Formula 1 2013 German Grand Prix - Sebastien Vettel Rings In Home Victory
Qualifying Lewis Hamilton swept to yet another blinding pole position for Mercedes, handing it to a home team rather than a home driver as Vettel was beaten into second place as he found the right set-up from a tricky practice. It was bittersweet for them however, as Rosberg failed to make it into Q3 after a strategic error by the team left him in the garage at the end of Q2, leaving him 11th at the end as the track got faster. Webber continued to deliver his great pace with a close third behind Vettel at a track hes taken the last two pole positions on to underline Red Bulls outright speed. Kimi Raikkonen translated the excellent pace hed found for Lotus in free practice into a strong fourth on the grid, though felt he could have got third after traffic prevented him warming his front tyres fully. Grosjean felt he could have done better but was pleased with fifth, his best position of the year, after a few races where their qualifying performance has lacked. Daniel Ricciardo was delighted to grab sixth place with his Torro Rosso, exceeding their expectations after practice with a great Q2 lap and hoping for a good strategy in the race. Vergne struggled with his car and couldnt put a good lap together, and with no mistakes he could only manage to scrape into 16th place. Ferrari showed much better qualifying pace this weekend, with Felipe Massa fastest in Q1 and Q2 and Alonso more in the mix. For Q3 however they opted to run on the harder medium tyres with a strategic eye on the race due to tyre performance and Massa and Alonso took seventh and eighth on the grid respectively. Jenson Button drove a great Q2 lap to get into the top ten shoot-out, where McLaren then chose to not set a time and run on prime tyres to mark Nico Hulkenberg who excellently broke into Q3 with them. Button felt it was likely the right move for the race, while Perez wasnt able to get the best from their car and couldnt match his teammate, hampered a little by understeer and only able to take 13th place in Q2. Hulkenberg was very pleased with getting to Q3 and was confident ahead of the race, feeling theyd taken a great step forward from free practice. He didnt set a time for Q3, running on the medium tyres like Button and looking ahead for Sunday. Gutierrez felt the team had got the right information from the data they had and was able to attack the circuit. He couldnt match his teammate, but he did match his career-best qualifying in 14th, his best since Malaysia. Force India couldnt conjure the brilliant one-lap pace they had in Silverstone, with Paul di Resta saying their set-ups had been a compromise and totally changing it before Q1 on his way to 12th place. Sutil was disappointed to only get 15th at his home race, with his speed hampered when his DRS broke in Q2. Both drivers looked to the race and hoped their good race pace could deliver them points again. Bottas and Maldonado once again were very close with each other and battled it out, but didnt have the pace to do anything about the cars ahead despite wringing the necks of their 600-liveried cars. Bottas beat Maldonado to 17th place as they were both eliminated in Q1, with the Venezuelan just 0.014 seconds behind in 18th. Pic was over a second off the Williams as he won the battle of the back four, pleased with the car as he seized 19th place, eight-tenths ahead of his teammate, but he will be penalised for a gearbox change that will drop him to the back of the grid. Van der Garde, who struggled to get the temperature into the tyres and find the right balance, was unable to match Pic, and also failed to match Bianchi in the Marussia as he drove to 21st. Bianchi took 20th place, feeling better after his illness, and felt generally pleased with his car after finding the balance. Chilton felt the Caterham of Van der Garde had been within his reach and that he didnt get the best out of the car as he qualified 22nd.