The 2013 German grand prix is one that will stay in the memory bank of Sebastian Vettel for quite some time. Bested in Saturday’s qualifying session by Lewis Hamilton the reigning world champion had it all to do in Sunday’s race.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished a tenth clear of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel to take pole position for the German grand prix.
The biggest casualty of qualifying was teammate and British grand prix race winner, Nico Rosberg. An initial run in the second part of Saturday’s qualifying appeared to be enough for the German to advance to the top ten shoot-out. However, a late flurry of flying laps in the closing stages of the second session of quali pushed Rosberg down to eleventh and out of contention for the front row of the grid. The German commented that the team had “underestimated the pace of the track.”
Ever dependable Jenson Button managed to drag his McLaren into the top ten and continually impressive Daniel Ricciardo and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg advanced to the final part of qualifying.
But Saturday once again belonged to Lewis Hamilton. The 2008 champion pipped championship leader Sebastian Vettel to pole position but a tenth of a second. Former German grand prix winner Mark Webber will start third and Kimi Raikkonen, in the Lotus, fourth. Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo will start fifth and sixth ahead of Massa, Alonso and Button.
Acing the start was the easiest part of Vettel’s afternoon as he had to fight both the Lotus’ Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel grabbed the lead of the race straight away and controlled the pace easily ahead of teammate Mark Webber.
The soft compound Pirelli tyres dictated early pitstops for the frontrunners and pushed Lotus’ Romain Grosjean into the lead of the race. Mark Webber’s first pitstop, on lap nine, took a dramatic turn as his right-rear wheel was not attached correctly. It bounced through the pitlane before striking and FOM camera-man, Paul Allen. The cameraman was being held for observation with a concussion, broken ribs and a fractured collar bone. Red Bull have been fined 30 000 Euro for unsafe release of Webber’s car.
A pitstop from Grosjean re-instated Vettel to the race lead but the German looked unlikely to maintain the lead under serious pressure from Grosjean’s Lotus. Nevertheless, the nearly ten second gap to third placed Raikkonen would soon be wiped out.
For what seemed like a fairly innocuous retirement from Marussia’s Jules Bianchi soon took a dangerous turn as Bianchi’s driverless car started to roll down the middle of the circuit. This prompted the deployment of the safety car on lap 24 and spurred a flurry of activity in the pitlane.
By the time the safety car pulled into the pitlane Vettel had both Lotuses breathing down his neck. Romain Grosjean tried his level best to overtake the Red Bull driver but it proved a bridge to far for the Frenchman who subsequently pitted on lap 40 for a fresh set of medium tyres. Vettel followed into the pitlane a lap later and relinquished the lead of the race to Kimi Raikkonen.
The Lotus driver was leading the race by 15 seconds over Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and felt that the tyres and the car were, possibly, performing well enough to hold on to the lead. However, communication problems between the pitwall and Raikkonen ultimately led to a late pitstop for the Finn.
“I could run longer and we had to think about if we should try to run until the end,” said Raikkonen. “But I had massive problem with the radio. I could hear the team but they couldn’t hear me, apart from at two corners.
Raikkonen last pitstop switched him to the soft compound Pirelli tyres and left him roughly three seconds adrift of the Red Bull. Despite closing down Vettel in the closing stages of the race and getting to within the DRS zone, the Finn was unable to regain the lead of the grand prix. Raikkonen finished one second behind race winner Sebastian Vettel.
Ferrari’s qualifying strategy hadn’t quite gone to plan with Felipe Massa retiring and Fernando Alonso only salvaging fourth. Polesitter Lewis Hamilton’s difficult afternoon was blighted with tyre issues but the Brit fought his way back to finish fifth overall. Jenson Button returned McLaren to the points paying positions with a fine sixth place ahead of a recovering Webber in seventh. Perez, Rosberg and Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.
The dismal run of form for Williams continued this weekend as the team failed to score even a single point on the weekend they are celebrating 600 grand prix starts.
Just seven days ago Sebastian Vettel walked away from the British grand prix without a single point in the bank. But he’s no three champion by mistake and this is not the impetuous Vettel of 2009. A mature, in control, winning machine is what Vettel has transformed himself into – and that is going to take some stopping in 2013.
As impressive a collection of achievements as Sebastian Vettel has been able to put together winning his home race has always eluded him. But a finely judged drive and resisting big pressure from Raikkonen has earned the championship leader a coveted home race victory.
