It was a dramatic FORMULA 1 EMIRATES GROSSER PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND 2018 thanks to some rain late in the race. The race was set to be a Ferrari 1-2 finish with more championship points for Sebastian Vettel, but a crash shuffled things around to make it a Mercedes 1-2 finish.
At the start of the race, Valtteri Bottas got away strong, but so did Sebastian Vettel from pole position to maintain his race lead. Kimi Räikkönen pulled away slowly and didn’t have the speed at the start, allowing Max Verstappen to apply some pressure in the opening stage of the race, but he was unable to make the overtake.
Ten laps into the race, Vettel had built a comfortable gap of just under 3 seconds at the front of the field. Lewis Hamilton had made great progress in his race recovery following a mechanical failure during quality. He made his way to P6 with little competition. The same could not be said for Daniel Ricciardo whose race recovery from the back of the grid was hindered by the lack of grip from the medium compound tyre.
The first of the leading drivers to make a pit stop was Kimi Räikkönen from P3 on lap 15. He exchanged his ultrasoft compound tyres for the softs, coming out in front of Hamilton, taking away the Brit’s clean air. On his new tyres, Räikkönen became the fastest car on the track, but the team was banking quite heavily on the predicted rain since it would be unlikely for the soft compound to make to the end of the race.
On lap 20, Ricciardo got by Charles Leclerc and into the points scoring positions. But it wouldn’t last long, as he retired from the race for the mechanical failure roughly ten laps later.
After pit stops at the front, Vettel found himself behind his teammate, as did Bottas. Hamilton had no pitted at this point, but Räikkönen already had. Ferrari allowed Vettel to pass Räikkönen and return to the lead of the race. Despite the forecast of rain near the close of the race, Mercedes was forced to pit Hamilton for ultrasoft tyres to replace his rapidly degrading tyres.
Rain started to come near the end of the race. Few teams made the decision to switch to the intermediate tyres… and Toro Rosso have Pierre Gasly the full wets. The only front-running team to switch to the intermediate tyres was Verstappen. But that plan didn’t pan out and these teams switched back to the slicks, losing a lot of time.
With 15 laps remaining in the race, the slippery track surface was causing a lot of chaos. Sergio Pérez spun and a lot of cars were running wide. Bottas made his way through the chaos in front of Räikkönen.
But drama struck the Ferrari garage when Vettel crashed out of the race in turn 13. The race leader locked up into the gravel and hit the barrier with visible frustration. This triggered a safety car and some confusion in the pit lane. Bottas pitted for tyres, but the team was not prepared and started changing the car to the soft tyres, but they were meant to change them to the ultrasoft tyres. The issue was corrected, but it caused a super long pit stop for Bottas and messed up Hamilton’s pit stop. Hamilton was called into the pits, but bailed at the last possible second, cutting across the grass at the pit entry. Räikkönen also pitted for tyres, changing a Ferrari 1-2 finish to a Mercedes 1-2 finish with Hamilton leading the way.
When the race resumed, Bottas had much more grip on the fresher tyres. The pair were side by side on the first lap, but Hamilton was able to maintain his race lead and get out of Bottas’ DRS range. With Bottas falling back, he was told to hold position in an attempt to cover off the Ferrari of Räikkönen.
Hamilton crossed the finish line in first place, collecting a valuable 25 points in the World Drivers’ Championship. With Vettel collecting no points in the race, Hamilton turned a points deficit into a 17 point lead in the championship. Bottas and Räikkönen rounded up the podium, giving Mercedes their first ever 1-2 finish in Germany.
With the German Grand Prix now over, Formula One continues the European leg of the season in Hungarian. The race will take place next week on July 29.
Above results table does not include any post-race penalties
