German Grand Prix – Results: 3rd | Videos

Source: autosport.com | lotusf1team.com | twitter

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Update:

Sebastian Vettel has been handed a penalty for his overtaking move on Jenson Button in the German Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver passed his McLaren rival for second with less than two laps to go by running off track at the exit of the hairpin.

Vettel’s move was illegal, according to the stewards, who imposed a post-race drive-through penalty on the German, meaning 20 seconds have been added to his finishing time.

The German drops from second to fifth, promoting Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen to third.

A mixed German Grand Prix all round for the team at Hockenheim ; Kimi producing a fine drive to move up six positions while early damage for Romain compounded a trying weekend for the Frenchman.

Key Moments :

Lap 01 : KR up to P9, RG down to P24 after contact forces an early pit stop
Lap 02 : KR takes Lewis Hamilton ; up to P8 only to be passed back the following lap
Lap 05 : KR moves past Paul Di Resta into P8 through T9 / T10
Lap 11 : KR pits for soft tyres, jumping Mark Webber to clinch P6 after Lewis Hamilton is forced to pit
Lap 13 : Fastest lap for KR ; flying on fresh rubber
Lap 15 : Another position gained for KR ; past Nico Hulkenberg into P5
Lap 21 : After a long battle, KR takes Michael Schumacher exiting T6 to take P4
Lap 23 : First round of stops complete ; KR P4, RG P20
Lap 25 : RG pits for the medium compound tyres
Lap 38 : KR in for his 2nd stop ; medium rubber this time around for the Finn
Lap 40 : KR reclaims the fastest lap of the race
Lap 43 : RG in for the third time ; softs on this occasion
Lap 50 : Off-track excursion for RG ; wide into the T12 gravel but recovers well
Lap 67 : Chequered flag ; KR P4, RG P18

Summary :

Warm and dry conditions as the lights went out at Hockenheim ; Both E20s starting the race on yellow marked soft compound Pirelli tyres. A frantic first lap saw Kimi stay out of trouble to move up one position, while Romain’s bad luck continued ; contact breaking the front wing and damaging the floor of his E20. Forced to make an unscheduled pit stop, the Frenchman made the switch to the white marked medium compound rubber.

The first phase proved equally as action-packed for the Finn ; passing Lewis Hamilton, being re-passed by the McLaren, then making a move on Paul Di Resta. After an early stop for fresh softs, the 2007 World Champion jumped both Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton – in the pits / thanks to a puncture respectively – to find himself up in sixth.

Flying in the early stages, Kimi took the fastest lap of the race as he chased down Nico Hulkenberg ; passing the German within three laps of his stop to take fifth in an opportunistic move by following Michael Schumacher past the Force India in the turn nine / ten complex.

Settling into a good rhythm, the Finn remained glued to the back of the Mercedes in front ; an intense battle ensuing before a fine move exiting the turn six hairpin clinched fourth place for the Iceman. As the first round of stops filtered out, Kimi occupied fourth place while Romain remained pinned at the back of the field ; twentieth for the Frenchman after his various troubles in the early stages.

A quiet period of the race for the Lotus F1 Team drivers created a busy phase for the team ; two stops in five laps seeing both E20s emerge on medium tyres as the Finn once again notched the quickest time of the day thus far on fresh rubber.

The Iceman continued to clock personal best times and fastest sectors in the dying embers of the race, but with a significant gap to Jenson Button in front the podium was just out of reach as he came home in a strong fourth. Romain eventually limped over the line in a severely battered and bruised E20 to take eighteenth on a weekend to forget for the Frenchman.

Revised results and standings:

Pos  Driver        Team                       
 1.  Alonso        Ferrari
 2.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes
 3.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault
 4.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari
 5.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault
 6.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari
 7.  Schumacher    Mercedes
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault
 9.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes
10.  Rosberg       Mercedes
11.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes
12.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari
13.  Massa         Ferrari
14.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari
15.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault
16.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault
17.  Senna         Williams-Renault
18.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault
19.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth
21.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth
22.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth
23.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth

Not classified/retirements:
Driver        Team
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes

World Championship standings, round 10:
Drivers:                    Constructors:
 1.  Alonso       154        1.  Red Bull-Renault          230
 2.  Webber       120        2.  Ferrari                   177
 3.  Vettel       110        3.  McLaren-Mercedes          160
 4.  Raikkonen     98        4.  Lotus-Renault             159
 5.  Hamilton      92        5.  Mercedes                  105
 6.  Rosberg       76        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             80
 7.  Button        68        7.  Williams-Renault           47
 8.  Grosjean      61        8.  Force India-Mercedes       46
 9.  Perez         47        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6
10.  Kobayashi     33
11.  Maldonado     29
12.  Schumacher    29
13.  Di Resta      27
14.  Massa         23
15.  Hulkenberg    19
16.  Senna         18
17.  Vergne         4
18.  Ricciardo      2

Lotus team quotes:

Kimi Raikkonen, (4th -3rd) – “We did the best we could today from the position we started. My start was okay, but then I think Lewis had a problem in front of me and I had to slow down to avoid hitting the back of his car. This let Paul (Di Resta) through in the DRS zone and from there we had a big hill to climb as it was tricky to get back past. Maybe if we had found a bit more pace in the wet yesterday we could have started higher and pushed the leaders, but it is what it is. For sure we were hoping for a bit better here, but the car worked well all through the race and we still brought home some good points for the team so there are some positives to take to the next race.”

Eric Boullier, Team Principal: “We saw a great recovery from Kimi after yesterday’s issues. It was a very strong and experienced drive coupled with a good strategy from the team. Starting in tenth and nineteenth positions we were always going to have our work cut out, so it’s good to see Kimi score big points again and display strong race pace. With Romain it was a difficult first lap and he had to fight with a damaged car from then on. We have all seen him have very good weekends, so we need to ensure that he has solid weekends even when circumstances mean he starts from the back of the grid. As a team we had the same pace as the frontrunners so there is no question about our capacity to score podiums and maybe a win one day.”

Alan Permane, Director of Trackside Operations: “Romain was compromised by his first lap incident which severely damaged his floor, losing him a lot of downforce. With Kimi moving tenth to fourth we saw the strategy work as we wanted it to. We were hoping to be able to get on the podium but the first few laps cost a bit too much time. Ultimately we could run at the pace of the leaders, but we were just too far back to make the top three today. It’s a familiar story we know all too well ; we have to qualify better to get stronger results. The wet weather of Saturday really hurt us in qualifying here, so hopefully we can bounce back in Budapest and do a good job.”

Video: Kimi passes Di Resta – onboard, Schumacher and Kimi pass Hulkenberg, Kimi overtakes Schumacher, full onboard coverage with Kimi

 

End of clip – Martin Brundle: “What impressed me with Kimi Raikkonen today was his racecraft, he’s lost absolutely none of it despite being away, and he was inch perfect today.”