Lewis Hamilton won an exciting German Grand Prix at Nürburgring on Sunday 24 July 2011. Fernando Alonso was second in the Ferrari and grid leader Mark Webber was third in the Red Bull, one ahead of his team mate Sebastian Vettel, not on the podium for the first time this season. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was fifth.
Force India’s Adrian Sutil had a good race to come sixth, ahead of Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes. His team mate Michael Schumacher was next across the line. A fine performance by Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber gave him ninth place and the final point-scoring slot went to Vitaly Petrov in the Lotus Renault.
German Grand Prix Race Action
The rain was barely drizzling as the cars started on the slick tyres with which they finished qualifying. Track temperatures were cold. That said, nobody took the option of a tyre switch at the end of the warm-up lap.
Lewis Hamilton took his McLaren into the lead on the first bend from Red Bull’s Mark Webber, with Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari in third place and championship leader Sebastian Vettel fourth. A bad start by Jenson Button saw him drop his McLaren to tenth. Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes was fifth, one ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Kamui Kobayashi jumped his Sauber from 17th on the grid to 11th. Nick Heidfeld in the Lotus Renault and Paul di Resta in the Force India touched and spun and fell to the bottom of the field.
Vettel passed Alonso on lap two after he struggled to keep his car on the track, but Alonso took back the place on lap eight. Sergio Perez flat spotted a tyre on his Sauber and had to pit for new tyres. On lap ten, Vettel lost control of his car and spun but managed to keep going. A lap later, Heidfeld’s day got worse when he collided with Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso. Heidfeld crashed out and Buemi punctured a rear tyre but continued after a pit stop.
At the start of lap 12, Massa passed Rosberg to take fifth. On the same lap, Webber passed Hamilton at the front but he took the place back on the start-finish straight.
Webber pitted for new tyres at the end of lap 15 and fell down to sixth behind Adrian Sutil in the Force India but soon passed him.
On lap 17, Massa passed Webber as Hamilton and Alonso pitted together. This put Massa in the lead with Webber second, Hamilton third and Alonso fourth. Vettel also pitted and fell to ninth. Massa pitted the next lap and fell to eighth.
Massa and Vettel both passed Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber on lap 20. The two continued their charge passing Vitaly Petrov in the Lotus Renault on lap 22. Petrov was now struggling as a lap later both Mercedes of Rosberg and Michael Schumacher passed him. Schumacher spun on lap 24, but kept going, albeit a few places back.
Button took his first pit stop on lap 25 and dropped from fourth to eighth. Rubens Barrichello retired with an engine failure in his Williams.
Second Half of the German Grand Prix
Webber led at the half-way point, but only just from Hamilton and Alonso. Massa was well back in fourth followed by Vettel, Rosberg, Sutil and Button. Schumacher had got back up to ninth, one ahead of Kobayashi.
Webber pitted from the lead on lap 31 and dropped to third. Karun Chandhok – driving in place of Jarno Trulli – spun his Team Lotus into the gravel trap, but managed to drive out.
Hamilton pitted the next lap, leaving Alonso in the lead, and managed to come out just ahead of Webber. On track, Button passed Sutil. Alonso then pitted and came out still in front. Hamilton immediately passed Alonso to take the lead. On lap 36, Button overtook Rosberg to go sixth, but then had to retire with a hydraulics problem. Rosberg pitted for tyres on lap 37 and dropped to ninth. Schumacher pitted on lap 38 and came out in 12th place.
After battling for a few corners, on lap 40 Rosberg passed Kobayashi for seventh place. Vitantonio Liuzzi retired in his HRT on lap 41 as Vettel pitted and held fifth place. On track, Schumacher passed Jamie Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso for 11th place. Massa pitted and held fourth place, just ahead of Vettel.
Schumacher gained another place by passing di Resta. And on lap 47 he passed Petrov to go ninth. Petrov pitted the following lap for primes, and all the leaders were then watching closely to see how well they handled. As the laps ran down, none of the leaders had yet had their compulsory spell on the slower tyres. On lap 49, Sutil pitted for primes and dropped to seventh.
Hamilton pitted from the lead on lap 51 for the medium compound primes and came out in third. New leader Alonso pitted for his primes on lap 54 and came out behind Hamilton. Webber left it till lap 57 to switch tyres and came out in third.
The big battle now was for fourth place, with Massa just ahead of Vettel and both had to pit with one lap to go. But the Ferrari pit team were too slow and Vettel came out in front.
Other Finishers in the German Grand Prix
The best of the rest were Sergio Perez in the Sauber with Jamie Alguersuari 12th in the Toro Rosso. Paul di Resta drove his Force India to 13th place, followed by Pastor Maldonado in the Williams and Sebastien Buemi in the Toro Rosso.
In 16th came Heikki Kovalainen in the Team Lotus and then the Virgin pair of Timo Glock and Jerome d’Ambrosio. Daniel Ricciardo was 19th in the HRT and the last finisher was Karun Chandhok, in his first drive for a year, in the other Team Lotus.
Standings After Ten Grands Prix
Constructors: 1. Red Bull (355), 2. McLaren (243), 3. Ferrari (192), 4. Mercedes (78), 5. Lotus Renault (66), 6. Sauber (35), 7. Force India (20), 8. Toro Rosso (17), 9. Williams (4).
Drivers: 1. S Vettel (216), 2. M Webber (139), 3. L Hamilton (134), 4. F Alonso (130), 5. J Button (109), 6. F Massa (62), 7. N Rosberg (46), 8. N Heidfeld (34), 9. V Petrov (32), 10. M Schumacher (32), 11. K Kobayashi (27), 12. A Sutil (18), 13. J Alguersuari (9), 14. S Perez (8), 15. S Buemi (8), 15. R Barrichello (4), 17. P di Resta (2).
Steve Rogerson - Steve Rogerson is a UK-based writer specialising in television, technology, sports and beer.
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