Verstappen reigns supreme in wet & wild German GP; Vettel battles back from 20th to P2; Kvyat an unlikely P3 as treacherous Turn 16 brings disaster for Mercedes, Leclerc

Sunday’s German Grand Prix from a wet and wooly Hockenheimring had a chaotic throwback feel from beginning to end. But Red Bull’s wunderkind Max Verstappen outlasted all other rivals in the trickiest of mixed conditions to add another stunning victory to his increasingly impressive resume. The young Dutchman showed again why he is considered the future of Formula 1, as he put on another masterclass of wet weather driving. He even overcame a spin to vanquish the elements, the circuit and his rivals en route to the win, his second in the last three contests. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel salvaged the Scuderia’s day at the races after their young challenger, Charles Leclerc, crashed out midway through the race. Vettel kept his cool even when his car did not seem to be working that well and piloted his Prancing Horse from the back of the field and twentieth on the grid, where he was relegated after a turbo issue caused him to miss Saturday qualifying entirely, all the way up to a P2 finish. It was a remarkable turnaround for the 4-time champion and may give Vettel the confidence boost he needs after a hard luck first half of the 2019 campaign. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat earned the the last place of the podium with a stellar P3 finish, a dark horse result if there ever was one and a great moment for both the new father and the Toro Rosso team.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Meanwhile Mercedes had a disastrous day as they suffered the rare ignominy of both their cars finishing out of the points.* How it all unfolded was as surprising as it was dramatic. The race began with formation laps under the Safety Car on the wet circuit which had been drenched with rain about forty minutes prior to the start of the race. That trimmed four laps off the scheduled 67-lap race distance but no customers would be asking for a refund when the day was done. With the whole field starting on full Wet Pirelli rain tires as the lights finally went out for the start, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton got away cleanly from pole and his teammate Valtteri Bottas swamped Verstappen to grab P2 when the Red Bull man spun his rears and bogged down. Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen even bettered Verstappen’s start, though the Dutchman quickly retook P3 from the veteran Finn. The chaos to follow was foreshadowed when Racing Point’s Sergio Perez spun and crashed out bringing out the first of many Safety Cars of the day. That sent the main contenders scrambling to the pits for Intermediate tires on a track that was very damp but no longer soaking wet. It was the right call as the time difference between those who stayed out on full wets and those who changed to Inters quickly proved.

The next chapter in this epic occurred when Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault blew an engine on Lap 15 and prompted a Virtual Safety Car. That sent Charles Leclerc diving to the pits for fresh Inters, a clever call by a Ferrari team that has often not made those this year. When racing resumed at the end of Lap 17 it was clear that Leclerc was the class of the field, running a full 3 seconds faster than the leading Merc of Hamilton on fresh rubber. While Hamilton maintained a healthy gap his wingman Bottas was being harassed for his P2 spot by Vertsppen and Leclerc was also looking to join the party closing up on the P3 Verstappen. On Lap 24 Sebastian Vettel rolled the dice by bringing in his Ferrari for slick Soft tires from his P7 position on the track. Bottas and Vertappen followed suit for Medium slicks two laps later but Verstappen failed to get to grips with them, spinning out while trying to get heat into the tires. Verstappen was able to recover, however, and was helped by not losing too much track position when another VSC was deployed to retrieve the expired McLaren of Lando Norris shortly thereafter. Once again, Leclerc took advantage of the slowdown enforced by the VSC to make a cheap pit stop and shed his Inters for Soft slicks and thereby get onto equal footing with the frontrunners. Mercedes also made the same call for Hamilton, who kept his lead despite a slow 5.6 second stop.

But after the Virtual Safety Car ended at the end of Lap 29 it quickly became apparent just how much of a gamble going on to dry weather tires had been on this tricky circuit. The very quick Leclerc was looking like he might have the measure of Hamilton for the lead but overcooked it going into the last corner at Turn 16 and speared off into the barriers and gravel just a past the ice-click drag race starting patch right outside the track limits there. Vettel and Verstappne immediately sensed the danger and wasted no time pitting again to get back onto Inters. But the Mercedes team, perhaps overconfident and seeing a chance to really put the hurt on Ferrari, did not make that call for Hamilton. It backfired spectacularly when Hamilton lost it on that same fateful Turn 16 apex and smashed off his font wing against the advertising signs. The gritty Englishman, competing with a touch of the flu, was able to keep his Silver Arrow rolling and get back to the pits, albeit from the wrong side of the bollard, which earned him a 5-second penalty. Worse still, the team were at sixes and sevens and didn’t have a new nose ready and took an agonizing 50-seconds to change that and get Hamilton back into the fray. He emerged down in P5 but it would only get worse after that.

Bottas had inherited the lead but was stuck on the wrong slick tires so had to also pit again for Inters, which gifted P1 back to Verstappen. Both Mercedes worked to pull themselves back up to podium positions with first Bottas then Hamilton passing Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, who was having a superb race up until that point, relegating the German back down to P4. But even the experienced Hulkenberg got bit by that treacherous Turn 16, spinning out and beaching it on Lap 41. That brought out yet another Safety Car and once again both Verstappen and Vettel pitted for fresh Intermediate rubber. But the most consequential stop was that of the Racing Point of Lance Stroll, who gave slick tires another shot on the drying track and with the threat of more rain receding. Sure enough, Stroll began ripping off blistering laps and on Lap 47 Verstappen and Bottas pitted back onto Softs, with Vettel following their lead a lap later. When Hamilton followed suit he was forced to serve his 5-second time penalty for entering the pits on the wrong side of the bollard. That saw Hamilton rejoin all the way back in P12 and after all the pit stops had been counted it also saw Lance Stroll lead the race.

It was brief moment of glory for the Canadian as Verstappne quickly passed him. The Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat, also an early gambler on slicks just one lap later than Stroll, also made quick work of the Racing Point for P3. But surprisingly the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas couldn’t get by Stroll. Perhaps the Finn pushed too hard to make that happen with the laps running down. On Lap 57 he made the same error at Turn 16 that so many others had before him and had a hard, spinning crash that ripped the nose off his Mercedes and ended his race, costing Bottas what should have been a sure podium finish. With Bottas now out and Hamilton running last that opened the door for Vettel to improve his position and finish strong, something he did with aplomb by first picking off the McLaren of Carlos Sainz and then the game Racing Point of Stroll for an amazing P3 recovery drive. But Vettel wasn’t done yet. After so much adversity and frankly several unforced errors this year from the Ferrari contender Vettel polished off Kvyat on the last lap for P2, a stunning result after starting from P20 on the grid and a fine salvage of what could have been a grim day for Ferrari. Verstappen cruised home for the victory on a crazy day with an inspired Kvyat, who just became a father for the first time this weekend, taking the last spot on the podium in P3.

For Mercedes it was a rare big fat nada, with Bottas out and Hamilton coming home out of the points in P11 (he was later promoted to P9 and scored 2 points due to Alfa Romeo infractions). That opened up the Top 10 to some high finishes for the midfield teams. Stroll got a hard-earned P4, while Sainz had McClaren’s best result of the year in P5. Toro Rosso’s rising star Alexander Albon took P6 at the expense of Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly, who crashed out when he ran into Albon’s backside with a lap to go. If Gasly cannot pull it together look for the cool and composed Albon to take his seat at the senior Red Bull team next year. Wise old head Kimi Raikkonen diced all day but still managed to bring his Alfa Romeo safely home in P7, while his young teammate Antonio Giovanazzi had his best ever F1 result with a solid P8 (they later were both assessed 30-second penalties for illegal driver aides at the start of the race). And the battling Haas drivers Romain Grosjean finished P9 and P10 respectively despite once again wheel-banging during the race.

Official Top 10 finishers for the German GP:

*Raikkonen and Giovinazzi had 30 seconds added to their race times for use of driver aids at the start, promoting Hamilton and Kubica into the points.

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in but a weeks’ time — the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring, traditional last race before the summer break. Mercedes won’t have much time to dwell on the disaster in their corporate back yard while Vettel will try to carry over the good vibes of his remarkable recovery drive at Hockenheim. Most of all the rest of the paddock with have their eyes on Verstappen and Red Bull who are showing signs of treating Merceds and Ferrari hegemony in the second half. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!