The teams travelled to the Hockenheimring for the German Grand Prix. This was the teams’ final gathering before the start of Formula One’s summer break for the month of August. The crowd had many home favourites to cheer for, including Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes.
Free practice one started on Friday, with the familiar story of Nico Rosberg on top of the time charts. Lewis Hamilton was right behind him, leading the two Ferrari drivers and the Red Bulls. The first session was uneventful. The second session of the day was a repeat of the Mercedes domination in the opening session. Ferrari sandwiched Red Bull, showing that the team owned by the energy drinks company has made massive improvements. Jenson Button ended his session early with a visit to the circuit’s medical facilities and then later to the local hospital. The Brit had been complaining of eye irritation, but was only in a hospital for a short while. The session was equally as uneventful as the previous session, with only a few drivers having off-track experiences. Many drivers ran wide in turn one, forcing the FIA to crackdown on track limits in that section.
Saturday was a continuation of the Mercedes domination, with the top two positions identical to those posted on Friday, although Hamilton was able to close down the gap to his teammate a little bit. Hamilton was later investigated for unsafe release during free practice three and the team was later handed a fine for the infraction. Kimi Räikkönen leap frogged him teammate on the time charts and Williams got both cars into the top ten for the first time in the weekend. Rosberg was able to secure pole position despite an electrical issue at the start of Q3 which gave the team a scare. Hamilton helped lock out the front row of the grid for Mercedes, while Ferrari dropped to the third row of the grid after being out-qualified by the Red Bulls. Carlos Sainz was later given a grid penalty for impeding on Felipe Massa’s qualifying time, while Nico Hülkenberg also received a grid penalty because the team mixed up his tyres during qualifying. Romain Grosjean also found himself hindered by a grid penalty for a gearbox change at the end of FP3.
Rosberg did not have a good start on Sunday, dropping behind both Red Bull cars off of the grid due to wheelspin. This left the lead for Hamilton, as Verstappen overtook his teammate. Valtteri Bottas almost took out both Ferrari drivers on the first lap, having been lucky to avoid the duo when his tyre locked up. Rosberg had a wheel-to-wheel battle with the Red Bull of Ricciardo, but was unable to overtake the Aussie and fell back into the range of Ferrari. Carlos Sainz got past Felipe Massa after chasing him down. Massa attempted to get the place back, but that opened the door for Kevin Magnussen to get through as well, showing that Massa is down on performance due to the first lap contact with Jolyon Palmer on the first lap. Shortly into the race, drivers began to complain about rear tyre degradation. Rosberg wasn’t able to jump over any of the Red Bull drivers because his pit crew had issues with the left-rear tyre. After the pit stops, Magnussen overtook Massa in the hairpin, despite being quite a ways back and locking up the tyre. Massa continued to drop down the field, as Sainz and Romain Grosjean both got through in the hairpin. Rosberg overtook Verstappen in the hairpin, going straight into the corner and forcing Verstappen wide. The stewards placed the German under investigation and handed Rosberg a five second penalty for forcing Verstappen off of the track. Ricciardo gained a lot of pace near lap 40 and was able to seriously close the gap to Rosberg, putting him under threat. Rosberg pitted to get some new tyres and serve his penalty. Ferrari wanted to call in Sebastian Vettel to the pits to undercut Verstappen, although Vettel refused to listen and ended up missing the opportunity to pit before Verstappen. In the closing stages of the race, a light rain was at risk of threatening the drivers, but it didn’t really materialize. Ricciardo was quickly closing on Hamilton, but he wasn’t able to take the victory.
Formula One will now take a month-long summer break until the Belgian Grand Prix. The race will be held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on the weekend of August 28.
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