Sometimes you have mad dynamic races, and sometimes you have dull processional races... but then there are the odd ones, and Germany has been odd this time around. The relative tyre performance bore no relationship to anything we've seen so far in the weekend due to a second sharp increase in tyres for raceday in as many race events. At Silverstone this caused things to explode, whereas this time round it granted Lotus super-powers and gave Mercedes a beating - while all this was going on we had possessed Marussias making a bid for freedom (I'm sure Alonso and his magician's beard may have had something to do with that) and we also had strange spins, questionable rules and possessed tyres - the second consecutive year at the Nurburgring that we've seen a loose wheel run down the pit lane. Last time it was tackled by a Williams Mechanic... this time it sent a bystander to hospital - and after the events of Canada and soon after that Le Mans, the dangerous nature of the sport was all too clear. We got luck this time and the guy involved has not been seriously injured and escaped with only a few broken bones from the impact.
Despite all the oddities that took place the result up at the sharpest end of the field was a rather familiar face and stretches the championship out a little further, because no matter how well the main rivals do in the race, a certain German bloke always ends up a little ahead. It all seems odd that despite having the last two races where the margin between the top two at the line is around a second (1.008 this afternoon 0.7s in Britain) and 0.4s separating 10 cars in Q2 - that we've had one bloke constantly edging further out front. But it has been an interesting season before we head off towards the half-way point next time in Hungary.
The Race
Before things kicked off today, we say several drivers practising their starts at the end of the pit-lane - because the change in surface temperatures altered the optimum traction values and clutch bite points. A process that Webber was going through more than others, likely on the back of the dodgy start last weekend which lead to being clipped by Grosjean in turn one.
When the lights went it out it was clear that this recalibration worked out rather well, as both Red Bulls swarmed past Hamilton off the line pushing the Mercedes down to 3rd, that almost became 4th as Raikkonen came close to making it down the inside of turn 3. Considering that all of yesterday's support races ended up in a lap one safety car, this was comparatively rather clean, it got a little close in the back of the field - some cars running three wide at the apex of turn one but there was no contact. Saving all the oddities for later on. A series of alternate strategies saw some early place shuffling, as Rosberg dropped a couple of places, and Perez made it down the inside of his team-mate in turn one, making sure to edge Jenson off wide on the exit... making friends once more inside the McLaren garage.
Then the first of the oddities began and Massa somehow managed to spin the car in the opposite direction to the turn in to the first corner, stopped the car and buggered off... turns out the anti-stall may have kicked in and stalled the car, which from an outside perspective seems counter productive. Anyway the Ferrari was towed away and Felipe's German GP lasted a grand total of three complete laps and the 600 odd metres down to the first corner. It might be worth noting that at the time he was ahead of Alonso - some magical superpowers later and the situation had been resolved, could be considered as a little suspicious. These powers didn't seem to affect Ricciardo who managed to stay ahead of the remaining Ferrari.
With a large amount of drivers starting on the softer compound the first round of stops came early into the race with Di Resta coming in first on lap five, the Force India team then released the car back into the path of Jean-Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso. The only two cars in the pit lane and they almost hit each other - the unsafe release despite happening at the start of the race was to be investigated afterwards. At the time this seemed like lunacy, plenty of time to issue a penalty - but a fine was eventually imposed of 5,000 EUR which makes more sense as it was a team balls up not Di Restas. It that wasn't bad enough the Red Bull team released Webber without putting the rear wheel on properly, it promptly detached and sped down the pit-lane. Like the 2011 incident it went straight through the Mercedes garage before bouncing and hitting a cameraman in the shoulder knocking him severely to the floor. The cameraman was airlifted to hospital and has a broken collar bone and several broken ribs, as of this point there is no news on what penalty Red Bull are facing for the incident, but i'd imagine it will be a severe one.
Webber was pulled back to the garage and given a new tyre and released - albeit one lap and 67s behind Vettel out front. But the German bloke himself surrendered the lead as it was his turn for some new tyres, and rather helpfully Red Bull decided that the German Bloke deserved four tyres, I'm not sure if that counts as favouritism or not but it meant that Grosjean inherited the lead of the race still driving around on the softer tyres. What was most interesting is that Romain was still setting fast times on the supposedly less durable tyres while Alonso on the harder compound had to stop for a newer set - Lotus exploiting their conservation superpowers to double the expected life of the softer tyres. The other side of the Lotus garage was a more frustrated affair as Raikkonen had came out from his stop behind Hamilton and Rosberg who were in the middle of a little intra-team tiff. Rosberg was informed that Lewis was faster on newer tyres and instructed not to hold him up... which is not so secret code for 'get out of the way'. Naturally Nico disagreed and wanted to stay in front. In the process costing both Lewis and Raikkonen time in their respective races allowing Vettel and Grosjean to have their own race at the front.
Eventually Hamilton was released from behind his team-mate and disappeared off into the middle distance before he found himself behind Hulkenberg running long in the Sauber. Without Hamilton in the way Raikkonen made short work of Rosberg round the outside into the final corner - and in a matter of a few laps was on the back of Hamilton and Hulkenberg. It was the same problem for Raikkonen his DRS was cancelled out because Hamilton also had DRS on the car in front and was unable to make any progress. Once Hulkenberg pitted Lewis had to defend from the Finn and the Mercedes was eating it's tyres making that defence ever harder - Kimi was able to repeat the move he made on the other silver car round the outside and off into the distance.
More oddities now as Jules Bianchi's car imploded in a massive plume of smoke and then some fire for good measure, but the fire extinguisher worked and Jules fled the car with plenty of time. All seemed normal a generic abandoned car recovery job for the marshals... except the Marissia was not co-operating and had a sudden phobia of green tractors. So it ran away, all by itself reversing down the hill - we had a tractor on the edge of the track and a fleeing race car rolling back into oncoming traffic, inevitably the safety car had to be called even though the Marussia had parked itself in a much safer place of it's own volition, after reversing through an advertising board. The safety car brought about a very interesting situation with Mr Webber, through some odd loophole in the regulations he was allowed to pass the safety car and rejoin the back of the queue. Traditionally this rule is to get lapped cars to get out of the flow of traffic for the restarts - but Webber was already at the back of the train and thus was in no-one's way and effectively got his lap back for free. Very like the free-pass given to the first car one lap down in NASCAR races.
The restart was also good for Raikkonen who recouped the damage caused by being trapped with Hamilton behind Rosberg and brought him back up to Grosjean and Vettel at the front. The safety car however was bad for Hamilton because he'd stopped before it came out and as a result was trapped in the mid-field back behind Hulkenberg again. Now on the back of the field Webber was now able to pass people for position being on the same lap again, scything past the Caterhams, Chilton and Bottas - Williams dropping down the grid due to wheel-gun issues in the pits. But Webber's charge was halted when he encountered the Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez, because the Sauber refused to surrender to the charging Australian. Several times Webber was able to get alongside only to find the door firmly shut eased wide on the exits of turns one and three on different laps.
It was getting close up at the front as Vettel was not able to lose Grosjean and Raikkonen as the two Lotus cars were ganging up on the German... which mysteriously in the background Alonso was sneaking gently closer to the top three. Hamilton was also getting close - this time with Di Resta as the two were almost three wide with Maldonado's Williams which was in the points for the first time all season. But Pastor had to pit again, and there was a faulty wheelgun waiting there for when he did, which inevitably cost the Venezuelan a lot of time and any hope of the first points for the team. But at least Williams ensured that all four wheels were attached to the car before sending it back out onto the track... This signalled the phase of the race where drivers needed to come in for their final stops of the day, except for Raikkonen who decided not to come in. This inspired the thought that the car was going to the end of the race, which would involve a really long final stint. Raikkonen may not be the most conversational driver on team radio, but communications were hampered by radio problems - as discussions intensified on intended tyre life.
Raikkonen's stampede out front depended on how quickly Vettel and Grosjean who had pitted, made it through other cars staying out and struggling on older worn tyres, the first of these was the Mercedes of Hamilton in fourth place. That battle bought Raikkonen some time but not enough to stop and rejoin in the lead, neither did the next car of Jenson Button as the McLaren pitted just as Vettel caught up. Realising that making to the end may not be plausible, and considering the amount of time Kimi was losing to the other podium contenders justified making a final stop, followed in by Alonso from second. Both drivers played a final trump card and placed Raikkonen and Alonso onto the softer compound for a final charge to the flag. With ten laps to go the top four had formed a breakaway pack, where Vettel had the very close attentions of both Lotus drivers, all three exchanging fastest laps at will - only to have their pace annihilated by Alonso closing from fourth.
Grosjean's side of the garage demonstrated that his radio was working as he was asked to move over for Raikkonen on the softer tyres to allow him to attack Vettel. Once Kimi was released the difference in pace was evident and started stripping tenths per sector from The German Bloke's lead. But the gap was just a little too big - Raikkonen managed to eke his way into the DRS zone at which point the chequered flag was thrown declaring Vettel the victor on home turf from Raikkonen, and Grosjean held off Alonso for the final step on the podium. Hamilton fell from pole to fifth, illustrating that the tyre wear issues at Mercedes are not quite resolved and won't be on account of being banned from the next test. Jenson Button scored some valuable points for McLaren by bringing the car home in 6th despite being considerably less than complimentary about the Caterham drivers late in the race. Blaming them for allowing Hamilton to catch and pass him in the final few laps. Somehow, flukey rules and all Webber went from being a lap and a minute down to taking points in 7th place for Red Bull. More points for McLaren with Perez in 8th, while Rosberg and Hulkenberg made it three Germans inside the points at the Nurburgring.
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
In a race containing all kinds of oddities and strangeness there has to be some points awarded for the performances today and are awarded as follows:
- 25pts - Mark Webber - From 1 lap and 67s down to scoring points by the end of the race deserves some mega points
- 18pts - Romain Grosjean - Some major pace today, and found some impressive tyre life on those softer compound tyres in the first stint
- 15pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Should have won the race today if he wasn't impeded behind Rosberg
- 12pts - Jenson Button - Finally a decent race for a McLaren
- 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Spent most of the day in the points for Sauber but was caught out by the safety car
- 8pts - Bianchi's Marussia - A car that tows itself way and runs from recovery tractors definately deserves some points
- 6pts - Sebastien Vettel - Survived some intense Lotus based pressure today and still won on home turf
- 4pts - Esteban Gutierrez - Gets points for resisting the challenges of a charging Webber
- 2pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - Gets points for the evasive action performed in the pits when avoiding Di Resta's unsafe release
- 1pt - Ted Kravitz - Somebody on the SKY team that actually knows what is going on in the pit lane
The Penalties Championship
The pit lane was the source of our penalty problems today and here are the penalties following the German GP:
- Force India - 5,000 EUR for releasing Paul Di Resta into the path of Vergne at the first stops
- Red Bull - 30,000 EUR for not putting a wheel on properly and wiping out the cameraman
The Penalty Points Championship
While the official powers that be have doled out their penalties time for the blog to finish things off:
- Red Bull - for their pit lane indiscretion causing injury
- Safety Car Procedure - Was out way too long considering Bianchi's car cleared itself away
Well the Hungarian GP is traditionally only ever famous for being dull and uneventful, often compared to Monaco in terms of how difficult it is to overtake. Due to lack of seasonal use the track is often dusty as well as it being narrow, twisty and with very few opportunities for conventional overtaking. That bad press is a bit of a shame because the track itself is very good - the middle sector flows very nicely from one corner to the next - but that is the very characteristic that makes the racing a little lacklustre at times because there is one useful racing line. Preventing drivers from venturing offline to try something a little different.
But that all goes out of the window if it rains, damp Hungarian GPs have been brilliant competitions - 2006 instantly springs to mind where Jenson Button claimed victory from 14th on the grid weathering safety cars and very changeable conditions. I am more than willing to be proven wrong, and with new experimental tyres it is entirely plausible, but the Hungarian GP is traditionally one of the weakest races of the season with very little going on. So until next time this is farewell from me here at Blog HQ.
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