ALONSO STEALS WIN
(Image taken from BBC)
The German Grand Prix returned to Hockenheim this time around. It was the first time since '08 that the event has come to this particular corner of Germany and the last time it was there was '08 when Lewis took the honours. Since then the place has been overhauled. The other notable thing about this race is that Hispania changed driver yet again. This time it's Karun Chandhok that got ditched and replaced by Bruno Senna for his first race since Valencia. As far as practice was concerned, it was not a good time to be a McLaren fan, particularly with Lewis hitting the wall during the first session. He recovered though but the competition was certainly getting tasty.
Things improved for the McLarens in qualifying though and despite the race being halting for a few mins by a red flag due to a crash, both Brits made it into Q2 smoothly while again those driving for the new teams got smoked, Trulli being the best of that bunch of this occasion. What was more important was that both my guys made Q3 for the first time since Valencia, Schumacher again missed out though, even on home turf! Webber set the opening time in Q3 only for Alonso to edge him but just when the Spaniard though it was mission accomplished, Vettel sneaked in at the last minute to take his third pole in a row. Alonso would start P2 - his best qualifying performance of the season so far. Massa P3, Webber P4, Jenson P5 and further down, Lewis P6. Not what I had in mind.
In the race, Jenson had a reasonable start and made his way to 5th pretty smoothly. He then stayed out later than most and as a result got to lead the race for a while. However once he came into the pits himself it was inevitable he was going to drop back and he found himself in 5th with Webber on his heels. However the Aussie appeared to have reliability issues and the reigning world champion was never seriously threatened on this occasion. So, he finished in 5th which was not what he would have had in mind. Still it was another solid haul of points and enough to keep his title defence looking strong. There is still plenty of time for him to hit the front.
Lewis in the meantime had a pretty solid start and found himself up to 4th pretty smoothly. After that though, other than in the middle of pitstop periods, he looked unlikely to trouble the podium positions. He was left to cruise around the track for most of what was a less than classic race. Late on Jenson looked like closing up on him but eventually the McLaren pair decided to hold position and cruise to maintain their status as the drivers to beat for the next race. 4th was less than ideal for Lewis obviously but still, like Jenson it was a solid haul of points. This is still a very strong title challenge for Lewis, again like with Jenson, more wins will surely come.
Out front though, well Vettel found himself swiftly mugged by the Ferraris at the start and Massa was the early leader out of those two. As I've said before this was not a classic race and it looked like that was how things would stay. Then came Rob Smedley on Massa radio "Fernando is faster than you Felipe, do you understand this message". Everyone understood it. It was no surprise to see Alonso cruising past the Brazilian soon after. It was the latest in a series of dishonourable actions involving the Spanish double world champion, made even worse by the certainty that a driver of Massa's quality does not deserve this treatment, particularly as he still had a mathematical chance of winning the championship himself. Ferrari were fined as a result of the incident but still the result stood. The scum of modern F1 won his second race of the season, Massa took his second 2nd place of the season and completed Ferrari's second 1-2 of the season. Vettel grabbed 3rd.
However, Alonso's arrogance wasn't the only thing that didn't change. Lewis still leads the championship on 157 and increased his lead to fourteen points. Only just further down, Jenson remains in 2nd on 143 points.
The dream is still on but in the meantime, Hungary awaits.
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