Ferrari roar back in German Grand Prix
In most Formula One seasons the contention for the championship eventually go down to two teams, but in 2010 the battle seems to be between the top three teams as every race changes the point standings.
After a horrible result in British Grand Prix, when Ferrari said that they were still in hunt for championship, it sounded like another unachievable goal. But Ferrari’s performance in Germany validated their claims and removed any doubts.
Ferrari finished a one-two led by Alonso, a repeat of their first race in Bahrain. With this performance Ferrari has considerably moved closer to Red Bull and McLaren in the points. Ferrari has had the pace to challenge Red Bull for some time and in Germany their drivers did not make any mistakes. However, even this result wasn’t spotless for Ferrari because they were referred to the World Motor Sports Council for executing team orders during the race which allowed Alonso to pass Massa effortlessly.
Red Bull would be extremely dejected after their race performance. Vettel, who managed to clinch pole position by two-thousandths of a second from Alonso, couldn’t hold onto his position as his engine underperformed. Vettel tried to block Alonso off the line but Alonso sneaked passed him right after Massa moved into P1. From there on it was beyond Vettel and Red Bull to do much. Webber, who qualified fourth, instantly fell to P6 as Button and Hamilton went past him. Webber’s race was only about defending his position from Kubica instead of taking the challenge to McLarens ahead of him.
Red Bull dominated practice and qualifying, Ferraris clinched the top two positions in the race but we believe it was McLarens that eventually came out with the advantage despite finishing 4th and 5th – their worst result in last five races. Ferrari’s dominance played out to McLaren’s advantage perfectly well. Before the race McLaren led by 29 points and Hamilton had a 12 point lead in drivers’ championship. With Red Bulls managing only 3rd and 6th positions in the race Hamilton extended his lead to 14 points while McLaren only had one point chopped off its lead.
Teams usually have to win races and secure podiums to keep their lead intact. All McLaren had to do was stand their ground. Hamilton made a good start and jumped two places to 4th overtaking both Webber and Button. Button’s start was perfect but he was bottlenecked into turn one and instead of getting a very likely 3rd position he had to contend with 5th. McLaren, without its qualifying and race pace, managed to put in another solid performance and earned a very impressive 22 points.
In a race that saw blistering pace by Alonso’s Ferrari, the only cars that weren’t lapped by him were McLarens and Red Bulls. Renault’s Kubica and Petrov finished 7th and 10th and this was a good performance by the team in that they got the maximum out of their cars. The German Grand Prix turned out to be a disappointment for Schumacher and his fans that came to support the veteran in numbers. Schumacher started 11th on the grid and without much heroics finished 9th behind his teammate Rosberg.
Kobayashi, though failed to score points after two great results in previous races but put up another impressive drive to earn 11th place. His teammate Pedro de la Rosa finished 14th after running up the order for most of the race. Barrichello and Hulkenberg lost a few positions to finish 13th and 14th after qualifying in top ten.
Germany was a result to forget for Force India. They have had all the problems they could possibly think of. From gearbox changes to grid penalties to broken wings to repeated pit stops, all marred their race, and the team that eyes points in every race had to settle for 16th and 17th place.
Only two out of the 6 new cars finished the race as Glock’s Virgin outpaced Senna’s Hispania.
With a strong finish, Ferrari has left this season wide open and they will be the team to beat in Hungary in less than a week. Red Bull once again performed below par and dropped 4 places on the gird. McLaren continue to be consistent when they can’t be fast and yet again they reap the benefits.
Ferrari’s matched performance with Red Bull, and McLaren’s improved blown diffusers will make the next race very interesting for sure.
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