Having taken
pole in the rain yesterday, keeping the advantage
through 67 dry laps today was never a foregone
conclusion, but fighting off intense pressure, Fernando
Alonso actually led the German Grand Prix from start to
finish to record his third win of the season.His
team-mate Felipe Massa was less fortunate: starting in
the always risky mid-field, the Brazilian was involved
in an accident that meant he had to make an immediate
visit to pit lane, on the opening lap, to change the
nose on the F2012. He worked his way back up to twelfth
at the flag. For his third German GP win, Alonso was
joined on the podium by Sebastian Vettel, second for Red
Bull and Jenson Button, third in the McLaren. However,
later events would prove that Mr. Vettel had finished
lower down than he thought and that Button was back in
second place!
Finally after all that rain, as the cars lined up on the
grid, it looked something like a perfect summer’s day
with sunny skies and some fluffy white clouds and an air
temperature approaching the mid-twenties. As the lights
went out, Fernando made the most of the F2012’s great
launch off the line and led away almost unchallenged,
but Felipe required a nose change at the end of lap 1
following a collision. Hamilton also had to bring the
McLaren in with a puncture on lap 3.
On lap 4, Fernando had Vettel’s Red Bull in close
formation behind him and then there was a gap of almost
four seconds to third placed Schumacher in the Mercedes,
and behind came Hulkenberg in the Force India, then
Maldonaldo, Webber, Raikkonen, Di Resta and Perez, the
Mexican making up up seven places, completing the top
ten. Lap 8 and Button got his McLaren ahead of
Hulkenberg to take fourth. Button then passed Schumacher
for third on lap 10, as Di Resta began the first run of
pit stops. At the front, Fernando had a 1.3 lead over
Vettel, while Felipe’s early troubles saw him down in
19th place.
Hulkenberg, Webber and Rosberg all pitted on lap 12
while Maldonaldo came in from sixth on Lap 13 in the
Williams. Schumacher pitted on lap 14 from fourth place
in the Mercedes, coming out to get the better of
Hulkenberg, which also saw Raikkonen get past the Force
India. Fernando ran a bit wide at a corner on lap 17 so
the team brought him in immediately for his first tyre
change on the F2012, taking on the harder Medium tyres
for a longer second stint. Lap 19 and Button brought his
McLaren in, followed by Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso.
Vettel pitted on lap 20 which meant he was still second,
3.3 seconds now behind Fernando, while Sauber’s
Kobayashi was third, the only driver who had not yet
changed tyres until he eventually came in on lap 22.
Felipe came in from 16th place on lap 24 to change
tyres.
In this part of the race, it seemed that Vettel was
faster than the Spanish Ferrari driver and on lap 27,
only one second separated the two leaders. One lap
later, the German was close enough to start using his
DRS and on lap 29, the gap was just 0.7 and closing. On
lap 31, the two men came up to lap a Marussia which gave
Fernando a bit of breathing space as the gap went back
to 1.1. Profiting from this Spanish-German battle was
Jenson Button in third, who had brought his McLaren to
within 2.8 seconds of the Red Bull and was lapping
faster than the leaders. On lap 34, just over
half-distance, Felipe was having a lonely race in
fourteenth. Lap 35 and now Fernando’s mirrors went from
blue to silver, as although well down the order, one lap
down, Hamilton, on fresher tyres, got his McLaren ahead
of Vettel to take station behind Alonso. Schumacher was
the first of the front runners to make his second pit
stop from fifth place on lap 36. Lap 41 and Button
pitted, followed by Perez from fifth and Webber from
eighth.
The next lap was a key moment as Fernando dived into pit
lane with Red Bull covering the Ferrari move bringing
Vettel in at the same time. But as the two men emerged
from pit lane, Button was able to pull alongside the
German to take second place, with the three leaders all
on the Medium tyre and set to go all the way to the
chequered flag. Button was now close enough to use DRS
and with 20 laps remaining, the McLaren was effectively
riding on the Ferrari’s rear wing, while further back,
Felipe made his third and final stop on lap 48. While
Vettel drifted back from the leading two, Button was
only 0.6 behind Fernando with ten laps remaining, but
after dealing with some backmarkers, Fernando managed
the gap, extending it enough to look comfortable for the
final laps. However Vettel had put together a late
charge and on the penultimate lap, he got past the
McLaren, using rather more than just the race track to
do so to take second place. However, after the race, the
Stewards penalised Vettel with a 20 second penalty as
they deemed his move on Button had contravened the
rules. This dropped him to fifth, with Button takeing
second place. So although he never saw the podium, Kimi
Raikkonen actually finished third for Lotus, with
Kobayashi moved up to fourth in the Sauber.
Red Bull still heads the Constructors’ classification,
with the Scuderia second, slightly closer to the leaders
and pulling further away from McLaren in third. As for
Fernando, he now has 154 points at the top of the
Drivers’ classification, 34 more than Mark Webber who
came home in eighth place today.
The teams have now
completed half the season, but the F1 circus cannot
pause for breath just yet as it now moves further east
to tackle the Hungarian Grand Prix in just seven days
time, the final race before the summer break.
Luca
di Montezemolo: “I wish to thank the whole team
and Fernando for this fantastic victory! Hockenheim is
in a country that is home to some of the greatest car
constructors in the world and that has a great Formula 1
tradition and a Ferrari was in the number one position
on track, yesterday in the wet and today in the dry. I
am proud of the amazing job the team has done at the
track and the factory over these past few months. We
must continue like this.”
Stefano Domenicali: “It was like a 67
lap qualifying run! I find it hard to remember watching
from the pit wall such a tight race from the start to
the chequered flag. Fernando was perfect: not one
mistake, not one hesitation, pushing to the maximum for
an hour and a half. What a driver! The team were also
great, managing everything to perfection. We expected to
face some stiff opposition and that was the case: to
keep ahead of them, we had to do a better job. A shame
for Felipe who definitely had the pace to finish in the
points: his race was ruined by the collision at the
start and he is definitely not going through a lucky
time at the moment! Now we come to what will be a key
race, in just a week’s time, in Budapest and then we
will be able to pause for breath for a moment. We know
we still have a lot of work to do, because we are still
not the fastest. We have seen how quickly things can
change this season, therefore we must keep concentrating
to the maximum, especially on the reliability front.
Finally, I wish to spare a thought for Valerio Catelani
and Daniela Bertoneri, who lost their lives this morning
in a tragic accident in the City of Lucca Rally: motor
sport is still a sport where risk is ever present and
one must never drop one’s guard on the safety front.
This has been the case in Formula 1 now for many years,
thanks to the efforts of the FIA.”
Fernando Alonso: “It was a very close
race from start to finish. We did not have the quickest
car. McLaren and Red Bull had a little bit extra but not
enough to get past. The team took a few strategic
decisions that were spot on, at the time of both stops
and I knew that I had to concentrate, especially at Turn
6, defending my position by using the KERS. Then, in the
third sector, there was no room for overtaking. I tried
as much as possible to manage the tyres at all times.
Clearly, I didn’t have a moment to relax but I think I
was calmer than the team in the garage and on the pit
wall and our fans sitting in front of their televisions!
If I think back to where we were in Jerez, or Australia
at the first race, I have to thank everyone at Maranello
for the fantastic way in which they reacted to the
situation. After yesterday’s pole, in the wet, the car
seemed to be very strong, as we expected. We must keep
focussed, avoid problems with reliability or with the
pit stops and I know that when it comes to that, I can
count on the best team, a team that is used to winning a
lot. All I have to do is think about driving and helping
the team. I always want to give 100% and work day and
night towards this goal. I don’t want anyone to come to
Hungary better prepared than me, physically or mentally
or more motivated than me and I always try and win this
competition that runs alongside the one on the track. I
expect to go well in Budapest and there is no reason to
be pessimistic. However, I am not forgetting that Red
Bull and McLaren were quicker. I said that the month of
July would be crucial, with 75 points up for grabs in
four weeks and so far we have brought home 43, so we
will try and finish the job in Hungary.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a very hard race
for me, conditioned by the problem at the start. I got
away well, but then a Toro Rosso slowed suddenly in
front of me and, despite trying to avoid him, I touched
him with the front wing. I lost so much time coming back
to the pits and my race was practically over at that
point. The tyres worked well, matching our expectations.
A real shame, because again today the car was very
competitive, as Fernando demonstrated, having a perfect
race to take a well deserved and great win, which is
extremely important for him and for the whole team.
Obviously, I am not happy today, but the fact that I can
count on a car that is getting better all the time in
terms of performance, gives me confidence for the rest
of the season. We must improve the situation in
qualifying, trying to start further up the order: it’s
the easiest way to avoid problems at the start, like the
one I was caught up in this afternoon. I think we should
be on the pace in Hungary, as has been the case in the
last few races.”
Pat Fry: “Once again, Fernando was
fantastic. He made the most of pole at the start, then
he waited until he had built up a useful window in which
to make the first stop and managed to do so ahead of his
main rivals. Once he was on the Mediums, the first few
laps were rather difficult: both Vettel and Button were
able to close up but our driver was brilliant in
managing the situation and never once left himself open
to an attack. Then it was Button who pitted early, but
we had enough of an advantage to be able to react
immediately without running the risk of being overtaken.
The team was equally adept in the pit stops and the
remote garage back in Maranello played an important part
too, as was the case yesterday in qualifying. We are
disappointed for Felipe who paid a high price for the
collision at the start. We tried to get him back in the
race by seeing if we could do just one stop, but it was
clear that wasn’t possible. A shame, because the pace he
showed throughout the race would have definitely seen
him finish in the points, even starting that far back on
the grid. We still do not have the quickest car: we were
aware of that and we saw it again today. We must carry
on working hard to reach that objective, but it is
definitely gratifying to end the first half of the
season with our driver heading the classification…”
