2013 German Grand Prix - Home glory at last for Vettel

By Simon Wright

Sebastian Vettel ticked another major box in his CV this afternoon, as he finally managed to win his home Grand Prix.  The reigning world champion won an interesting German Grand Prix at an unseasonably hot and warm Nurburgring in the Eiffel Mountains.  It is his fourth win of the 2013 season, which sees Vettel stretch his lead to 34 points as the F1 season heads into summer hibernation, with just one event in the next seven weeks.

However, he was made to work hard for his home triumph from a revived Lotus team.  Although he led a large portion of the race, only some decisive strategy from his Red Bull team kept him ahead of the two black and gold cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean.  The Enstone pair took the final two podium spots in Germany, ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari.  All four Brits finished, but it was Jenson Button who will leave tonight smiling the most after his best weekend of the season.

At the sixth attempt of asking, Sebastian Vettel finally won on home soil

To win at home is something Vettel (pictured) has been craving for, but has eluded him in his career upto his triumph this season.  Second around the Nurburgring in 2009 had been his closest effort, and having won all the other classics like Monaco, Spa, Monza and Silverstone, it was the final race he wanted to desperately win.

Speaking afterwards to the official Formula One website, he admitted: “It was a tough race; it was one of the toughest for a long time.  I’m happy the race wasn’t two or three laps longer, as Kimi was a bit quicker towards the end. 

“I’m very happy that it worked out and it’s very special.  The team worked really hard to give me the chance to win this weekend and we got it.  When the flag came out and the race was over I really let myself enjoy the parade lap and saw a lot of people in the grandstands cheering and waving flags.  These pictures will remain in my head for a long, long time.”

He didn’t start on pole position, as that honour for the second successive weekend went to Lewis Hamilton.  That all changed at the start, as the Brit was swamped by the Red Bull duo of Vettel and Mark Webber on the rundown to the first corner.  From that moment on, Hamilton was never a factor for the race win and couldn’t add to the momentous British sporting weekend, which saw victories for the British and Irish Lions and Andy Murray end Britain’s 77-year drought for a men’s singles champion at Wimbledon.

The early stages settled into a close contest between the two Red Bulls, Hamilton and the two Lotus cars, with all machinery on the inferior softer compound tyre that Pirelli had brought to the Nurburgring.  However, Webber’s chances of a podium ended in scary fashion on the eighth lap.

RBR recover Webber's car on three wheels, but the damage has been done

He pitted from the lead, but there was a problem with the right-rear wheel and as he was told to go, the wheel detached itself, just evaded the Lotus mechanics and smashed into the back of British TV cameraman Paul Allen.  Allen, who was working for Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM network was knocked to the ground, and suffered injuries as Webber stopped his car out of trouble (pictured), before being pushed backwards into his box to be re-serviced and to get back into the event a lap down. 

A statement on the FIA website read: “Paul Allen was hit on the left-hand side.  Remaining conscious, he was treated at the circuit medical centre and then transported by helicopter to Koblenz Hospital.

“The Briton has been kept there, under observation.  Further information from the hospital will be provided as soon as it becomes available.”

Later, his injuries were revealed to be cracked ribs and a broken shoulder.  He will remain in hospital overnight, but should be released in the morning.

Red Bull were fined after the race a mere £25,834 for the unsafe pit release, but that didn’t bother team principal Christian Horner.

He told BBC Sport: “The most important thing is that the cameraman who got struck by the tyre does not appear to have suffered serious injury.

“It’s a timely reminder that working in the pitlane is dangerous.  Everyone reacted incredibly quickly and the most important thing is to hear that he seems to be fundamentally OK.”

It is another huge wake-up call for the sport though, after the death of a marshal at the Canadian Grand Prix and the tyre explosion chaos at last weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Jules Bianchi's engine expires and catches fire at the Nurburgring

There was another strange incident on lap 21 when Jules Bianchi’s Marussia engine expired in spectacular fashion approaching the final chicane on the circuit.  With flames licking from the charred remains of his Cosworth powered unit, the Frenchman did the right thing to leap out of the car to harms way.

Incredibly though, as the tractor went to recover his car, the Marussia rolled backwards across the road after it hadn’t been left in neutral by its driver.  Vettel had to slow down massively to avoid the runaway car, and lost his three-second lead while the safety car was deployed.  Fortunately, it rolled to the grass on the other side of the circuit and no-one was injured in another incident that could have had far worse consequences.

Vettel led Grosjean on the restart, followed by Raikkonen and Alonso.  Grosjean had managed to stay out until lap 12 on the soft tyre and looked very threatening throughout the event.  With 20 laps to go, a Lotus 1-2 looked a distinct possibility, but when Grosjean pitted for a second stop on lap 40, Red Bull covered him off with an immediate stop for Vettel.

Raikkonen stayed out longer, and initially it looked like he might continue until the end of the race on a two-stop strategy.  Lotus though were wary of previous times where they’ve kept the Finn out and seen his tyres fall ‘off the cliff,’ most recently at Silverstone last weekend when a possible second place became an unhappy fifth.

With 12 laps remaining, Lotus brought Raikkonen in and threw him onto a used set of the soft compound tyres.  He resumed third, and Grosjean quickly got out of the way of his team-mate to allow Kimi to have a shot at Vettel for the win.  He got close, but not quite close enough, falling just over a second shy of claiming his first triumph in Germany.

Nevertheless, Lotus should be happy with the double podium result here, considering they had only taken 13 points from the last three race meetings.  It is Raikkonen’s first podium since Spain and for Grosjean, a timely return to form after an indifferent campaign littered with poor race pace and the typical shunt from the Frenchman.  Grosjean’s points were his first since coming home third in Bahrain in April.

Ferrari’s gamble to sacrifice qualifying simply didn’t work.  Felipe Massa was an early casualty when his gearbox jammed in fifth gear entering the first corner on the fourth circuit.  The Brazilian was left a passenger as he spun and stalled his engine to record his third no-score in the last six races.

The 32-year-old told Planet F1 after his brief event: “I braked at the straight and locked the rear wheels.  The car went sidewards to the right and then I corrected and it went sideways to the left.

“I stopped the car and was in fifth gear and tried to go down to first to get out but the gear was not going down.  I was stuck in fifth gear.”

Team-mate Alonso was forced to abandon his planned two-stop race as early as lap 13, but recovered well to finish fourth, helped by the appearance of the Safety Car.  He closed right onto Grosjean’s tail in the closing laps, but had to back off on the final lap due to high fuel consumption levels.

After his difficult opening lap, Hamilton was left bemused by his lack of pace in the second stint, as heavy graining from the Pirelli tyres once again stymied his challenge for his maiden victory for Mercedes.

As in Bahrain earlier in the season, only some dynamic passing in the closing laps earnt him a solid haul of points, overhauling fellow Brit and former team-mate Button with a classy overtake around the outside of turn two on the final lap.

Nevertheless, Button and McLaren made some strong progress throughout the weekend, reckoning to be only 0.5seconds off the ultimate race pace.  The 2009 champion made a two-stop strategy work on his way to sixth, and this was backed up by Sergio Perez’s run to eighth spot.

Button did feel he could have held off Hamilton at the end, had he not been hindered by the duelling Caterham cars, who didn’t let him through despite being lapped.  Meanwhile, Perez was passed on the final lap by the recovering Webber, who was the biggest beneficiary from the mid-race Safety Car.

British Grand Prix winner Nico Rosberg never made an impact on home soil, as he also suffered from graining on his tyres.  After failing to make Q2 yesterday due to a timing misjudgement from Mercedes, he could do no better than ninth.  Nico Hulkenberg took the final point for Sauber for the second successive weekend. 

That point could have gone to Williams for Pastor Maldonado in the team’s 600^th race.  The Venezuelan ran as high as seventh and his strategy was working, only to be delayed by a horrible 30-second pitstop with a left-front wheel gun issue at his final stop.  A potential 10^th place became a final result of 15^th. 

Paul di Resta missed out on points, as did his Force India team for the first time since the wheel nut nightmare they suffered in Malaysia.  The Scot ended up coming home 11^th, with team-mate Adrian Sutil languishing in 13^th.  Max Chilton finished his ninth successive event, but once again it was in last place.

Also, Pirelli had a trouble-free afternoon, with no tyre failures to report despite talk of a boycott by the members of the GPDA if a repeat of the issues at Silverstone occurred.

Normality returned for Vettel on home soil after his rare technical DNF at Silverstone seven days ago.  While he keeps scoring consistently, his rivals are starting to run out of races to do something about it.  Alonso and Raikkonen have remained just about in touch, but they can’t afford to allow Vettel to extend his lead again when F1 arrives for the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest at the end of July.

	2013 FORMULA ONE SANTANDER GERMAN GRAND PRIX RESULT
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	60	1hr 41min 14secs	2
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	60	+1.0secs	4
3	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	60	+5.8secs	5
4	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	60	+7.7secs	8
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	60	+26.9secs	1
6	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	60	+27.9secs	9
7	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	60	+37.5secs	3
8	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	60	+38.3secs	13
9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	60	+46.8secs	11
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari	60	+49.8secs	10
11	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	60	+53.7secs	12
12	Daniel Ricciardo	STR Ferrari	60	+56.9secs	6
13	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	60	+57.7secs	15
14	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	60	+1min 00.1secs	14
15	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	60	+1min 01.9secs	17
16	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	59	1 Lap	18
17	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	59	1 Lap	2
18	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	59	1 Lap	20
19	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	59	1 Lap	21
Retired	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR Ferrari	22	Hydraulics	16
Retired	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	21	Blown Engine	19
Retired	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	3	Gearbox Failure/Spin	7

Drivers’ Championship after 9 rounds: 1. Sebastian Vettel 157, 2. Fernando Alonso 123, 3. Kimi Raikkonen 116, 4. Lewis Hamilton 99, 5. Mark Webber 93, 6. Nico Rosberg 84, 7. Felipe Massa 57, 8. Romain Grosjean 41, 9. Paul di Resta 36, 10. Jenson Button 33, 11. Adrian Sutil 23, 12. Sergio Perez 16, 13. Jean-Eric Vergne 13, 14. Daniel Ricciardo 11, 15. Nico Hulkenberg 7 

Constructors’ Championship after 9 rounds: 1. Red Bull Racing 250, 2. Mercedes GP 183, 3. Ferrari 180, 4. Lotus 157, 5. Force India 59, 6. McLaren 49, 7. Scuderia Toro Rosso 24, 8. Sauber 7

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