German Grand Prix 2010: Race Review

Race Review

Fernando Alonso has won a controversial German GP after apparent team orders while Red Bull and McLaren secured solid points positions to keep the championship fight interesting.

Sebastian Vettel managed to secure Red Bull’s tenth pole position of the season at his home GP in Germany. Alonso joined him on the front row for the first time, while Felipe Massa lined up in third with Mark Webber alongside him. Jenson Button managed to out-qualify team-mate Lewis Hamilton to start on the third row of the grid. At the start of the race as Vettel moved across to try and cover Alonso, Massa surprised them both by driving around the outside to be leading the race after the first corner. Hamilton managed to battle with Webber and take fourth. Further back there were problems as Sebastian Buemi’s Toro Rosso was involved in a collision, as were both Force Indias. Buemi was forced to retire from the race, saying that he had “a good start” but thought that it was his team-mate who hit him. Adrian Sutil was forced to pit to replace his front wing, but in a tyre mix up both him and team-mate were forced to pit again as they had each other’s tyres on, which is against the rules.

Vettel was the first of the front runners to pit for fresh tyres on lap 13, coming back out in sixth place. He was soon followed by Alonso, Webber, Massa and Hamilton. Button was able to look after his soft tyres and didn’t have to put until lap 23 and he managed to jump Webber. The battle at the front started to heat up between the two Ferraris as Alonso reeled in Massa, but then Massa pulled away again. Massa’s engineer Rob Smedley was heard telling him over the radio that if he kept his pace going he could win. Nico Hulkenberg and Pedro de la Rosa managed to go quite far into the race before they made their pit stops and then proceeded to fight for position on track. Hulkenberg’s team-mate Barrichello was also involved in a battle with Sauber’s other driver Kamui Kobayashi. De la Rosa had to pit for a new wing after he hit Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus on lap 60. Kovalainen later retired from the race.

The controversy of the race began on lap 49 when Rob Smedley told Massa very pointedly that Alonso was faster than him, finishing the message with “Can you confirm that you understood that message?” It appeared to be team orders, and a couple of laps later Massa appeared to lift off the throttle and allow Alonso through. Smedley soon came on the radio again, telling Massa “good lad, just stick with him - sorry”. Alonso went on to win the race, with a slightly subdued Massa in second and Vettel third. Alonso denied any suggestions of team orders while Massa refused to be drawn on the subject in the press conference only replying with “yes, he passed me.” Ferrari team bosses and both drivers were later summoned to the FIA stewards. It has emerged that the team has been fined $100,000 and the matter referred to the  World Motor Sport Council for bringing the sport into disrepute, the infamous article 151c which McLaren have become familiar with over the past few years.

Hamilton and Button brought their McLaren’s home in fourth and fifth place, a good solid points haul for them which helped maintain their lead at the top of both championships. Hamilton stated that he’d done all he could and Jenson said that his “car felt ok.“ Webber finished in sixth place after having to drop off the back of Button with an oil consumption problem. Kubica scored more points for Renault finishing in seventh with Rosberg and Schumacher finishing in eighth and ninth for Merecedes. The final points position was taken by Vitaly Petrov for Renault. Those who were unfortunate not to finish the race were Buemi, Trulli, Yamamoto, di Grassi and Kovalainen.

There is not long to wait for the next race, with the Hungarian GP only a week away. Ferrari have obviously made a significant step forward and will hope to continue to challenge Red Bull at the front. McLaren will also hope to make a step forward and stay at the front and try and maintain their leads in both championships, so it should provide some exciting races to come.

Posted by Hannah Hough - Follow her on twitter @hannahhou.

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