German GP Race Report

There’s something strange about the so called home races. Whether it’s the pressure or some kind of a curse, the fact remains: drivers can’t win their home GPs lately. Webber didn’t do it in Australia, Alonso had two chances – in Barcelona and Valencia, but failed as well. The Brits had 3 drivers in top 10 on the grid in Silverstone, but none of them made it even to the podium. The Germans had 6 compatriots on the grid at Nürburgring (that’s 25%!), but even they couldn’t capitalise on it.

And so the German GP was won by Lewis Hamilton, followed by Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber. All three podium finishers were involved in close battles between themselves and each of them led the race for some time and seemed in a good position to win it.

On Saturday Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton ended Sebastian Vettel’s series of 14 consecutive front row starts: Mark Webber took the pole, while Hamilton separated the Bulls by claiming P2.

On Sunday the biggest question mark was the weather and even a few minutes before the start we could expect a wet race as the drops started falling down. Teams however decided to start on option tyres, which proved to be the right choice – the rain never came. Mark Webber (almost traditionally) failed to start well and was overtaken by Hamilton into turn 1. Behind their back, Vettel was squeezed between two Ferraris and while Massa was slightly pushed off the track by the German, Alonso took the best racing line and jumped from P4 to third.

Further down the order, Nick Heidfeld had a calamitous start and was sent to P18 (from P11). It wouldn’t get any better later on: Heidfeld attempted an overtaking move on Buemi on lap 9, but the Swiss pushed him to the grass, launching the Renault into the air and then into the gravel. This ended Heidfeld’s race and earned the Toro Rosso driver a 5-place grid penalty in Hungary next weekend.

Alonso didn’t enjoy his third place for a long time and made a mistake on lap 2 when he left the track for a brief moment allowing Vettel through. However he regained the place 6 laps later into the first corner and as Sebastian Vettel struggled to find speed, but also made a mistake spinning around, he was able to escape the WDC leader fast and build a gap. The opening laps brought us a few entertaining battles: Webber and Hamilton were engaged in intense battles and were soon joined by Alonso, while Massa, urged by his engineer Rob Smedley, made attempts (finally successful) at passing Rosberg, who got in front of the Brazilian at the start.

After first pit stops the leading trio was Webber, Hamilton and Alonso. These three would lead practically all the way to the chequered flag, only exchanging the positions from time to time. Vettel, in the meantime, found himself behind Massa – a position he would stay in until the last lap of the race. The two were separated by fractions of a second for majority of the race, overtaking one by one other drivers (Kobayashi and Petrov), who chose to pit later and thus had tyres in worse conditions. However, despite being very close, Vettel was unable to find his way past Massa. Problems with rear brakes in the Red Bull didn’t help either.

Webber, who was still leading,  was the first to pit for the second time on lap 30, but the decision cost him two positions: Hamilton went to change his tyres one lap later and emerged from the pit lane right in front of Webber. Despite tyres not warmed up, the McLaren driver fiercely fended off the Aussie, pushing him slightly off the track and maintaining P2, now behind Alonso, who had only one pit stop until then. The Ferrari kept their driver out one more lap attempting at leapfrogging Hamilton and they nearly did it: Alonso rejoined the track just in front of Hamilton, but wasn’t as aggressive towards his former team mate as Hamilton had been a while before towards Webber and thus, the Spaniard lost his lead to the Brit.

While Hamilton was fastest man on the track, escaping the others and building the gap, his team mate Button fought with Rosberg for P6. The 2009 World Champion managed to complete the move finally, but was hit with hydraulics problems soon, ending second race in a row with a DNF not out of his fault.

Nico Rosberg gained a place on Massa when the lights went off, but was unable to make a use of it in the latter part of the race and finished one place lower than started. His team mate didn’t have a smooth race either, but even with a spin on lap 24 which cost him a few valuable places, he managed to finish the race right behind Rosberg.

By lap 40, most of the front runners visited their mechanics twice, each time opting for the much faster soft tyres. Vettel however was still out with only 1 stop to his name and as his lap times started to drop down rapidly, he changed the tyres on lap 41 only to find himself behind his dear old friend Felipe Massa again. Both drivers made small mistakes here and there and so their order wasn’t to change for a few more laps, even when Vettel was informed that his brakes were finally working well. At this point of the race, the other closely matched pair of drivers, who should be very familiar with each other, were Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov fighting for P9. The Russian made a mistake finally, missing the chicane and so Schumacher made his way through.

With 10 laps to go it was clear that the battle for the win would be between Hamilton, Alonso and Webber. The important factor were the tyres. With the hard compound much slower than the soft ones, one could have expected that the drivers would do anything to stay on the option tyres as long as possible. Hamilton was the first one to duck into the lane and he came back behind Alonso and Webber. Alonso stayed two laps longer aiming at building the gap sufficient enough to jump Hamilton in the pits, but the plan failed as the Spaniard rejoined the track between Hamilton and Webber. Webber was now the only driver from the leaders not to have changed the tyres for the hard compound yet. However, Red Bull’s plan to regain positions with a well-timed pit stop didn’t work out. Webber’s times at the end of this stint weren't as good as Hamilton's and Alonso's and so he had to settle for P3 after he finally pitted on lap 56.

As Hamilton was cruising to the finish line safe and Alonso was maintaining the gap over Webber, the podium was set. Yet, it wasn’t the end of emotions. Felipe Massa, who is apparently keen on spectacular finishes lately, was still fighting Vettel and holding his position. The duo went for their last pit stops on the penultimate lap of the race and as Red Bull’s mechanics turned out to work faster, Vettel finally found himself in front of Massa in P4.

Right after crossing the finish line, Fernando Alonso was informed about the shortage of fuel in his car, which forced him to park on the lawn. Luckily, Mark Webber was close and so the Ferrari driver was able to take a cab to parc fermé (raising questions about the safety of spontaneous gestures like Webber’s and causing doubts whether his car would pass the FIA control after the race). The friendly and rare image indispensably brought some old memories to the fans minds...

Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi deserve a mention as well: they both went for a 2-stop strategy (compared to the more popular 3-stopper) and won on it: Sutil finished 6^th, having started 8^th and was the last driver not to be lapped, while Kobayashi gained as much as 8 positions: he started P17 and crossed the finish line in 9^th spot.

Despite having a race below standards he set for himself lately, Sebastian Vettel (216 pts) is still the clear leader of the WDC. The reigning World Champ is 77 points clear of second in the standings Mark Webber (139 pts). The next three drivers are packed pretty closely together, which can provide us with some interesting battle for the second place in the WDC (at least for now): third in the standings in Lewis Hamilton with 134 points followed by Fernando Alonso on 130.

There are no major changes in the WCC with Red Bull Racing (355 pts) way ahead of McLaren (243) and Ferrari (192).

Full race results here.

Full WDC standings here.

Full WCC standings here.