The Nurburgring is a legend in itself. Miles upon miles
of twisty, torturous roads of the Nordschleife have written tales and myths aplenty and
defined the old era of Formula 1. The current grand prix track which alternates
with Hockenhiem also defined an era of Formula 1 with its long flowing corners
and huge undulations.
The last few times
Formula 1 came here, we saw Hamilton, Alonso and Webber duelling for the win,
Webber recovering from a drive through penalty to take his first win and Markus
Winkelhock leading during a massive deluge of rain that caught out the rest of
the grid at the start. Clearly this place
breeds legends. Sadly, this year seems to be the runt of the current litter.
Circuit: Nurburgring GP-Strecke
2012 Winner (Hockenheim): Fernando Alonso
2012 Pole (Hockenheim): Fernando Alonso
2013 Tyre Compounds: Soft and Medium
Yeah, I know, late again though I have an excuse this
time: man flu. Anyway, after the tyre debacle at the last race, all eyes were
on Pirelli to see if the same thing would happen in Germany, possibly the only
place that won’t boo Vettel on the podium or cheer when he goes out of the
race.
The Italian tyre firm came with a new set of tyres there
were a compromise between the 2012 and current tyres with a set of strict rules
regarding pressures, cambers and swapping them around (something I wasn’t
actually aware was done). If anything,
it would be interesting to see who could get a handle on the tyres though a
suspicious eye couldn’t help but glance towards the top team.
Before conspiracy theories take hold, first practice saw
the Mercedes retain single lap dominance while Alonso endured ‘power issues’
which prevented him from completing an installation lap twice. The Red Bulls
lurked throughout practice one before Vettel went fastest in practice two, only
just ahead of the Mercedes cars. Raikkonen, despite a few excursions, was
quick, as was Webber and Sutil while Alonso’s problems were sorted for practice
two.
Williams, who actually were celebrating their 600th
race this time, were still well off the pace along with Toro Rosso as McLaren
seemed to be starting to get their act together to a degree as Button showed
some pace.
Practice three was very nearly preceded by a re-enactment
of the epilogue of the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix when Maldonado’s KERS unit
failed, though thankfully no fire broke out though fire marshals were on hand
just in case. Vettel put in another massively quick lap to go over half a
second faster then anyone else in practice three with Rosberg, Webber and
Alonso in toe. Raikkonen, running now without the ‘passive DRS’ system Lotus
has trialed on and off for over a year was still quick along with an improving
Sauber of Hulkenburg (despite a financial black cloud hanging over the team)
while Hamilton looked out of sorts, the gossip rags revealing he’s split up
with his Pussy Cat Doll I’ve forgotten the name of (was it Pussy Cat Dolls or
some other group? Doggie Woggie Action Figures, maybe?).
Looking at many of the cars, they appeared to be
massively out of balance on the compromised tyres, one end or the other
snapping out as they went with a solitary exception: Vettel. I’m not out right saying anything (merely hinting),
but considering there’s eleven teams of the best engineering minds in the world
it’s quite suspicious that every time there’s a major tyre change, Red Bull
(specifically Vettel) seems to cope with it best.
The sun continued to shine as qualifying got underway,
the drivers not in the rush to go out until Di Resta broke the silence while
the likes of the Ferraris and Lotus’ waited nearly half the session before
going out.
The Mercedes both looked solid, easily getting through on
the harder Medium tyres while Vettel appeared to be sand bagging. Many drivers
did extra runs on the soft tyres, including Perez who looked vulnerable at the
start of his last flying lap, though he got through and relegated the usual
back of the grid faces along with both Williams, giving them another reason to
not outwardly celebrate.
The Toro Rossos were the first to break the silence in
qualifying two with them and many others on the soft tyres. Mercedes, Ferrari
and Red Bull all waited for a while before setting their laps, the Mercedes cars
satisfied with their early fast efforts on the mediums while Vettel went
fastest. Sutil was dragged into the pits to have a DRS problem checked while
the times started to tumble in the last minute.
While Grosjean nearly beat Vettel’s time, Rosberg slipped
out of the top ten while sat in the pits without enough time to try and put in
a better lap, leaving the two time winner in 2013 out along with Di Resta,
Perez, Gutierrez, Sutil and Vergne. Hulkenburg was having a great run, getting
into the qualifying three for the first time in a long time, but what was most
impressive was the top ten was covered by only half a second.
After worrying about Vettel easily dominating, things
looked less clear cut as qualifying three started with several cars going out
straight away on soft tyres. The Ferraris and Vergne didn’t complete their
first flying laps while Hamilton took the top spot for the time being.
The cars were lapping in tyres similar to 2004 cars which
were lighter, had more aerodynamics and bigger engines but more was to come as
all but two cars went to set their laps (which were Button and Hulkenburg).
Vettel jumped to the top of the time sheets with his team mate, who had been
quiet for much of the weekend so far, appeared to be able to top him until a
slow Ferrari in the last sector put the Australian off.
However, Hamilton piped Vettel right at the last moment
to take another brilliant pole, wiping the grin clean off Vettel’s face. The
Briton has been amazing around here in the past and should he get off the grid
well and not suffer tyre problems, he’d be difficult to beat.
Race day got off to a worried start for Mercedes as
Hamilton’s car was found to have a fuel leak in the morning while on the grid
the brakes started to smoke. Pic had taken a gearbox penalty and put himself at
the back of the grid while Brundle rushed about interviewing the director of
the upcoming F1 film Rush and interrupting Barrichello while he did his bit for
Brazilian TV.
When the race got underway with Hamilton still on pole,
the Red Bulls easily jumped past him into the first corner with masses more
traction then the Mercedes. Everything looked set for the German to disappear
into the lead as Webber was forced to go wide around Hamilton to get into
second, but his gap never really extended beyond a second as Raikkonen followed
Hamilton.
Massa made a decent start, as did Perez, Van der Garde
and Maldonado, but disaster struck the Brazillian as for the fourth meeting in
a row he made a massive mistake and spun off at the first corner, succeeding in
staling his engine as well and putting himself out of the race before he disappeared
and hid for the rest of the race.
The top five of Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Grosjean
stuck together with no one car getting a clear advantage. Webber couldn’t quite
attack Vettel as he couldn’t get close enough in the dirty air the Red Bulls
seem to naturally generate, Hamilton couldn’t attack as the Mercedes would kill
it’s tyres, Raikkonen couldn’t quite finish off a move as the Mercedes had
enough grunt at the end of the straights while Grosjean just hung back and
watched, making a nice change.
The stalemate continued while Di Resta became the first
to pit, being released straight into a fast reacting Vergne who avoided an
accident, the Force India team picking up a fine at the end of the race for the
incident. Hamilton pitted first out of the top five with a hope leaping the Red
Bulls with a fast out lap.
Vettel pitted the next lap and stayed narrowly ahead of the
Mercedes with a quicker stop, though that level of service seemed reserved for
the German as when Webber pitted the wheel wasn’t attached properly. As he
tried to get away, it came off, bounced down the pitlane and hit a camera man in
the back. The man was injured and taken away quickly while Webber was wheeled
back into his pit box and eventually released with all four tyres a lap down,
leaving him with no chance of taking another win on the track where he won his
first race.
Raikkonen and Grosjean continued as they were, setting
some pretty good laps on what were old tyres as Vettel easily evaded Hamilton,
both on medium tyres, and got through the slower traffic on older tyres while
the Mercedes simply struggled, not yielding anything to the Briton as he
desperately tried in vain to keep up with the Red Bull. Rosberg, who had
started on the medium tyres and simply hadn’t featured, spending some time
holding up his team mate for good measure.
Alonso was being quiet where he ran ahead of the McLarens
and Hulkenburg who were all having a good run for a change. Raikkonen pitted
soon after Webber while Grosjean continued, leaving the Finn still behind
Hamilton as Vettel sped off, everything happily falling so perfectly into his
lap that one can’t help but be suspicious.
While Hamilton and Raikkonen were held up, Grosjean
pitted and emerged ahead of the pair of them and started to chase after Vettel,
surprisingly going faster than the Red Bull. Raikkonen, keen to get in on the
action, managed to get by Rosberg after Hamilton had finally gotten by his
German teammate. The Mercedes tyres continued to be a problem as Hamilton
couldn’t get any traction out of the corners, preventing him from building the
speed needed to make a pass.
Rosberg, Button and Hulkenburg continued having no
pitted, the former struggling while the others were able to lap reasonably
well. Raikkonen continued to hound Hamilton before eventually passing him as
the Mercedes continued to struggle for grip.
Alonso meanwhile was starting to show a turn of speed on
fresher tyres then many of the others, an idea that appealed to Mercedes as
they pitted Hamilton who Alonso had been catching before Bianchi’s Marussia
went out in a plumb of fire and smoke. The Frenchman pulled over quickly and
got out, leaving the car in neutral as he was meant to but the car took on an
undead life of its own as it rolled across the track, ironically into a safer
position then it had previously been in as the safety car was scrambled.
Pit stops became the fashion, everyone stopping as the
car was wheeled away. Hamilton didn’t gain from the safety car, losing a place
to Alonso as Webber was allowed to unlap himself and go to the back of the
field.
The safety car pulled in on lap thirty and Vettel led the
top four away from Button, Hulkenburg and Hamilton, who were able to hold the
struggling Mercedes back as it seemed to keep running into the rev limiter well
before being able to pass.
While the Lotus’ remained in attacking range of Vettel in
the lead, neither Grosjean or later Raikkonen when he was ordered past could
quite get close enough to attack, the dirty air from the Red Bull keeping the
Lotus’ just far enough at bay to never really be a threat. Raikkonen attempted
to go to the end of the race on his tyres after Vettel pitted to cover
Grosjean, before Lotus backed out of the idea and pitted him.
And so the race continued with very little happening.
Hamilton eventually got by Hulkenburg and Button as Webber managed to get
himself up the order but besides that and my lack of enthusiasm to write
through heat and manful there’s not much else to say.
After some stellar races here, this one merely threatened
to be a good race before descending into a frustrating inevitability. The Lotus’
were running better than they had in the higher temperatures but it still looks
like only the Red Bull works well across all situations on the tyres,
regardless of what happens to them.
Oh, Vettel won from Raikkonen and Grosjean, giving the commentary
team another excuse to list of his achievements that prompted me to reach for
the controls. I still can’t look at Vettel, even with his list of achievements,
and say he is as great as he’s made out to be. The day he wins the championship
in a car that wasn't the best all season while his opponents were at 100%, then
I’ll believe he’s that great. The 2008 Toro Rosso doesn't count as towards the end of the year even Sebastian Bourdais (seriously, what is Red Bull's obsession with that name?) was showing how quick it was.
| Driver | Constructor | Race Time | Grid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | 1:41:14.711 | 2 |
| 2nd | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | +01.008 | 4 |
| 3rd | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | +05.830 | 5 |
| 4th | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | +07.721 | 8 |
| 5th | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +26.927 | 1 |
| 6th | Jenson Button | McLaren | +27.996 | 9 |
| 7th | Mark Webber | Red Bull | +37.562 | 3 |
| 8th | Sergio Perez | McLaren | +038.306 | 13 |
| 9th | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | +46.821 | 11 |
| 10th | Nico Hulkenburg | Sauber | +49.892 | 10 |
| 11th | Paul Di Resta | Force India | +53.771 | 12 |
| 12th | Daniel Riccardo | Toro Rosso | +56.975 | 6 |
| 13th | Adrian Sutil | Force India | +57.738 | 15 |
| 14th | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | +1:00.160 | 14 |
| 15th | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | +1:01.929 | 18 |
| 16th | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | +1 lap | 17 |
| 17th | Charles Pic | Caterham | +1 lap | 22 |
| 18th | Giedo Van der Garde | Caterham | +1 lap | 20 |
| 19th | Max Chilton | Marussia | +1 lap | 21 |
| 20th | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | DNF (Hydraulics) | 16 |
| 21st | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | DNF (Engine) | 19 |
| 22nd | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | DNF (Spin) | 7 |
Driver’s Championship:
| Driver | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Sebastian Vettel | 157 |
| 2nd | Fernando Alonso | 123 (-34) |
| 3rd | Kimi Raikkonen | 116 (-41) |
| 4th | Lewis Hamilton | 99 (-58) |
| 5th | Mark Webber | 93 (-64) |
| 6th | Nico Rosberg | 84 (-73) |
| 7th | Felipe Massa | 57 (-100) |
| 8th | Romain Grosjean | 41 (-116) |
| 9th | Paul Di Resta | 36 (-121) |
| 10th | Jenson Button | 33 (-124) |
| 11th | Adrian Sutil | 23 (-134) |
| 12th | Sergio Perez | 16 (-141) |
| 13th | Jean-Eric Vergne | 13 (-144) |
| 14th | Daniel Riccardo | 11 (-146) |
| 15th | Nico Hulkenburg | 7 (-150) |
Constructor’s Championship:
| Constructor | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Red Bull | 250 |
| 2nd | Mercedes | 183 (-67) |
| 3rd | Ferrari | 180 (-70) |
| 4th | Lotus | 157 (-93) |
| 5th | Force India | 59 (-191) |
| 6th | McLaren | 49 (-201) |
| 7th | Toro Rosso | 24 (-226) |
| 8th | Sauber | 7 (-243) |
No comments:
Post a Comment