The 9th Grand Prix of the season might not have given us tyre blow outs, which is good, but it sure did give us a lot of racing action. Lets take a look at how Vettel ended his drought at home to win his first Home Grand Prix!
Practice:
Mercedes had the best possible start after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg topped FP1. Alonso had a bad start when he couldn't set a time. FP2 began and it was home favorite Sebastian Vettel finished the session on top. Mercedes still looked strong and it looked like it was going to be Mercedes Vs Red Bull this weekend! Sebastian Vettel continued his dominant form by finishing on top in FP3. It was Rosberg and Webber again behind him as Ferrari showed some pace!
Qualifying:
Q1 saw the usual suspects fall out in the form of the two Caterhams and Marussias. Along with them it was the two Williams cars, who were still struggling for pace! Q2 gave us a shock after Nico Rosberg failed to make the cut because the team decided against sending him out for another lap. Both Force India's failed to make the top 10 along with Perez, Gutierrez and Vergne. Lewis Hamilton put in a stunning lap to claim pole in Q3, Vettel and Webber were behind him. Lotus were in 4th and 5th and Ferrari occupied the 4th row! Hulkenburg rounded out the top 10.
Race:
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had really good starts and they went ahead of Hamilton, who suffered from wheel spin at the start, dropped back to 3rd! Massa, Van der Garde and Perez all made up positions at the start.
On Lap 3 Felipe Massa spun heading into turn 1. The car's anti stall dint work and this meant it was race over for the Brazilian. After the race Massa said that his car was stuck in 5th gear and it just wouldn't come back down. A disappointing ending to a good start.
Lap 7 onwards the drivers started pitting for fresher tires. The first pit stop for Webber was disastrous, he pulled away from his pit box before his rear wheel went on properly and this resulted in the wheel hitting a FOM Cameraman who was in the pits at that time. This knocked down the Cameraman by name Paul Allen.
The medical staff quickly took care of the cameraman who was airlifted to a Hospital. After the race FIA released a statement and it was reported that the Cameraman suffered from two broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a severe concussion.
Webber's car was wheeled back to his pit box and the wheel was put back on. This meant the Australian dropped to 21st and started a battle up the field! Webber's battle was given a boost after the field up because of a safety car period! The Australian had a great battle to finish in 7th!
On lap 23 Jules Bianchi's Marussia was up in flames but he safely got out of his car. The fire was quickly extinguished but the car rolled back on the track and this brought out the Safety Car. Immediately drivers came in for fresh tires. Hamilton's Mercedes was struggling on its tires and just wasn't as good as it was in Qualifying.
7 laps later on lap 30 the SC came in and the race restarted. Vettel managed to stay ahead while his teammate was charging up the field. Grosjean was up into P2 just ahead of Raikkonen. Both the Lotus cars looked amazing and were closing in on Vettel.
The top 3 were covered by less than 1.3 seconds. Just when they were getting any closer, Vettel and Grosjean pit for fresh tires as Kimi took over the lead.
At this point Button and Alonso were up there right behind this pack but they were yet to pit for options!
Vettel and Grosjean were making good progress but Hamilton made it difficult for them to pass.
With 10 laps remaining, Raikkonen and Alonso pit for the final time. Both put on the softs and were on their way to the flag!
Grosjean and Raikkonen exchanged fastest laps one after the other. The Lotus team asked Grosjean not to hold up Raikkonen, who looked mighty fast on those soft tires. After Raikkonen passed Grosjean with 5 laps to go, Alonso started closing in on the Frenchman for 3rd place.
Raikkonen was closing in on Vettel but with not a lot of laps left, The young German managed to hold off Kimi to the flag. This meant Vettel won his first Home Grand Prix and his first win in the month of July!
The Finn finished just 1 second behind Vettel. Grosjean managed to stay ahead of Alonso, while Hamilton made a late race charge to finish ahead of Button for 5th.
The McLaren's finished in 6th and 8th and this meant that they closed the gap to just 10 points to Force India as Force India, who finished in 11th and 13th, suffered their first point less race in 7 races! Hopefully this is just one off and they get back to speed in Hungary!
Rosberg finished in 9th after what was supposed to be a very good home race and Hulkenburg takes his second consecutive 10th place.
The Williams team failed to score a point yet again and their drivers finished in 15th and 16th!
Three retirements from this race are Massa, Bianchi and Vergne who suffered a Hydraulics failure during the race.
The Force India team was fined 5,000 euros for unsafe release during Di Resta's pitstop when he was released in Vergne's path and the Red Bull team were fined a heavy 30,000 euros for Webber's unsafe release.
Results:
Practice:
Mercedes had the best possible start after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg topped FP1. Alonso had a bad start when he couldn't set a time. FP2 began and it was home favorite Sebastian Vettel finished the session on top. Mercedes still looked strong and it looked like it was going to be Mercedes Vs Red Bull this weekend! Sebastian Vettel continued his dominant form by finishing on top in FP3. It was Rosberg and Webber again behind him as Ferrari showed some pace!
Qualifying:
Q1 saw the usual suspects fall out in the form of the two Caterhams and Marussias. Along with them it was the two Williams cars, who were still struggling for pace! Q2 gave us a shock after Nico Rosberg failed to make the cut because the team decided against sending him out for another lap. Both Force India's failed to make the top 10 along with Perez, Gutierrez and Vergne. Lewis Hamilton put in a stunning lap to claim pole in Q3, Vettel and Webber were behind him. Lotus were in 4th and 5th and Ferrari occupied the 4th row! Hulkenburg rounded out the top 10.
Race:
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had really good starts and they went ahead of Hamilton, who suffered from wheel spin at the start, dropped back to 3rd! Massa, Van der Garde and Perez all made up positions at the start.
On Lap 3 Felipe Massa spun heading into turn 1. The car's anti stall dint work and this meant it was race over for the Brazilian. After the race Massa said that his car was stuck in 5th gear and it just wouldn't come back down. A disappointing ending to a good start.
Lap 7 onwards the drivers started pitting for fresher tires. The first pit stop for Webber was disastrous, he pulled away from his pit box before his rear wheel went on properly and this resulted in the wheel hitting a FOM Cameraman who was in the pits at that time. This knocked down the Cameraman by name Paul Allen.The medical staff quickly took care of the cameraman who was airlifted to a Hospital. After the race FIA released a statement and it was reported that the Cameraman suffered from two broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a severe concussion.
Webber's car was wheeled back to his pit box and the wheel was put back on. This meant the Australian dropped to 21st and started a battle up the field! Webber's battle was given a boost after the field up because of a safety car period! The Australian had a great battle to finish in 7th!
On lap 23 Jules Bianchi's Marussia was up in flames but he safely got out of his car. The fire was quickly extinguished but the car rolled back on the track and this brought out the Safety Car. Immediately drivers came in for fresh tires. Hamilton's Mercedes was struggling on its tires and just wasn't as good as it was in Qualifying.
7 laps later on lap 30 the SC came in and the race restarted. Vettel managed to stay ahead while his teammate was charging up the field. Grosjean was up into P2 just ahead of Raikkonen. Both the Lotus cars looked amazing and were closing in on Vettel.The top 3 were covered by less than 1.3 seconds. Just when they were getting any closer, Vettel and Grosjean pit for fresh tires as Kimi took over the lead.
At this point Button and Alonso were up there right behind this pack but they were yet to pit for options!
Vettel and Grosjean were making good progress but Hamilton made it difficult for them to pass.
With 10 laps remaining, Raikkonen and Alonso pit for the final time. Both put on the softs and were on their way to the flag!
Raikkonen was closing in on Vettel but with not a lot of laps left, The young German managed to hold off Kimi to the flag. This meant Vettel won his first Home Grand Prix and his first win in the month of July!
The Finn finished just 1 second behind Vettel. Grosjean managed to stay ahead of Alonso, while Hamilton made a late race charge to finish ahead of Button for 5th.
The McLaren's finished in 6th and 8th and this meant that they closed the gap to just 10 points to Force India as Force India, who finished in 11th and 13th, suffered their first point less race in 7 races! Hopefully this is just one off and they get back to speed in Hungary!
Rosberg finished in 9th after what was supposed to be a very good home race and Hulkenburg takes his second consecutive 10th place.
The Williams team failed to score a point yet again and their drivers finished in 15th and 16th!
Three retirements from this race are Massa, Bianchi and Vergne who suffered a Hydraulics failure during the race.
The Force India team was fined 5,000 euros for unsafe release during Di Resta's pitstop when he was released in Vergne's path and the Red Bull team were fined a heavy 30,000 euros for Webber's unsafe release.
Results:
Next up is the Hungarian Grand Prix, another race which Vettel has not won! Will Vettel end his win less streak in Hungary or will Mercedes, Ferrari or Lotus spring a surprise? Lets wait and watch!
There will be a three day test from July 17th to 19th. This was supposed to be a young drivers test but the FIA and teams have agreed to let race drivers take part in order to help Pirelli develop and bring new and safer tires to the next race.
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