The halfway point in the season has now come and passed and the paddock will be packing their equipment back in the immense trucks before the trek across to Hungary ready for next weeks adventure at the underwhelming Hungaroring.
But before we consider the next event on the Calendar, there is the more immediate matter of the 60 laps undertaken today at the Nurburgring - all witnessed in the generous hospitality for another very successful outside broadcast. A very special outside broadcast that included cake - a cake that certainly deserves a special mention and some very important bonus points regardless of whatever happened on the circuit. The German GP certainly provided a degree of entertainment being unusually close at the front of the grid binding the lead cars in a titanic struggle.
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| Credit to F1Fanatic.co.uk for the image |
The Race
The grid was bathed in an atmosphere of uncertainty contradictory information was passed around from team to team with all eyes pointed firmly on the threatening skies. Rain was on the agenda lingering in the clouds blanketing the circuit and causing a significant amount of concern in pit lane. Small droplets were intermittently falling but nothing to force anyone off the soft slick compounds. The track was cold under the cloud cover - dropping the tyres out of their ideal operating window lowering the available grip - but extending their life.
Under a stable sky the race got underway - all drivers making the logical decision to open the race account on the option tyres. Webber's hope of converting a pole position into a victory faded slightly within in metres of the start. A sluggish launch handed the lead to second place starting Lewis Hamilton - Alonso lost a place to Vettel but regained it in turn one. Massa forced out wide on the exit lost a place to Rosberg, and Button fell down into the field after a horrid start. Further back there was a coming together of sorts - where Squadron Leader Heidfeld has turned around Di Resta.
While everything settled down Alonso wanted to widen the line at turn 2, using the damp carpet and the tarmac run off beyond that costing him a place to Vettel down to 4th. It was only a temporary change of position, the Spaniard charged back up to the Red Bull recovering from the excursion throwing this Ferrari down the inside at turn one from a long way back - exploiting the speed advantage over the Renault powered car. Vettel day was getting gradually worse, dropping a wheel offline on the entry to turn 10 looping the car across the run-off, signs were showing that Vettel is indeed an actual human rather than an irrepressible race winning automaton. Dropping seven seconds and falling back to the Rosberg/Massa battle.
After the first lap contact Squadron Leader Heidfeld had been offered a drive through penalty, but that was the least of his problems. While making a move on Buemi during the comeback drive through the field things went more than a little awry - the STR driver moved across in the braking zone. Contact was made it looked like front wheel to sidepod, sending Squadron Leader skyward flying into retirement in the gravel trap after the NGK chicane.
Battle was rejoined at the front of the field, Hamilton possibly distracted by the Heidfeld clear-up operation made a mistake at the chicane and Webber pounced. But Mark got a huge amount of oversteer on the exit of turn 15, allowing Hamilton to get a run on the Red Bull to reclaim the lead at the end of the pit straight. While the lead pair duelled Alonso was sneaking stealthily behind them - as the pitstops were looming on the horizon.
Webber was the first of the main protagonists to depart the track looking to get the overlap on the on Hamilton in front and escape Alonso behind. Exiting the lane behind Vettel and Massa who were in a battle of their own. As Mark caught his team-mate after he'd been passed by Feilipe the German Bloke took to the pit-lane - a lane which also contained Hamilton and Alonso pitting at the same time. All three leaders congregated all at the same time at the apex of turn one joined by Massa who was still on track, Webber had jumped Hamilton and into the lead for the first time of the season.
Then there was a period of quiet - where no-one did anything particularly silly, the time where you notice the other drives of the race. Kobayashi had made the points from 17th and Sutil was competing very strongly with the factory Mercedes cars. Button was being less mythical this race getting stuck for many laps behind Vitaly Petrov who over the course of the race had a lot of different cars in his mirrors while he was on an alternate strategy to those around him.
The second bout of pit-stops saw Webber dropped down to third, a longer than intended tyre change and the Lotus of Kovalainen caught on the outlap cost him too much time. Hamilton drove past - Webber tried to make a move on the outside of turn 2 - but Lewis gave him a nudge off into the tarmac run-off. Then it was Alonso's turn to change some tyres, before exiting into the lead only to have Hamilton drive right round the outside of the Ferrari in an exact replica of Webber's attempt - with the exception that this time it worked.
Further back Button had negotiated his was past Petrov and moved up to Sutil, making that pass into turn one - but Jenson wasn't finished quite yet setting his sights on Rosberg in the Mercedes. It took several laps for Button to work his way past the German given the inherent top speed advantage of the Mercedes car, however perseverance prevailed as Nico uot-braked himself in T1 sliding off wide handing the position to the McLaren driver. Alas things were not to be for Jenson when a call from the team regarding a hydraulic failure doomed him to retirement on safety grounds - as such a failure could cause brakes to fail and then a rather sizeable accident.
The laps were running out and no-one had yet moved onto the harder, slower of the tyre compounds - the question was when to abandon the wearing option tyres, when would the crossover point be. Who would be first to make the switch. Step forward Vitaly Petrov after a day of defending from Mercedes powered cars, several at once sometimes, to make the pioneering decision, the eyes of the pitwall were on his times. As the sectors turned green then the flood gates opened. The top two pitted in quick succession leaving Webber back out in the lead, he had to pit too the question was when - too late was the response, losing to much time to Fernando and Lewis on the newer tyres sealed his third place finish.
With most of the field completed the required tyre change onto the harder compound - two cars remained. Two resilient rebels staying out as long as possible on the softs, Vettel and Massa in 4th and 5th about a week ahead of Rosberg, were in an epic battle to the flag. Calls to Vettel to counter Massa's movements went unheeded - perhaps they were too late, perhaps the cars were too close to make a last second dive into the lane. Whatever the cause the outcome of the battle lay in the hands of the pit crews as both drivers took their stops on the last available lap. All the other positions were settled and sealed off - it was down to these two to alter the order. And alterations there were, the last effort to lessen the disappointment of Vettel's pain paid off - the team fitted all four tyres faster than Ferrari handing Vettel 4th place.
Hamilton was clear out in front of Alonso and Webber - and that is how they finished. Vettel claimed 4th and Massa 5th, Sutil claimed an impressive 6th ahead of the Mercedes pairing, behind them was Kobayashi up from 17th on the grid and rounding out the top 10 was Vitaly Petrov the only surviving member of the Renault Squadron after Squadron Leader took off.
With the race completed you'd think all would be nice and simple - just drive round to the garage park it in parc ferme and job done. But there was a shortage of fuel it Mr Alonso's car it would seem he applied some of his magician's skill to make it disappear. As he slowed to a stop on the return journey he started to wave at Mark Webber behind him to pull up too, abandoning his Ferrari and sitting perched on the sidepod of the Red Bull. The least subtle way of trying to get into a Red Bull seat this season - but Webber performed taxi duties and delivered Fernando in the pit lane dropping him off in the 3rd place parking space, fares I'd imagine would be discussed later maybe in the form of the all important bonus points. Speaking of which....
The Official Bonus Point Championship points winners
Here are the winning drivers for the 2011 German GP
10pts - Adrian Sutil: Starting among faster cars in the form of Renault Squadron and Mercedes in a customer car ending up beating both factory funded Mercedes entries to an impressive 6th position
8pts - Lewis Hamilton: Had an exceptional race with some strong passes particularly the one on Alonso in T2
6pts - Kamui Kobayashi: From 17th to 9th - not the best run so not the top score but still 8 places was good
5pts - Mary: The co-host for today's outside broadcast and the provider of a fantastic lunch and on top of that CAKE and cake certainly gets points.
4pts - Red Bull - For rescuing a rather dismal day for Sebastien Vettel with the final pitstop getting him ahead of Massa
3pts - Mark Webber: For providing taxi service to Alonso after the flag without dropping him or going too fast, setting up a career after racing in a cab
2pts - Michael Schumacher: For the best effort at drifting an F1 car this year would have been more if he held it
1pt - Wingman Petrov - For fronting the Renault Squadron resurgence beating Squadron Leader all weekend
The Also Official Penalties Championship
The stewards have applied some sanctions across the weekend and they are as follows
- Sebastien Buemi - 5 place grid drop in Hungary for launching Squadron Leader Heidfeld
- Sebastien Buemi - Dropped to back in Germany for fuel irregularites pre-race
- Squadron Leader - drive through for spinning Paul Di Resta
- Vitantionio Liuzzi - 5 place grid drop gearbox change (as mentioned after qualifying)
The Still Official Dodgy Dealings Championship
After the trackside officials have had their say into decisions on track it's time for me to step in and issue penalty points on what they left out.
- One penalty point certainly going to the rain - for not showing up at all, deciding not to bother joining in the fun. Sure it was a good race without it but it could have been even better.
- Eurosport gets two penalty points for being usesless with the GP2 coverage again - race one in mutilated highlights and race 2 on a 12hr delay for the second event in a row. So out come the penalty points.
And onto Hungary
Ah the Hungaroring - well if there is any race where you need to take a nap and catch up on some sleep this will likely be it, famed for dull and un-eventful races the track is a dust-bowl of tedium. That said there has been exceptions which given the law of averages is inevitable - the 2006 race where Button claimed his first victory amid changeable conditions and a little bit of carnage.
Seeing that again next weekend is rather unlikely as under normal circumstances the Hungaroring's flowing layout may be entertaining and challenging to drive but leads to processional trudges. Will the DRS and KERs fix that, probably not to be honest with only one decent straight any attempts will be in to turn one unless something can be forced elsewhere when the tyres degrade on the abrasive surface. At least it will probably be an easy run of things here on the Blog as not too much will happen. I could just post the grid listing as the race review because that's how it will finish. So Hungary I challenge you to prove me wrong and serve up an uncharacteristic bowl of entertainment goulash.
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