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 7^th or so, Bottas easing into 2^nd. 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 3^rd.

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 2^nd, 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 3^rd, 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 4^th is still great for Racing Point and will help them a lot in the very competitive midfield contest.

Sainz had another strong result with 5^th, 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 6^th, his best result and a cracking team points tally for Toro Rosso.

Another good result for Raikkonen and Giovinazzi, who finished 7^th and 8^th. Haas nitwits Grosjean and Magnussen banged wheels, again, blamed one another, again, but still got 9^th and 10^th. Hamilton finished 11^th, 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