Vettel holds off Lotus to claim first home Win Sebastian Vettel took a tough victory for the first time in front of his home crowd at the Nurburgring ahead of two charging Lotus cars to stamp his authority on the championship race once more after his failure to score in Britain. The legendary circuit boiled in the summer sunshine, delivering high temperatures that saw the tyre performance shift and the Mercedes cars slip backwards again with degradation problems while the Lotus cars found form not seen since Bahrain. Pole sitter Hamilton slipped back to fifth as the champion held off a late charge from Raikkonen, while Grosjean held onto his podium from a rapidly advancing Fernando Alonso. Into the Weekend Following a breathtaking duel in Britain, the main story yet again for Formula 1 was tyres. After the huge failures we saw at Silverstone, Pirelli have been under the microscope regarding the situation as people question the safety of the rubber and demand changes to their construction. Drivers threatened the boycott the race unless the tyres were clearly safe for this weekends race, and with that Pirelli introduced Kevlar-belted tyres as tested in Canada and Britain, manufactured hurriedly at the beginning of the week. Following a fantastic weekend in Britain overall, Mercedes looked to continue their much improved race form through this weekend and stay ahead of the Red Bull and Ferrari. Red Bull wanted to recover from their mechanical failure at Silverstone that saw Vettel fail to score, and build on the pace that saw Webber storm to near-victory. Ferrari were looking to continue the strong run of finishes Alonso has put together in recent races and improved pace they had last weekend, less the bad luck with the tyres that put Felipe Massa off the track. Lotus sought to continue the improved speed they brought to Britain and get back into contention for the championships that have slipped away from them slightly in recent races. Force India had fantastic pace at Silverstone but were unable to convert it into a strong points result on race day following penalties and safety cars, and were looking to really fulfil their potential in Germany. McLaren were seeking just to get into the points here after Silverstone saw their second consecutive finish without any after struggling for pace in the closing stages, and suffering a tyre failure. Torro Rosso were very quick at Silverstone, competing in the top ten and scoring good points with eighth, but alternately getting unlucky with Vergnes tyre failure, so were looking to have a consistent weekend. Sauber had much better pace last weekend, with Nico Hulkenberg hauling the car back into the points for the first time in five races, and they were looking to stay there as they went to Germany and stay ahead of Williams. Gutierrez however had problems and was seeking something to show himself at the ring. Williams were tantalisingly close to points in Britain for their 599th race, and overall were closer than they had been on raw performance, showing an upswing they would like to continue following Canadas unexpected second-row start and into their momentous 600th race start. Caterham once again kept ahead of Marussia, showing they have the pace at the back still, however were unable to deliver with both cars, something they will seek to remedy. Marussia raced hard to stay close to the green cars, and they were still working to turn the tide on them for this weekend.