F1 Hockenheim Results & Race Report: Alonso Wins in Germany, but the Outrage Will Reverberate

What Happens When Ferrari Likes to Manufacture Drama

9:42am EST — Fernando Alonso led at the checkered flag for the 2010 German Grand Prix, with teammate Felipe Massa second, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, and Jenson Button as the top five, but it was a controversial win, with a barely slower Massa told that his teammate was faster and confirmation of comprehension requested about two thirds into the race.  Less than a lap later, Alonso overtook the Brazilian (as he had attempted to do a few times earlier) as Massa appeared to have possibly lifted while the two exited the hairpin.  The Ferraris had gained the lead at the start, with Massa diving past pole sitter Vettel as he attempted to squeeze Alonso to the wall.  Mark Webber limped into sixth with an oil issue, while Robert Kubica, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher, and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the top ten.  Schumacher finished his first home grand prix in three years barely in the points in ninth.  Despite the additional differences in tire compounds from Bridgestone and the rain that occurred most of the weekend, it was not the overtaking fest that had been predicted, but Ferrari supplied drama all its own.

It was a nail-biting few seconds after the checkered flag at the end of Saturday’s qualifying as Sebastian Vettel held onto the Red Bull streak of poles by two thousandths of a second over Fernando Alonso, who led each of the sessions within the session, except the last.  Felipe Massa will start third, with Mark Webber discarding his final lap to start fourth.  It was a day for close teammates, as Jenson Button just beat out Lewis Hamilton to start fifth.  Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg had an inter-team squabble of their own over eighth, joined by Nico Rosberg, who split them in ninth.  He barely beat his own teammate Michael Schumacher into Q3, by eight thousandths, forcing the seven-time champion to face the ignominy of being knocked out in Q2.  Q1 was briefly interrupted by a red flag for a heavy shunt by Tonio Liuzzi out of the final turn after hitting a puddle or wet kerb and crashing into the pit straight, though he was unhurt.  His teammate Adrian Sutil qualified fourteenth, but will start nineteenth due to a gearbox change grid penalty, the same suffered by last-place qualifier Lucas di Grassi, who posted no time due to a continued gearbox issue.  His teammate Timo Glock was penalized ten positions for a gearbox change and change to the gear ratio, so he will start last.

While the top eleven started on soft tires, a few teams further back (de la Rosa the earliest in fourteenth) chose to try a hard compound first strategy.  With a few clouds but clear weather, the race from Hockenheim got underway with Massa leading the way into Turn 1, followed by Alonso, then pole sitter Vettel as Vettel pushed Alonso to the wall and left enough space for Massa to take the lead from both.  Hamilton made his move on Webber at the hairpin, taking fourth from the AUstralian.  Schumacher was also on a charge at home, jumping three positions in the first few turns.  Buemi lost his rear wing and pitted for a change at the end of the first lap, with bodywork changes also for Sutil, who needed a new nose.  It appeared to be race over for Buemi as he went into the garage with apparent heavy rear damage.  Liuzzi and Alguersuari had also pitted.  By the end of L2, Trulli was into the pits as well, moving very slowly; a disaster for Lotus as Mike Gascoyne had tweeted second before, “Jarno on prime and a long stint, Heikki on option.”  The word from Force India was much more upbeat, with an interesting strategy for Sutil, “Adrian stops as planned for a new set of tyres. Tonio had damage on his front wing so had to stop behind Adrian.”

Meanwhile at the front, Massa and Alonso were beginning to pull out a bit of a gap on the chasing Vettel and Hamilton, trading fast laps as the tires heated well up and fuel burned off.  By L5, Vettel was nearly three seconds behind Massa with Hamilton four and a half.  It was Massa, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Webber, Button, Kubica, Schumacher, Rosberg, and Kobayashi as the top ten after L6, as Liuzzi pitted again for the Force India tire strategy, getting those soft tires off and the harder (two steps up this weekend) compound on.  Trulli was out of the garage with the team having presumably fixed his lost second gear, but then back in, with only Buemi listed as retired to that point of the race.

Apparently, another reason for the early Liuzzi recall was because Force India had somehow managed to put the tires on the wrong cars, which is not allowed.  In other moments of disbelief, replays seemed to show that Buemi’s rear damage came from teammate Alguersuari having run into him on the first lap.  With all this happening to cars nearer the rear than the front, Massa and Alonso were quietly running away from Vettel and the rest of the field, with the gap quite high.  On L12, Vettel pitted, switching to the harder tire and with higher hopes of chasing down the Ferraris.  He returned to the circuit in sixth.  Ferrari pitted Alonso the next time around, with Webber also stopping on L14 of sixty-seven.  Alonso rejoined in fourth while Massa and Hamilton pitted the next lap.  Either the soft tires were going off faster than most viewers had predicted or the entire field was following Vettel and Red Bull’s call like a herd of lemmings, as Schumacher and Barrichello pitted as well.  On L15 the order was all shaken up, with Button (who had not stopped) leading Massa, Alonso, Vettel, Kubica, Hamilton, Rosberg, Webber, Petrov, and Hulkenberg as the top ten, half of which had yet to stop.

Massa did not seem to be doing so well on the harder tires, especially compared to teammate Alonso, who was about a half second behind the Brazialian.  Alonso was posting very fast times in qualifying on that harder compound, so the former champion might have had the advantage, but he dropped a couple of tenths back, though remained in striking distance.  Kubica pitted from fifth, only to rejoin in a fight for eleventh with Schumacher, with the German unable to complete the pass at the hairpin.  In the lead, Button seemed to be getting far more out of his softer tire than anyone else, with nearly a four and a half second gap to Massa in second on L19.  Alonso had gotten closer again to his teammate, with Vettel just a second and a half behind, and Hamilton nearly fifteen seconds behind his leading teammate on L20.

Going through traffic, the teammate battle continued, but Alonso could not make a pass stick and stayed third with forty-six laps still remaining.  Button finally came in for his (three second) stop, with a three second lead over Massa, on L22, and he rejoined in fifth, precisely where he started the race, though this time he was directly behind Hamilton.  Massa stepped up to both the lead and a new race fastest lap, adding to the gap to Alonso.  By L25, 2.4s separated the Ferrari teammates, with Vettel, Hamilton, Button, and Webber completing the top five.  Massa continued on his charge, obviously having become more comfortable with the condition of his hard tires, gaining another second over Alonso on the next lap, but losing a tenth as Alonso re-took the race fastest lap.  More than a second separated each driver in the top nine, with Rosberg pressuring Kubica for ninth as the first close battle within the field by L30.

At the approximate halfway point of the race, Alonso had begun chasing down his teammate again, dropping the once three and a half second lead down to just over two seconds.  Webber was bearing down on Button in fifth, with fourth place Hamilton well adrift of third place Vettel, by ten seconds.  Hulkenberg and de la Rosa were still in the top ten, running seventh and eighth, and yet to pit.  They, barring the two Virgin Racing drivers in eighteenth and nineteenth, were the only men yet to stop for the mandatory tire change.  Hulkenberg changed that on L35, after having been passed by de la Rosa the previous lap.  The gap between Massa and Alonso kept fluctuating within the two second range as all the drivers appeared to settle down for the middle sector of the race.

Sutil had a bit of an off in the stadium section and stopped for a third time, with the team tweeting, “Adrian coming in now for a new set of option tyres, he radioed to say the primes were very worn.”  Massa’s lead on Alonso was slowly ebbing away whilst Vettel dropped back, over five seconds behind the Ferraris on L38.  Radio communication from McLaren was telling Hamilton in fourth to conserve fuel with about thirty laps to go.  He had just under two seconds over teammate Button and was nearly eleven and half seconds behind Vettel.  Through traffic, Alonso made up quite a lot, then only just over one second behind Massa whilst the teammate battle continued at McLaren as Button caught up to fuel-saving Hamilton.  In odd radio conversations, Webber was told to maintain a four second gap to Button in front of him.  According to the BBC’s Sarah Holt, “Webber’s got a problem with high oil consumption under his Red Bull bonnet.”  A radio message from Red Bull played later also told the Australian to brake very hard and late.  On soft tires, Sutil set a new race fastest lap, but the bigger question would be if those softs would hold for the twenty-seven laps left.

Vettel, meanwhile, posted the race fastest lap on L42, under six seconds behind Alonso and gaining a bit of time on Hamilton beside.  The two closest gaps on the circuit were between Massa and Alonso for the lead (.8s on L44) and Petrov and Kobayashi for eleventh (.7 on L44), with all other drivers a second or more apart.  With twenty laps left, the only drama was wondering if Webber’s car would make it to the end without causing a mess on the circuit and if traffic would again bring the Ferraris close enough together to tangle for the lead as Alonso took back the race fast lap, a bragging right that does very little for the driver at the end of a Sunday.

Then, though, the drama was ramped up as Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley radioed to the Brazilian, “Alonso is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?”  In the proper way to manufacture drama and appropriate outrage, Alonso then took the lead by passing Massa; it appeared that he lifted while exiting the hairpin.  Alonso very quickly had a one and a half second lead over Massa, but that was truly a terrible display of changing the lead amongst teammates.  After the overtake Smedley then added, “OK mate, good lad. Stay with him now. Sorry.”  Meanwhile, Vettel was catching up Massa, with a formerly five second gap down to two and a half.

di Grassi pitted after a spin and retired with, according to the team, “a problem with rear left,” though they were “Not sure what happened to Lucas – was it tyre, mechanical or a mistake?”  With ten laps left, Alonso led Massa, Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Webber, Kubica, Rosberg, Schumacher, and Petrov as the top ten.  de la Rosa, who had finally pitted a few laps earlier, had some contact with Kovalainen, de la Rosa then had to pit for tires and a new nose.  Kovalainen also had to stop and climbed out of his car in the garage.  Meanwhile, word came from race control that Alonso and Massa were to be investigated post-race for team orders.

With four laps left, the gap between leader Alonso and Massa was up to four seconds, as the gap from Massa to Vettel was less than a second, with Hamilton twenty seconds behind in fourth.  Button was just over a second adrift of Hamilton to round out the top five, with Webber’s injured car another eleven behind.  Alonso kept setting faster laps, dropping into the 1:15s range with one to go, and lapping all but the top six finishers.  At the end, though, it was Vettel with the fastest lap, but Alonso with the controversial win in a race that was touted to bring interesting tire strategy and Montreal-style overtaking.

Final Positions for the 2010 German Grand Prix:
1. Alonso
2. Massa +4.1
3. Vettel +5.1
4. Hamilton +26.8
5. Button +29.4
6. Webber +43.6
7. Kubica +1 Lap
8. Rosberg +1 Lap
9. Schumacher +1 Lap
10. Petrov +1 Lap
11. Koabayshi +1 Lap
12. Barrichello +1 Lap
13. Hulkenberg +1 Lap
14. de la Rosa +1 Lap
15. Alguersuari +1 Lap
16. Liuzzi +2 Laps
17. Sutil+2 Laps
18. Glock +3 Laps
19. Senna +4 Laps
Kovalainen
di Grassi
Yamamoto
Trulli
Buemi

[author's note: apologies for any issues with detail and overtaking in the race report. Unfortunately, we in the States don't have live coverage for a few races in the summer, so I'm using timing and scoring, Twitter, and other means to write the report so you all can get it live and before the press conference. Normal service will resume next race in Hungary, when we get live coverage back. For more information on the American F1 coverage, see this Op-Ed about said illogical coverage.]

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