Lap 59: The gap down to just a second but Raikonen is onto his ninth
lap with these tyres. Raikonen into DRS range maybe?
Lap 58: Raikonen is taking his shot. Now just 1.4 seconds behind Seb.
Less than five seconds betwee the top four. How will Vettel respond? Lewis
has got Jenson in his sights for fifth place.
Lap 57: Now Raikonen puts in a personal best for the first sector, he’s
now 1.7 secs behind Seb. Alonso meanwhile has got Grosjean in his sights
with DRS chances. Jenson having a hard time getting past some of the back
markers.
Lap 56: Perez, on a two-stop strategy, is starting to struggle and
Lewis passes him to go into sixth.
Lap 55: Alonso in with chances, he’s lapping quickly in fourth. Lewis
Hamilton not going to have much of a say back in seventh. Grosjean has been
told to let Raikonen through, and he does. Vettel, Raikonen, Grosjean
now.
Lap 54: You have to like Vettel for this now. He’s about 1.9 seconds
ahead of Grosjean. Will Lotus tell Grosjean to get out of Raikonen’s way?
Lap 53: Vettel and Grosjean lap Chilton. Mak Webber closing on Di Resta
in ninth. Lapping Giedo van der Garde has cost Seb Vettel half a second or
so.
Lap 52: Just 3.4 seconds covers the top three. Nightmare pitstop for
Maldonado, problem with the wheel gun, they cannot get his wheel off.
Lap 51: Maldonado pits. Jenson is putting in some good laps. Raikonen
half a second quicker on this lap than Vettel.
Lap 50: Hamilton, Di Resta and Maldonado in a three-way dingdong. Lewis
into 8th. Vettel, Grosjean, Raikonen.
Lap 49: Kimi Raikonen is making a stop, he’s going to change to a soft
set. Alonso pits at the same time. Seb Vettel leads the GP
Lap 48: Webber managed 30 laps in practice on a set, didn’t suffer too
much degradation. Webber is up into 12th by the way. Maybe Raikonen it
actually going to try and do this on his current set?
Lap 47: 15 seconds between Raikonen and Vettel. The top three of
Raikonen, Alonso and Button will all have to pit again.
Lap 46: Okay, here’s Hamilton into the pit. The gap between Raikonen
the leader and Grosjean in sixth is 17 seconds.
Lap 45: Vettel needs three corners to go past Hamilton, exciting stuff
but he is past him now. That’s cost Seb some time. Kimi leads – but surely
he will have to pit again? He cannot do 36 laps on a set…
Lap 44: Hamilton in fourth, Vettel, Grosjean. Is Lewis holding up
Vettel? He is. This is all good news for Kimi.
Lap 43: Grosjean with a fastest lap. Jenson having a good afternoon,
he’s in third (albeit on different pit schedule) but he is putting in some
quick laps. Raikonen, Alonso, Button, Hamilton.
Lap 42: Vettel pits. He comes out JUST ahead of Grosjean. Kimi
Raikonen leads the German Grand Prix. From the Red Bull radio, it’s
clear they see Kimi and not Grosjean as the major threat.
Lap 41: Strategy with these tyres is fascinating. Kimi going well in
the middle sector, he’s got Vettel in his sights.
Lap 40: Lot of wear in these tyres, they’re saying it’s as bad as the
Spanish GP. Grosjean has pitted, he was losing rear-end grip. Another set of
mediums for him. Looks like it is going to be three stops all round, even
with the safety card interim.
Lap 39: Alonso coming through, he’s in fourth and looks like he is
going well. Webber pits; 3.2 seconds. Temperature on the track is 45
degrees. Vettel holding off those two Lotuses. “Keep fighting, Seb,”
says his radio. Has he got some sort of tech problem?
Lap 38: Ah but now Hulkenberg pits and Lewis moves up a place.
Lap 37: Webber having a really hard fight getting past Gutierrez and it
is costing him time. Hulkenberg having a good day and he’s keeping Lewis at
bay throughout DRS section.
Lap 36: Perez and Maldonado fighting for 8th place. Lewis in seventh.
On the TV they are specualting the Vettel might have a minor break problem.
Lap 35: Grosjean is gaining on Vettel, he’s quick through the middle
bits of the laps.
Lap 34: And Vettel is only a tiny bit ahead of Grosjean now, he’s got
his hands full with those two Lotuses today.
Lap 33: Grosjean hits back with another quick lap of his own, and the
duel between them is ensuring that Vettel cannot increase his lead.
Marc Melander on the early double-team from the Red Bulls on poor
Lewis, which I described as a pincer movement: “Shame on you Tyers –
since when do bulls have pincers? What you should have done is compare the
manoeuvre to a Zulu impi tactic which comprised four groups attacking with
two of the groups resembling a bull’s horns which surrounded the enemy and
engulfed them allowing them to be jabbed with the pointy end of pointed
things.”
Lap 32: Grosjean under pressure from Raiknonen under the DRS section.
Raikonen has just done the quickest lap of the day.
Lap 31: Webber starting to try and make his way back, he’s up into 15th
now. Tryint to take Gutierez now. Good defence from him.
Lap 30: So yeah. Here we go. It’s a bit of a reboot, isn’t it? Now
we’ve got 30 laps to go, Vettel leading them round, I don’t see any
overtaking on that lap.
Lap 29: Think this is going to be the last lap of safety car. Seb
Vettel leads them. Grosjean second. Raikonen third. Alonso four. Button 5th.
Nico Hulkenberg sixth. Lewis in 7th. We’re racing again
Lap 28: Safety car. Here is a video of that camerman/Webber incident.
Lap 27: Jean-Eric Vergne has retired from the race, not too certain why
as yet. Still the safety car. Webber is being investiagated for unsafe
release. Di Resta is going to be in hot water for cutting in front of Vergne
in the pit.
Lap 26: So just to confirm, Bianchi retires. Safety car still on.
Lap 25: The safety car is on as they try to sort out this nonsense.
Lap 24: FIRE IN THE HOLE! Jules Bianchi of Marussia’s car is on fire.
Looks like an oil fire. He’s out of the car with no danger. Wanders off. But
he hasn’t put the handbreak on, the clot! His car is rolling across the
track in a crazy fashion. Bloody hell, this could be a bit dangerous
coulnd’t it? Fortunately, it rolls off the track before Vettel gets round.
and then here’s the car rolling backwards across the track
Lap 23: Lewis pits. They are going to a three-stop strategy, they have
to, he hasn’t got the grip. They change to another set of mediums.
Lap 22: This is great stuff bewtween Lewis and Fernando, they’re at it
again. Lewis is keeping him at bay – but this is slowing both of them up. “I’m
pushing man, I’m pushing,” says Lewis on the radio.
Tom Cary on the Webber incident: “Sky say cameraman hit by flying
wheel after after Webber’s botched pit stop is sitting up and receiving help
from the Mercedes doctors. Incident will be investigated after the race.
Webber is back in business after having his rear right refitted, albeit in
21st place. It was a FOM cameraman, apparently. He has some chest pain and
concussion. In the medical centre now.”
Lap 21: And now Alonso is having a crack at Hamilton, he can’t quite
get past him but Lewis is under big pressure. He’s fighting tooth and nail
to keep Alonso out. Rosberg suffering similar issues I understand.
Lap 20: Lewis has got some problems here, this tyre strategy is not
paying off at the moment. his tyres not looking great, will they have to go
to three stop strategy.
Lap 19: Hamilton is complaining about a lack of grip, it looks like his
front right is graining. And he cannot hold off a challenge from Kimi
Raikonnen! Kimi does him in the chicane and Lewis back into fourth.
Lap 18: Lotus looking very tasty. Grosjean has cut Vettel’s lead to
three seconds. Lewis is back in fourth.
Lap 17: Alonso getting some good pace out of his tyres and is putting
in a show in 7th place. Vettel in the lead.
Lap 15: Vettel with a quick lap, 3.4 seconds the lead now. Our man at
the track, Tom Cary, reports that “the cameraman is sitting up”
and, as we understand it, is not too badly hurt.
Lap 14: Grosjean pits and he’s back in third now, but Button hasn’t
made a stop yet. Now Rosberg lets Lewis go. Raikonnen passes Rosberg, but
can Rosberg get back at him in the DRS zone? No, he cannot. Grosjean leading
by four seconds to Vettel.
Lap 13: Here’s Alonso, he’s changing his medium tyres. Hamilton is
having problems getting past Rosberg, the turbulence is holding up Lewis,
this is poor form isn’t it? Grosjean, Vettel, Button are the 1-2-3.
Lap 12: Hamilton is trying to get past Rosberg and is having a bit of a
hard time going round him – should Rosberg be getting out the way? “Niko,
you are on a different strategy to Lewis,” his team tell him – rather
pointedly.
Lap 11: Vettel goes past Button and he’s into third. Grosjean leading,
the Lotus going very well.
Lap 10: Scenes, then. Webber comes back out and he’s in 21st place.
That pit lane was a bit of a crowd scene, I have no idea what happened
there.
Lap 9: During a pit stop, Mark Webber’s wheel has flown off and hit a
cameraman. Blimey. Hope he’s alright. The cameraman getting some medical
treatment. He’s sitting up. Webber apparently can come back into the race.
Lap 8: The new tyres not giving Lewis an obvious advantage just yet.
Vettel now in 7th, Rosberg 8th, Lewis 9th.
Lap 7: Lewis into the pits. The traffic works out quite well for him.
He’s into tenth as he comes back out. “Big push now”, he’s told by
his team on the mike. How will Red Bull react? They are bringing Vettel in
first. Webber will take up the lead. Vettel takes 2.6 secs for his stop, it
took Lewis 3.0 secs.
Lap 6: Several coming into the pits now to change onto the medium
tyres, I make it seven into the pits so far. Raikonnen and Grosjean going at
it hammer and tongs for fourth place.
Lap 5: Paul Di Resta into the pits and he’s cut up Vergne as he leaves,
Vergne had to brake sharply. He’s going to be in some trouble there. Vettel,
Webber, Hamilton, Raikonnen, Grosjean at the moment.
Lap 4: Massa has spun off the track at the first corner. Game over for
him. He spun before entering the braking zone.
Lap 3: Looking at the start again, the Red Bulls have outdriven Lewis
there, nipping past as Lewis spun his wheels in second and third gear. They
got him in a pincer movement, Vettel inside and Webber outside.
Lap 2: Perez has squeezed past Jenson Button, didn’t leave him much
space but just about legal. Paul di Resta also had a poor start. Raikonnen
is in fourth and Grosjean in fifth.
Lap 1 So a great start for the home crowd. Vettel leading, Webber
second and Hamilton third.
13.04 Vettel and Webber have snuck past Lewis! Lightning start from
those two, especially Webber. Poor starts for both Mercedes
13.03 The drivers take their place on the grid. Lights out!
13.00 We’re nearly ready to start. Formation lap underway.
12.55 Should be a cracking start, Ferrari starting on the mediums so
they will be leading after say six laps. All about how the others respond to
that.
12.53 Here is Tom Cary.
Hard to pick a winner today. The safe money is on Red Bull but if Lewis can
make it to T1 in the lead then he could keep Vettel and Webber behind him.
Mercedes’ race pace looks ok. The big unknowns for him are a) his set-up,
which was altered substantially at the last minute for qualifying and may
not work so well in the race b) the temperature here in Germany (currently
41C on track, 25C in the air), which might affect his tyre degradation more
than the Red Bulls. Then there is Kimi, whose Lotus looks strong, and
Fernando on a completely different strategy in his Ferrari, starting on the
prime tyre. If he is going to win, it will only become apparent right at the
end… could be a thrilling finale…
12.50 Right then. Ten minutes til race time. Where’s your money? Lovely
hot sunny day there, glorious in fact.
12.46 German national anthem. Two blokes playing it on a couple of
Liberace-style baby grands and singing along. All very piano bar. Camp as
Christmas, in fact.
12.45 A Pirelli big cheese whose name I did not catch says that they
are confident there will be no problems today. I bet he hopes so…
12.43 There’s the film director Ron Howard. He’s got a picture coming
out called ‘Rush’, it’s about Niki Lauda and the 1976 crash that nearly
killed him.
12.40 Jenson says “the car is working alright”. He’s keeping
tight-lipped about the tyres he will be using. “I am surprised Ferrari
are on the prime tyres, I thought they would have tried to get one of their
guys up there and cause a bit of mayhem.”
There goes Seb Vettel
12.35 Christian Horner: “Going to be tough. Hotter today and it’s
windy. It is going to take until the latter part of the race until we see
how the strategies pan out.”
12.30 I am expecting a big drive from Webber today, got a little
feeling for him. Webber one of the first down on the track for start
practice. Who do you think is going to win?
12.22 Good, honest interview there with Martin Brundle and Lewis.
12.19 Lewis agrees that he is “eaten up” by not having got a
win yet. “I don’t know if over-rated is the word I would use to
describe Vettel. The more I race with him the more I respect him.”
12.17 Lewis Hamilton celebrates his 29th pole position. “I never
thought I would even have one!” he says. On his move to Mercedes, “I
have made a lot of bad decisions throughout my life. A lot of my decisions
were controlled by my dad. He is always right and I want to be like him. But
I feel that I switched teams for all the right reasons.”
12.15 The Williams team celebrate a remarkable 600 Grand Prixs today.
12.10 So we will be having 60 laps. Each lap is 5.148 km or 3.199
miles. Fernando Alonso was the winner last year, with Britain’s Jenson
Button second. Kimi Räikkönen was third.
12.07 Rosberg “hopes to put on a fantastic show for the fans and
do plenty of overtaking.” He’s looking to hit back after a
disappointing practice. Ross Brawn says “Lewis has a very good chance.
We will have to get onto the harder tyre as soon as we can. It’s going to be
a very interesting race.”
12.05 There had been talk this week of a driver strike over the tyres,
but Pirelli announced immediate changes for Germany and that seems to have
headed industrial action off at the pass. Teams will use Kevlar-belted rear
tyres as opposed to the steel-belted tyres they have used in previous 2013
races.
12.03 Hot there. That could suit the Lotus cars, they go well in the
hotter temperatures. As for the Ferraris, they are using medium tyres not
soft ones and so they will be able to go for longer before needing a pit
stop. Look out for an early challenge from Alonso and maybe Massa.
12.00 Hello all and welcome to our live blog of the German Grand Prix.
A new depature for me personally, blogging F1, but with my surname I should
be well away, no? Tyres were the big issue last week, with blow-outs and
controversy to the fore at Silverstone. As our F1 correspondent Tom Cary says,
they’ll play a huge part today as well:
Hamilton’s chances, it will come as no surprise to learn in a season
dominated by tyre talk, will be largely down to how well Mercedes can manage
their rubber.
Red Bull have appeared to have a slight edge in long runs at the
Nurburgring – and Vettel will be hugely motivated to claim victory on home
soil for the first time – but Mercedes have come on hugely since the Spanish
Grand Prix in May.
To what extent their controversial ‘private’ tyre test for Pirelli
immediately following that race helped them to do so is a moot point.
Ferrari could yet surprise. The Italian outfit opted to sacrifice any
chance of pole yesterday in favour of starting the race on the medium tyres.
They had their eye on the bigger picture. Expect Fernando Alonso to rise
from eighth and challenge the leaders this afternoon.
Positions after qualifying:
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1min 29.398secs
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:29.501
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:29.608
4 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:29.892
5 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:29.959
6 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.528
7 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:31.126
8 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:31.209
9 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren No Time
10 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari No Time
11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:30.326
12 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:30.697
13 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:30.933
14 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:31.010
15 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:31.010
16 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:31.104
17 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:31.693
18 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:31.707
19 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1:32.937
20 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:33.063
21 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 1:33.734
22 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:34.098
Here’s a schematic of the track, showing the DRS zones and featuring David
Coulthard’s points to watch…
Actually, that’s a bit titchy, isn’t it? Let’s blow it up…