Sebastian Vettel has finally achieved his first home victory in Germany and has defeated his Juli curse because he also had never won a Grand Prix in this month.
After Lewis Hamilton took the Pole Position on Saturday, Vettel managed it to qualify on second place. His team-mate Mark Webber started from third place ahead of both Lotus. Ricciardo achieved another good Top Ten position in front of both Ferraris. Rosberg failed to get into Q3 because of a strategy error of the team.
Today both Red Bulls had a fantastic start and were able to pass Hamilton before turning into the first corner. Vettel leaded the race ahead of Webber.
After a few laps Massa suddenly spun in Turn 1. He kept stuck in the 5th gear and was unable to downshift which forced him to retire. Such a shame after he already passed Ricciardo and being ahead of his team-mate.
The first pit stops came and also Webber went to the pits. Accidently the right rear wheel wasn't fit properly and the Australian driver was released too early. He lost the wheel a few metres after he continued driving - the wheel hit a cameraman. As it was later confirmed, the FOM worker has 'only' some broken bones and a concussion.
Webber stopped at the end of the pitlane and the team pushed him backwards to the pits where he got another wheel. He lost more than one lap because of this incident.
Meanwhile, both Lotus showed a strong pace closing in on Vettel. Obviously the hot temperatures helped the Lotus again to show their potential. By this time Vettel led ahead of Grosjean and Raikkönen.
A few laps later the Marussia of Jules Bianchi had a massive engine failure before the NGK chicane. He stopped on the grass and yellow flags were waved.
While the marshals were saving the car it rolled backwards over the other side of the track. Luckily the leaders just came a few seconds later to this corner. Too dangerous for the race control - Safety Car was deployed. The most of the drivers decided to make a pit stop.
This was a lucky situation for Mark Webber, because he was allowed to 'unlap'.
After the restart he could easily gain some positions.
In the front Vettel kept leading the race until Grosjean made another pit stop forcing the German to cover him, which let Raikkönen alone in front.
It first looked like the Finn tried to stay out until the end but he decided to pit around 10 laps before the finish with another set of soft tyres. Alonso, who started with a different strategy, took his first set of soft tyres. They both were approaching Vettel and Grosjean.
Lotus ordered Grosjean to let Raikkönen pass because he was on better tyres. Raikkönen closed in to Vettel down to one second and Alonso was also very close to Grosjean.
But the positions remained the same through the finish but it was close.
Mercedes had another race to forget - comparable to Bahrain or Barcelona. Hamilton dropped down the positions, had awesome battles with his former team-mates Alonso and Button and finally crossed the line as 5th. Rosberg finished 9th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg who took the last point. Mark Webber recovered after his failed first pit stop and scored as 7th six additional points.
Williams has failed another time to finish in the points this season although Maldonado was in a good position until his last pit stop - it took long to fit a tyre. Force India was also unable to score points, they were obviously struggling with the new tyres, tyre rules or the temperatures.
But luckily this time - no punctures! Looks like the new tyre rules has helped so far.
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