German GP: Splendid victory for Alonso

Fernando Alonso won the 59th edition of the German GP, ​​maintaining the lead from start to finish and resisting attacks from Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button.

The Ferrari driver drove a defensive race, but never seriously risked losing the victory: behind him Vettel with the Red Bull and Button with a reborn McLaren appear disappointed, and they were the protagonists of a duel with plenty of controversy final, as the German would have overtaken the Englishman irregularly at the end, going beyond the limits of the track. Behind these three, an excellent fourth place went to Kimi Raikkonen with the Lotus, ahead of the sensational Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez and the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher. Mark Webber with Red Bull is eighth, while Nico Hulkenberg with Force India precedes Nico Rosberg with the second Mercedes, who closes the Top 10 and was the author of a formidable recovery from 23rd position. Of note are 11th place for Paul Di Resta with the other Force India, 12th for Felipe Massa, 15th for Pastor Maldonado with Williams and 18th for Romain Grosjean with Lotus. Instead, Lewis Hamilton withdrew due to mechanical failure, having compromised his race with a puncture after the start.

Before the race the news is that Red Bull has been cleared of charges of irregularities: after a meeting of race commissioners Derek Warwick, Tim Mayer and Paul Gutjahr, no further action was taken against Red Bull following the technical report of the FIA ​​delegate Jo Bauer this morning about the legitimacy of the Austrian team's engine maps. Bauer had argued that the engine of the RB8s of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber had breached article 5.5.3 of the Technical Regulations as it would have been capable of artificially altering the aerodynamic characteristics of both cars in breach of technical directive 036-11. But after meeting with representatives of Red Bull and Renault and examining the data, the stewards concluded that there were no violations of the technical regulations and therefore the “cans” can take part in the German GP.

At the start Alonso is on soft tyres, like all his rivals: only Rosberg is on mediums but he is very far behind. The start is exciting, with Alonso getting off to a great start while behind him there is a battle for the entire first lap between Schumacher and Vettel, with the Red Bull driver resisting the assault of the former Ferrari driver. Speaking of Ferrari at the back, Massa starts well but there is contact between the Brazilian and Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso, with the Ferrari driver losing his front wing. Senna and Grosjean also collide and the three are forced to return to the pits early to replace the tires and nose. On the third lap a first twist: Hamilton punctures his left rear tire and is forced to slowly return to the pits. In front Vettel sets record times and attacks Alonso, while behind Schumacher precedes Hulkenberg, Button, Maldonado, Webber, Raikkonen, Di Resta and Kobayashi in the top 10. Massa is 21st at 38" seconds from the top, Hamilton follows him by more than 1 ′, but for English there are stability problems. In front, however, Button's twin McLaren did very well, with the Briton easily passing Hulkenberg's Force India. Sergio Perez in the meantime passes Di Resta, it's not a good moment for the Indian team; the Mexican from Sauber instead snatched ninth position. Force India takes action and makes its first stop on lap 11 with Di Resta, who mounts the Mediums; In front, however, Button passes Schumacher with authority and is third. Raikkonen pitted on lap 12, but remained on the Soft tyres. On lap 13 it's up to Hulkenberg and Webber to put the Mediums, like Maldonado; Rosberg also returns and mounts the Softs, however demonstrating that he had the wrong strategy. On lap 15 Schumi adopts the same compound as his teammate, but upon returning to the track he is outwitted by his compatriot Hulkenberg and with a forceful overtake the German from Mercedes regains virtual fourth position. Raikkonen comes in his wake and in turn passes the Force India driver.

On lap 17 Alonso is 2 seconds ahead of Vettel, the following lap the Spaniard makes the stop: he switches to Medium, his time is 2. Ferrari returns to the track in third place, now Vettel is in command ahead of Button, who also stops on lap 3, copying the Cavallino's strategy. Then it's Vettel's turn: the pit stop is 3 seconds, but when returning to the track the German is behind the Asturian and actually finds himself on the Kobayashi road and is forced to pass him so as not to lose further ground on the Ferrari driver. In the meantime, Raikkonen is unleashed behind him and passes Schumacher, now fifth, but in front of them there is still Kobayashi who has to stop. Finally the Japanese stops and on lap 20 the situation is Alonso in command with a 3"2 lead over Vettel, then Button 24"2 from Ferrari, then Raikkonen, Schumacher, Hulkenberg, Perez, Webber, Di Resta and Kobayashi. Rosberg is 1th, Massa 5th, Hamilton 6th ahead of Grosjean. Massa stops on lap 12 and switches to the Mediums again, while Kobayashi passes Di Resta in front and is ninth. Vettel pushes in front and is at 15"18, Alonso loses about two tenths per lap: the race is still very long, 25 laps to go, but Red Bull seems to have a better pace with the Mediums. On lap 1 Vettel is only seven tenths of a second behind them and Button is also behind them, at 6 seconds; Alonso is pulling, his tires start to smoke under braking, a sign of his struggle to keep the Red Bull behind, but the Red Bull's lead goes back to 40. Hulkenberg, passed by Perez and Webber, decides to change strategy and mounts the Softs, before a wild Kobayashi in turn passes the Australian from Red Bull. Halfway through the race, Hamilton was lapped, but incredibly, after being passed by the leading duo, the Englishman not only did not lose contact, but overtook Vettel, who made angry gestures towards the McLaren. Hamilton thus gives Alonso a huge advantage and at the same time allows Button to catch up with Vettel: Alonso now has a 30"3 advantage over the German, Button is 5"1 behind the Red Bull. Schumi pitted 1th and still rides the Mediums; the Ferrari in the lead is followed by the lapped McLaren of Hamilton who covers the back of the Red. But the Brit's pace is superior and he wants to split his lead: for the Spaniard, on the other hand, it is crucial to have a car between himself and Vettel.

On lap 39 Raikkonen also stops and mounts the Mediums, over the radio Andrea Stella, his track engineer, asks Alonso to give everything in view of the pit stop scheduled for the 42nd lap: but Button anticipates the stop by mounting the Averages, as well as Webber. On the following lap there is a double stop: Alonso and Vettel stop at the same time, but while the Spaniard keeps the lead, Vettel is outwitted by Button who passes him in acceleration on exiting the pitlane and is second. Also helping the Englishman was the extraordinary pit stop time, 2 seconds, set by his mechanics. The German reacts furiously trying to pass the McLaren left and right, but it is useless and in pulling Vettel onto the track he also risks going off the road coming wide at Turn 4. The race is beautiful, the twists and turns follow one another: Button is however in Alonso's exhausts, he is at 1"0 while Vettel is at 8"1. With twenty laps to go the situation sees Alonso in the lead with 5"0 ahead of Button, Vettel at 7"2, then Raikkonen, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Perez, Hulkenberg, Rosberg and Webber. Massa is 5th, Hamilton 12th. The Brazilian himself makes his last stop and mounts the Softs, while Alonso remains on the Mediums and gains a tenth on the Englishman. Schumacher stops for his third stop and switches to Soft tyres, and when he returns to the track he is seventh. Vettel, on the other hand, drives to the limit going over the curbs, the German seems unclear in his driving and in fact loses tenths and is now 15 seconds behind Alonso. But the Ferrari driver also drives in an extreme way: the Spaniard addresses Stella via radio, explaining that he loses two tenths in the central sector, asking which engine map to use. On lap 3 Hamilton retires, while he was 6th, while Alonso and Button are busy lapping in front. The gap with 58 laps to go is 16"7, while Vettel is 1"2 from Alonso, taking advantage of the brawl of the lapped drivers. Ferrari pushes, gains two tenths on McLaren, while now it's Button who has to watch his back: With three laps to go Alonso has 2"6, while Vettel is 1"9 behind the Englishman. On lap 0 the margin is 8"65, while it's a battle between the two pursuers: Vettel attacks Button at the hairpin and going over the curb passes the Englishman, who complains about an alleged irregular maneuver by the German. Alonso is safe, the victory belongs to him: a magnificent victory, never truly questioned. Now the Spaniard leads the standings at 2, then Mark Webber at 4 and Vettel at 154. In the Constructors' championship, Red Bull is at 120, Ferrari at 118 and McLaren at 238. The appointment with F177 is next week , with Hungarian GP in Budapest.

Lorena Bianchi

Here are the results of the German GP:

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Alonso Ferrari 1h31:05.862 2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 3.732 3. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 6.949 4. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 16.409 5. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 21.925 6. Perez Sauber-Ferrari + 27.896 7. Schumacher Mercedes + 28.960 8. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 46.900 9. Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes + 48.100 10. Rosberg Mercedes + 48.800 11. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 59.200 12. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:11.400 13. Massa Ferrari + 1:16.800 14. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:16.900 15. Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1 lap 16. Petrov Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 17. Senna Williams-Renault + 1 lap 18 Grosjean Lotus-Renault + 1 lap 19. Kovalainen Caterham-Renault + 2 laps 20. Pic Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps 21. De la Rosa HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps 22. Glock Marussia-Cosworth + 3 laps 23. Karthikeyan HRT -Cosworth + 3 laps Fastest lap: Schumacher, 1:18.275 DNF: Driver Team Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes lap 58