Sebastian Vettel finally added his home race to his list of grand prix victories after a close win under pressure from Kimi Raikkonen.
The outcome turned on a mid-race Safety Car deployment due to a bizarre incident which saw an unmanned car rolling backwards across the track. Jules Bianchi hurriedly evacuated his Marussia when a fire started at the back. It was quickly extinguished only for the driverless car to roll across the circuit.
That left Vettel leading the two Lotuses, Romain Grosjean ahead of Raikkonen. But while Vettel and Grosjean made early final stops for medium tyres Raikkonen stayed out longer and switched to the softs.
After coming out of the pits Lotus told Grosjean to let him team mate by – which he did – and Raikkonen spent the final laps edging into Vettel’s lead. He was within DRS range on the final tour, but crossed the line still a second behind the Red Bull.
Grosjean held Alonso back for third, the Ferrari driver coming to a stop shortly after the chequered flag. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton, who was passed by both Red Bulls at the start, ended up overtaking Jenson Button for fifth on the final lap.
Mark Webber came home seventh after a problem at his pit stop which could have had far worse implications. His right-rear wheel nut was inadequately secured and flew off as he left, striking a cameraman who was taken to hospital.
Sergio Perez, Nico Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg completed the points scorers. Felipe Massa spun out earlier on, saying his engine switched off while he was downshifting.
2013 German Grand Prix
Image ?é?® Red Bull/Getty
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
7th July 2013, 15:44
Massa keeps finding new ways how to let his team mate by. And it was the one of the most subtle yet. Perhaps because of 3 year anniversary in German GP, lol.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
7th July 2013, 19:04
He admits that it’s his own mistake. He can’t afford such errors when Merc has pipped Ferrari to 2nd place in WCC. If he doesn’t start performing well, this might be his swansong in Formula 1 or at least at Ferrari.
Ron (@rcorporon)
7th July 2013, 15:46
Congrats to Seb for winning his home GP!
Go RBR Go!
tmax (@tmax)
7th July 2013, 15:46
Great race. Good nail biting finish.
Looks like Ferrari did not have a huge pace today as they were more on defensive with the strategy.
tmax (@tmax)
7th July 2013, 15:49
It was a nice surprise too see Grosejan was able to hold back Alonso using his used medium compared to Alonso’s Fresh Softs….
Shreyas Mohanty (@)
7th July 2013, 15:53
It is not Grosjean’s credit. It’s Alonso’s “debit.”
mixwell (@mixwell)
7th July 2013, 15:58
by that logic, Alonso can not be credited for half his races. .
comeon ! Grosjean really deserves some credit now. he drove superbly and was able to finish ahead of Alonso
Sheila (@st91)
7th July 2013, 15:53
I suppose not many people will share my opinion but this season Vettel has improved a lot his performance and right now IMO he’s the best driver, if he can keep like this I don’t think they can catch him for the WDC.
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
7th July 2013, 15:54
+1. I agree with you 100%.
Lance (@lancelot)
7th July 2013, 16:31
I agree with you.
Alexandre Freitas (@piquet-brasil-sc)
7th July 2013, 18:17
Me 2
OmarR-Pepper (@)
7th July 2013, 17:17
+1. If anybody keeps saying “it’s the car, just Newey”, it’s just absurd. How should he win to be aknowledged? in the Flinstones’ feet-powered car?
Jimmy Hearn (@alebelly74)
7th July 2013, 17:30
I’d have to agree this is the best he’s ever driven. I think all the drivers are having a difficult time out there and Seb is showing he is the best this year. I’m also a Lewis fan, but he seems to let too much stuff get in his head.
Tariq Patel (@mdtariqp)
7th July 2013, 18:08
What I think is Vettel makes a note of all the mistakes he has done in the past and tries not to repeat then and judging by the statistics, seems to be doing a pretty good job at it.
Also, I believe he is mentally extremely strong and does not let any of the negative comments affect him.
anon
7th July 2013, 18:40
He’s improved, but so have other drivers. He’s always been this good it’s just that people for some reason choose not to see it.
He’s on his way to be GOAT.
iFelix
8th July 2013, 10:26
agreed!
bchgrl1478 (@svfan)
7th July 2013, 23:25
I agree with you.
DaveF1 (@davef1)
7th July 2013, 16:03
As I die hard Ferrari and Alonso fan, that was a beautiful race by Seb. Must be really special winning your home GP.
Gutted for Grosjean, I understand Kimi is in the title race but it felt really harsh the way Lotus screwed him over. No doubt the race will help him confidence wise, more of that Romain and less crashing please.
Also felt bad for Maldonado, had an excellent race. Shame a dodgy pitstop cost Williams points in their 600th GP.
DaveF1 (@davef1)
7th July 2013, 16:08
Then again as a Ferrari fan I can’t exactly take the moral high ground when it comes to screwing over number 2 drivers.
Resort2Spa (@resort2spa)
7th July 2013, 16:34
What happened to MASSA?
Manished
7th July 2013, 16:18
you should gutted for Kimi that got screwed by team on the first pit stop when he was lapping faster than those on medium on used soft and had to pit behind the two mercs and got held up handing up the advantage to Romain to pull over a gap of 10 sec.
Yoshisune (@yobo01)
7th July 2013, 16:25
But then the safety car came in, so effectively there was no harm done for Kimi.
Manished
7th July 2013, 16:30
win was lost there
Jon (@jons)
7th July 2013, 16:06
Impressive Vettel…
Perfect start and kept behind both Kimi and Romain extracting the maximum of his Red Bull. As Boullier said on an interview Lotus had the fastest car today.
rambler
7th July 2013, 16:38
Alonso’s car just died after crossing the finish line… Didn’t seem like the usual turning it off and parking… Out of fuel perhaps? Should be interesting
OmarR-Pepper (@)
7th July 2013, 17:20
probably making sure he passes the minimum weight, not totally out of fuel, just turned off
rambler
7th July 2013, 17:38
As stated, it wasn’t a normal turning off and parking. The car just died.
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
7th July 2013, 17:49
How could it be without fuel given the safety car period? He would have had to been seriously underfuelled.
Tariq Patel (@mdtariqp)
7th July 2013, 18:02
Maybe it was down down to the blistering laps he put in initially when he took on the softs.
I did not expect Alonso to put on the softs till lap 52. But even then he should not have run out of fuel.
rambler
7th July 2013, 21:19
They always are. If running maximum power all the race is the goal at least. Which he most likely tried as much as possible. 10 KG is 3-4 tenths a lap usually and being that much lighter early in the race can make the ending of your race a lot easier. They always underfuel.
obviously
7th July 2013, 19:41
Massa is just horrible. He keeps saying how something, seemingly, out of his control cost him a strong result when it messes up his race, but each time he is given a chance, he screws up his own race anyway.
There was also only one race this year so far where he took points off Vettel.
celeste (@celeste)
8th July 2013, 2:37
Funny is the same Alonso said all the time, maybe Ferrari gave them the script, or Ferrari really needs to work harder…
Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
7th July 2013, 21:55
Vettel win… Yawn lol
David Margono (@woshidavid95)
8th July 2013, 3:12
I was hoping Grosjean could win the race and I was pretty upset that Lotus asked him to move over for Raikkonen. Then again, Raikkonen is well ahead in the WDC standings and he did have the pace to challenge Vettel in the closing stages unlike Grosjean so I suppose it’s fair enough. Still, were it not for that safety car I think Grosjean could have actually challenged for his first race win.