F1 German Grand Prix results: Red Bull's Max Verstappen wins a wild one as Mercedes gets shut out
Max Verstappen moved to within 22 points of the championship with his win in Germany on Sunday.
Max Verstappen won the race of the Formula 1 season on Sunday at Hockenheim, Germany.
While Verstappen won the F1 German Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel came from the back of the grid to second place. Daniil Kvyat put Toro Rosso on the podium for the frst time in more than a decade, and Mercedes’ super duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas failed to score a point in a race that had absolutely everything.
Verstappen earned his second win of the season and extended his streak of 20 top-five finishes in a row.
If you couldn’t catch the race, here’s what you missed from what likely will be the final Grand Prix in Germany for a while.:
Hamilton started from pole with Verstappen second and teammate Valtteri Bottas third. Heavy rain in the lead up to the start meant that the field would spend several laps behind the safety car prior to the official race start to clean up the worst of the standing water. After that it, it was time to form up on the grid for a proper start, a new procedure for 2019.
The new procedure best helped Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, as Raikkonen moved up from fifth to third and Vettel from last to P14. The two Mercedes cars of Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas also started well as the Red Bull cars struggled.
Toro Rosso’s Carlos Saenz Jr. joins winner Max Verstappen in the celebration,
Raikkonen’s time in third lasted little more than a lap, as Max Verstappen quickly took back the place before Race Point’s Sergio Perez hit the wall, which brought out the safety car.
Despite the difficult but drying track conditions, every driver except for Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Lance Stroll (Racing Point) were brought into the pits for ntermediate tires. As a result Magnussen found himself in second while Stroll leapt up to fifth. If the rain intensified again, these two midfield teams could prove to be in the box seats. However, this didn’t happen.
By lap 7, Vettel found himself up in eighth behind a squabbling Raikknen and Magnussen but, having dispatched the Haas quickly, concern began to grow over the condition of the turbo in Vettel’s Ferrari – the same component which failed in qualifying.
Several laps later, Daniel Ricciardo caused a Virtual Safety Car period when his power unit went up in smoke. On the perfect part of the track to take advantage and pit, Charles Leclerc pitted for fresh intermediates. The strategy worked perfectly as he lost minimal time with the VSC ending as he exited the pits. Leclerc set the fastest lap of the race to this point on his first flying lap. Within two-laps of running, Leclerc had pulled back the full time lost from the stop.
The nearly dry racing line was causing havoc for everyone except Leclerc and Nico Hulkenberg (Renault), who also pitted under the VSC. The track was possibly good enough for dry tires, but rain was predicted imminently so a gamble on slicks would have been incredibly brave.
Sebastian Vettel kept his razor-thin title hopes alive with a runner-up finish on a day with the championship leader Lewis Hamilton finished out of the points.
Having already made a bold decision in the race once, Haas pitted Magnussen for the soft dry tire. It was one thing for Magnussen to take a chance on slicks, but then Vettel pitted from seventh to copy the play. Vettel came out of the pits in P11 and started to set green sector times.
From third, Verstappen bolted on the yellow-walled mediums in an attempt to jump both Bottas and Hamilton. Bottas was called in a lap later.
Verstappen spun on his lap out of the pits, and so he failed to pass Bottas. Then, Lando Norris suffered a hydraulic failure and pulled off the track. Although he had stopped in a fairly safe place, the VSC was thrown again and Leclerc had a second cheap stop, this time for the softs.
Rewind to 2018 and Vettel crashed out in similar conditions. In 2019, it was Leclerc’s turn to crash out as things went crazy.
Having all pitted within a lap or two for slicks, the lane got busy as teams pitted largely for inters. Hamilton went off and hit a wall, needing a nose change, and with the team not ready, sat still for 50 seconds.
A spinout and extra pit stop for tires kept Lewis Hamilton out of the top 10 in Germany.
Bottas sat in the lead behind the safety car on slicks with Verstappen second on inters. Mercedes called in the Finn and Verstappen somehow ended up in the lead, despite his spin, with Nico Hulkenberg – the driver in F1 history to compete in the most races without a podium – second.
At the midpoint of both the race and the 2019 season,, both Mercedes drivers quickly dispatched Hulkenberg, but the safety car was called into action yet again soon after, this time for Hulkenberg. The Renault driver had slid off the track at the final corner and Verstappen, with a 10-second lead, was able to pit for fresh intermediates without losing the lead.
One lap after racing resumed, Verstappen pitted again – his fifth stop – for soft slicks and was followed by a whole gaggle of midfield drivers. Quickly, Verstappen found a way through the pack, but Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) was now third with Bottas fourth and Hamilton, having taken a five-second penalty at his stop for an earlier penalty, P13.
As if Hamilton thought his day couldn’t get any worse, a spin at turn 1 with only the two Williams cars behind him dropped him even further down from the rest of the field. The spin all but guaranteed that his 22-race points streak would come to an end and he dropped to last after pitting to get rid of the tires damaged in the spin.
When the drama could not get any higher, Bottas copied Hamilton by spinning at turn 1 but crucially, the Finn collided heavily with the barrier to put him out of the race. On a day when Hamilton’s championship lead could have been cut severely, Bottas dropped the ball at the absolute worst moment.
A five-lap sprint was all that remained when the race got going again and Vettel, who started last, quickly dispatched Carlos Sainz for fourth place.
On lap 62 of 64, Vettel managed to take second from Stroll and then a lap later caused the crowd to explode by taking second from Kvyat.
Verstappen, having built up a lead as Vettel fought through to second, finally crossed the line for a second win of the year and to close to gap on Bottas in the standings, putting himself in a strong position to take second spot.
Despite the 11th-place finish Hamilton left Germany with a healthy lead in the stainds. He still leads Bottas by 39 points, while Verstappen closed to within 22 points of Bottas for second. Vettel is fourth in the championship, a whopping 82 poitns behind Hamilton.
Vettel somehow managed second and Kvyat scored Toro Rosso’s second podium finish in series history – the only other coming when Vettel won at Monza in 2008.
Race Results – F1 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim
Pos.
Driver
Constructor
Race Time
Points
1
Max Verstappen
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
25 (+1)
2
Sebastian Vettel
Scuderia Ferrari
+7.333
18
3
Daniil Kvyat
Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
+8.305
15
4
Lance Stroll
SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team
+8.966
12
5
Carlos Sainz
McLaren F1 Team
+9.583
10
6
Alexander Albon
Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
+10.052
8
7
Kimi Raikkonen
Alfa Romeo Racing
+12.214
6
8
Antonio Giovinazzi
Alfa Romeo Racing
+13.849
4
9
Romain Grosjean
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
+16.838
2
10
Kevin Magnussen
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team
+18.765
1
11
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
+19.667
12
Robert Kubica
ROKiT Williams Racing
+24.987
13
George Russell
ROKiT Williams Racing
+26.404
Pierre Gasly
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
DNF
Valtteri Bottas
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport
DNF
Nico Hulkenberg
Renault F1 Team
DNF
Charles Leclerc
Scuderia Ferrari
DNF
Lando Norris
McLaren F1 Team
DNF
Daniel Ricciardo
Renault F1 Team
DNF
Sergio Perez
SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team
DNF
Source: Read Full Article
