With only one F1 race ever to have taken place in Russia, this week’s classic Grand Prix takes a look at the 2007 European Grand Prix at Germany’s Nurburgring.
Kimi Raikkonen started from pole position, with Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa behind. World championship leader Lewis Hamilton started down in tenth after a wheel gun failure led to his tyre coming off in qualifying. Fellow Brit David Coulthard started 20th after failing to get out in time for a final Q1 lap, whilst debutant Markus Winkelhock started in 22nd and last place.
During the formation lap, the weather forecast change – rain in three minutes. Winkelhock pitted for wet tyres, whilst the rest of the field took to the grid.
Raikkonen led the field away on the opening lap, with teammate Felipe Massa getting ahead of Fernando Alonso for second. The two BMWs started well, fourth and fifth on the grid, but collided at the second turn and dropped well down the field. Lewis Hamilton – up to sixth after turn one – took avoiding action, but Kubica’s rear diffuser hit the McLaren’s rear left tyre and punctured it.
The rain poured down midway through the opening lap and the majority of the field came into the pits, with several drivers missing the final chicane. Raikkonen slipped over the painted pit entry and overshot, meaning he had to complete an extra lap on dry tyres. This dropped him down to seventh.
Markus Winkelhock took a dominant 33 second lead for Spyker when wet tyres turned out to be the ones required for the treacherous conditions, with Massa second and Alonso third. The rain was so heavy down at turn one, that a river had formed.
The river would take its toll on the race, with no less than seven cars being affected by it. Jenson Button – up to fourth at the end of lap two – aquaplaned and hit the wall, whilst Lewis Hamilton joined him in the gravel seconds later after locking up. They were fortunate not to be hit by the out of control Adrian Sutil, who hit the wall heavily. Nico Rosberg slid backwards into Button’s Honda, before Scott Speed joined them in the world’s most expensive car park. Anthony Davidson locked up at the same corner, but managed to stop short of the gravel and reversed back onto the circuit.
The safety car was unsurprisingly deployed, but it too nearly became a victim of the turn one river when Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso aquaplaned backwards into the gravel, just avoiding the Mercedes SL AMG and coming to a halt after tapping a recovery tractor.
Hamilton was lifted back onto the track as he managed to keep his Mercedes engine running, he rejoined a lap down.
The race was red flagged on lap four.
The restart came behind the safety car, with Lewis Hamilton allowed to un-lap himself and pit for dry tyres. Winkelhock, on the full wet tyres, led Massa and Alonso over the line, but he unsurprisingly lost the lead very soon to the much faster, intermediate-shod Ferrari. Alonso tried to take the lead around the outside of turn two, but Massa fought him off.
Ralf Schumacher retired on lap 18, punted into the gravel at the final corner by his compatriot Nick Heidfeld. He was the seventh retirement of the race, joining Markus Winkelhock as a spectator after the Spyker’s hydraulics gave up on the 13th lap.
Pole man Kimi Raikkonen became the ninth retirement of the afternoon, becoming the third driver – along with Sato and Winkelhock – to suffer a hydraulic problem. The Ferrari ground to a halt in the pit entry, potentially leading to a huge chance for McLaren to build a healthy lead in the constructors’ championship.
Hamilton was on a charge to get back up the field. He was seventeenth and last when the race restarted, and, at the start of lap 41, passed Rubens Barrichello into turn one for tenth place. Just two more and he’d be in the points.
The rain began to come down again with thirteen laps to the finish, forcing the drivers to pit for intermediate tyres on lap 52 of 60. Second placed man Alonso followed in race leader Felipe Massa, with the Spaniard lucky to avoid an unsafe release penalty after he went wheel to wheel with former teammate Giancarlo Fisichella down the pit lane.
With six laps to go, Alonso closed the lead gap down to just one second – the McLaren working beautifully on the intermediate tyres. He was able to fight Massa for the lead in turn two, with the Ferrari just holding off the challenge of the McLaren for the next lap and a half.
Alonso finally managed to pass Massa around the outside of turn five, with the two banging wheels in the process.
Hamilton repeated his teammate’s move on Giancarlo Fisichella. The Brit passed the Italian for ninth place on the last lap. He couldn’t catch the other Renault of Heikki Kovalainen, meaning he finished outside of the points for the first time in his career.
Alonso pulled away from Massa to win the race by 8.1 seconds, with Mark Webber taking the final podium place by two-tenths of a second from Alex Wurz. Coulthard completed a great day for Red Bull by finishing fifth, with the two BMWs recovering to score points in sixth and seventh. Heikki Kovalainen rounded out the top eight points finishers, with Lewis Hamilton, Giancarlo Fisichella, Rubens Barrichello, Anthony Davidson and Jarno Trulli the only other cars to finish.
The race result meant that Hamilton’s championship lead was down to just two points. Alonso was second, with Massa and Raikkonen not far behind. McLaren extended their constructors’ lead to 27 points over Ferrari, with BMW third and Renault fourth. Red Bull jumped up to sixth thanks to their big points haul.
