Motorsports Mondial
Photo: Carl Blake
Lewis Hamilton wins a fantastic race in Germany.
Alonso puts in a great drive with second on the podium.
Mark Webber looses the lead in the first lap settles for third.
Vettel leap frogs Massa in the pits on the final lap for P4.
Podcast 517 will have the race recap with Clark and Steve.
Fernando ALONSO: I think in the last stint we could not get any closer to Lewis. I think with the medium tyres we were not too quick, so we just controlled the gap with Mark and secured the second place. For us, it was a fantastic race, a fantastic Sunday again. We struggled a little in quali, being fourth yesterday, but today the car showed great pace, a great degradation of the tyres, so we can keep the pace of the leaders and we jump (Sebastian) Vettel on the track and Mark in the pit-stop. It was great the second place after the win in Silverstone, the second place in Valencia, so it is definitely a good moment of the championship for us. Next week we have another opportunity.
Q. Mark, describe your emotions after another pole position that sadly, for you, you couldn’t convert into a win.
Mark WEBBER: Yeah, we weren’t quick enough today. Did everything I could. I was happy with how I drove. I think these guys just had that little extra margin when they needed to do it, especially at the back part of the stints. A little bit more range and that made us a little bit exposed on strategy. We know what we have got to improve on. I couldn’t have got much more out of what we had today, so disappointed not to get the win, but all three of us had a smooth day really. A good fight around the stops. Like you say, mixed emotions. Another good result. You need to perform at a high level to get these, but we will keep learning. The progress has been decent but we need to improve.
Q. Lewis, where did your extra margins come from? How much was down to the car and how much was down to you?
Lewis Hamilton: Well, I think none of us can win without the car. I think bit by bit just learning more about the how the car is behaving and with the driving style I was able to learn to look after the tyres a little bit more. There were certain areas where I was losing out to these guys. I was quickest in the first sector, quickest in the last sector, but struggling in the middle sector, so it was really improving my line in a lot of different places, particularly turn three. At the apex of turn three I was sliding my tyres quite a lot but later on I was able to recover from that and avoid the sliding. At turn eight, which is the fast chicane, I wasn’t able to take (it) flat out at the beginning of the race, while Mark was and he was catching me massively. With a couple of alterations and with all the switches that we have, all the toys we have, it was really fantastic for me to be able to make steps forward. I was really surprised again that my tyres lasted so long later on in the race, so I guess there are still areas we need to improve on, particularly on heavier fuel for the beginning of the race, but this is a massive step forward and I really hope that we, as a team, can really use this to propel us forward and to keep the momentum going.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1h37:30.334 2. Alonso Ferrari + 3.980 3. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 9.788 4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 47.921 5. Massa Ferrari + 52.252 6. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:26.208 7. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap 8. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap 9. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 10. Petrov Renault + 1 lap 11. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 12. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 13. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap 14. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap 15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 16. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 2 laps 17. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps 18. D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps 19. Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps 20. Chandhok Lotus-Renault + 4 laps Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:34.587
Photo: gp2series
Grosjean wins dramatic wet sprint race
Frenchman on top in changing conditions
Romain Grosjean improved on yesterday’s podium with a thrilling battle for victory in changing weather conditions in this morning’s sprint race at the Nurburgring, keeping calm and taking advantage of other people’s misfortunes to win from Jules Bianchi and Luca Filippi.
With heavy rain ahead of the race there was no choice but to set up for the wet and hope for the best: when the lights went out Giedo van der Garde made a storming start to split the front row pair of Sam Bird and Dani Clos, but the Dutchman was soon in the gravel, along with his Spanish rival, as the pair retired at turn 3. When Bird spun a lap later the stage was set with Bianchi leading Grosjean ahead of Charles Pic, Esteban Gutierrez and Filippi.
The latter 3 had an intense battle for third place for lap after lap while seemingly everyone else fought over the final point on offer between them, changing positions between them every time they came by the pits. But with the track slowly drying, every team had to make a tough call: come in for slicks, or try to hold on.
Filippi and Pic made the call on lap 11, and although the Frenchman picked up a drive through for his efforts the Italian was soon setting fastest laps and the decision was made. Everyone called their drivers in over the next few laps: Bianchi finally pitted from the lead three laps later and emerged with Grosjean and Filippi on his tail, with the trio slicing through the remaining wet tyre drivers to kick off an intense battle for the lead.
With 2 laps to go Bianchi made a small mistake and cut the chicane, and that was all that was needed: Grosjean sailed through for the victory while Bianchi and Filippi scrabbled for the next step on the podium, both surviving a small impact at turn one to finish second and third respectively. Behind them Christian Vietoris sliced his way through the chaos to finish fourth from P23 on the grid, with Adam Carroll having a lonely race behind him and Max Chilton driving a mature race under enormous pressure to hold off Bird for sixth position.
The result meant that Grosjean extends his lead in the title race to 59 points from van der Garde’s 41, with Pic on 34 points from Bird on 33 and Bianchi on 32 ahead of next week’s round at the Hungaroring in Budapest.
Photo: gp3series
Valtteri Bottas storms to Victory at the Ring
Valtteri Bottas took his maiden GP3 Series win at Nürburgring today after a strong start from sixth put him into the lead by the end of Lap 1. The Lotus ART man finished 1.473 seconds ahead of Status Grand Prix’s Alexander Sims and RSC Mücke Motorsport’s Nigel Melker who claimed a home race podium for his German team.
When the lights went out for the start of a wet Race 2, Tech 1 Racing’s Tamas Pal Kiss and Aaro Vainio held onto the top two spots, with the Lotus ART duo of Bottas and James Calado making headway into third and fourth – despite pulling away well from third Conor Daly ran wide at Turn 1, and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was beaten off the line.
As the drivers continued to grapple for position Vainio and Calado came to blows, with the ART man dropping down to the back of the field – Vainio was later handed a drive through penalty for the incident. With Vainio no longer a threat, Bottas made his move on Pal Kiss to take the lead of the race, and Sims capitalized on the chaos to move up into second behind the Finn. Pal Kiss soon lost a further spot to Melker who had worked his way from tenth on the grid.
Sims then set his sights on the leader who was pulling away at the front, and posted consecutive fastest laps to reel in the Finn. With the three podium men chasing each other down at the front, the battle was on for the final three points paying positions. Calado was working on damage limitation, and put in a dogged drive to take the all important final point.
With the chequered flag in sight, Sims had reduced the gap to Bottas to just over a second, but found himself defending from a charging Melker on the last lap. And so Bottas took his first GP3 win to become the tenth victor of the season. Sims held on to second and Melker settled for third after running wide on the last lap. Pal Kiss and Dillmann crossed the line in fourth and fifth respectively, with Calado close behind in sixth.
Sims is now leading the Series by six points ahead of the MW Arden duo of Lewis Williamson and Mitch Evans. MW Arden is leading the teams’ standings by five points ahead Lotus ART who have moved up into second.