Autosport – 01 August 2019

1 AUGUST 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 17

GERMAN GP RACE CENTRE

The gloriously chaotic and breathlessly entertaining ‘snakes and ladders’

German Grand Prix played out to Mercedes’ chagrin and Red Bull’s joy

EDD STRAW

(^) PHOTOGRAPHY

BRILLIANT VERSTAPPEN

WINS AS MERC FALTERS

T

he German Grand Prix was one of those rare, delicious blends

of chaos, virtuoso driving, wheel-to-wheel action, mistakes

and constant make-or-break strategy decisions that had

the Hockenheim crowd on its feet and overwhelming the

noise of the cars with their cheers time and time again.

Five drivers could realistically claim this should have been their

weekend – with a few feisty midfielders legitimately able to suggest

that they could have been contenders with the right breaks – but it

was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen who delivered a classic, old-school

‘spin and win’ triumph.

One of those unfortunate drivers who missed out, Lewis Hamilton,

summed it up perfectly as “like snakes and ladders”. Few left Hockenheim

without hitting at least a snake or two, but none more so than Mercedes,

which converted a potential 1-2 into a ninth place and some crunched

125 years celebratory bodywork on what team boss Toto Wolff described

as an “armageddon weekend”. Valtteri Bottas squandered the chance he’s

been waiting for to slash Hamilton’s world championship lead, while

both Ferrari drivers struck snakes even before the race started.

It was that kind of weekend. And it was all the more wonderful for it.

Amid the chaos, there were multiple clear phases where one driver or

another had, or appeared to have, the initiative.

PHASE 1 ADVANTAGE FERRARI

Heading into Saturday afternoon’s dry qualifying, Charles Leclerc was

favourite for pole position. Ferrari had set the pace throughout free

practice, with Leclerc looking the quicker and fears that the sweltering

conditions on Friday might have created a misleading picture allayed by

the pace of the red machines in Saturday’s one-hour practice session.

Ferrari hit its first snake early in Q1 when Sebastian Vettel, on his out-

lap, detected what proved to be an intercooler failure as he shifted up to

fourth gear for the first time. He returned to the garage and didn’t reappear.

Leclerc cruised through to Q3 and seemed certain to take his third

Formula 1 pole position. But a failure of the fuel system control module

also left him stranded in the garage while the other nine Q3 qualifiers

fought it out for pole. With Vettel 20th and Leclerc 10th on the grid,

and Hamilton fighting off illness to take an unexpected pole position,

victory had seemingly slipped from Ferrari’s grasp.

PHASE 2 ADVANTAGE HAMILTON

Steady rain in the hours before the race made full wet Pirellis the

starting tyres of choice, raising the tantalising prospect of Hamilton,

winner of the previous nine rain-affected grands prix, going toe-to-toe

with fellow front-row starter and rainmaster Verstappen. But the