German Grand Prix Summary
Sunday, October 11th, was the Germany Grand Prix. It was the 11th race so far this season out of the 17 confirmed.
Sunday, October 11th, was the Germany Grand Prix. It was the 11th race so far this season out of the 17 confirmed.
The grid had Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas, starting from pole position ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in P2. Max Verstappen was starting from P3 with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc P4. Following Leclerc was Alex Albon, Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz to fill the top 10.
Sebastian Vettel was starting from P11, Pierre Gasly at P12 and Daniil Kvyat was P13. Following Kvyat was Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. Starting in 17th position was George Russell with Nicholas Latifi behind him. Kimi Räikkönen was 19th and Nico Hulkenberg, who was subbed in on Saturday for an unwell Lance Stroll, was starting in 20th.
Heading into the race, Lewis Hamilton was aiming for a record tying 91st Formula 1 win.
Everyone in the top 10 was starting on the soft tyres.
Kimi Räikkönen broke Rubens Barichello’s record of most F1 Grand Prix starts with his 323rd in Germany.
Before the race, the drivers headed to the front of the grid to make a show of their unity and support of Formula 1’s campaign to ‘End Racism’.
Just after the race began, Hamilton and Bottas was competing for first place going into the first few corners, but Bottas managed to hold onto it.
Vettel spun and went onto the run off area and subsequently pitted, he went onto the hard tyres.
On lap13, Bottas locked up going into turn 1 and Hamilton managed to capitalise and take the lead.
Russell spun at turn 1 and got a puncture. Bottas pitted on the next lap and went onto mediums and came out in 4th. Russell spun because Kimi Räikkönen punted the Williams into the turn 1 run off in a clumsy incident.
On lap 16, there was a Virtual Safety Car to move the Williams of Russell out of the run off area and away from the track. Russell retired after his collision with Räikkönen.
Both Hamilton and Verstappen pitted under the Virtual Safety Car and they returned in P1 and P2.
Alex Albon took Daniil Kvyat’s front wing off after Kvyat missed the apex on turn 14.
Just after that incident, Valtteri Bottas began to slow and he told his engineer that he had no power. The team tried to change his engine settings but it was no use. Bottas went into the pits and then retired from the race.
On lap 20, Räikkönen received a 10 second time penalty for causing a collision with Russell earlier in the race.
3 laps later, Esteban Ocon took to the escape road to avoid his teammate and then tells his engineer that he lost something. Ocon than pitted and was retired from the race due to a hydraulics issue.
Red Bull driver, Alex Albon later received a 5 second penalty for his earlier altercation with Kvyat.
Albon later pitted and after serving his time penalty he was shelled into the garage by the team. He was the fourth driver to retire this race.
On lap 26, McLaren driver, Lando Norris told his engineer that he had lost power. He was sitting in third place but Perez was slowly catching him. On lap 30, he pitted and switched to the medium tyres, he came out in P5 behind Leclerc.
There were some overtakes and pit stops after lap 26, but the next big thing happened on lap 44 when Lando Norris’ car began to smoke and he had to pull over and retire from the race. A safety car was than called out to give the stewards time to move his car.
The safety car went in on lap 49 and Hamilton was off.
Nothing big happened for the remainder of the race, but Lewis Hamilton was to reach the chequered flag ahead of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. This was Hamilton’s 91st win, equalling Schumacher’s record.
Perez came 4th, Sainz 5th, Gasly 6th, Leclerc 7th and Nico Hulkenberg came 8th after starting 20th.
Max Verstappen had the fastest lap of the raw which meant an extra championship point for him and Red Bull. Nico Hulkenberg was voted drive of the day.
Daniel Ricciardo’s podium means that Renault team principal, Cyril Abiteboul has to now get a tattoo of Ricciardo’s choosing.
The next Formula 1 event is the Portuguese Grand Prix on the 25th October, which is followed by Imola the next weekend.
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