F1: GP of Germany 2016

Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Nico Rosberg, Kimi Räikkönen, Sergio Perez, Pascal Wehrlein, Rio Haryanto, Kevin Magnussen

Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen

Team Mercedes

Result:
 

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas	67
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	67
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	67
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas	67
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	67
6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	67
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India F1 Team	67
8	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	66
9	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing	66
10	Sergio Perez	Force India F1 Team	66
11	Esteban Gutiérrez	Haas F1 Team	66
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	66
13	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	66
14	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Scuderia Toro Rosso	66
15	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso	66
16	Kevin Magnussen	Renault Sport F1 Team	65
17	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing MRT	65
18	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team	65
19	Jolyon Palmer	Renault Sport F1 Team	65
20	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing MRT	65
	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team	57
	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing	36

Drivers Classification

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	British	Mercedes	207
2	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	198
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Australian	Red Bull Racing	133
4	Kimi Räikkönen	Finnish	Ferrari	122
5	Sebastian Vettel	German	Ferrari	120
6	Max Verstappen	Dutch	Red Bull Racing	115
7	Valtteri Bottas	Finnish	Williams	58
8	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Force India	48
9	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Williams	38
10	Nico Hulkenberg	German	Force India	33
11	Carlos Sainz	Spanish	Toro Rosso	30
12	Romain Grosjean	French	Haas	28
13	Daniil Kvyat	Russian	Toro Rosso	24
14	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	McLaren	23
15	Jenson Button	British	McLaren	17
16	Kevin Magnussen	Danish	Renault	6
17	Pascal Wehrlein	German	Manor	1
18	Stoffel Vandoorne	Belgian	McLaren	1
19	Jolyon Palmer	British	Renault	0
20	Esteban Gutierrez	Mexican	Haas	0
21	Marcus Ericsson	Swedish	Sauber	0
22	Felipe Nasr	Brazilian	Sauber	0
23	Rio Haryanto	Indonesian	Manor	0

Constructors Classification

Pos	Team	Points
1	Mercedes AMG Petronas	415
2	Red Bull Racing	256
3	Ferrari	242
4	Williams Martini Racing	96
5	Force India F1 Team	81
6	Scuderia Toro Rosso	45
7	McLaren Honda	42
8	Haas F1 Team	28
9	Renault Sport F1 Team	6
10	Manor Racing MRT	1
11	Sauber F1 Team	0

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

Q: Lewis, just after the national anthem I saw you standing, for a long time, staring down the inside line into Turn One. Just considering it, presumably visualising it. It obviously worked.

LH: I was kind-of touched after the national anthem. The lady sang so beautifully. After that it was really just trying to stay… keeping cool, trying to see the line, because the track’s actually not flat there. It’s uphill from me going across to where Nico was and yeah, of course, I needed to put my car alongside him somehow. I was hoping for a great start. Those starts have been inconsistent and you never know what you’re going to get. But just trying to understand the circumstances ahead of me. But first, I want to say a big thank you to this team. It’s been a hard slog for everyone in the team, for the whole year and obviously with ups and downs and the difficulties that we’ve had, the real strength that we’ve shown, through and through, these last races has been inspiring for me. Seeing them coming back, week after week, the work that gets put in, inspires me to drive like I did today. So, I really owe it to them and excited now, get to go on holiday. This is the best way to go on holiday.

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo

Q: Daniel, a Red Bull double podium as you just mentioned there and Red Bull now up into second in the Constructors’ Championship, ahead of Ferrari by 14 points going into the summer break. Obviously the story of the race was the split strategies: you and Lewis both going onto the soft tyre, Max and Nico going onto the supersoft. It obviously worked out well for you today but you also looked, the way you were driving, it looked like you had a taste for it today. You were pushing very, very hard and trying to get onto the back of Lewis.

DR: Yeah, definitely. We obviously wanted to finish the first part of the season on a high and after Friday’s long runs we knew we would probably be more competitive in the race stint than we were in Budapest. And obviously we had a little sniff at the start of the race in Budapest, so yeah, we knew that we could have something on. I was trying to make the most of it as always but knowing we probably had a better chance today, it was obviously  a nice little motivation to try to make the most of it. The start initially felt quite good, obviously Nico’s was quite poor so we got past him, and then I covered the inside in Turn One but then Max had a good run on the outside and it was very close with us. We obviously kept it on track, much to my disappointment he pulled off the move at Turn One. Then it was trying to keep Nico back on the first lap. It was a good little battle there for a few corners and that was quite important for my race, to then keep him behind and focus on what I needed to do. The first two stints, we went supersoft-soft. We were in the race but nothing… I wouldn’t say the pace was enough to really make a massive jump on the lead, or the top two – but then once we put the supersofts on, the last two stints, that’s where I really felt like I could push the car. It came alive, and that’s where in the end we got the second place. We had good pace and it was nice. As Lewis said, nice to go on the summer break with a result I’m happy with. Two weekends in a row now it’s a podium and, for the team, we’re now second in the Constructors’ so I think we can be really proud, both of us, to split the Mercedes today. It’s a really good effort.

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen

Q: Max, coming to you, obviously you were on the other side of that split strategy.  You complained in the second stint that the supersoft was not the race tyre for today. Tell us a little bit about that, and why not, and also tell us in detail about your fight with Nico Rosberg for which he was given a penalty.

MV: First of all, the start was good. So I went from fourth to second so I was happy with that. I think in the first stint the pace was pretty good. I could see Lewis and he was not pulling away too much, so I was just controlling it and from there on we went onto the second set of supersofts but they felt pretty weak and easy to destroy the tyres. Yeah, just didn’t feel great. I couldn’t really push in that stint so I had to back-off. Once I got onto the soft tyre, yeah, it was a little bit better but of course the soft is not as strong as the supersoft tyre, so I saw Daniel behind me charging on a supersoft because Nico passed me and pushed me a bit wide, so he got a five-second penalty for that. I was still following him but then, of course, Daniel with the supersoft was charging, so I let him go by, and from there on, yeah, it was pretty OK, and once I went onto the last set of tyres, the pace was there again but once you are behind someone within two seconds, you can’t really push any more. You are just understeering and you are waiting. That was it. In the end it is a good result for the team and we are in front of Ferrari now and that was the main target. I think as a team we can be happy.

More: http://www.fia.com/

Fotos: AFP / Thomas Kienzle
           Mark Thompson/Getty Images Europe
           AFP / POOL / Uli Deck
           AFP / PATRIK STOLLARZ
           Charles Coates/Getty Images Europe
           Dan Istitene/Getty Images Europe