@Max33Verstappen wins wet and wild #GermanGP. #F1

Max Verstappen won a spectacular German Grand Prix for Red Bull ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat at a changeable weathered Hockenheim while Mercedes hit trouble.

Rain before the start and during the proceedings brought a drama-filled event in which pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton spun twice with the Briton eventually coming home 11^th and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas crashed out in a race to forget for the Silver Arrows.

Ferrari’s Vettel charged from the rear of the grid to come home an impressive second, but it was a mixed result for the Scuderia as Charles Leclerc whacked the barriers and retired.

Toro Rosso’s Kvyat completed the podium with clever tactical choices by the Faenza-based outfit. A torrential downpour during the morning ensured that this would be F1’s initial test of using it’s new starting procedures as the safety car lead the field for several laps to clear a bit of standing water.

As expected, some drivers began to push for the safety car to come in immediately for the race to begin, and it eventually hit pit-lane for a standing start.

Hamilton got off to a great start as Verstappen was left ruing his runoff the line after suffering too much wheelspin, dropping two places as both Bottas and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen went passed.

He nearly lost a position to a quick-starting Haas VF-19 of Romain Grosjean, too, but the Dutchman persevered into the first corner and snatched back third place from Raikkonen.

Spray and unpredictable grip levels brought chaos in it’s wake as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz ran wide at the second corner and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Ferrari’s Leclerc took advantage of the Spaniard, as the midfield runners touched and tangled their way through the opening stages.

At the end of lap two, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez lost the rear of his RP19 and slammed into the barrier at the turn eleven exit, deploying the safety car.

Vettel – who started at the rear after encountering a turbo failure issue in qualifying – and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon went straight into the pits for intermediate compounds while Hamilton and the frontrunners remained out on another lap before coming in.

A few teams took a gamble, leaving their respective drivers out on full wets but that soon proved to be a wrong choice as a dry line began forming.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen was one of the drivers and although the Dane was running second behind Hamilton in the safety car train, he was quickly disposed of by Bottas and Verstappen when the race continued on lap four.

Pitting a lap earlier promoted Vettel to 12^th and charged through the midfield to reach seventh.

But the German was still over 30 seconds behind Hamilton, who remained comfortable in the fast-changing conditions at that stage and increasing his lead to team-mate Bottas well over five seconds.

Leclerc and Hulkenberg pitted early for fresh intermediates during a short virtual safety car period and timed it to perfection on lap 15 after the other Renault of Daniel Ricciardo became the second casualty of the race as his engine sent out a huge ploom of smoke and Leclerc shot clear.

By the 22^nd lap, Leclerc had closed within four seconds of Verstappen, leaving Hulkenberg 20 seconds down the road, though the threat to him from Raikkonen and Vettel was vanished by their worn intermediate rubber.

On the 23^rd lap, Vettel came in for a fresh set of softs and Red Bull brought Verstappen in a lap later from third place, switching the inters to medium tyres.

Mercedes also went with mediums when it pitted Bottas on lap 26, while Ferrari chucked on a set of softs for Leclerc on the next lap.

Hamilton then pitted for mediums but his arrival in pits was met with another downpour.

Leclerc slid off at the penultimate corner after suffering a small error and hit the barriers at slow speed, with the young Monegasque driver stuck in the gravel and deployed the safety car.

But then Hamilton went off-track at the same spot on the following lap as the Briton managed to gather his W10 EQ Power+ racer into line and touched the barrier, breaking his front wing in the process, but was able to dive straight into the pits.

Then there was chaos in the pits as the Silver Arrows crew scrambled for a new set of intermediates and a replacement front wing, and to add more punishment to the championship leader, he was hit with a five-second time penalty for driving on the wrong side of the pit-entry bollard.

The rest of the field then came in for intermediates as the slick were no longer suitable, leaving Verstappen in first place and in-front of Bottas, Hulkenberg, Albon, Hamilton, Sainz, Raikkonen and Vettel.

Hamilton flew by Albon with ease as the race resumed with Hulkenberg pressurising Bottas, giving Verstappen the chance to break 10 seconds clear.

This gave the Dutchman a free pit-stop for fresh inters when the safety car was deployed again on the 40^th lap, when Hulkenberg went off at the final corner in a similar way to Leclerc shortly after being overtaken by Hamilton for third.

The circuit began to rapidly dry again as the pack continued to circle behind the safety car for four more laps, prompting Racing Point to take a gamble with Lance Stroll for slicks a lap before going green, and Kvyat also followed suit.

This relegated them to the rear of the field, but after a flurry of drivers also dived for the pits as the race was live, the pairing benefitted massively to be running in second and third respectively behind Verstappen.

Kvyat used DRS assistance to pass Stroll on the rundown to the hairpin on lap 50, while Mercedes’ day went to more shambles when Hamilton spun down to 15^th place in a high-speed moment at the first corner and then Bottas almost had a similar moment a few laps later, but the Finn hit the barriers hard at turn one, bringing out the safety car.

With five laps remaining, the race resumed once more with Verstappen in-front of Kvyat and Stroll, while Vettel made short work of Sainz for fourth immediately at the restart.

A couple of laps later, Vettel breezed by Stroll on the blast down to the hairpin for third, then the German did the same to Kvyat a lap later to take second at his home Grand Prix and finished 7.333 seconds behind the triumphant Verstappen.

Stroll withstood late pressure from Sainz en route to a high fourth, while Albon came sixth and in-front of Alfa Romeo Racing pairing Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, despite being clipped by Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly that sent the other RB15 into retirement late on.

Both Raikkonen and Giovinazzi were penalised after a post-race investigation for clutch infringements at the start of the Grand Prix due to breaching article 27.1 relating to clutch torque applications.

As a result, both drivers were hit with a 10 second stop-and-go time penalty, which equated to 30 seconds added to each of their race times.

Haas F1 Team’s Grosjean and Magnussen were promoted to seventh and eighth respectively following the Alfa Romeo Racing driver penalties, though both Haas drivers brought more drama as they collided once again in the closing stages, though this time did not eliminate each other.

The aforementioned Hamilton moved up to ninth and extends his points lead to 41 over team-mate Bottas and ahead of the ROKiT Williams Racing’s Robert Kubica who takes his first point for the Grove squad.

The other Williams of George Russell also got promoted to 11th with the two penalised Alfa Romeo drivers at the rear.

The Top Three

1^st – Max Verstappen, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “It was amazing to win in the end. It was really tricky to make the right calls. To come out on top it was all about not making mistakes. It’s amazing to win here”

2^nd – Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “I’m just happy. I think before the last safety car I realised I was quite a bit faster, and I had some good moves on the back straight. It was about getting the next car, and the next car, and the next car”

3^rd – Daniil Kvyat, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda, STR14: “It’s amazing to be back on the podium. And to bring one back for the team after so many years is special. It was a horror movie with a bit of black comedy out there!”

Formula 1 Mercedes-Benz Grosser Preis Von Deutschland 2019 Race Results Classification (64 Laps)

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 225 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 184 Points.
3. Max Verstappen – 162 Points.
4. Sebastian Vettel – 141 Points.
5. Charles Leclerc – 120 Points.
6. Pierre Gasly – 55 Points.
7. Carlos Sainz – 48 Points.
8. Daniil Kvyat – 27 Points.
9. Kimi Raikkonen – 25 Points.
10. Lando Norris – 22 Points.

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 407 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 261 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 217 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 70 Points.
5. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 42 Points.
6. Renault F1 Team – 39 Points.
7. SportPea Racing Point F1 Team – 31 Points.
8. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 26 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Racing – 26 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 1 Point.

Round 12 of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship heads straight to the Hungaroring in Mogyorod, Budapest, Hungary this weekend for the Formula 1 Rolex Magyar Nagydij 2019 from Friday August 2-Sunday August 4.