Rosberg cruises to win as Hamilton charges in Germany

Nico Rosberg capped a great week for Germany and himself as he cruised to victory at his home race having seen Germany win the world cup and then got married. From pole position he led into the first corner and from then on was never headed, only going as fast as he needed to keep out of reach of his pursuers to win by 20 seconds.

The win brought him a 14 point championship lead as we pass the half way mark of the season and with just one race left next weekend before a four week hiatus for the summer, he’ll look to maintain this momentum as his Mercedes stable mate Lewis Hamilton suffered a difficult weekend while Nico enjoyed a perfect few days from the car and his driving matched it.

Hamilton and Rosberg looked evenly matched through practice and when it came to qualifying it could have been either one of them who took pole position, but having at that point set the fastest time in Q1 a brake failure threw Lewis into a 30g impact with the barriers ruling him out of contention for the top slot.

The crash also meant a gearbox change which cost him a further five places on the grid meaning he started just 20^th. In parc ferme conditions they also changed his brake discs from Brembo to Carbon Industrie which apparently annoyed some other competitors as they believed that should have meant he started from the pit lane but the FIA approved it, they did the same with Rosberg’s rear brakes.

Anyway it was a joy to watch as Lewis does what he does better than anyone else and charged through the field. It helps if you have a Mercedes which is sometimes two seconds a lap quicker than anyone else but it was a fantastic drive as he went wheel to wheel with most of the grid to race up to third place.

His brief dice with Kimi Raikkonen (who endured another disappointing weekend with just 11^th place despite a fine mid-race charge on super-softs) was great, battling it out with Daniel Ricciardo too was fantastic as he came across the Australian far earlier than he might’ve, the Red Bull driver having taken avoiding action for Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen’s accident at the first corner which resulted in Massa barrel rolling out of the race which brought out the safety car for a couple of laps at the start.

His moves into the turn six hairpin nearly resulted in contact with first Adrian Sutil as Lewis followed Ricciardo through, before he made contact with Kimi then dived up the inside of Jenson Button’s McLaren when suddenly the door was closed. Button says he doesn’t know what Lewis was doing but it looked for all the world like he was leaving the door open. Lewis put a hand up when he did get by as if to say sorry, but I think it should have been the other way round, whatever though, that incident cost him later in the race.

Lewis had started on the soft tyre while most others started on the super-soft, so while everyone pitted he had moved up to second by lap 17, pretty impressive even in a Mercedes. His first stop came on lap 26 dropping him back into the pack again. He’d make two further stops but such was his pace that by the end of the race he was charging after the Williams of Valtteri Bottas.

Bottas was on a two stopper and looking after his last set of tyres as Lewis caught him at up to a second a lap, sometimes more. Hamilton had come in for his third and final stop on lap 51, slightly earlier than he planned after Sutil spun his Sauber at the final corner and got stuck there. It looked like certain safety car territory but as marshals crossed the track the pace car was not forthcoming. That would have set up an interesting end to the race but it wasn’t to be. In the end it didn’t take much to move the car but I’m not sure you ever want marshal’s crossing the track even if the corner is under double waved yellows.

It meant Lewis’ tyres weren’t as optimal as they could have been at the end and with front wing damage suffered on Button’s car he couldn’t quite get into position to make a move. Perhaps if he’d known what the ‘menu magic’ setting was that his race engineer told him to go to earlier in the race it might have helped! However, he’d got to the podium with a great aggressive drive but he should have had second to minimise the losses to Rosberg.

I’m not taking anything away from my star of the race though, Valtteri Bottas took his third consecutive podium and second second place in a row in another brilliant display that is making him look like a potential world champion and confirming William’s continued revival. If they can maintain this into next season we know they’re back and with the people they’ve recruited and the Mercedes power unit there’s no reason why this can’t continue.

Bottas held Lewis back expertly, slowing the car in the middle of the corners to stop the Mercedes switching back, then using the Williams superior straight line speed to not even have to bother defending into most corners, eventually he managed to stretch the gap out to almost two seconds by the flag.

It was another classy and controlled drive and he’s certainly the real flying Finn out there now. While Bottas is claiming the podiums he is bringing the team around him as Massa continues to find trouble. A lot of the time it’s not of his own making but this one I’ve got to say was his fault. Massa blamed Magnussen for the first corner incident but it looked to me like he just didn’t give enough space to the McLaren driver leaving him with nowhere to go other than to tip the Williams upside down. A shame for both as Massa had qualified third and Magnussen equalled his best starting position of fourth.

Magnussen ended up finishing ninth behind his annoyed team mate Button who seemed quite lonely a lot of the time or getting passed or looking like he was allowing people passed and then turning in on them...

The Force India’s claimed a double points finish with the ever reliable Nico Hulkenberg maintaining his season long points scoring streak with seventh and Sergio Perez making his point for tenth despite Daniil Kvyat pretending he wasn’t there and bashing into the Mexican. Kvyat impressed again with another top 10 quali slot but what looked like it could have been an amazing move around the outside of Perez sent him into a spin when he failed to give enough room. The day ended with his Toro Rosso on fire while Jean-Eric Vergne could only get 13^th.

There was more thrilling action centred around the fun and games of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Ricciardo. All were in inspired form as they fought over the minor points placing’s although originally Vettel and Alonso appeared to be hanging on well to Bottas.

In the end they dropped back but yet these world champions and Ricciardo battled bravely especially Vettel who has to be commended, he’ll never lift off as the road runs out if he thinks he can still make the move as demonstrated when he kept his foot hard to the floor clipping the grass as he charged down the inside of Kimi with Alonso squeezing on the other side as they shot down to turn 6. It kept Vettel in fourth at the time.

Earlier Kimi had also been sandwiched between Lewis and Ricciardo with some more fantastic three abreast racing. In both incidents Kimi lost bits of his car, it was a struggle to keep up with the amount of body work falling off these machines over the race.

Alonso got ahead of Vettel after the second pit stops but Vettel pitted earlier while the Spaniard tried to make a two stop work although he eventually succumbed to the inevitable third tyre stop which brought him out behind the other Red Bull of Ricciardo on worn tyres.

Ricciardo didn’t just let him go, he made Alonso work for it the position, just when you thought the Ferrari was ahead back would come the Australian. Eventually Alonso made it but it was yet more exciting tough but clean racing. Ricciardo really impressed witht that, even more than his podiums. Battling it out with the likes of Alonso so confidently confirms he is the real deal, along with Bottas surely a world champion of the future.

By the end Vettel made it across the line in fourth with Alonso and Ricciardo in fifth and sixth, not the positions they want to be fighting for but great to see they’ll still battle as if their lives depended on it.

Lotus and Sauber had another horrible day, while I liked the fact Max Chilton got ahead of Hamilton at the start for Marussia. Caterham brought up the rear.

The predicted rain failed to materialise which was a shame, I’d love a wet race soon as it’s been such a long time. Despite all the great racing this weekend a bit of wet might have mixed it up at the front although the best car is the best car whatever the weather, but it’s so much easier to throw it off track... The FRIC suspension ban also made no real upheavel in the competitive order although Lotus have been running it longest since they were called Renault and they seemed to struggle even more. 

Next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix is a race where Hamilton has won four times including the past two years. This championship is still wide open as we race towards the summer break but at a track which he has made his own he’ll want to dominate Rosberg, finally get his qualifying back on track and cruise off into the distance as Rosberg did today. No more failures, no more mistakes, a clean weekend where he can show just how much better he is. Trouble is, Rosberg won’t want to let him. While behind, it’ll be do or die for any position going.

all LAT & XPB photo's taken from autosport.com, all others taken from BBC F1

The German Forecast

About half way round the 34^th lap of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim we will be exactly at the halfway point of the 2014 world championship. We won’t be there for long, there’s a race to complete, but they could be shooting off into the spray as we anticipate our first wet race for a very long time. It’s about time that we had the unpredictability that a slavering of H20 can do to a piece of tarmac.

Currently the forecast is for very hot days on Friday and Saturday with temperatures reaching as high as 33C. Race day doesn’t get much lower, still pushing the boundaries of a 30C day but couple that with thunderstorms and you’ve got some rather unpleasant racing conditions for the drivers, or some absolutely thrilling conditions if you’re sitting at home.

We’ve got two DRS zones as is mostly the norm these days, the first one on the exit of turn one down to turn two. Then there’s a quick right and left before the second DRS zone a little after turn four. Pirelli are bringing the soft and super-soft compounds to Germany with their Motorsport director Paul Hembery not overly sure how many pit stops the teams will have to make as they’ve not brought the super-soft to this track before. It could all well be superfluous if the track is glistening with rain.

Germany still have the most drivers on the grid with four, one of them a four time champion, so it's strange they're also one of the markets which is losing viewing figures despite a German challenging for the world title again this year not to mention the countries national team being dominant. Hopefully the stands will be full and an air of celebration will be present after the countries world cup win. With such a thrilling season it seems strange areas are losing viewers but that's another blog entirely.

There’s been strange goings on since the British Grand Prix. Charlie Whiting, Chief technical delegate of the FIA has been investigating teams suspension seasons, the Front and Rear Interconnected system (FRIC) that pretty much works like active suspension used to in keeping the car level in corners to create more downforce, to be simplistic.

Although it hasn’t been banned outright, it has been suggested that because the FIA now believe it to be contravention of the rule that requires there to be no movable aerodynamic devices on the car it could be subject to protest from the German race onwards if teams were to keep it on their car and a rival outfit were to protest it.

There was hope that the teams would come to an agreement to not protest each other for the remainder of the season so a proper ban could be put in place for the 2015 season, but as ever with Formula 1, that kind of agreement was always subject to never happening. So what does this mean for the performance of the teams with the most advanced systems?

Well so the F1 press has speculated, not much. Mercedes run the most advanced version so it will be interesting to see if any of their advantage is quelled this weekend. At the time of writing they have not announced that they won’t be using it whereas Red Bull and McLaren have already said they are removing it from their cars. I would suggest that with the likes of Red Bull perhaps finishing third behind two FRIC equipped Mercedes cars that a protest would be forthcoming very quickly unless a team can prove it is not an aerodynamic aid which would be a risky strategy.

Therefore I suggest it is very unlikely any team will be running it this weekend. At the moment we don’t know exactly how much it will or won’t affect certain teams but it’s definitely a story to keep a watch on.

So to the interesting things, such as who’s going to win? Well if I may be so bold, I think a Silver car will win, probably not a McLaren. Mercedes head to Germany having won eight of the nine races so far, they’ve just signed Nico Rosberg to a new multi-year contract and have him leading his team mate Lewis Hamilton by just four points.

Rosberg is turning up with a world cup themed helmet and will be determined to show well at his ‘home’ race, especially after suffering his first retirement at Silverstone. It enabled Lewis to win without a fight he was relishing, so game on once again between the two drivers. With just those four points separating them if Lewis was to win this weekend, wherever Nico finishes would mean he’d lose the championship lead. To lose it on home turf would be quite the blow and with only one other race to go before the summer break, Rosberg will not want to be against such a momentum swing behind Hamilton.

It’ll be close but Lewis does well at this track, he took a great win in 2008 and this track is similar to Canada and Austria, lots of straights and slower corners, despite Rosberg getting the better results Lewis was faster so he should be confident. Having said that Nico has proved this year he is a fighter and does not give up, his desperation to get the car moving at Silverstone is testament to that. This will once again be a close battle between the silver arrow drivers and one I’m sure the Mercedes management are getting increasingly nervous about.

I think Williams will be quietly confident this weekend. They should have won in both Canada and Austria, took a great second place at Silverstone as Valtteri Bottas sliced through the field from 14^th which was particularly noteworthy as it wasn’t supposed to be a track the team would do well on.

I think Hockenheim will suit Bottas and Felipe Massa and I fully expect them to be on the first two rows of the grid. They really are the coming team at the moment, vying with Red Bull to be best of the rest, but in recent races they’ve stolen the advantage. Massa will want a bit of the podium action his team mate has monopolised so far, Bottas is certainly somewho who's in a rich vein of form. It should be noted that Susie Wolff will once again be taking over a car for Friday morning practice. Hopefully she will have more of a run than at Silverstone so she can show what she can do, her progress will be closely followed I’m sure.

Sebastian Vettel comes to Germany suffering his worst half season of Formula 1 ever. He is still being outperformed by Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo and will be desperate to get one over on him at his home race but he’s still not comfortable with the car and the Australian is in great form. I’m not sure podium places are available this time, I think this will be a Mercedes and potentially Williams race, but Red Bull probably have the best chassis on the grid, and when it rains their power deficit becomes less of a problem…

McLaren and Ferrari are suffering terrible seasons. It hasn’t been this bad for the sport’s biggest teams for a long time, but they keep fighting although you have to believe they’re already looking to 2015 despite their protestations that they’re still developing their 2014 cars. If it’s dry they’ll be points contenders if it’s wet then watch out for Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, it could be their biggest opportunity of the year. Kimi Raikkonen will be back in the second Ferrari after his huge shunt, but whether he’ll ever get a decent weekend this year is still open to debate…a bit.

Force India will be looking to improve their form after an off-colour weekend in Britain, Nico Hulkenberg will want a starring result as I feel he’s beginning to fly a bit under the radar at the moment, while Lotus just want to scrap for points. Such a shame for them and particularly Romain Grosjean who looked like a race winner last year, at least for him he’s putting Pastor Maldonado to shame.

Toro Rosso continue to qualify strongly and then retire although they did get a double points finish last time out. Daniil Kvyat is just awesome, rookie of the year by far and away at the moment, I’m sure before the year is out he’s going to have a run of strong results. If it rains I hope he goes well, it’s always a sign of a top driver.

Sauber will lead the charge from the back which for such an established team is a bit heart breaking for them. Marussia will hope for a mixed up race to see if they can score a couple more points, Jules Bianchi, fresh from testing for Ferrari will look to take a star role while Caterham are in upheaval after their sale.

So to the halfway point we race to, rain or shine, FRIC or no FRIC, this weekend promises to be one of the more unpredictable races of the 2014 season and another step in this thrilling story of how the 2014 world championship was won.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Majestic Vettel keeps Lotus at bay

As he has done so many times, Sebastian Vettel was out in front from the start and took his fourth win of the season and the 30^th of his career. But don’t be fooled into thinking this was an easy win; he didn’t have the fastest car today, yet he looked in complete control once again.

Vettel started from second and despite being squeezed by pole sitter Lewis Hamilton away from the line, he took the lead also keeping at bay the bizarre sight of a fast starting Mark Webber.

Pirelli brought the medium and soft compound tyres to Germany with the Kevlar belt and a number of instructions for the teams on how to use them. There were no issues with them at all, except that they worked for some and didn’t for others.

The softs didn’t last for long and all of those who started on them pitted within 10 laps with the exception of Romain Grosjean in the Lotus who got to lap 13. This meant that the top 6 qualifiers had to battle through those who were running longer on the mediums.

However on fresher tyres this didn’t pose much of a problem for many of them with the added advantage that many outside the top 10 also chose to run the softs first. Therefore Vettel was soon back in the lead of the race.

A terrible pit stop for his Red Bull team mate Webber where a wheel came off and struck a cameraman luckily with no lasting damage, meant that Vettel was now being chased by the Lotus’, this weeks challenger to Red Bull.

It was Grosjean doing the chasing, today showing just how good he can be when he combines his pace with no mistakes. He could get a win if he could do this more often. A safety car for Jules Bianchi’s fire stricken then rolling backwards Marussia half way through meant Kimi Raikkonen caught back up too and it was now game on.

Kimi had been stuck behind Rosberg and Hamilton before dispensing with them both but he was 10 seconds behind before the safety car gave his race added impetus.

For lap after lap the three of them, Vettel, Grosjean and Kimi, circulated no more than a few seconds apart, within DRS range but not quite able to mount a move. It looked like it could even be Grosjean’s breakout race such was his resolve.

But you could kind of feel it coming, there’s a fight for the championship going on and Grosjean is not Lotus’ man. As Vettel and Grosjean pitted for the final time Kimi kept on going. With 11 laps left it looked like he might try to make it on a two stop, but he pitted on to the softs for the final time.

Their extra grip took him past a helpful Grosjean, who didn’t seem overly delighted by the radio message not to hold Kimi up, but understandable from a team point of view. Kimi closed up on the back of the Red Bull and on the final lap he had DRS. He couldn’t make a move and Vettel held him off to win by a second with Grosjean third.

He’d won his home race for the first time and quite rightly described it as a ‘tough one’. Vettel was brilliant today, it probably should have been a Lotus victory, but he’s not a three time champion for nothing. He made the moves quickly and decisively when he was coming back through the field after pit stops, he controlled his pace and always kept enough of a gap to those behind. His win has now stretched his lead up to 34 points, not insurmountable for the rest but a tough ask when Red Bull are the only team consistently at the top.

Who can stop Vettel?

Today there were three drivers who could have beaten Vettel. First Webber looked very quick, but unfortunately after his botched first pit stop he was never a contender, although he managed a great climb back up to 7^th. Kimi and Grosjean could have ruined Vettel’s home race but Kimi was held up behind Mercedes and didn’t chance it with the medium tyres to make it to the end.

There was the possibility that the tyres may have fallen away dramatically, but the Lotus is one of the kinder cars to their rubber so it might have been worth a go. Vettel wasn’t catching too fast and still had Grosjean hassling him. I think they know they should have taken that risk because right now it’s about taking risks if anyone wants to prevent Vettel and Red Bull making it a four season roll.

However, it’s not quite as simple as that because sometimes you should just bag the points, is their thinking that they just wanted to secure a double podium? You can understand why. In the previous three races their best result was fifth and if anything Lotus looked like they were falling away until this weekend. At the very least Kimi has let it be known he's not out of this title race yet.

Over the last few races it’s been Mercedes who’ve been stepping up, unfortunately today their tyre degradation problems resurfaced again as the track temperature rose up to 44C. Hamilton fell to fifth from a great pole, while Rosberg managed to climb up from his mismanaged qualifying; 11^th to 9^th isn’t  bad when you consider the problems they had earlier in the year with tyre deg. 

Still, after 2 wins and a podium in the last 3 races they would have hoped for more even if Lewis did come on song in the last stint to steal his position from Button on the final lap.

Ferrari have been sporadic, and if anything, despite Alonso coming up from eighth today to finish fourth, they’ve not really looked like challenging for the win since Spain. Partly this is down to their qualifying form, but it’s also looking like they’re going in a poor direction with the development of their car. 

Alonso is still second in the title chase but at the moment that looks as good as it's going to get. I think Alonso is beginning to feel that too saying their result today was an over achievement. Massa spun out while lying sixth, he's still looking quick but he's not getting the results he had earlier in the year which he'll be concerned about.

All of these teams can beat Red Bull but there is no consistent challenger to Vettel, the only way I see his lead being reversed is if they all get on their top form and starting bumping Vettel off the podium. It has to happen soon though.

Tyres

Pirelli brought their new construction to Germany, and will bring their 2012 construction with 2013 compounds for Hungary to mix up the order once more. I think it’s made life a little easier for Red Bull, although I didn’t expect it to hurt Mercedes so much with Lewis saying he had nothing good to say about the tyres.

However, I believe that is because of the high temperatures. If anything I expected Lotus and Ferrari to suffer a bit more, but Lotus were very much the should have won team, while Ferrari continued their current form.

Sauber seemed to find some good pace; if it wasn’t for the safety car Nico Hulkenberg might have picked up more than a point for 10^th. In the other direction Force India fell back a bit, not scoring and not even qualifying in the top 10. They’ll be hoping this is just a blip and not a tyre change that is about to effect the rest of their season.

Toro Roso also seemed to suffer a little bit despite Daniel Ricciardo qualifying a brilliant sixth. In the race though their form dipped and he fell to 12th.

McLaren were strong today, genuinely so. I’m not sure if this was a tyre thing, but it certainly didn’t hurt them. If it hadn’t have been for battling Caterham’s in the final stint then Jenson Button would probably have held off Lewis, instead he had to settle for 6^th although I think Button could have given him a slightly harder time. Sergio Perez finished 8^th to join Button in scoring McLaren their first points since Monaco. They are nowhere near wins but at least it’s progress. Unfortunately this might be as far as they get as they’ve turned their attentions to the 2014 car.

We’ll see if the order is shaken up a little bit more in Hungary when Pirelli bring their newest batch of tyres.

A few thoughts

One of the highlights of the race for me was when Fernando Alonso caught a struggling Lewis Hamilton on worn tyres. I’d love to see these two go head to head for a title again, because every now and then you get these snapshots of just how amazing it would be.

It was a fair battle too, the DRS zones didn’t make it too easy to pass so Alonso had to work for it, but Lewis kept his line, defended well and for three laps we were treated to a fantastic display of driving from both of them before the Mercedes pitted. It was thrilling stuff.

For now though they both have to think of how to get back on terms with Vettel. He's the one re-writing the record books which they believe should be them. There is a long way to go in the season, still 10 races but the Red Bull driver continues to get better, and it’s going to take a great run of form to beat him.

The young driver test starts at Silverstone on July 17^th, the teams need to use it as wisely as they can. With new Pirelli tyres being tested too the FIA has allowed race drivers to take part. Of course Mercedes won't be taking part as they have been banned from attending due to their earlier ‘secret’ test, the rest of them must hope they find something if they want to stop Red Bull.

Final Result:

1. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull

2. Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus

3. Romain Grosjean - Lotus

4. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari

5. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

6. Jenson Button - McLaren

7. Mark Webber - Red Bull

8. Sergio Perez - McLaren

9. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes

10. Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber

11. Paul di Resta - Force India

12. Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso

13. Adrian Sutil - Force India

14. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber

15. Pastor Maldonado - Williams

16. Valtteri Bottas - Williams

17. Charles Pic - Caterham

18. Geido van der Garde - Caterham

19. Max Chilton - Marussia

R. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso - Hydraulics

R. Jules Bianchi - Marussia - Engine

R. Felipe Massa - Ferrari - Spin

all photo's taken from autosport.com

The German Forecast

After the madness of Silverstone where there were no less than 6 tyre issues with many more potential ones the German Grand Prix takes on added significance as the tyre saga goes on. Pirelli have announced major changes, going back to a Kevlar belt construction with the same 2013 compounds that were tested in Canada; the full changes for this weekend and ahead can be found here.

The Canadian tyres were vetoed for use by Ferrari, Lotus and Force India; three teams which have the best tyre usage. In short what these changes mean will potentially shape the title battle from favouring Ferrari and Lotus, to favouring Red Bull and Mercedes as Pirelli will go for more conservative compounds rather than their aggressive approach from earlier in the year.

The fact Red Bull are leading both championships is testament to how well they’ve performed this season and if Mercedes to turn out to be the main challengers, then Red Bull already have a significant head start.

I fear that a title challenge for Kimi Raikkonen is going to fade away. Lotus already look to have fallen off the pace somewhat even if they were unfortunate not to finish second at Silverstone. Kimi can console himself with the likely possibility of a Red Bull drive next year, but 2013 is where it’s at and he’s never happy unless he’s on the top step.

However it’s possibly even more hurt for Fernando Alonso as he looks at going yet another year without a third crown; Ferrari too have faded over the last few races and these changes to the tyres will not help them.

They are being made for the right reasons in regards to safety but the fact the tyre situation was ever allowed to get so bad though is outrageous when you are discussing the highest tier of motor sport.

But this article is not to discuss the consequences of the tyres; I’ll do that in the next few days. This is to list several predictions for the weekend ahead. First of all as always I’ve taken a quick look at the weather and even though it’s raining on Friday, Saturday and Sunday look clear and warm although this is the Nurburgring where the weather can change almost as quickly as Spa.

I’m going with a Mercedes on pole position and I’m thinking it’s going to be Lewis Hamilton again. He had the pace last weekend and seems to be getting used to the car more. I think he’s about to hit a rich vein of form and he won’t like Rosberg heading him on poles and more important wins.

But it is Nico’s home race so I expect him to be strong just like he has been all year. It’s going to be a good scrap between the team mates to see who will head the all silver front row I’m expecting.

However, if it is a straightforward dry race, despite the impressive opening stint from Hamilton at Silverstone I still feel Red Bull have the edge. I said they’d win last weekend and I’m sticking with it for the German race.

Mark Webber goes well at the Nurburgring, he scored his first victory here in 2009 in a very impressive drive. If he can continue his great form from Silverstone he has every chance. On the condition that he gets away from the line.

Sebastian Vettel might have retired last weekend but he was leading and comfortably ahead of his closest rivals. In fact I think he’ll be beginning to look more towards his Silver rivals who still linger off the points pace but are fast closing. Vettel will be on it this weekend, he’s never won his home race and he’ll be looking to put that right. I think this year is the strongest he’s been and he’s only getting stronger.

Kimi and Alonso, well I just think they’ll qualify somewhere in the top 10 and they might get a podium. I’m beginning to wonder if that’s even possible such is their loss of performance and the tyre issues. However, talk of their demise is far too early, these are the kind of drivers who always come back and are in teams that know how to win.

Alonso and Ferrari especially are not going to quit on this. They came back with a worse car in 2012, but it says something that they trail with a better car this year. Alonso won two of the last three German races, but they were at Hockenheim, it could be a struggle for him this weekend especially with the tyres.

A few quick predictions here; I still believe Force India will get a podium, it could be here. The tyre situation will also affect them significantly too like Ferrari and Lotus. I hope they haven’t missed their opportunity, but they look like they have inherent pace in their car too. It’s not just a tyre thing but it did help. Adrian Sutil would like to be the one to get it here, but I think Paul di Resta is the more likely if he can finally get a decent qualifying again.

Toro Rosso look to have risen to be their closest challengers and I think they’ll get another Q3 and more points.

Williams nearly got a point at Silverstone but they won’t at Nurburgring if all goes normally. Nico Hulkenberg for Sauber has dragged a few results out of their car but both teams have really struggled this year after showing so much promise in 2013.

If the weather does become a factor there is potential for a safety car although generally I expect the race to go off without a hitch in regards to the tyres; there's no way Pirelli can allow it to happen again. 

A safety car is what McLaren will need as they aim to prevent a third consecutive race with no points. Their car is nowhere and I’m not sure they have the drivers who can drag a result out of the car. I’m not sure they can even get a podium this year the way it looks at the moment.

Finally I believe that Kimi will have sorted his hair out, because really? Judging by that picture he had a pretty wild night out at some point!

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Superb win for Alonso as Vettel suffers penalty

Fernando Alonso took his third victory of the year in Germany today in a commanding fashion.

He may have had Sebastian Vettel then Jenson Button hot on his heels for most of the afternoon but he never looked unduly troubled throughout and opened up a lead of 34 points as we reached the halfway point of the season.

After qualifying on pole in the wet qualifying session, Alonso took the lead at the start and apart from pit stops was never headed during the race. He’s said afterwards his rivals were quicker and perhaps they were, but Ferrari has now got their car into a position where Alonso can make the difference to keep it firmly in the number one position.

The only major defence he had to make was from Lewis Hamilton when the McLaren driver was trying to unlap himself, something that intensely annoyed Vettel, but also something which is entirely allowed by the regulations so he can have no real complaints.

Every time either the Red Bull or McLaren got near him, Alonso gently eased out a bit more pace, just enough to fend off any attacks in the DRS zone. This race almost tells the story of the season so far, different rivals coming to challenge him, but Alonso is always there, always fighting near the top and taking the wins when he can.

It was an impressive drive and the rest are going to have to have that consistency and better if they want to hunt him down in the next 10 races.

Vettel’s penalty frustration

Vettel finished second but was given a drive-through penalty of 20 seconds added to his time after taking that place from Jenson Button on the penultimate lap by leaving the limits of the track. He has now been classified as fifth.

Vettel dived to the outside through the DRS zone into turn 4, Button was taking his line which involved moving over towards the kerbs. Now Vettel could have backed off and slotted in behind, but he chose to exceed the track limits and accelerate around the outside so as not to lose momentum and technically I would say passed him off the track.

This has now resulted in the penalty, however, moves like this have happened before countless times and not been penalised so to drop him to fifth seems overly harsh, but an action to just swap the positions round is not open to the stewards.

I guess at some point they have to lay down the rules and give a definitive answer that you can’t do this, but it could be argued why start now when they’ve been lenient before? Unfortunately for Vettel it shows the inconsistency of the stewards when it comes to applying penalties.

Not a good end to the weekend for Seb then, who seemed to be frustrated with a few things including his team mate Mark Webber holding him up in qualifying and Hamilton unlapping himself.

Perhaps Red Bull were even lucky to have started from where they qualified. This morning it was said that their Renault engines were shown to be running a torque map that could be trying to simulate off throttle exhaust blowing, but they got off on a technicality. That’ll be discussed some more no doubt.

Button’s back but Hamilton retires

Jenson Button finally showed up again this weekend. After a number of struggles over recent races, he was back on the pace, at least in the dry and looked to have the pace to beat Alonso with 10 laps remaining. Unfortunately for him his tyres went off and he fell into the clutches of Vettel. Still, it was a good result for him, especially now he has been given second place.  

Unfortunately for McLaren their main points gatherer in the first half of the season suffered a puncture after debris from Felipe Massa’s front wing on the opening lap destroyed what potentially could have been a good afternoon for Lewis Hamilton.

He started poorly, dropping a position but Button showed the pace was there as did he before eventually retiring 10 laps from the end. He’s now over two races wins in points behind Alonso but he can console himself that McLaren are still fighting and there’s still half the season to go. Nothing more can go wrong though.

Kimi ends up with a podium but he won’t be happy

Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus has now been bumped up to third after crossing the line fourth. Kimi showed good pace and often matched the leaders lap times but was already too far away after starting from 10^th.

It was a charging performance from the Finn in the opening half of the race as he made some great moves on Paul di Resta and Michael Schumacher in particular. I doubt he’ll be happy though, only a win will do for Kimi. Romain Grosjean just had a terrible weekend, never looking overly competitive at all.

Sauber jumping to top of midfield fight

The final driver to benefit from Vettel’s penalty is Kamui Kobayashi. Fourth is now his best result to date and it was a great effort from both Sauber drivers, Sergio Perez came up from 17^th on the grid to finish in 6^th, Kamui himself gained eight places from his starting slot.

Their pace also matched the leaders for most of the race once they were free of traffic, it was only their inability to get the tyres working in the wet qualifying that perhaps caused them to lose an even better result.

Sauber are currently the inform midfield team, and if they can continue to develop and look after their tyres as they are doing, then more podiums and perhaps even a winner’s trophy could be on its way to their Swiss base.

Mercedes are beginning to look adrift and need some urgent race pace. Qualifying is still ok, at least in the wet as Michael Schumacher took a second consecutive second row start. But as in Silverstone he quickly fell off the pace of the leaders and it was as much as he could do to maintain seventh, although a searing pace towards the end as he stopped for fresh rubber gave him the fastest lap.

But the Mercedes was not kind on its tyres today, although despite also being on a three stop strategy, Nico Rosberg was able to get a point for 10^th after starting from 22^nd due to a poor Q2 and a grid penalty for changing the gearbox.

However, it’ll be a concern that they no longer seem able to challenge on race day and are even under threat from the midfield squads, especially Sauber and Williams. Much work to be done when we get to the summer break.

Nico Hulkenberg started 4^th finished 9^th, while his Force India team mate Paul di Resta started in the top 10 but fell down to 11^th. It was a similar problem to Mercedes, they had to do a three stopper as others just about made a two stopper work and it was too much to be able to come back through the field. A shame for Hulkenberg as from 4^th, he might have expected a few more points.

Webber drops points

Mark Webber took 8^th and four points to just about maintain second place in the championship. Not a good weekend, he qualified 3^rd but dropped five places due to a gear box change. From then on he was never really a contender and seemed to struggle on the medium compound he got after his first pit stop.

Still he salvaged some points, is still two points ahead of Vettel and will be looking forward to Hungary, a track he won on the last time he was a title contender.

Hungary is only a week away, so any down hearted spirits will be eager to resume battle and go into the summer break with a good result behind them. But come rain or shine, Fernando Alonso is there, on the pace waiting for his opportunities. At the moment he’s not letting anything slip through his grasp.

all photo's taken from autosport.com