F1:Germany - Vettel Finally Cracks It!

Well, what an energetic and frenetic race that was!

This review comes a couple of days late given that I listened to this one on 5live on Tuesday having been slow in watching the F1 Forum from the British GP last weekend.

It doesn't matter, because that won't stop me from doing my utmost to bring you as high a quality review as I always do...


Qualifying

I think the real story here goes to the Mercedes team who, after celebrating last time out with Nico Rosberg on the top step of the podium, ended up having mixed fortunes because Rosberg was eliminated in Q2, having looked impressive in pace, yet was left ruing the team's decision not to send him out again, his qualifying time of "1:30.326" was assumed to have been enough... not so!

This meant that he lined up on the sixth row of the grid alongside the Force India of Paul Di Resta who was looking to continue his recent good run of form.

The closing moments it was, when the drama peaked as it was assumed that Seb Vettel would grab pole position and start his home GP where he preferred, only to narrowly miss out to Lewis Hamilton. The pair of them managed to grab an extra lap at the end of qualifying with Vettel taking pole from Mark Webber only to be denied himself by a solitary tenth of a second as Hamilton stole it from under his nose.

The Race

The action started from the first corner with Webber slipping down the order only to be struck by Romain Grosjean, the at times not-so-smooth criminal of racing, lol, who would later go on to run an impressive race just behind Vettel in the second third of the race.

Before that though, there was plenty of drama as in clipping Mark Webber, once again compromising the nose of his Red Bull car, this made the management of the first stint that bit more complicated for him. But it was nothing he wasn't used to, the man being the victim not for the first time of such a manoeuvre.

Vettel meanwhile, got the jump of Hamilton at the start meaning that Webber could bounce back (sic!) from his earlier mishap to lock out the front row for Red Bull at the end of lap one.

The first casualty was Felipe Massa on lap four his car seeming to stall, with a further four laps later, Mark Webber's first pit stop was something of a disaster as a problem fitting the rear right wheel meant he was allowed to drive off only for the wheel to roll down the pit lane narrowly missing the Lotus engineers only to collect the BBC cameraman whom we can only hope is recovering well after his broken collarbone... get well soon, bro'!

Get this, around lap fourteen, Grosjean it was who was leading the race!

This was during the first stage of pitstops mind, so little could be made of this, and also little would have been expected had he not gone much further in a similar position. Again, not so...

A sublime piece of overtaking allowed Kimi Raikonnen to first overtake Nico Rosberg with a tough yet fair outside overtaking manoeuvre, with Rosberg's Mercedes team-mate, Hamilton, being the next casualty on exactly the same corner a few laps later.

The Marussia of Jules Bianchi burst into flames, presumably from an oil fire, ending his race. Of all things, what happened next was ridiculous as somehow the car was left unattended to roll backwards across the circuit forcing the safety car to emerge for the first time this race (this would ultimately be the moment where my recording was compromised as Freeview+ seems notoriously bad at adjusting its recording capacity for a programme if it over-runs).

The safety car would be out for around five laps before Vettel got the hammer down and took off like a scalded cat that he is at times, near-expert in his restarts. He would soon after come into the pits for his pit-stop giving Lotus the impetus to try and keep Raikonnen out for the race win.

However, his fortunes wouldn't hold out as with ten laps remaining he was called into the pits, the tyres seemingly much too worn to continue. He would emerge, along with Fernando Alonso on the soft tyres, a gamble that would look like it could pay off. Again not so!

With five laps remaining, Grosjean was given an order from his team to let the Iceman past, given that it he would haul in seven more points than third position in the race.

The closing lap saw Hamilton overtake Jensen Button in a brave manoeuvre that would see him pushing on for fifth position.

So, having said all of this Seb Vettel was pushed by Raikonnen all the way to the end, the strategy enough to keep him second 4.8 seconds ahead of Roman Grosjean. This left the podium looking like this for something like the third time this season, proving that what others have said about the tyres is a non-entity for Lotus to consider because they've clearly got the pace to match the race winner!

So, onto driver of the day and oh, how I wanted it to be Daniel Ricciardo, but having finished down in 12th position, I cannot really go for him this time instead I will pick someone who may surprise you: -

Romain Grosjean

Yes, his overtake on Webber was brash and harsh (again!), but I seriously think that this gentleman has the potential, if he can just keep his head when all around are losing theirs, because at the minute it's a little too much of the opposite. Don't let that concern you though, as he seems to have stamped out the majority of those silly mistakes, he just needs to focus and buckle his belts up to get back to the incident-free bro' we've seen earlier this season.

Yes, I could have picked Raikonnen and yes I could have picked the race winner, Vettel, but for me I see Grosjean as the benchmark of what can be achieved when all around you seem to be focusing on what your team-mate is doing (come on! It's not the first time he's finished on the podium this season, is it, bro's?!).

Links are made to the Red Bull Racing team at the moment with Raikonnen and it's hardly surprising given that he's set a new record for the most consecutive number of points finishes. But Grosjean I think needs that experienced head (like when Schumacher was partnered with Rosberg last season) to teach him the best ways to stay on track (sic!) and not lose it!

Next time out it's Hungary and though I know not about you, I know I am eager for more (nope, I've already cracked that joke once this year, so there'll be no more of that thanks!) so we'll see if last weekend's non-finish was just a blip for Vettel or whether there's more where that came from. Hopefully not because after winning his first German GP, he deserves to be where he is and who knows, he may, just may, go on to win his fourth consecutive world title!

Peace out!


The Lanky Penguin