ANDRE1 AUGUST 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 21GERMAN GP RACE CENTREdown to 14th after his own last-corner off, but who also made
a perfectly judged call to take fresh intermediates rather than
slicks during the recent flurry of pitstops.
Verstappen made hay during the next phase of green-flag running,
from lap 34-40 setting a pace just over a second faster than anyone else.
Bottas took too long to get past Hulkenberg, eventually taking second
on lap 37, by which time he was 8.6s behind the Red Bull. Hamilton
quickly dispatched Albon then Hulkenberg to move up to third
before the Renault driver caused the next reshaping of the race.
Hulkenberg, chasing a first F1 podium finish at the 167th attempt,
became the latest to make the same error as Leclerc and Hamilton. It
wasn’t so serious, and he was able to get the car turned in roughly the
right direction, only to then be hit by the agonising lack of grip on the
densely laid and slicked up rubber as he, quite naturally, got back on the
throttle having seemingly corrected the moment. Hitting the brakes
doomed him and he slid agonisingly into the wall and retirement.
Cue another safety car, this time allowing Verstappen to pit for
fresh intermediates at the end of lap 41 without losing the lead –
a trick Vettel, who had climbed up to seventh place, also pulled but
at a cost of three places. As the endgame approached, Verstappen’s
lead had once again been wiped out by the safety car.
PHASE 5 BOTTAS’S BIG CHANCE
Under the safety car, Bottas was told his best chance of getting ahead
of Verstappen was at the restart. Sadly for him, Verstappen made a
perfect job of it and already had 1.6s in hand over the start/finish line.
Bottas had Hamilton behind him but knew his team-mate had a five-
second penalty to serve at his next pitstop for the bollard infringement.
Mercedes passed up the opportunity to make a stop under the
previous safety car because of the penalty, which would have kept
Hamilton in the pits longer and cost track position. But this proved
to be a misstep as, when the time came for the race to get going, it
wasn’t long before everyone had to pit for slicks anyway so
Hamilton’s third place was shortlived.
The race restarted on lap 46, with Verstappen comfortably ahead
of Bottas and Hamilton. Verstappen resolved to complete one more
“HULKENBERG, CHASING A FIRST F1 PODIUM FINISH
AT THE 167TH ATTEMPT, BECAME THE LATEST TO
MAKE THE SAME ERROR AS LECLERC AND HAMILTON.
HE SLIPPED AGONISINGLY INTO RETIREMENT”