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Monday, July 23, 2012

Alonso Takes Hockenheim Honours in German GP Race

Photo Credit: Pirelli Photo Service

After 9 rounds of 2012 competition, the Formula 1 tour's top spot on the race podiums has been a game of musical chairs. In fact, it was only in the past two races where a driver repeated as a grand prix winner (Fernando Alonso at Valencia and Mark Webber at Silverstone). The second headline for the 2012 Formula 1 season has been the suprising performance of the Ferrari F2012 race car after many people wrote-out the team in opening race in Australia. While Felipe Massa's season campaign has been a serious of highs and lows, Alonso enters the Hockenheimring for the German Grand Prix with a 21 race points-scoring streak.

In qualifying, the Ferrari F2012 in the hands of Spain's Fernando Alonso found stability in the wet to win pole for the German Grand Prix. With Sunday's main event taking place on a dry race track, teams such as Red Bull Racing and McLaren were a little more confident that they could pursue the Alonso's Ferrari at prime race speeds.

Lined up on the starting order Sunday, Fernando Alonso launched perfectly from his pole-sitting grid position at the start of the German Grand Prix. While one Ferrari soared at the front, the second Scuderia Ferrari driven by Felipe Massa would collide with the rear of the Toro Rosso-Ferrari of Riccardo before reaching turn 1 on the opening lap. The chards of debris from Massa's front wing littered the Hockenheimring frontstretch creating havoc for a number of unfortunately positioned competitors. The Williams-Renault of Bruno Senna and Lewis Hamilton's McLaren-Mercedes were a few caught by the carbon fiber front wing debris of the Ferrari race car. While Felipe Massa and Bruno Senna were able to soldier on in the German Grand Prix, the McLaren's Lewis Hamilton had to withdraw from the event after 56 laps when the damage suffered early in the race was too severe to continue.

Maintaining a thin margin on other race cars, Fernando Alonso kept all other challengers well outside of the 1-second DRS interval throughout the 67 lap event. With the leaders adhering to a two-stop strategy through the Hockenheimring Formula 1, the fight in the race was truly for second and third. Into the later stage of the German Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel was anxious to regain his 2nd place position he had held at the beginning of the race occupied by Jenson Button.


Photo Credit: Pirelli Photo Service


Pulling off a daring corner pass that resulted in Vettel overshooting the curbing, the Red Bull-Renault shot past the McLaren-Mercedes the runner-up spot. At the checkered flag, Fernando Alonso win the German Grand Prix by 3.7 seconds over Sebastian Vettel. However, a decision by Formula 1 stewards assessed Vettel a 20-second penalty that stripped the Red Bull Racing driver of a podium finish. Vettel was dropped to 5th while Jenson Button was promoted to second place and Lotus-Renault driver Kimi Raikkonen was awarded with a podium position. 

In fourth place, Kamui Kobayashi placed his Sauber-Ferrari firmly in the points claiming a position ahead of the penalized Sebastian Vettel. Kobayashi's teammate Sergio Perez placed the second Sauber race car into 6th place. German driver Michael Schumacher brought his Mercedes GP car across the Hockenheimring start/finish line 7th.


Photo Credit: Pirelli Photo Service


The win for Alonso was the Spaniard's 30th victory in Formula 1 and extends his points-scoring streak to an impressive 22 races. This allows Fernando Alonso to claim a growing advantage over nearest points rival Mark Webber by 34 points.

Next weekend, the Formula 1 cars return to action at the Hungarian Grand Prix.


2012 Formula 1
German Grand Prix
Race Results

Pos # Car #/ Driver/ Car
1 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari
2 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
3 9 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault
4 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari
5 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault
6 15 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari
7 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP
8 2 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault
9 12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes
10 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP
11 11 Paul di Resta Force India
12 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari
13 16 Daniel Ricciardo Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari
14 17 Jean-Eric Vergne Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari
15 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault
16 21 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault
17 19 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault
18 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault
19 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault
20 25 Charlie Pic Marussia-Cosworth
21 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT F1
22 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth
23 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT F1
24 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes

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