2012 FIA World Endurance Championship
Rnd Race Circuit Location Date
1 12 Hours of Sebring Sebring International Raceway Sebring , Florida , United States 17 March
2 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Spa , Belgium 5 May
3 24 Heures du Mans Circuit de la Sarthe Le Mans , France 16-17 June
4 6 Hours of Silverstone Silverstone Circuit Silverstone , United Kingdom 26 August
5 6 Hours of São Paulo Autódromo José Carlos Pace São Paulo , Brazil 15 September
6 6 Hours of Bahrain Bahrain International Circuit Sakhir , Bahrain 29 September
7 6 Hours of Fuji Fuji Speedway Oyama , Japan 14 October
8 6 Hours of Shanghai Shanghai International Circuit Shanghai , China 28 October
Calendar
Audi won five of the eight championship races with their R18s An initial calendar was announced on 12 November 2011 , featuring eight races in eight countries on four continents . [ 2 ] Sebring , Spa-Francorchamps , Le Mans , and Silverstone are retained from the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup , while the Chinese round remained undecided between 2011 's Zhuhai International Circuit or the Shanghai International Circuit . [ 3 ] Three new races at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace , Bahrain International Circuit , and Fuji Speedway expand the series to a new continent , replacing the former ILMC round for the Petit Le Mans . [ 4 ] A revised calendar released on 7 December swapped the dates of the events in Bahrain and Fuji , [ 5 ] while ACO confirmed on 2 February that the final round would be hosted in Shanghai , with the date moved to 27 October . [ 6 ] All races were timed events . The 12 Hours of Sebring was a joint event with competitors from the American Le Mans Series sharing half of the race grid , but not scoring points in the World Championship .
The 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship was the inaugural running of the World Endurance Championship. It was co-organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The series replaced the former Intercontinental Le Mans Cup held by the ACO from 2010 to 2011. The series was open to Le Mans Prototypes and grand tourer-based racing cars meeting four ACO categories. Several championships, cups, and trophies were awarded in the series' four categories following an eight race season, with a World Championship available to the top scoring drivers and LMP1 category manufacturer. Following a partial-season match-up against newcomers Toyota, Audi won the Manufacturers' World Championship, while the company's driver line-up of André Lotterer of Germany, Benoît Tréluyer of France, and Marcel Fässler of Switzerland earned the Drivers' World Championship ahead of their teammates Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen. Toyota's Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre were third in the Drivers' Championship standings. Ferrari defending their two Intercontinental Le Mans Cup LMGTE manufacturers title with the Manufacturers' World Cup, outscoring Porsche and Corvette. In the four FIA Trophies for the four categories in the championship, Rebellion Racing won the LMP1 Privateers title, while Starworks Motorsport secured the LMP2 championship; AF Corse won the LMGTE Pro category for the second season in a row, as did Larbre Compétition in LMGTE Am.