Lap 67 Will Hamilton risk it? He doesn’t have the traction to get
alongside Bottas down the straight. The Finn has enough power to keep
Hamilton at bay and it looks like the Briton will have to be content with
third spot. Rosberg has had a trouble-free afternoon and takes the chequered
flag. Bottas is next round the final corner for second followed by Hamilton.
Vettel is fourth and Alonso fifth. Ricciardo is squeezed out and forced to
take sixth. ROSBERG WINS GERMAN GRAND PRIX FROM BOTTAS AND HAMILTON
Lap 66 That loss of front-wing hasn’t helped Hamilton’s cause either
and Bottas is maintaining a good line. The Finn is in a great run of form
and it’s continuing here. He’s staying cool and collected with one lap to
go.
Lap 65 Hamilton backs off slightly for a 0.6secs gap. He could do with
a bit of traffic to come to his aid but time is running out fast.
Lap 64 Still no opening for Hamilton. Further back, Button is holding
his own in eighth having had a number of drivers pass him.
Lap 63 Hamilton hasn’t had a chance of an over-take as the Williams
driver frustrates the Brit. Hamilton’s struggling with his grip but it’s
great defensive work by Bottas. He has four laps to hold on.
Lap 62 Hamilton’s front tyres are wearing fast. Ricciardo and Alonso
keep up their battle, Alonso nipping past Ricciardo finally at the second
attempt. That takes him back up to fifth…for the time being at least.
Lap 61 Up in front and Hamilton is in Bottas’ wing mirror and waiting
for an opening. Top three remains Rosberg, Bottas, Hamilton.
Lap 60 The battle between Ricciardo and Alonso continues as the
Spaniard has a look at an under-take on turn seven. It’s ambitious and just
wasn’t on. Alonso will have to bide his time, it’s a great tussle.
Lap 59 Hamilton has made three stops compared to Bottas’ two but both
cars will end on similar tyre wear as Alonso and Ricciardo battle if out for
fifth spot. Ricciardo looks to have got past the Spaniard, but Alonso nips
back in front of the Australian. Ricciardo isn’t going to give up the place
without a fight and eventually gets air between his Red Bull and the
Ferrari.
Lap 58 Bottas is 5secs ahead of Hamilton which, according to Mercedes
is an ‘easy catch’ for the Briton. Reel him in Hamilton. That’s the message
from his German team and he doesn’t need any more encouragement to go pursue
the Williams driver.
Lap 57 Now Alonso is all over Button’s tail and, now on the fresher
tyres, can easily past by the Brit who is a sitting duck out there.
Lap 56 Another ding-dong battle ensues between Ricciardo and Button.
Ricciardo gets a great round of applause from his Red Bull garage as he goes
to move round the outside of Button and then goes past him on the inside.
Lap 55 Hamilton gets past Alonso and the Spaniard is losing pace fast.
Gutierrez, at the back of the field, even passes him now. He’s desperate for
some fresh tyres. He finally pits and returns to the track. He has 11 laps
left to get back among the frontrunners as he returns in seventh.
Lap 54 Hulkenberg sniffs an opening against Ricciardo. He goes for it
but the Australian closes the gap and denies him the overtake. We still have
21 drivers out there as Raikkonen makes a third stop and then locks up as he
returns back to the track and Perez takes advantage.
Lap 53 Hamilton takes three seconds off Alonso. Get round the Spaniard
and he should still have time to have a nibble at Bottas too. That would be
some feat having started back in 20th.
Lap 52 Finally three marshalls dash out to the car and some
heave-hoving later sees them get the car off the track and away from danger.
Hamilton is a good six secs off Alonso but is ripping up the track.
Lap 51 Hamilton makes the most of the yellow flag slowly up proceedings
and pits. He’s back out again in fourth and behind Alonso again. Still the
marshalls leave Sutil’s car stranded on the grid with little urgency.
Lap 50 There’s smoke again. This time on the grid and it’s from Sutil’s
Sauber. The German stays in his car, waiting and then after a minute or so
abandons his stranded vehicle. The yellow flag is issued, warning drivers to
beware and slow down. Surely the safety car will have to be deplyed now.
Lap 49 Hamilton is showing good pace back in fourth spot and he uses it
to good effect to move past Alonso and up to third. Vettel, meanwhile, does
some over-taking of his own, on Button as he moves on up to fifth.
Lap 48 No need for the safety car to be deployed for that fire as
Rosberg remains a strong 15secs ahead of Bottas in second.
Lap 47 The tractor comes on to the track to help remove Kvyat’s Toro
Rosso. Mercedes inform Rosberg that there won’t be any rain between now and
the flag, possibly bad news for Hamilton.
Lap 46 Oooh, fire, fire. Kvyat’s car is in flames on the track. He
seems to take an age to get out of his Toro Rosso, but eventually does,
quite slowly. He throws his arms up in frustration as he walks to safety and
then punches the barrier in disgust.
Lap 45 Hamilton will have to produce some qualifying-paced laps if he
is to secure a podium spot. Vettel, having been told to stay off Alonso’s
rear pits.
Lap 44 Perez and Sutil are back in a battle for 11th. The Force India
driver gets past the Sauber at the second attempt.
Lap 43 Hamilton now makes a second stop. He’s out in front of Button
and Ricciardo in fifth. Ricciardo fancies his chances against Button but he
locks up as he makes his move and his rear wobbles as Button nips back in
front.
Lap 42 Vettel is warned to conserve his fuel as he moves all over the
back of Alonso. The world champ is itching to get past the Spaniard but is
told to cool it. Vettel has been quite an angry man this season. Not getting
your own way does that too you, though.
Lap 41 Hamilton isn’t having much fun out there, informing Mercedes
that his front wing isn’t going to last. Rosberg makes a second stop, as
does Bottas. Rosberg comes back out in front of his team-mate.
Lap 40 Despite that complaint, Rosberg continues to tear up the track
and remain in control.
Lap 39 It will be interesting to see whether Alonso can not cut down
the nine seconds gap between himself and Hamilton for third. Rosberg,
remember him? Well he comes on his team radio to say that he’s struggling
with the grip out there too.
Lap 38 Hamilton kept his pace despite a broken front wing but is a good
15 secs off Bottas in second and another 15secs off Robserg. Alonso locks up
as he attempts to go round the back of Hulkenberg in battle for fourth.
Vettel joins in the fun and fancies his chances against Hulkenberg too who
was concentrating on keeping Alonso at bay that he didn’t see the German in
his wing mirror. The Force India driver slides down to sixth.
Lap 37 Massa speaks for first time on first-corner crash, his reaction: “I’m
very frustrated. It’s a race that we had a good car, good pace. I tried not
to be aggressive on the first corner. It’s not a corner you can have three
cars. I backed off a bit but another car hit me from behind but there’s
nothing I could do. It’s really disappointing.”
Lap 36 Battle for sixth and seveth hots up as former champion Alonso
passes by current champ Vettel. Ricciardo makes his second stop.
Lap 35 Vettel pits from third which brings Hamilton back into the
podium places.
Lap 34 Alonso pits, which allows Hamilton to move up to fourth. The
Spaniard returns in seventh, ahead of Button.
Lap 33 If you didn’t know already, Rosberg is still out in front having
a nice little drive around as Hamilton gets back into over-taking mode and
goes past Hulkenberg with ease and without a collison this time.
Lap 32 Debris is all over the track at turn six from where Hamilton’s
nose collided with Button. Hamilton asks his team for some advice. Come in,
or not to come in? That is the question. Mercedes’ response: ‘we’ll get back
to you’.
Lap 31 Hamilton does manage to get past Button at the second attempt
and seems to give a way to his compatriot as he goes past as way of apology
for what happened on the previous lap. Nice touch.
Lap 30 Hamilton now has Button in his sights and the two Britons clash
on the sixth corner. Hamilton’s Mercedes coming off worse with his
front-wing spewing off some bits and pieces. He doesn’t bother to pit though
and will just make too with a bit of a broken nose. He’s still to get past
Button, though.
Lap 29 Hamilton fancies his chances up against Ricciardo. He looks to
go round the outside and then goes on the inside. Ricciardo looks to be
coming back at the Brit, but hasn’t the pace and that’s Hamilton up to
seventh.
Lap 28 Grosjean becomes the second driver to pull up today, his Lotus
just giving up on him for his fourth DNF race this season – of 10 rounds.
Lap 27 Hamilton finally comes into the pits from third. Another set of
soft tyres and he’s back out. He’s likely to stop again today. He returns in
eighth behind Ricciardo.
Lap 26 Vettel and Alonso are holding their own with clear track in
front of them in fourth and fifth. Raikkonen moves up to ninth as he goes
past Magnussen.
Lap 25 Hamilton is told by his Mercedes team to flick some switch or
other. Hamilton’s response. ‘I’ve never heard of that switch’. Nice to see
both driver and team are on same page. It’s as you were for the top three.
Lap 24 Rosberg is over 15secs ahead of Hamilton is third with the 2008
champ still to come in. Raikkonen, his Ferrari bodywork bruised goes for his
own maneouvre on Perez and makes it.
Lap 23 Massa remains the only driver forced to retire after that first
corner crash. Pererz makes a move successfully past Grosjean and he’s up to
11th.
Lap 22 Hamilton hangs back in third as Bottas tries to stretch the gap
from the Briton.
Lap 21 Maldonado and Kvyat have a little ding-dong battle. Maldonado
applies the pressure and Kvyat cracks, his Toro Rosso’s rear moving all over
the place, Maldonado takes advantage of the wobble and moves on up to 15th.
Lap 20 Hamilton gives up second place to Bottas, possibly because
Mercedes are saving their tyres and trying to stretch their strategy to just
a one-stopper. Magnussen still isn’t having much joy today, still back in
the field in 10th.
Lap 19 After all that hustle-and-bustle, there’s a little bit of a
lull. But wait, there’s a few spots of rain.
Lap 18 Mercedes will try and run Hamilton’s tyres as low as they can
go. Bottas isn’t able to make in-roads on the Brit despite a change of tyres
on lap 15. There’s not much between their times, surprisingly.
Lap 17 Hamilton is just over 7.4secs off Rosberg with Bottas a couple
of secs back from the Briton in third. Button is further back in the field
at ninth.
Lap 16 Rosberg pits as Hamilton affords himself a much quieter lap but
takes advantage of a few more pit stops to work his way up to second and
behind his Mercedes team-mate. Fuel is said to be all ok, how long will his
tyres last though?
Lap 15 Raikkonen’s Ferrari is taking a bit of a pounding out there.
Vettel fancies his chances against Raikkonen but pushes Alonso into his
Ferrari team-mate and another piece of bodywork goes flying out on the
gravel.
Lap 14 This is some risky driving from Hamilton and he’s not taking any
prisoners as he goes past Perez, a little easier this time and he’s up to
fifth. A couple of pits from Perez and Vettel and there’s so much
over-taking and action going on from all over the track. Rosberg is having a
nice Sunday drive.
Lap 13 Hamilton, having failed on his last attempt, goes for Raikkonen
again. He gets round the Finn, but only after a clash of front tyres and a
piece of red metal flies off Raikkonen’s Ferrari. That could’ve been
dangerous and could’ve gone so, so badly. He’s a very lucky boy and he’s now
up to sixth. Ultimately, it did pay off.
Lap 12 Hamilton tries an ambitious overtake on Raikkonen at the stadium
section, he shouldn’t really have a go, but you try and tell him otherwise.
Lap 11 Hulkenberg is holding his own in fifth place, Bottas is just
over 7 secs off leader Rosberg.
Lap 10 A quick pit stop and Kvyat is back out without too much damage.
Magnussen is still back in 18th place but has words of encouragement with
plenty of drivers set to begin their rounds of pits.
Lap 9 Kvyat spins off the track as he tries to go round Perez, their
front-wheels collide, it was a bad decision by the Toro Rosso driver and
he’s losing one, two, three places. He’ll probably need to pit to correct
damage to his front-left tyre too.
Lap 8 Hamilton and Hulkenberg are both reporting oversteer on the
slightly moistured track which had a good soaking this morning. Button works
his way up to sixth with his former team-mate Perez just behind him.
Lap 7 Hamilton is all over Sutil’s rear. Ricciardo goes past Sutil with
Hamilton in close pursuit. He fancies his chances and goes for the inside
line, but Sutil cuts him out and their front-wheels collide. Hopefully
neither will suffer any damage. The stewards have ruled that there was
nothing doing in that first-corner collision, I bet Massa will have plenty
to say, mind.
Lap 6 Hamilton has crept up to 13th and is just over 13 secs off his
Mercedes team-mate. He’s now closing on Sutil.
Lap 5 The stewards are looking at the Magnussen-Massa incident as
Rosberg stretches his lead at the front having set the fastest lap.
Ricciardo has made his way up to 12th.
Lap 4 Hamilton is making his way through the traffic, goes past Pastor
Maldonado to move up to 15th. Jenson Button is all over Nico Hulkenberg’s
Force India, bides his time and then makes his move…successfully. He’s up
to sixth.
Lap 3 Thankfully there wasn’t any debris to clear up, just a case of
getting Massa’s car off the gravel. The safety car goes on. McLaren tell
Magnussen who has dropped to 20th that it’s not all doom and gloom despite
being 10 seconds off the lead.
Lap 2 Daniel Ricciardo, aside from Massa, was another big casualty of
that first corner crash and the Australian is back down to 15th. Magnussen
comes in to change to intermediate tyres and falls to the back of the grid.
At least his day isn’t over. Massa’s is for a second successive GP too.
Hamilton moved up four places in the carnage and subsequent pit stops.
Lap 1 Drama again on the first lap. Rosberg got away quickly and
cleanly but it was Felipe Massa who was rammed into the side by Kevin
Magnussen. Massa did cut across Magnussen, but his Williams rolls over and
sparks fly as his car grinds to the halt. He is immediately to his feet and
walks away shaking his head. The safety car is out…for the second
successive GP.
13.03 Lights out and we’re go, go, go…
12.58 Jonny Herbert informs us that Hamilton has had 25 items changed
on his car after that crash. It hasn’t given Hamilton much time to adjust to
his new-look car. Also we’ll discover how Mercedes will fare without their
‘Fric’ suspension. The cars are now on their warm up lap and then it will be
lights out…
12.51 The Germans must still be nursing sore heads as they continue to
celebrate their World Cup success one week on. That could be one reason for
the poor turn-out this weekend. Daniel Johnson has another
explanation.
Only 10,000 or so came to Friday practice, compared to 90,000 in
Silverstone. In Michael Schumacher’s heyday, there were two races a year in
Germany, with another in Austria. Where has it all gone wrong?
I suspect I have just answered my question: the lack of Michael Schumacher.
While Sebastian Vettel is liked but not loved, Nico Rosberg is a growing
star. Although he clearly is not Schumacher material. Much work to do for
Germany.
12.42 Trust a World Cup winner to turn up and steal the limelight. Damon
Hill and Jonny Herbert grab a quick word with Lukas Podolski who
rattles off a few football cliches. You know the sort, ‘give credit to the
lad (Rosberg)’, ‘let’s hope F1 is today’s winner’ etc…. or words to that
effect, I didn’t catch the interview in full, I’m sure I didn’t miss
anything of importance.
12.37 There’s been so much focus on Hamilton and Rosberg’s duel this
season, but how well has Williams’s Valtteri Bottas done. The Finn is
currently fifth in the drivers’ standings on 73 points and in with a great
shout of picking up a decent haul today starting second on the grid. He’s
picked up podium finishes on his last two outings having started further
back on the grid but has the luxury of being on the front row today.
Here the grid rundown:
1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes, 2. Valtteri Bottas (Finland)
Williams-Mercedes, 3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes, 4. Kevin
Magnussen (Denmark) McLaren, 5. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull –
Renault, 6. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull – Renault, 7. Fernando Alonso
(Spain) Ferrari, 8. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso – Renault, 9. Nico
Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India – Mercedes, 10. Sergio Perez (Mexico)
Force India – Mercedes, 11. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren, 12. Kimi
Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari, 13. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso –
Renault, 14. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus – Renault, 15. Adrian Sutil
(Germany) Sauber – Ferrari, 16. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Sauber – Ferrari,
17. Jules Bianchi (France) Marussia – Ferrari, 18. Pastor Maldonado
(Venezuela) Lotus – Renault, 19. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Caterham – Renault,
20. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes, 21. Max Chilton (Britain) Marussia –
Ferrari, 22. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Caterham – Renault
12.32 Here’s our F1 correspondent Daniel Johnson with an update
from the track.
There were great hopes for rain when I walked into the circuit this
morning, but, alas, it all seems to have disappeared. There were huge
thunderstorms a few hours ago, making for a spectacular GP2 race.
No rain is bad news for Hamilton, and good news for Rosberg. It also takes
the number of races (provisionally) without rain to 29…. Surely we’re
overdue some bad weather? Sprinklers anyone?
12.20 Hamilton would move second in the record books if he produces
Mission Nearly Impossible and wins in Hockenheim. But he would be in good
company at the top of the ‘wins from furthest back on the track’ with
Briton’s John Watson (below)heading the list following his almost
unbelievable victory from 22nd on the grid at the 1983 United States Grand
Prix West. In fact, it was a superb weekend for the McLaren-ford team as
Watson’s team-mate Niki Lauda sealed a one-two for the team having
started back in 23rd. Only 12 drivers finished that day, with Briton’s Nigel
Mansell bringing up the rear.
12.05 For those who missed it, here was Hamilton’s crash into the
barriers yesterday. The Briton was taken to the medical centre and said he
was Ok but suffering with ‘sore knees’. He was the only driver who chose to
sit in his car rather than sit up for the drivers’ parade and gingerly
stepped into his car moments ago. The 2008 world champ might be struggling
more than he is letting on.
11.55 Morning all. You could’ve almost forgiven Lewis
Hamilton had he thrown his toys out of the pram in the Mercedes
garage yesterday evening, slapping one foot to the ground and wailing ‘it’s
not fair’.
They say bad luck comes in three, well after crashing out of qualifying to
initially start 15th on the grid, and then being penalised another five
places this morning for changing his gearbox, you wonder what will be round
the corner for the world title contender today.
Brake failure was the cause of Hamilton’s spin early on during Q1 yesterday –
an issue that didn’t affect team-mate Nico Rosberg who cruised to an easy
pole.
Yes Rosberg had a great slice of bad luck two weeks ago when mechanical
failure cut short his day at Silverstone which allowed a ‘gift’ of a win for
Hamilton (Rosberg’s words, not mine). But overall this season, Hamilton has
certainly been dealt the dud cards.
So will Hamilton produce another storming performance from the back of the
grid to pick up enough points to keep the pressure on Rosberg. Or, will
Rosberg produce another faultless performance to extend his lead at the top
of the drivers’s championship? Or, will Valteri Bottas continue his good
form and become only the fourth different driver to win a race this season?
Questions, questions, questions. Stay tuned to find out how the 10th race of
the campaign plays out.
In the meantime, get in touch. Email vicki.hodges@telegraph.co.uk
your thoughts