Sebastian Vettel claimed victory in his home race, the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring circuit last night. His Red Bull team-mate, Australian Mark Webber fought back from a chaotic pit-stop, which dropped him to the rear of the field, to finish seventh.
Highlighting their remarkable improvement, the two Team Lotus machines driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean finished second and third, ahead of the fast-finishing Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.
Unlike the British Grand Prix, there were no failures with the Pirelli tyres, but managing tyre wear was still the major factor in the race.
The build-up to the German Grand Prix was in cool conditions, but last night’s race was held with an ambient temperature of 22-degrees and a track temperature of 41-degrees. This meant the Mercedes-Benz team cars of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg (who started second) went backwards (they’re still plagued by excessive tyre wear) and the Lotus duo moved forwards (they need higher temperatures to generate sufficient heat in their front tyres).
Motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, has changed the rules for the upcoming ‘Young Drivers Test’ at Silverstone, England to allow existing drivers to participate as Pirelli wheels-out some new specification tyres. Teams will be allowed to alter suspension settings to assist with tyre development but cannot bring new components or aero kit to the test.
Pirelli says it will bring a further tyre development from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
And the FIA will schedule four two-day tests next year to enable all players (teams, engine suppliers and tyre suppliers) to get on-top of the 2014 F1 regulations which see a switch to turbocharged 1.6-litre, six-cylinder engines.
Not that the 2013 championship is done-and-dusted.
Vettel left the Nurburgring circuit on 157 points – ahead of Alonso (123), Raikkonen (116), Hamilton (99) and Webber (93). Lotus, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz have certainly narrowed the performance gap to the Red Bull’s and the reigning world champion team is looking pressured (pit lane ‘gossip’ in Germany said Vettel was slowed by a KERS problem and would have struggled to fight back if Raikkonen has passed him in the closing stages).
It just takes one failure to finish from Vettel and a couple of strong showings from Raikkonen and Alonso and the 2013 World F1 Championship is there for the taking.
For Webber, Germany was both good and bad. He qualified fourth and in Sunday’s warm-up did multiple practice starts to avoid of a repeat of his British GP startline problem (claimed to be driver error not a problem with clutch phasing).
So his German GP start was a ripper and Webber lead for a millisecond into the first corner before settling in behind Vettel during the opening laps.
However on lap nine, Webber pitted for fresh tyres and his Red Bull team failed to properly re-fit the right-rear wheel. As Webber accelerated down pit-lave the wheel detached, knocking over a cameraman which luckily to avoid serious injury.
When the dust settled, the Red Bull team wheeled Webber’s car back to the garage, correctly fitted the right rear wheel and we was off to charge back as only he can. If Webber’s bad starts are truly behind him, the Aussie can win another GP before year’s end and he heads off to race sports cars for Porsche.
