ALONSO REBOOTS CHAMPIONSHIP RIVALRY AFTER HOCKENHEIM VICTORY
2010-07-26 14:28:43 Author: admin Source:
The Formula One World Championships at the Hockenheimring on Sunday saw a resurgence of the Prancing horse squad with a Fernando Alonso's and Felipe Massa's one-two to claim the Scuderia's 19th victory here - the most of any teams. Fellow championship contenders and leaders McLaren and Red Bull Racing weren't much of a factor throughout the race weekend, but still dominated the leaderboard after the Round 11 event. Alonso stood on the top step of the podium for the first time since the opening round in Bahrain, and Massa finished second, also reprising his position at the Sakhir circuit. Joining them on the podium was local driver and RBR's Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel who started on pole had a good jump at the start to corner Alonso's F10, however there was too much grip on the RB6 and he was forced to ease up on the clutch, as a result he had a poor acceleration heading into turn one which he then lost ground to both Ferraris. "We finished third and I think we can be proud of that. We achieved our maximum today and I was very pleased to be on the podium. It’s very special for me at my home Grand Prix, it’s great to see the people here and to be on the podium – to see everyone cheering is very nice and emotional,” he concluded.
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button hold on to the drivers' standings lead with 157 and 143 points respectively, while McLaren is the clear cut leader in the constructors' race on 300 points to Red Bull Racing's 272 points. Helping maintain their lead in both championships, Hamilton and Button came home in fourth and fifth places. Although Ferrari is still third in the constructors’, the Italian marque has closed the gap to second placed RBR from 84 to 64 points.
When the red lights went out, Alonso edged alongside Vettel and as the German tried to defend his position, Massa, having started behind him in third place, managed to get the best line into the first corner to go into the lead, followed by his team-mate and Vettel. They were followed by Hamilton, Mark Webber, Button, Kubica, Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg, with Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi tenth.
The majority of the field had started on the softer tyre, so the one planned pit stop came early on, with Button staying out longest to lead for a while. Alonso switched to the hard tyre on lap 13, while Massa pitted one lap later. However, the run of pit stops did little to change the order, and the two Ferrari men had a great fight, nearly touching when the Spaniard tried to pass the Brazilian on lap 21, one lap before Button finally pitted to hand the lead back to Massa. The two Ferrari men traded fastest laps, with the gap fluctuating around the one second mark, with Vettel always in close attendance.
As has often been the case this season, Massa had been very quick on the soft tyres but was struggling a bit on the hard ones. With a third of the race to go, Alonso who was on a rampage passed Massa on the sharp turn 6 hairpin on lap 47. Massa had no choice but to yield to the two-time champion. From then on, the two Ferrari men controlled the pace, even if Vettel was closing on Massa rapidly, setting the fastest race lap on the very last lap.
In the McLaren camp, Hamilton and Button practically drove their own race without the slightest opportunity to close in on the Ferraris or the Red Bull. Hamilton (above) had but one chance at the start to catapult to the front, but the top three cars were just too quick and fast. After the first lap, the McLaren driver settled to maintain ground and keep his championship status consistent for maximum points.“It was a very tough race today – the car didn’t feel fantastic and the Ferraris and Red Bulls were very fast. We hoped the gap would be closer in the race than it was in qualifying, and it was – but, even so, we’ve got to make up some pace on our main rivals. We need to go back and figure out where we can improve, and pick it up again very quickly," he said.
Button concurred, "Lewis (Hamilton) and I showed today that we got the maximum out of the car – it’s just that the car isn’t quite quick enough at the moment.”
The rest of the points places from sixth to tenth went to Webber, Robert Kubica, Rosberg, Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov. Webber had a good scrap with Hamilton for a third of the race, but a good pitstop strategy by McLaren destroyed Webber's chances of jumping Hamilton for a possible fourth place in the first stint. Additionally, following his stop he met with traffic which hindered his progress through the field and he was later picked off by Button for fifth, pushing the Australian back to an eventual sixth place. 'It was a little bit of a gamble to try and jump Lewis (Hamilton) and we lost a bit of track to him. Button tried a different strategy and went longer and unfortunately was able to jump me. After that we had an oil consumption problem, so we had to concentrate on getting the car to the end. I wasn't in the main fight today, but I'll be back,” he commented.
Both Renaults scored points at the German Grand Prix with Kubica leading the charge in seventh and Petrov (above right) tenth. Kubica lost ground to Hamilton, Button and Webber in the early stint, and had to fend off a persistent Michael Schumacher for position. He then had to hold his ground against Nico Rosberg and only when the young German pitted he was able to maintain seventh until the end of the race. Meanwhile, Petrov, who's seat at Renault is under threat, did himself a favor by finishing the German race in tenth for the final point of the race.
A relieved Petrov said, "I am very happy to have scored my first point in dry conditions – especially because I thought that I had finished 11th, so it was an even better surprise when I found out I was tenth! I managed to gain a position at the start, the pace was good today and I made a big effort to push at the right time before the pit stop, which helped me climb two more places."
Germany's favorite F1 team: the Mercedes GP team had both drivers accounted for in the points with Rosberg and Schumacher (above) in eighth and ninth positions respectively. Schumacher made up three places at the start to be running in eighth position with Rosberg shadowing him in ninth place. He made his only pit stop on lap 14 with Rosberg staying out longer and making his stop on lap 24. Despite the two quickest stops of the race, neither driver was able to jump Kubica, with Rosberg’s later stop being enough to move him ahead of Schumacher.
Despite suffering no technical problems and both Sauber drivers finishing the race, the team didn’t manage to score any more points. Kamui Kobayashi finished just outside the points paying positions in 11th, while Pedro de la Rosa came 14th. AT&T Williams' Rubens Barrichello and team mate Nico Hulkenberg also missed on points completing their session in twelfth and thirteenth.
Force India F1 team had the worst race weekend and second points draught race since the start of the season with both drivers out of contention very early in the race. With Adrian Sutil starting from P19 (five-place grid drop for gearbox change) and Vitantonio Liuzzi (above) P22, the race was always going to be an uphill battle, and the mount proved too high during the 67 lap race. Liuzzi came home in 16th position and Sutil just behind in 17th. Despite missing out on points Force India maintains its sixth position in the Constructors'.
Best of the new teams was the Virgin Racing with Timo Glock racing to an 18th place finish, one place above Hispania Racing team (HRT)'s Bruno Senna. Both Lotus Racing drivers retired on technical faults, accompanied by a Toro Rosso, Virgin's Lucas di Grassi and HRT's Sakon Yamamoto.
Now the circus moves to Hungary for the next race in just a week's time.
Results
1 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:27:38.864
2 Felipe Massa Ferrari +4.1 secs
3 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull +5.1 secs
4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren +26.8 secs
5 Jenson Button McLaren +29.4 secs
6 Mark Webber Red Bull +43.6 secs
7 Robert Kubica Renault +1 Lap
8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP +1 Lap
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP +1 Lap
10 Vitaly Petrov Renault +1 Lap
11 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber +1 Lap
12 Rubens Barrichello Williams +1 Lap
13 Nico Hulkenberg Williams +1 Lap
14 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber- +1 Lap
15 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso +1 Lap
16 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India +2 Laps
17 Adrian Sutil Force India +2 Laps
18 Timo Glock Virgin +3 Laps
19 Bruno Senna HRT +4 Laps
DNFs
Heikki Kovalainen
Lucas di Grassi
Sakon Yamamoto
Jarno Trulli
Sebastien Buemi
Drivers' Standings
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 157
2 Jenson Button McLaren 143
3 Mark Webber Red Bull 136
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 136
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 123
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 94
7 Robert Kubica Renault 89
8 Felipe Massa Ferrari 85
9 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 38
10 Adrian Sutil Force India 35
11 Rubens Barrichello Williams 29
12 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber 15
13 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India 12
14 Vitaly Petrov Renault 7
15 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 7
16 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso 3
17 Nico Hulkenberg Williams 2
Teams
1 McLaren 300
2 Red Bull t 272
3 Ferrari 208
4 Mercedes GP 132
5 Renault 96
6 Force India 47
7 Williams 31
8 BMW Sauber 15
9 Toro Rosso 10
