Hamilton and Alonso Take Out Red Bulls-Vettel Shattered

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Hamilton and Alonso Take Out Red Bulls-Vettel Shattered | Photo 02

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Lewis Hamilton stunned the Red Bull team of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber with a blistering pace and an unexpected win that saw him battling Alonso for the lead in the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring yesterday. No one thought that after McLaren’s Jenson Button and Hamilton had mediocre qualifying, for McLaren, Hamilton would charge forward to the lead and take the win. The British superstar put on a commanding performance in a race that no one knew what the outcome might be due to the reversal of the off throttle blown diffuser rule.

Two things stand out as possibilities for the performance against the German Red Bull squad. The first is that both Ferrari and McLaren had developed their versions of the diffuser more effectively than did Red Bull, but the second factor may have been track temperature, the ‘obvious’ deciding factor. Obvious meaning that no one but the teams and God know what their engine mappings were, yes they had to stay within the guidelines put forth by the FIA, but they still may have been on the high side of performance chancing reliability.

The one mistake that seemed to plague several teams was getting heat into the tires quickly. Virtually the entire field ran their first stints on the soft tire that Pirelli brought to the party. The rules state that you must use both the soft compound and the prime, or harder, compound tires during the course of the event. The threat of rain hung over the entire race forcing the teams to use the soft tires, thus compelling the front runners to manage the soft compounds as best they could given that the tire degradation on the soft tire is notoriously aggressive. They were hedging their bets for rain. However, when you have colder temperatures and need heat in the tires having an aggressive style is more beneficial in getting them to work, but not necessarily make them last.

Alonso’s pit stops were flawless as was Hamilton’s. On the last stint Hamilton stopped first, under a second ahead of Alonso. Ferrari decided that Alonso should pit right after Hamilton rather than matting the throttle and gaining a tenth on the pitting Hamilton. The result? Hamilton came out just barely ahead of Alonso, who on the harder compound didn’t have that extra time to get the heat into his fresh rubber. Needless to say the Ferrari was twitchy just behind Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel had an unusually rough day mired in fourth after an uncharacteristic spin. Vitaly Petrov in his Renault showed his ability but his immaturity as well becoming the Milka Duno of the race. If anything could be hit, pushed into the grass or moved over on, Vitaly became the winner of that dubious prize. Button experienced problems from the morning warm-up to the race that prompted him to say that it was a totally different car. He fought hard in mid-pack but finally retired with hydraulic problems. One has to wonder if those problems were manifesting themselves early but at such a low level the sensors didn’t pick them up until it was too late.

What is clearly evident is that despite Vettel’s commanding lead in the World Championship contest, the Red Bull gang may have to become more aggressive in the latter half of the season. It’s moved into the realm of the unknown. Why? The variables in this race meet were Biblical: The driver, the weather temperatures, the strategy of seemingly eminent rain, the unknown engine mapping, the blown diffuser progress of McLaren and Ferrari, the tire strategy and the Russian talent turned serial killer Vitaly Petrov.

The bottom line is that it was one helluva race filled with drama, confusion and the making of new enemies, as if you need that in Formula One. The next race at the Hungaroring in Budapest should provide more track surface heat, that seems to benefit the Red Bulls, but you can’t really make a prediction given the conditions of yesterday. It’s now back to back before the summer break and after Budapest this weekend they gear up for Spa, Belgium. Hell yeah.

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