Has Red Bull’s dominance finally been broken after two races without a win as Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Mark Webber at the Nurburgring. Reigning world champion and 2011 championship leader Sebastian Vettel could only manage fourth place after a final lap pitlane battle with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa as both drivers needed to use the ‘prime’ tyre or face a 30s post race penalty. I, for one would love to see the tide turning with more drivers claiming victory in the second half of the season, it’s been rather dull to watch Vettel romp into a 77 point lead during the first half of the season. The next race in Hungary will be the acid test as the Hungaroring is traditionally where the Red Bull’s are strong as it’s a downforce circuit and Adrian Newey’s RB7 generates more downforce than any other team!
Back to this weekend’s German Grand Prix; Hamilton had a storming start to jump Webber off the line as the Australian appeared to bog down badly dropping back to second while Alonso was super brave on the brakes to dive up the inside of Vettel and Massa into third place. Alonso fell back to fourth after running wide but retook the position into turn one before Vettel had a spin himself going wide losing seven seconds in the middle sector. Meanwhile Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi pushed Renaults’ Nick Heidfeld off the track sending the German into the gravel trap and out of the race. Even more action between the leaders was happening as Hamilton made a mistake in the final turns of the lap allowing Webber to make the pass entering the pit straight; but Hamilton used his more powerful Mercedes engine/KERS package to re-pass Webber into turn one.
Webber managed to come out ahead of both Hamilton and Alonso to lead the race after the first round of pit stops but Hamilton returned the favour in the second round of stops as Webber had a slow out lap allowing for Hamilton to come out just feet in front of the Australian; resisting Webber’s attack around turns two and three. On the next lap, Alonso jumped the pair of them to take the lead but the Spaniard was caught napping by Hamilton who drove clean around the outside to retake the lead. While all this was happening Jenson Button was quietly making his way up the field after dropping back from sixth to tenth off the start but was hit with more bad luck after taking sixth position from Nico Rosberg; having to retire the car because of hydraulic issues. The final drama of the race was the battle between Massa and Vettel for fourth which was won in the pit lane; the Red Bull mechanics were much faster than the Ferrari mechanics helping the German claim a few extra points, but for Vettel fourth must be a disappointment; it’s the first time this season where he hasn’t been standing on the podium but still has a three race margin in the drivers championship; the German can literally sit out the next three races and still be in the lead!
After this second retirement; Jenson Button has written off his chances of winning the 2011 drivers title, as much as I hate to say this being a big JB fan; he just hasn’t been fast enough this season in comparison to his team mate in the same car, the only exception to that has been the Canadian Grand Prix which Jenson won brilliantly from stone last. But even Canada has question marks over it; if Hamilton didn’t crash out would JB have won? More talking points that have come from Germany is; can Vettel really cut it when back in the chasing pack; he’s brilliant while out front but struggles when fighting in the pack; Vettel needed his pit crew to get him ahead of Massa; he just followed the Brazilian around lap after lap until the final last lap round of pit stops!
Quote of the day for me was Lewis Hamilton’s “I gave him just enough room to be behind me” when referring to defending his position against Webber in turn two after the second round of pitstops!