Nico Rosberg took the chequered flag at his home race in the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring for the first time in his Formula One career. The weather for the race was the best of the weekend with the temperature being far cooler than practice on Friday.
Pole man Rosberg lead the way through the early stages of the race from the Williams driver Valtteri Bottas. Jules Bianchi appeared to have stalled his Marussia off his grid slot and was slow to leave it. Kevin Magnussen has a great start off the line and Lewis Hamilton also had a great start off the line and is up to 17th place. However, an incident between Massa and Magnussen into Turn 1 took place with Massa in his Williams going upside down and Ricciardo very luckily avoiding contact with the pair of them.
It would appear that Massa did not see Magnussen alongside him as he was focusing on his team mate Bottas in front of him and didn’t give Magnussen enough space. Luckily Massa got out of the car with no injuries and this left no choice for the Safety Car to be deployed and for Massa to retire from the race.
By Lap 3, we are backing racing once again. Rosberg leads Bottas by 0.8 seconds. At Turn 2, Hamilton passes Chilton for track position. The next lap sees Hamilton once again at Turn 2 passes Maldonado for 15th place. Button tries to pass Hulkenberg for track position but cannot do so. Ricciardo passes Grosjean for 12th place.
By Lap 5, the stewards announce that they are investigating the first lap incident between Massa and Magnussen. By Lap 6, Rosberg leads Bottas still by 2.5 seconds. The next lap sees both Ricciardo and Hamilton pass Sutil for track position. The stewards announce that no further action will be taken against Massa and Magnussen for the incident on Lap 1.
Lap 9 sees Perez and Kvyat are battling each other for 7th place. At Turn 8 while trying to pass Perez, Kvyat spins in his Toro Rosso and loses a few places. At the end of the lap, Kvyat pits. The next lap sees Vergne, Ricciardo and Hamilton battling each other for 9th place. Ricciardo and Hamilton both pass Vergne for position.
Throughout the race, we saw many of the drivers battling each other throughout the field for track position and it was hard to keep up with positions changing all the time. We saw Kimi Raikkonen battling pretty much everyone he raced with today to eleventh place today (the one that sticks out in my mind was the battle with himself, his team mate Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel with all drivers extremely lucky not to crash into each other). Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen also battled with Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to name a few in order to finish eighth and ninth for the McLaren team.
The main battles that we saw during the race were mainly between Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso which ended with Vettel beating Alonso to fourth place, Daniel Ricciardo battling the McLaren and Force India drivers to finish in sixth place, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez once again battling through the field to finish seventh and tenth for the Force India team and finally Lewis Hamilton after starting twentieth on the grid after a gearbox change charge through the field to claim a stunning third place behind the Williams driver of Valtteri Bottas who kept his late charge for
second place at bay (and also after during his battle with Jenson Button on Lap 29 suffering front wing damage too!).
Lotus driver Romain Grosjean officially retired his Lotus from the Grand Prix on Lap 28 with lack of power being the source of why he has to stop. Lotus’ other driver Pastor Maldonado did not have a great race either after securing his future with the team for next season. Maldonado finished in twelfth place despite being at one stage fighting for a championship point.
Sauber driver Adrian Sutil was also forced to retire his car after spinning it on the home straight. Sutil then tries to get the car rolling but cannot do so and is forced to retire from the race. Also, the decision not to bring out the Safety Car to remove Sutil’s car has sparked a lot of debate amongst many pundits and fans who believe it should be been brought out in the first place for safety reasons. Also, Sauber’s other driver Esteban Guiterrez did not have a great weekend either and also managed to finish in fourteenth place.
Toro Rosso did not have a good weekend with Jean-Eric Vergne finishing in thirteenth place and their other driver rookie Daniil Kvyat having to retire his car on Lap 46 after his car appeared to be on fire and currently it is speculated that there could be a fuel leak that may have contributed to his retirement but has not been officially announced by the Toro Rosso team as of yet.
It would appear that Marussia once again have shown with Jules Bianchi that they are performing better than their rivals Caterham this weekend. Bianchi managed to finish the race in fifteenth place one lap down ahead of his team-mate Max Chilton in seventeenth place two laps down.
Meanwhile, Caterham have not improved at all this weekend. With their rookie driver Marcus Ericsson stopping between Turns 2 and 3 on Friday Practice and then Ericsson receiving a stop and go penalty in the race for his team breaking the conditions under parc perme alongside Kamui Kobyashi having to leap out of the car on Friday after a fuel leak caused the car to go on fire, can things get any worse for them?
Kobayashi managed to beat Ericsson by finishing in sixteenth place, there as Ericsson finished in eighteenth place and this result only highlights the incredible amount of work Caterham need to do in order to try and salvage something from this season if possible.
The official result of the German Grand Prix is as follows below:-
Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1hr 33mins 42.914s 67 laps
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 20.789s
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 22.530s
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 44.014s
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 52.467s
Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 52.549s
Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1.04.178s
Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1.24.711s
Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1 lap
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1 lap
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1 lap
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1 lap
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1 lap
Esteban Guiterrez Sauber-Ferrari 1 lap
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1 lap
Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 2 laps
Max Chilton Marussia- Ferrari 2 laps
Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 2 laps
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari Not classified
Danill Kvyat Toro Rosso Not classified
Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault Not classified
Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes Not classified
At the moment, Nico Rosberg leads the Driver’s championship with 190 points, Hamilton is second with 176 points, Ricciardo is third with 106 points, Alonso is fourth with 97 points, Bottas is fifth with 91 points, Vettel is sixth with 82 points, Hulkenberg is seventh with 69 points, Button is eighth with 59 points, Magnussen is ninth with 37 points and Massa is tenth with 30 points.
Currently, Mercedes leads the Constructor’s championship with 366 points, Red Bull is second with 188 points, Williams is third with 121 points, Ferrari is fourth with 116 points, Force India is fifth with 98 points, McLaren is sixth with 96 points, Toro Rosso are seventh with 15 points, Lotus are eighth with 8 points and Marussia are ninth with 2 points.
With only a week to wait until the next race in Hungary, will we see Rosberg continuing to keep on with the momentum he has achieved over the past week and
extend his championship lead once again? Or can Hamilton put up a challenge at a track that has been kind to him over the years? Bring on Hungary!
