A German Win at the Nürburgring
This is going to be a spicy one.
In pole position for Sunday’s race we had Bottas, followed by Hamilton, Verstappen, LeClerc, Albon and Ricciardo. Kimi Raikkonen was on the grid for his 323rd race – a record number of starts. This was marked by a huge flashing graphic on a giant screen and I haven’t yet decided whether this was brilliant or embarrassing. He hasn’t exactly been a key player in recent years but that is still an impressive number of races. Even his team said over the radio “I know it must not mean much to you, but you now have the record for most race starts so well done”. Ouch.
There was a lot of smoke coming from the front brakes of the starting grid as we began the Eifel GP at the Nurburgring. Albon made more smoke as he locked up his brakes on the first lap which forced him to take an early pit stop due to a flat spot. Ricciardo on the other hand was proving his worth as the “last of the late brakers” – a nickname I didn’t know he had for apparently being quite good on the brakes.
It was nice to see LeClerc and Ricciardo (from here on out he will be called Riccy) behind the leaders but it did make me question how anyone can defend Vettel’s performance this year. He is a more experienced driver in the same car as his teammate but yet we consistently see LeClerc outperforming him. My boyfriend then explained to me that the cars are actually different as the teams can use different upgrades and have one vehicle which is more set up for success than the other. To me, this seems completely absurd.
On lap 6 we saw Raikkonen come off into the gravel and this allegedly caused a stone to flick into Grosjean’s path and hit his finger. You can be sure of one thing, Grosjean didn’t let us forget it: “I hope it’s not broken”. Trust Grosjean to get hit by a stone.
By lap 9 Riccy had climbed 2 places to put himself in 4th and Norris was defending his position against Perez, getting very frustrated with his team radio: “Stop talking when I’m racing”. I think a certain young man is getting a bit big for his boots. Another young man, Charles LeClerc, seemed to be locking up his wheels “left, right and centre” – as the commentators kindly put it.
Vettel came off on lap 11 and it was unclear why. The commentators thought it might have been the rain which caused him to go off track but as viewers we couldn’t see anything from the camera shots. I did however notice the amount of people in the grandstands and that there still appeared to be no atmosphere. Maybe they were just cold, or maybe Covid F1 isn’t fun F1.
Hamilton squeezed past Bottas on lap 13 as Bottas had a huge lock up of his tyres, indicating that he needed to come in for a pit stop and tyre change pretty soon. Did anyone else notice the weird way Ted Kravitz was pronouncing strategy as “Stratchy”? Russell unexpectedly span and came off track because Raikkonen had crashed into him and caused considerable damage to his wheel/tyre and possibly his suspension. Russell, who sounded exasperated, vented over the radio “I gave him plenty of space”. I thought he behaved like such a gent considering what had happened and I really did feel sorry for him as the incident meant he was out of the race. To clear his vehicle, we had a virtual safety car. Raikkonen was handed a 10 second penalty.
It was interesting to hear from the reporters that it is smart to pit when this happens, because you lose 10 seconds less than you would have done if people were driving full pace. Riccy pitted just as the safety car ended so unfortunately ended up in 9th place when he re-entered the race.
In a moment of stupidity (in my opinion) Albon overtook Kvyat but cut it far too fine and ran over Kvyat’s wing. He really didn’t need to cut in front of him like that and he really isn’t doing himself any favours by making silly mistakes. He received a 5 second penalty to take during his next pit stop. Not long after this incident, he locked up yet again on lap 22 (another flat spot) as he tried to get past Gasly but almost swiped Gasly off the track. “They race me so hard” he whinged, sounding all sorry for himself. This frustrated me because surely you can’t expect people not to race you when you’re consistently in the mid-field. If it was Hamilton, they would let him past. Due to the flat spot he had to box again even though he wasn’t even halfway through the race. We waited for him to sit out his penalty but after that time had passed, he still didn’t move. The next thing we knew, the mechanics were pushing his car into the garage and apparently retiring him. The commentators had no idea what was going on and we didn’t receive any explanation. Considering the current circumstances with Albon’s seat in debate, it was a very shady move from Red Bull. Later we heard that supposedly there was a “power unit” problem, even though there seemed to be no issues with that before he came into the pits.
Meanwhile poor Bottas was having an awful race due to no fault of his own. We suddenly heard an almost panic-stricken voice exclaiming that he was losing power and then that he had no power. He dropped to 5th place and then proceeded to box where the team retired the car. He started in pole, was overtaken by his teammate, pitted early and then retired. This was not a day he would remember fondly.
On lap 23, Ocon said that his gears weren’t working and then his brakes were failing, so he had to retire due to a suspected hydraulic issue. There were now just 16 drivers left and even they were struggling. Lando Norris, who was sitting in 3rd place, complained about losing power as well. The team said that they could see a sensor issue with the power unit and began testing different settings while he was driving. Norris was reporting back about how the car was responding and I thought this display of modern engineering was simply amazing. By lap 30 he was still complaining about power but there didn’t seem to be any resolution on the cards.
Hulkenberg hasn’t even been mentioned so far but he was like a silent assassin. He started the race in last and was now in 8th. Riccy was also pulling out some impressive overtakes and gained 3 spots in 5 laps which saw him get 3rd place. He held onto that spot well and Perez (who was in 4th) couldn’t get within ‘striking distance’. Riccy was making his tyres last well too which would be important. Ferrari, however, were in 7th and 8th.
In a turn of events, Norris was forced out of the race on lap 44 as those power unit issues worsened. His car was smoking as if it might catch fire while he sat on a deckchair with his arms crossed like a stroppy teenager. Bless him. A full safety car was deployed to recover his car. Hamilton was repeatedly asking the safety car to speed up because he was worried about his tyres getting cold and Verstappen was moaning about the same thing, as well as asking why the safety car was out for so long. I’m sorry lads, but these things were obviously happening for a reason and throwing a strop wasn’t going to help.
The safety car ended after a bit of beautiful weaving from the bunched-up grid, and Riccy was on a fresh set of tyres to challenge Verstappen. He was close, but Perez was also close to overtaking Riccy. With two laps left of the race, Ricciardo wanted radio silence to focus and assumedly, not make any mistakes. After all, if he could keep it in 3rd it would be his first podium since Monaco in 2018.
And just like that, Riccy could celebrate his first podium of the year and the first podium for Renault since 2011. His energy and the joy in his laugh were infectious and I was so elated for him. The Renault team looked even happier and relieved to finally get another podium under their belt. To hear them cheering for him made me feel so happy and emotional because Riccy had been doing so well. I’m pretty sure he said hello to every single team member and I just love how appreciative he is: “it feels like the first podium all over again”. He sprayed champagne all over the team from the balcony because he knew how much this win would mean to them, but most importantly, he confirmed that Cyril would be getting a tattoo. Do a Google if you’re not sure what that’s all about.
Hamilton claimed 1st and equalled Michael Schumacher’s number of wins. Verstappen came 2nd with the fastest lap. It really was a great ending to the Eifel GP. Lewis seemed really humble as Mick Schumacher, Michael’s son, presented Lewis with one of Michael’s helmets. This was so symbolic and must’ve been very hard for Mick. The commentators mentioned that it was sad Michael couldn’t be there to hand over the helmet himself. I wondered whether that’s an F1 tradition.
Meanwhile Hulkenberg won driver of the day for his battle from the bottom, and he has been very lucky to drive two races as a support/reserve driver. You don’t see that very often and it has been crucial for him to show what he’s made of. Let’s see if he can grab a seat for 2021.