After Nico Rosberg simply breezed to victory at his home Grand Prix, there were plenty of talking points to take away from a very eventful German GP, at Hockenheim.
The championship leader, who recently signed a new ‘multi-year’ deal with current team Mercedes, never once relinquished the lead over the 67 lap race distance, and extends his championship lead over team-mate Lewis Hamilton, up to 14 points. The British driver came from 20th on the grid to fight through to third, just behind the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.
Let’s get on with the main talking points from the race…
FELIPE MASSA V KEVIN MAGNUSSEN – One of the main talking points of the race, was who was to blame for the first corner melee between William’s Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen. The first corner crash saw Massa flip over and sent Magnussen into a spin. Dane, Magnussen was on the apex of turn 1 backing out of a possible move on Bottas, with Massa who was on the other side of the track moved across and clipped the front left tyre of Magnussen and sent him into a roll.
Similar to the incident of Esteban Gutierrez and Pastor Maldonado in Bahrain, earlier in the season, a car was sent flipping through the air and it forced Massa retire from the race.
The Brazilian however, believes that it was the fault of Magnussen that he did not back out. The stewards decided that the crash was a racing incident, and there was nothing Magnussen could do to avoid the incident, although some do believe it was the fault of Massa, for moving across a Formula 1 grid in such an aggressive manner.
The decision stands as a racing incident, although, there will be some tension in the air between both Massa and Magnussen going into the Hungarian GP.
LEWIS HAMILTON V JENSON BUTTON – The former team-mates at McLaren, have not not been able to battle as much on track for the past two years, but in Germany, this changed, for two laps at least. Hamilton quickly closed down to the gap to Button on fresh tyres, and with DRS, it looked as though it would be an easy overtake. However, Button took a wide approach into the hairpin at turn six and it seemed as though he had left the door open for Hamilton. But, he cut back across with Hamilton already on his inside and the pair made contact.
The contact was not race ending but there was damage down to the left side of Hamilton’s front wing. He couldn’t make the move stick, but on the next lap, Hamilton got past Button and put his hand up to apologise as he went past.
After the race, Button was critical of his former team-mate saying that he took too many risks overtaking cars, coming up from 20th on the grid. The Mercedes driver admitted afterwards that his collision with Button was due to his “bad judgement”, but the McLaren man wasn’t impressed by his driving.
LEWIS HAMILTON V VALTTERI BOTTAS – The battle for who was going to finish second in Germany. Valtteri Bottas started alongside Hamilton’s team-mate in the race and looked as though he had the pace early on to take the battle to eventual race winner Nico Rosberg, but instead, had to hold off the charging Hamilton.
After his contact with Button, Mercedes decided not to change Hamilton’s front wing and he still showed strong pace to grab second away from Bottas.
Hamilton received a radio message from race engineer Pete Bonnington saying: “Okay Lewis, this should be an easy catch.” [Overtaking Bottas] Both drivers went at it, hammer and tongues, but as Hamilton said after the race, the Williams was too quick on the straights. The Williams man who is in his second season of F1 showed he can race against the best, and not falter. Bottas who has now finished on the podium in three consecutive races, with third in Austria, second in Silverstone and second in Germany. He is the first driver to do this for Williams since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2003.
Some say that Bottas is a future world champion, and holding off one of the best in Lewis Hamilton, certainly showed his racing class.
FERNANDO ALONSO V DANIEL RICCIARDO – Perhaps the best battle of the race. After going off the track to avoid the first corner incident with Massa and Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo dropped down from 5th on the grid, to 15th. Having to battle his way through the pack along with Lewis Hamilton, Ricciardo faced a tough task against Alonso.
Ricciardo has already proven his racing skill this season, but he made sure he gained respect from one of the greats. Never giving up against such a ruthless fighter like Alonso, gained the praise he would have been gaining for. With every single move that Alonso made to overtake Ricciardo, he defended like a champion. When Alonso eventually got passed, he took off but eventual heavy fuel saving on the final lap, meant that Ricciardo closed up on the final lap of the race.
From the onboard camera of Ricciardo, the rear of Alonso’s car was sliding but he held on…just. Ricciardo pulled out of the slipstream at the line and missed out of fifth place by just 0.082 of a second.
Alonso had praise for Ricciardo after the race, also claiming that if the race was 100 metres longer, he would not have been able to beat Ricciardo.
KVYAT FIRE – Daniil Kvyat’s Formula 1 career started in style, with three points paying positions in his first four races. But retiring from three consecutive races soon started to look bad for the 20 year old. At Silverstone, Kvyat scored his first points as a 20 year old, after starting 9th and finishing 9th.
However, it was another retirement on the cards for Kvyat in Germany. On lap 46, a reported oil leak caused the Russian’s Toro Rosso to catch fire. The fire marshals were quickly on the scene to douse the flames. As the rookie walked away, he punched a barrier to vent his frustration.
Kvyat has proved to be a top class racing driver this season, but with four retirements from five races, the reality of Formula 1 seems to have hit the stand-out rookie.
MARSHALS RUNNING ACROSS THE CIRCUIT – The men and women in orange who stand at the side of a Formula 1 track, are there voluntarily so that we, as fans, can enjoy world class racing. But what happens if some are forced to run across a live Grand Prix track with cars coming around corner at over 100mph? That was the case during the German GP, after Adrian Sutil’s Sauber spun in the final corner and he stalled. His race was over, but there was the decision to throw out a safety car, or remove the car from the middle of the track, under double waved yellow flags.
It was decided that the car would be retrieved…under double waved yellow’s. This decision shocked many fans and pundits as it could endanger the lives of those who were sent to pull the car off the circuit. During last years Canadian GP, marshal Mark Robinson was killed after the race, retrieving another Sauber, of Esteban Gutierrez retired in the latter stages of the race. The 38-year-old was involved in a freak accident and later died of his injuries in hospital. This would have been the worry among those who disagreed with the decision for there not to be a safety car.
In a break in the traffic, three marshals darted across the circuit and managed to push Sutil’s car to safety and no marshal was injured in the process. It may be an idea for the FIA to look back on accidents that have caused marshals to lose their lives and if the situation is to come about again, they may use a safety car for the safety of those that make the racing possible.
CHAMPIONS DRIVE FROM HAMILTON? – Some believe Lewis Hamilton’s drive from 20th on the grid in Germany to 3rd was that of man who deserved to be crowned the 2014 world champion.
Hamilton’s poor grid position came after a right front brake failure during qualifying 1 on Saturday sent the Brit spearing towards the barrier at turn 12. After it was rumoured that he would start the pit-lane after a brake supplier change, the man who is second in the championship, only incurred a 5-place grid penalty for a gearbox change after it was damaged in the crash.
It was crucial for Hamilton to put in a good result, so team-mate Rosberg who started on pole, could not extend his championship lead by much. In the end, only losing 10 points by starting nineteen places behind was a strong result for Hamilton and the gap heading into this weekend’s Hungarian GP is now 14 points.
The contact with Button, his battle with Daniel Ricciardo, fighting all the way up to the podium proves not only that the car is good, but the driver himself is exceptional.
IS RAIKKONEN A MATCH FOR ALONSO? – Another race weekend and yet another disappointing result for Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn was brought in to partner Fernando Alonso as Ferrari attempted to win their first constructors title since 2008 and their first drivers title since 2007 when Raikkonen won his sole title for the Scuderia.
However, it has been anything but the dream return for Raikkonen. Now over halfway through the Formula 1 season and the man who was said to be the most consistent points scorer in F1 has only got 19 points to his name in 2014. Languishing down in 12th in the drivers standings, many believed Raikkonen to come into Ferrari and march them to a title and wipe the floor with team-mate Alonso, but it has nothing like that. Alonso is currently 78 points ahead in the standings and looks like the far more controlled and poised of the pair.
After Sunday’s race, Raikkonen believed two separate pieces of contact which damaged his front wing cost him a chance of points, as he eventually finished the race in 12th and a lap down. After the Hungarian GP, Raikkonen will have the F1 summer break to compose himself before the challenge starts all over again at a track he is known as the King of Spa-Francorchamps.
But once again being heavily out-performed by Alonso in Germany begs the question, is Kimi Raikkonen really a match for Fernando Alonso?
