2011 German Grand Prix - Hamilton secures thrilling German win

ECSTASY: Hamilton celebrates a great German success

LEWIS Hamilton used the cooler track temperatures at a very cold Nurburgring to win a thrilling German Grand Prix yesterday.  Hamilton produced a weekend of incredible performances to deliver his second win of the season, as Sebastian Vettel had an off-day infront of his partisan home supporters.  Vettel finished off the podium in fourth place, behind Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari and the pole sitter, Mark Webber. 

     Hamilton qualified a sensational second on the grid, with one of the best laps of his F1 career.  He started behind Mark Webber and took full advantage of another terrible getaway from the Aussie.  Hamilton charged into the first corner ahead of Webber, whilst Alonso eased inside Vettel for third place.  A lap later, the Spaniard ran wide onto a wet patch at turn three and allowed Vettel back past him.  Further back, Nick Heidfeld connected with Paul di Resta, spinning the Force India driver to the back of the pack.

EXIT: Heidfeld tangles with Buemi and makes a spectacular exit

     On lap eight, Alonso showed his stunning straight-line speed to maximum effect, as he closed down Vettel and cruised inside him into the first corner.  Two laps later, Vettel made a very uncharacteristic mistake.  He got on a white line, hit a wet puddle and spun away seven seconds at turn ten.  This mistake left him with little hope of catching the top three for the rest of the afternoon.  Fellow German Heidfeld was doing much worse.  The usually reliable Renault driver was squeezed off the track by Sebastian Buemi approaching the NGK chicane.  Heidfeld went briefly airborne and ended in the gravel trap.  Buemi picked up a puncture and was given the blame by the race stewards, meaning the Swiss driver carries a five-place grid penalty into next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

     At the front, Hamilton’s early tyre advantage had disappeared and Webber was right on the back of the McLaren.  As the marshals were recovering Heidfeld’s crashed car, Lewis got distracted and went in too deep into the first apex of the chicane.  He was a sitting duck, as Webber angled himself inside Hamilton at the Coca Cola curve.  However, the Brit wasn’t finished and used the slipstream to duck back infront approaching the first corner.  Webber pitted shortly afterwards and used the ‘undercut’ on fresher tyres to steal the lead from Hamilton in the first round of pitstops.  The problems continued for Vettel, as he was overtaken by a slightly reluctant Felipe Massa.  The world champion spent the remainder of the afternoon staring at the back of the Ferrari’s exhaust.

     However, Webber couldn’t pull away from Hamilton and Alonso and an earlier second pitstop backfired, as he dropped to third.  In fact, Alonso briefly had the lead on lap 33, but Hamilton drove clean around the outside of his bitter rival into turn two and his sensational bravery landed him back the lead.  Whilst Hamilton was having a great weekend, Jenson Button was having a mere.  A dismal qualifying and a very poor start left him stuck behind Vitaly Petrov for most of the first stint of the race.  Although he briefly worked his way upto sixth, a hydraulic problem forced Button into the pits on lap 36 and into a second consecutive DNF. 

     The question now was how slow the prime medium compound tyre was going to be in comparison to the option tyre.  Petrov was the guinea pig and his quicker pace suggested that the drop-off wasn’t as bad as anticipated.  Hamilton pitted with nine laps to go and traffic forced Alonso’s hand early.  This ended the Spaniard’s hopes of back-to-back wins.  Webber tried to stay out longer, but his softer tyres were past their best and he got nailed down into third.  Attention switched then onto a final lap pit showdown between Massa and Vettel.  The Red Bull mechanics put in the quickest stop of the day and a slow Ferrari pitstop allowed Vettel to take fourth position again on the last lap.

     The way was clear for Hamilton to take his 16^th career victory and his first points finish, let alone podium result at the Nurburgring.  Alonso finished four seconds behind to collect his fourth podium in five races, whilst Webber was left disappointed by his lack of pace that left him down in third and stretches his winless drought to a year.  Vettel finished fourth; the first race he has finished off the podium since Korea last year.  Massa was fifth, whilst Adrian Sutil illuminated Force India’s underperforming season with a great drive to sixth place.  The two Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher came seventh and eighth.  Schumacher wasn’t helped by a mid-race spin.  The final points went to the consistent Kamur Kobayashi and Petrov’s Renault.

     If McLaren and Ferrari can work together, we might still have a championship battle.  Sebastian Vettel showed some cracks in Germany and Hamilton and Alonso will be hoping to keep the pressure up in Budapest next weekend.

F1 classic races - Europe

IN A new series, I will be looking back at six classic races every weekend from the country about to stage an event in the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship.  This is my selection, of races held under the banner of the European Grand Prix, largely at the Nurburgring, with servings from Jerez and Donington Park between 1993 and 2010.  Enjoy the archive!

1993 (Donington Park)

EFFORTLESS: Senna completes 'The Greatest Lap Ever,' passing Prost

WINNER: Ayrton Senna (McLaren Ford), 2^nd: Damon Hill (Williams Renault), 3^rd: Alain Prost (Williams Renault)

AYRTON Senna’s greatest drive came on a damp and soggy Easter weekend in 1993.  The Brazilian started fourth on the grid and got crowded out at the start, dropping to fifth.  Unbelievably, he took the lead by the end of the first lap in the ‘Greatest First Lap’ ever driven.  First, he slipped down the inside of Michael Schumacher into Redgate and then drove around the outside of Karl Wendlinger’s Sauber at the tricky Craner Curves.  After a couple of fantastic corners, he muscled his way past Damon Hill and went after Alain Prost, edging past Prost in the Melbourne Hairpin section.  He went on to win by a full minute.  Wendlinger was taken out on the first lap by a hopeless Michael Andretti whilst Prost made seven comical pitstops on his way to third.  He only got the podium after Rubens Barrichello cruelly stopped with four laps to go; his Jordan starved of fuel pressure when a rostrum in just his third ever race was on the cards.

1995 (Nurburgring)

WINNER: Michael Schumacher (Benetton Renault), 2^nd: Jean Alesi (Ferrari), 3^rd: David Coulthard (Williams Renault)

THIS was the day when Michael Schumacher virtually wrapped up his second championship with a stunning drive, that even Damon Hill couldn’t complain with.  On a day when Hill needed to win, he drove appallingly.  He made a bad start and then blew his chances by trying an ambitious lunge on Jean Alesi which saw the Williams front wing removed.  Recovering and chasing down team-mate David Coulthard, Hill lost control on lap 59 and smashed into the tyres.  Alesi had been brave enough to start on slicks on a damp track and led from the 11^th lap onwards.  However, he struggled to hold off a quicker Schumacher on worn rubber and with four laps to go, the German made an aggressive move in the final chicane which looked risky, but paid off.  Alesi backed off and Schumacher went on to record his eighth win of a sensational 1995 season. 

1997 (Jerez)

WINNER: Mika Hakkinen (McLaren Mercedes), 2^nd: David Coulthard (McLaren Mercedes), 3^rd: Jacques Villeneuve (Williams Renault)

THE title decider in 1997 was between Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve.  Schumacher was one point ahead heading to Jerez, and the title rivals started on the front row together after an unbelievable qualifying session that saw Villeneuve, Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen set the same exact time of 1.21.072!  At the start, Villeneuve got Wheelspin and dropped to third behind the two Germans.  Frentzen let Jacques go on lap nine, allowing the Canadian to closedown Schumacher’s 4.1second advantage.  On lap 47, the Williams driver made his move into the Dry Sac bend.  He slithered down the inside, as Schumacher made a blatant attempt to turn in on his title rival.  It was significant contact, but Villeneuve continued, whilst the Ferrari rebounded into the gravel trap and out of the race.  The Williams was damaged and Villeneuve backed off dramatically on the last lap, to allow the McLaren’s of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard through, as he only needed fifth for the title.  Consequently, this meant that Hakkinen won his first race in Formula One, at his 96^th attempt.  Schumacher was blamed and vilified for the collision with Villeneuve and got a fine and expulsion from the final 1997 driver’s championship table for his actions.

 

1999 (Nurburgring)

WINNER: Johnny Herbert (Stewart Ford), 2^nd: Jarno Trulli (Prost Peugeot), 3^rd: Rubens Barrichello (Stewart Ford)

JOHNNY Herbert gambled correctly in an ever-changing race which left the world championship wide open and gave the Stewart team their maiden victory, before Jaguar took over in the year 2000.  The race started dramatically, when Alexander Wurz, attempting to avoid Damon Hill’s slowing Jordan, clipped Pedro Diniz’s Sauber.  The Brazilian was launched into a terrifying barrel roll, which saw the rollover hoop collapse, but Pedro escaped unharmed.  Heinz-Harald Frentzen saw his title hopes die as his Jordan coasted to a sudden halt out of the pits, whilst leading.  David Coulthard also lost his championship chances by chucking his McLaren off the road in wet conditions.  Giancarlo Fisichella was another leader who spun off and a puncture ruined Ralf Schumacher’s hopes of a maiden victory after he had driven faultlessly.  Herbert had only started 14^th, but was on the right tyres at the right time to win.  Prost earnt their best ever result, courtesy of Jarno Trulli, as title rivals Mika Hakkinen and Eddie Irvine floundered in fifth and seventh places.  Irvine wasn’t helped by a cataclysmic pitstops when the mechanics only put three wheels on his car!

2005 (Nurburgring)

WINNER: Fernando Alonso (Renault), 2^nd: Nick Heidfeld (Williams BMW), 3^rd: Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari)

A LAST lap grandstand finish was set-up by a seriously vibrating tyre on Kimi Raikkonen’s leading McLaren.  Raikkonen led from the start, but made a mistake at half-distance and took a trip across the gravel, which gave Nick Heidfeld a brief lead.  Later in the race, Kimi flat-spotted his tyre badly lapping Jacques Villeneuve’s Sauber, which allowed Fernando Alonso close right up on the McLaren.  As tyre changes were not permitted in 2005, the Finn had to battle on, but as he begun lap 60 (the final lap), the front suspension collapsed under extreme stress and pitched Raikkonen off the circuit at turn one.  Alonso was left to collect the unlikely spoils and strengthen his grip on the world championship.  Three-stopping Heidfeld and Rubens Barrichello were promoted onto the podium, whilst a pitlane speeding penalty cost David Coulthard a rostrum; he finished fourth for Red Bull.  A first-lap accident took out Mark Webber in the second Williams and spun Juan Pablo Montoya down to a distant seventh place finish.  So, it was a black day for McLaren and a pivotal day in the world championship battle of 2005.

2007 (Nurburgring)

WINNER: Fernando Alonso (McLaren Mercedes), 2^nd: Felipe Massa (Ferrari), 3^rd: Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing Renault)

FERNANDO Alonso overcame severe thunderstorms and a strong Ferrari challenge to claim a much-needed victory in 2007.  The race build-up was dominated by a serious accident for Lewis Hamilton in qualifying, caused by a faulty wheel gun.  Although he spent the night in hospital, Hamilton was allowed to start from tenth on the grid, but he ended up having a bad day.  First, he collected a puncture when the BMW Sauber drivers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica stupidly collided on the second corner of the race.  Next, he went off at the first corner in conditions more akin to a swimming pool flood!  The monsoon downpour claimed Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil, Nico Rosberg, Scott Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi and Hamilton lost a lap sitting in the gravel.  The race was suspended until conditions improved, which left Marcus Winkelhock, a one-off replacement for the sacked Christjian Albers in the Spyker team, in the lead.  Winkelhock was soon gobbled up by the quicker cars however.  Kimi Raikkonen retired with a hydraulic failure and a bad tyre choice left Hamilton stranded in ninth.  Alonso hunted down Felipe Massa and passed the Brazilian with three laps to go to claim a sensational and dramatic victory.  Mark Webber finished third for Red Bull.