Half season review - Part 2 - Testgate and Punctures

After the Monaco Grand Prix followed a big discussion if this tyre test in Barcelona was legal or not. Red Bull and Ferrari protested these topic before the race and FIA had to investigate what is going to happen. It also was THE TOPIC at the following Canadian Grand Prix...

Beside the politics the teams and drivers had to face the race in the Montreal. In the rainy qualifying Valtteri Bottas surprisingly managed it to be 3rd. Vettel took the pole ahead of Hamilton.

The German was also able to win a superior race for the first time - even with a few mistakes like missing the braking point into Turn 1. Alonso came from behind and beat Hamilton with a nice overtaking move at the start-finish straight and finally finished second.

Unfortunately a marshal died while recovering a crashed Sauber car.

Ahead of the next Grand Prix Mercedes and Pirelli had to go to court. In the end Mercedes and Pirelli were reprimanded and the German team was suspended from the Young Driver Test (YDT) in July.

The following British Grand Prix showed us that they should argue if a tyre test is legal, more that such a test is necessary.

Hamilton was leading the first couple of laps and than suddenly his left rear tyre was destroyed. He lost his lead, returned into the pit lane to get a new tyre and found himself back at the end of the field.

Massa who had another strong start and gained a lot of positions also became a victim. He lost control in the middle of a corner and spun.

After another tyre failure of Jean-Eric Vergne Charlie Whiting decided to deploy the Safety Car.

All drivers were ordered to avoid using the kerbs to prevent further tyre problems.

At this time Vettel was leading the race ahead of Nico Rosberg. But the German had to stop because of a gearbox failure and caused the next Safety Car deployment. Most of the cars made another pit stop for the final laps at that time.
Shortly after the Safety Car came in Perez got a tyre failure and the parts of the rubber almost hit Fernando Alonsos head who was attacking him.
Mark Webber came closer and closer to Rosberg but he would have needed a few more laps.
The German driver won his second race of the season.

Apart from all these tyre issues announced Mark Webber before the British Grand Prix his retirement at the end of the season. That was the start of the Silly Season....

F1 German GP 2013 race report

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.