Germany: post-race analysis 2019
Well, that was quite
the race. The Perez bet failed early as he was the first (but not the
last) to introduce his car to the barriers (his first DNF of the
year, incidentally). That aside, the race was fantastic, with
slippery conditions catching out most of the frontrunners and giving
the midfield teams a nibble of the larger points positions.
A lot happened, and I’m
a bit off-colour so I’m afraid the complicated and many doings of
the race will be covered rather more concisely than they deserve.
Off the line the race
was wet and Verstappen left the handbrake on. He slipped down to
about 7th or so, Bottas easing into 2nd. Vettel
gobbled up half a dozen others on the first lap. Verstappen fought
back and things settled down into the Mercedes leading with the
Dutchman 3rd.
Perez spun on the
slippery track. This brought out the first of many safety and virtual
safety cars. Leclerc and Hulkenberg really benefited from a short
VSC, diving into the pits for fresh tyres whilst everyone else was
compelled to be a bit slow.
Leclerc then looked a
real threat. Miraculously, Ferrari then seemed to make another smart
call. Leclerc pitted for slicks, going onto the soft. He was fast. He
was superfast. And then he was out. The soft tyre lacked the bite to
prevent a slide turning terminal and his Ferrari smacked into the
barriers. Vettel was at the low end of the points, seemingly lacking
the pace of his team mate or the likes of Hamilton.
Late on, Verstappen had
taken the lead by virtue of smart driving and opting for the inters
when others were sticking, wrongly, with slicks. Towards the end,
Hulkenberg was very high in the points, getting passed by the two
Mercedes, and then, alas, also finding himself in the barriers.
At a late safety car
Stroll was the only man on slicks. Would he look smart, or stupid?
Smart. Very smart. The move enabled him to be in the podium
positions, along with Kvyat, Verstappen leading and the two Mercedes
getting caught flat-footed. Hamilton’s woe was compounded by a 5s
time penalty for re-entering the pits (having had a mild crash) the
wrong side of the bollard. He was well down the order, and a spin put
him even further back, last. Bottas wasn’t quite in the podium
places yet but had a golden opportunity to narrow the gap and get
closer to a maiden title.
And then he spun at the
exact same place Hamilton did. Only his Mercedes didn’t recover.
More safety car laps.
Vettel had about four cars ahead of him. And then three. Two. One.
Could he have caught Verstappen with more laps? Perhaps not. But the
fact remains he recovered from plumb last to 2nd, and slew
the demons of yesterday and yesteryear. Great to see him driving well
and actually enjoying some good luck for once.
Meanwhile, Kvyat held
on for a well-deserved 3rd, which I think is only the
second time Toro Rosso have achieved a podium (the other being
Vettel’s Monza win during the late Neolithic). Stroll was unable to
retain his podium place but 4th is still great for Racing
Point and will help them a lot in the very competitive midfield
contest.
Sainz had another
strong result with 5th, his team mate Norris sadly
suffering a technical failure (maybe the only chap to retire for a
reason other than the slippery conditions). Albon was 6th,
his best result and a cracking team points tally for Toro Rosso.
Another good result for
Raikkonen and Giovinazzi, who finished 7th and 8th.
Haas nitwits Grosjean and Magnussen banged wheels, again, blamed one
another, again, but still got 9th and 10th.
Hamilton finished 11th, ahead of the two Williams. Gasly
was classified, but struck the back of Albon’s car and had a DNF
late on.
Dire for Renault,
though, with a double DNF.
Typed more than I’d
planned but there was a lot more that happened. We’ve had some
cracking consecutive races and this probably had as many incidents as
the previous two combined.
I think Verstappen also
got the fastest lap.
Drivers:
Hamilton 223
Bottas 184
Verstappen 162
Bottas had a great
opportunity to claw back ground and stop the rot. Instead he cocked
up and lacked the luck (in relative terms) Hamilton enjoyed,
ploughing into the barriers. Verstappen clocked up his second win of
the season with a near flawless drive (he did spin, but it’d be
easier to list the chaps who didn’t have such problems than those
who did), including multiple restarts. The gap to the Mercedes is
still about 60 points, but it was close to 90 a few races ago. Time
enough to try and have a crack at the title? Probably not. But if
Mercedes make another critical mistake, they might find a youthful
Dutchman breathing down their neck.
Constructors:
Mercedes 407
Ferrari 261
Red Bull 217
McLaren 70
Toro Rosso 42
Renault 39
Alfa Romeo 36
Racing Point 31
Haas 19
Williams 0
A great race for
midfield teams to get strong points, with the Mercedes, Gasly, and
Leclerc all failing to trouble the scorers. Makes Renault’s double
DNF all the more painful. From grappling with McLaren to be best of
the rest they’ve fallen into the clutches of a very tight midfield
battle with Toro Rosso and Alfa Romeo, with Racing Point not far
behind. Haas find themselves languishing at the back (except for the
unfortunate Williams, of course). If Gasly were performing better,
Ferrari would be behind them right now.
The next race is
Hungary, in a week. Given the run of races we’ve had, I imagine
it’ll feel a little more sedate.
Morris Dancer
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