 50 stitches to repair the damage.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
After the opening half an hour, the game started to open up, and with half time approaching, Brisbane had two chances to open the scoring through Mitch Nichols and Thomas Broich. However, the best chance of the half fell to Ivan Franjic, who saw a 20m low-driving effort tipped away by Glory goalkeeper, Danny Vukovic. That save by Vukovic ensured that the teams would go into half-time at 0-0.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
The second half started off where the first half had ended. Some trickery from Broich gave himself some space in the Perth box where he forced another superb save from Vukovic. It proved to be a vital save as not 60 seconds later, Perth had the opening goal of the game. Following the save from Vukovic, the ball was played to Billy Mehmet who made a strong run through the midfield where he played the ball out to Travis Dodd who was in space on the left wing. Dodd's initial cross was blocked however, on the second attempt, his low cross was inadvertently deflected into the Michael Theoklitos’ net off the leg of Ivan Franjic for an unfortunate own goal.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
Following the goal, Perth changed to a slightly more defensive game plan which also saw attacking options Travis Dodd and Shane Smeltz substituted for defensive players, Scott Neville and Steven McGarry (respectively). Roar manager, Ange Postecoglou also saw need for change bringing off the Roar’s two goal scorer’s from the 2011 Grand Final, Henrique and Erik Paartalu as well as club appearance record holder, Massimo Murdocca for the attack-minded young trio of James Meyer, Luke Brattan and Nicholas Fitzgerald in an attempt to find an equalising goal. However, the Roar were unable to immediately capitalise and Perth were able to keep the Brisbane sides’ attack at bay, at least temporarily.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
The breakthrough for the Roar eventually came in the 82nd minute. A throw-in near the corner flag of the Perth half by Shane Stefanutto found Broich in space, who was able to control and send in a cross that Besart Berisha met and fired an unstoppable header into the top left hand corner of Vukovic's goal.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
The game looked to be heading for extra-time when Dean Heffernan, who had earlier been booked for a needless yellow card in the 58th minute, was given his marching orders in the first minute of injury time after he was given a second yellow card following a scything tackle on Ivan Franjic.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
This encouraged Brisbane to push forward and they got the goal that arguably their dominance deserved, albeit through controversial circumstances. Liam Miller was adjudged to have brought down Bersart Berisha in the penalty box and referee Jared Gillett awarded the Roar a penalty. On replay, though Miller did make contact with Berisha's standing foot, many argued for and against that the contact was/was not sufficient to cause Berisha to miss the ball which resulted in the striker falling over. Following the game, Miller admitted there was contact and referee boss Mark Shield backed the referee's decision. However, none of that mattered as Berisha sent Vukovic the wrong way to secure Brisbane Roar their second A-League Championship and into the history books as the first team to win consecutive Championships.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Summary
Perth captain, Jacob Burns was awarded the Joe Marston Medal for his man-of-the-match performance in midfield which stifled the Roar's attacking options. Burns’ award was incorrectly awarded to Thomas Broich during the post-match presentation; this was corrected and Burns was presented with his medal some 90 minutes after the presentation at the formal post-match press-conference.


2012 A-League Grand Final, Match, Details
Assistant Referees: Mathew Cheeseman and Matthew CreamFourth Official: Ben Williams


2012 AA Drink–leontien.nl season
The 2012 women's road cycling season was the eighth (and last) year for AA Drink-leontien.nl (UCI code: LNL), which began as Van Bemmelen–AA Drink in 2005.


2012 AA Drink–leontien.nl season, Roster
The 2012 women's road racing team included six riders who were formerly members of the disbanded Garmin-Cervélo women's team: British cyclists Emma Pooley, Lizzie Armitstead, Sharon Laws and Lucy Martin, Belgian Jessie Daams and Australian Carla Ryan.


2012 AA Drink–leontien.nl season, Other achievements, Dutch national record, team pursuit
Kirsten Wild, as part of the national team, broke together with Ellen van Dijk and Vera Koedooder the Dutch team pursuit record at the 2012 Summer Olympics.


2012 AA Drink–leontien.nl season, UCI World Ranking
The team finished 4th in the UCI ranking for teams.


2012 AAA 400
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Monkbot (talk | contribs) at 14:12, 18 January 2021 (Task 18 (cosmetic): eval 1 template: hyphenate params (3×);). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


2012 AAA 400
The 2012 AAA 400 was a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held on September 30, 2012 at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware. Contested over 400 laps, it was the twenty-ninth in the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as well as the third race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season.


2012 AAA Texas 500
The 2012 AAA Texas 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held on November 4, 2012, at Texas Motor Speedway in  Fort Worth, Texas. Contested over 334 laps on the 1.5-mile (2.4 km) asphalt quad-oval, it was the 34th race of the 2012 Sprint Cup Series season, as well as the 8th race in the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, which ends the season. Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports won the race, his 5th win of the season. Brad Keselowski finished second, and Kyle Busch third.


2012 AAA Texas 500, Report, Background
Texas Motor Speedway is one of ten intermediate tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead Miami Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway. The standard track at Texas Motor Speedway is a four-turn quad-oval track that is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 24 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is five degrees. The back stretch, opposite of the front, also has a five degree banking. The racetrack has seats for 191,122 spectators.


2012 AAA Texas 500, Report, Background
Before the race, Jimmie Johnson led the Drivers' Championship with 2,291 points, and Brad Keselowski stood in 2nd with 2,289 points. Clint Bowyer followed in 3rd with 2,265 points, three points ahead of Kasey Kahne and 23 ahead of Denny Hamlin in 4th and 5th. Jeff Gordon with 2,237 was nine points ahead of Martin Truex, Jr., as Matt Kenseth with 2,226 points, was four points ahead of Greg Biffle and six ahead of Tony Stewart. Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was 11th and 12th with 2,203 and 2,151 points, respectively.


2012 AAA Texas 500, Report, Background
In the Manufacturers' Championship, Chevrolet was leading with 222 points, 25 points ahead of Toyota. Ford, with 164 points, was 21 points ahead of Dodge in the battle for 3rd. Stewart is the defending race winner after winning the event in 2011.


2012 AAA Texas 500, Report, Practice and qualifying
Three practice sessions are scheduled to be held before the race; the first on Friday, which lasted 90 minutes. The second and third are both scheduled on Saturday afternoon with the first being 50 minutes long, while the second is scheduled for 60. Truex, Jr. was quickest with a time of 28.310 seconds in the first session, 0.044 seconds faster than Mark Martin. Keselowski was just off Martin's pace, followed by Bowyer, Stewart, and Aric Almirola. Kenseth was 7th, still within a half of a second of Truex's time.


2012 AAA Texas 500, Report, Practice and qualifying
46 cars were entered for qualifying, but only 43 could qualify for the race because of NASCAR's qualifying procedure. Johnson clinched the 29th pole position of his career and 4th of the season, with a time of 28.261 seconds. He was joined on the front row of the grid by Biffle. Kyle Busch qualified third, Bowyer took 4th, and Truex, Jr. started 5th. Joey Logano, Trevor Bayne, Keselowski, Carl Edwards and Kenseth rounded out the top ten The three drivers that failed to qualify for the race were Stephen Leicht, Kelly Bires, and David Stremme.


2012 AAA Texas 500, Report, Practice and qualifying
In the second practice session, Keselowski was fastest with a time of 28.888 seconds, 100th of a second quicker than second-placed Johnson. Hamlin took third place, ahead of Biffle, Edwards and Bowyer. Kyle Busch only managed 7th place, while Stewart was only quick enough for 8th position. In the third and final practice, Keselowski remained quickest with a time of 29.300 seconds. Bowyer followed in second, ahead of Kenseth and Johnson. Edwards was 5th quickest, with a time of 29.375 seconds. Hamlin, Sam Hornish, Jr., Kyle Busch, A. J. Allmendinger, and Earnhardt, Jr. rounded out the first ten positions.


2012 AAMI Classic
The 2012 AAMI Classic took place between 11–14 January 2012, at the Kooyong Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.


2012 AAMI Classic
Lleyton Hewitt was the defending champion, having defeated Gaël Monfils 7–5, 6–3 in the 2011 final, but he competed in the Apia International instead. Following Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's withdrawal, Sam Querrey and Victor Troicki agreed to play in an exhibition match to help fill the schedule. Andy Murray and David Nalbandian also played a match.


2012 AAMI Classic
Bernard Tomic won in the final against Mardy Fish, 6–4, 3–6, 7–5. He became the youngest person (and first teenager) to win the event.


2012 ABL Playoffs
The 2012 ABL Playoffs is the postseason of the 2012 ABL Regular Season. The four teams with the best regular season record qualify for the playoffs; the team with the higher seed is awarded the home court advantage.


2012 ABL Playoffs
The semifinals are in a best-of-3 format; the team that first wins twice advances to the next round. The venues alternate between the opposing teams; the higher seed hosts Game 1 and 3 (if necessary), while the lower seed hosts Game 2.


2012 ABL season
The 2012 ASEAN Basketball League season was the third season of competition of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) since its establishment. A total of eight teams will compete the league. The regular season will begin on 16 January 2012 and will end on 13 May 2012. Three teams will debut this season: the Bangkok Cobras, the San Miguel Beermen and the SSA Saigon Heat, while the Brunei Barracudas team took a leave of absence. Satria Muda BritAma was renamed into the Indonesia Warriors, while the Westports KL Dragons were renamed as the Westports Malaysia Dragons, and Singapore Slingers were renamed Jobstreet.com Singapore Slingers.


2012 ABL season
The season was delayed until January 2012 to give way to the Southeast Asian Games.


2012 ABL season, Preseason
The ABL underwent expansion with three new teams debuting. The San Miguel Beermen signed a five-year contract with the league; this is a different team from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) team owned by San Miguel Corporation that now carries the Petron Blaze Boosters name. Bobby Parks was named as the head coach.


2012 ABL season, Preseason
Bangkok Basketball Holdings were the second team to join the league. The team will be the second Thai team, after the defending champions Chang Thailand Slammers. The third team to join the league was SSA Saigon Heat organised by the Saigon Sports Academy. The Heat are the first international basketball team to represent Vietnam.


2012 ABL season, Preseason
The Brunei Barracudas, a team that has failed to make it to the playoffs in the league's first two seasons, has decided not participate in the 2012 season. While no reason was given, the team has heavily relied on its starting five, who are all imports, to play the game in its entirety.


2012 ABL season, Preseason
Six of the eight teams participated in the To Be Number One Basketball Challenge held in Bangkok in benefit of the victims of the 2011 Thailand floods. The San Miguel Beermen defeated the AirAsia Philippine Patriots to win the championship. In 2012, the Beermen, the Patriots and the Qatari team Al -Jaysh will participate in another preseason tournament at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.


2012 ABL season, Arenas
*these are indoor arenas located adjacent to the outdoor stadiums.


2012 ABL season, Playoffs, Semi-finals
The semi-finals is a best-of-three series, with the higher seeded team hosting Game 1, and 3, if necessary.


2012 ABL season, Playoffs, Finals
The Finals is a best-of-three series, with the higher seeded team hosting Game 1, and 3, if necessary.


2012 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
The 2012 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 40th edition of the event known as the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, and was part of the ATP World Tour 500 series of the 2012 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Rotterdam Ahoy indoor sporting arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, from 13 February through 19 February 2012. First-seeded Roger Federer won the singles title.


2012 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
The field was led by 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer, 2010 Wimbledon finalist Tomáš Berdych and 2009 US Open champion Juan Martín del Potro.


2012 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, ATP doubles main draw entrants, Other entrants
The following pairs received wildcards into the doubles main draw:


2012 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Finals, Doubles
Michaël Llodra /  Nenad Zimonjić defeated  Robert Lindstedt /  Horia Tecău 4–6, 7–5, [16–14]


2012 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Doubles
Jürgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner were the defending champions but Melzer decided not to participate. Petzschner played alongside Juan Martín del Potro but lost in the quarterfinals. Michaël Llodra and Nenad Zimonjić won the title Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecău 4–6, 7–5, [16–14] in the final.


2012 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Singles
Robin Söderling was the defending champion but could not defend his title because of a bout of mononucleosis. Roger Federer won the title beating Juan Martín del Potro 6–1, 6–4 in the final.


2012 ACB Playoffs
The 2012 ACB Playoffs were the final phase of the 2011–12 ACB season. It started on May 17, 2012 and ended on June 16, 2012. FC Barcelona Regal retained the title, winning their 17th Spanish league.


2012 ACC Championship Game
The 2012 ACC Championship Game was the eighth football championship game for the Atlantic Coast Conference. It featured the winners of the ACCs two divisions, the Atlantic Division's Florida State Seminoles and the Coastal Division's Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. With three teams tied for the first place in the Coastal Division, only Georgia Tech was eligible for the Championship Game. Miami self-imposed a postseason ban in a bid to lessen possible NCAA sanctions (see 2011 University of Miami athletics scandal). North Carolina was serving a one-year bowl ban handed down by the NCAA as part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill football scandal.


2012 ACC Championship Game
This was the game's third consecutive year at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.


2012 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, part of the 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, took place from March 8–11 at the Philips Arena in Atlanta. The Florida State Seminoles gave the state of Florida its first-ever ACC tournament win, capturing their first ACC championship in their 21st season in the league.


2012 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament, Seeding
Teams are seeded based on the final regular season standings, with ties broken under an ACC policy.


2012 ACC Men's Soccer Tournament
The 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Soccer Tournament will be the 26th edition of the ACC Men's Soccer Tournament. The tournament will decide the Atlantic Coast Conference champion and guaranteed representative into the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship. The tournament will be held from November 5–11, with the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, Maryland being host to the semifinal and championship rounds.


2012 ACC Trophy Elite
The 2012 ACC Trophy Elite is a cricket tournament in  UAE, taking place between 3 and 12 October 2012. It gives Associate and Affiliate members of the Asian Cricket Council experience of international one-day cricket and also helps form an essential part of regional rankings. This was the final ACC Trophy tournament as ACC split two-tier ACC Trophy into three-tier round robin ACC Premier League starting from 2014.


2012 ACC Trophy Elite, Statistics, Most runs
The top five run scorers are included in this table.


2012 ADAC Formel Masters
The 2012 ADAC Formel Masters season was an open-wheel motor racing series for emerging young racing drivers based out of Germany. It was the fifth season of the ADAC Formel Masters. The season began on 31 March at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben and finished on 30 September at Hockenheim after eight race weekends, totalling 24 races.


2012 ADAC Formel Masters, Season review
The first two poles of the season were claimed at Oschersleben by second-year driver Jeffrey Schmidt for the Lotus team, that was previously known as Motopark Academy. But he was passed by his team-mate Marvin Kirchhöfer on the opening lap of the first race, with Kirchhöfer going on to win his first race in single-seaters. Schmidt and Kirchhöfer collided in the second race, while Thomas Jäger secured his first win in the German series, and the first for his team, Neuhauser Racing, since 2008. Another Lotus driver Kuba Dalewski won the reverse-grid third race of the weekend in his first single-seaters meeting.


2012 ADAC GT Masters
The 2012 ADAC GT Masters season was the sixth season of the ADAC GT Masters, the grand tourer-style sports car racing founded by the German automobile club ADAC. It began on 30 March at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben and finished on 30 September at Hockenheim after eight double-header meetings. Sebastian Asch and Maximilian Götz became the champions in the drivers' standings.


2012 ADAC Procar Series
The 2012 ADAC Procar Series season was the eighteenth season of the ADAC Procar Series, the German championship for Super 2000 touring cars. The season consisted of eight separate race weekends with two races each, spread over seven different tracks.


2012 AFC Annual Awards
The 2012 AFC Annual Awards was the top football players and coaches of the year in Asia.


2012 AFC Annual Awards
Among five candidates, Lee Keun-Ho win the Asian Footballer of the Year award for his role in winning AFC Champions League for his club team.


2012 AFC Annual Awards
Aya Miyama, Japan women's football team player which won 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was awarded Asian Women Footballer of the Year for the second time in a row.


2012 AFC Annual Awards
Hanae Shibata and Mohannad Abdul-Raheem becomes the Youth Player of the Year. Ulsan Hyundai which won 2012 AFC Champions League was named as the Club of the Year. Both Japan and South Korea's Olympic teams was named as women's and men's team was named as National Team of the Year.


2012 AFC Annual Awards
Yuichi Nishimura and Sachiko Yamagishi were named as men's referee of the year. Kim Ho-Kon was awarded as the Coach of the Year. Rafael Henmi was awarded as Futsal Player of the Year. Giti Pasand, winner of the 2012 AFC Futsal Club Championship was named as Futsal Club of the Year. Fair Play Award was given to the Uzbekistan national football team. Football Federation of Iran was awarded as the Best Football Federation in Asia.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup
The 2012 AFC Challenge Cup was the fourth edition of the tournament, an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member nations that are mainly categorized as "emerging countries" in the defunct Vision Asia programme. It took place in Nepal from 8–19 March 2012. Unlike in previous editions of the tournament, there were no automatic qualifiers. Therefore, 2010 champions North Korea, runners-up Turkmenistan, and third-placed Tajikistan had to navigate the qualification phase in order to return to the finals. North Korea successfully defended their title and qualified for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup, Hosts
Maldives, Nepal, and Palestine expressed an interest to bid to host the tournament. A decision on which country would be hosts was set to be made by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on 14 June 2011, but was deferred until the AFC Executive Committee on 29 July 2011. The committee decided to endorse Nepal as the hosts of the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Finals.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup, Qualification
The qualification stage saw 20 eligible member associations compete in qualifiers.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup, Draw
The draw for the final tournament was held on 1 December 2011 at the Soaltee Crown Plaza Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup, Group stage, Tie-breaking criteria
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order:


2012 AFC Challenge Cup, Statistics, Individual Awards
The following awards were given for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup:


2012 AFC Challenge Cup, Statistics, Team of the tournament
The team of the tournament – Dream Team in a 4-4-2 formation.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup, Statistics, Post-tournament team ranking
As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup Final
The 2012 AFC Challenge Cup Final was an association football match between Turkmenistan and North Korea on 19 March 2012 at Dasarath Rangasala in Kathmandu, Nepal.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup Final, Background
The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) nations that was categorized as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" program. It was an idea by former AFC president, Mohammed Bin Hammam which its goal to raise the standards of Asian football at all levels. The AFC Challenge Cup, which reflected the philosophy of "Vision Asia", was created for teams to experience playing in a continental competition with the possibility to win an AFC trophy and potentially discover new talent. It was held in every two years as its inaugural edition took place on 2006 in Bangladesh. The winner qualifies for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup Final, Match
Assistant referees:Azman Bin Ismail (Malaysia)Humoud Al-Sahli (Kuwait)Fourth official:Yousef Al-Marzouq (Kuwait)


2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification
The 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification phase saw eight teams advance to the final tournament in Nepal. The qualification draw was held on 20 October 2010, in AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification, Seeding
The seedings are based on the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup. Unlike previous editions with the exception of the inaugural edition, no team has been given direct entry into the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup. Defending champions Korea DPR, runners-up Turkmenistan and third-placed Tajikistan would now have to go through the qualifiers to enter the finals. The eight lowest ranked teams would take part in the playoff round while the remaining 12 teams would enter the Group Stage.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification, Qualifying play-off round
For the pre-qualifying phase, the eight lowest ranked teams played off over two legs on a home-and-away basis with the away goals rule, extra time and penalty shootouts to determine winners if necessary. The matches took place on 9 and 16 February 2011 with the four winners advancing to the group stage. However, for Afghanistan–Bhutan fixtures, they were rescheduled for 23 and 25 March and were played in at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon, India.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification, Qualifying play-off round
The second leg of the Philippines–Mongolia fixture was originally due to take place on 16 February 2011. However, in early January 2011, Philippine Football Federation president Mariano Araneta said he wanted the match to take place at the same venue as the first leg on 12 February, citing the winter conditions in Mongolia. Mongolian Football Federation president Ganbold Buyannemekh insisted that the second leg be played in Mongolia but proposed a 15 March date instead as a compromise.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification, Qualifying group stage
In the group stage, the 16 teams were divided into four groups of four teams each playing a single round-robin tournament (league system). This included the 12 highest ranked automatically qualified teams and the four qualifiers from the playoff round. The original match days were 20–31 March 2011. The top two teams in each group qualified for the final tournament. On 18 February 2011, the AFC announced that the hosts for each group were: Myanmar for Group A, Malaysia for Group B, Maldives for Group C, and Nepal for Group D; with match dates on 21, 23 and 25 March 2011.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification, Qualifying group stage
However, for Group D, the All Nepal Football Association proposed the hosting rights since the end of December 2010, which the AFC had endorsed. The fixtures were also scheduled to take place from 21 to 25 March but on 7 February 2011 it was announced that the qualifiers had to be postponed due to the unavailability of the main stadium (Dasarath Rangasala Stadium) due to a wrestling event. The fixtures were then been set to 7 to 11 April 2011.


2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification, Qualifying group stage
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order:


2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification, Qualifiers
The following eight teams qualified for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup held from 8 to 19 March 2012 in Nepal:


2012 AFC Challenge Cup squads
Below are the squads for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup in Nepal, that took place between 8 and 19 March 2012. The players' listed age is their age on the tournament's opening day (8 March 2012).


2012 AFC Champions League
The 2012 AFC Champions League was the 31st edition of the top-level Asian club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 10th under the current AFC Champions League title.


2012 AFC Champions League
Ulsan Hyundai from South Korea won their first title, defeating Al-Ahli from Saudi Arabia with a 3–0 win in the final, and qualified for the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup.


2012 AFC Champions League, Allocation of entries per association
The AFC approved criteria for participation in the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The final decision date was set after the Executive Committee meeting in November 2010.