2012 German Grand Prix The German Grand Prix

Lap 4: Hamilton tells his team that he should retire in a disaster on his 100th start.

Lap 4: DRS is enabled now as Vettel continues to close on leader Alonso.

Lap 4: Hamilton's left rear is flat and he's touring back to the pits. It looks like he has picked up the debris from the first corner.

Lap 3: Hamilton runs wide at the first corner and falls further behind. It looks like he has a puncture...

Lap 3: Vettel sets the fastest second lap, closing to 0.9 seconds down on Alonso.

Lap 2: Button is now harrying Hulkenberg in a battle over fifth, chased by Maldonado, Webber and the slow-starting Hamilton.

Lap 2: Massa and Senna are into the pits at the end of the first lap.

Lap 2: Alonso leads strongly into lap two through heavy debris at the first corner.

Lap 1: Vettel has to defend hard from Schumacher at the hairpin, while Hamilton is down the order after a poor launch.

Lap 1: Alonso leads them down to the hairpin from Vettel, Schumacher and Hulkenberg a fast-starting Button.

Lap 1: Alonso gets a great start with Vettel second, Schumacher third and Hulkenberg fourth into Turn 1.

Lap 1: The five red lights go out and we are racing in Germany!

Alonso leads them down to the grid. The field is beginning to form up.

Soft tyres are the choice of the top 11, with Kobayashi the first to opt for hard rubber from 12th on the grid.

Down to Turn 8 and the Mercedes grandstand they come with the Spaniard taking them round at a decent pace.

Alonso rounds Turn 4 and makes the long run down to the hairpin.

The formation lap begins in Hockenheim.

The engines fire with a minute to the formation lap.

Vergne, Pic, Rosberg and Glock look to be the men starting further back on the harder rubber.

Soft tyres looks to be the choice of the field for the start as provisional data comes in on the initial selection.

One DRS zone here, detected after the second complex of corners before allowing the wing to open down the curving stretch to the hairpin.

Michael Schumacher is advised of a choice of differential settings for the early stint of the race, on the Mercedes team radio.

Just five minutes to go until the formation lap begins at Hockenheim.

Alonso's steering wheel is fitted and the championship leader is ready to lead the cars away from his second pole position in as many races.

Button lines up sixth in his updated McLaren, which did appear to have promising pace during the limited dry running on Friday.

Tyres

Preparations for this race have been seriously hampered by rain, with limited dry running during practice meaning teams don't have the usual pre-race knowledge of how the tyres are likely to perform on Pirelli's debut at this circuit.

Soft and medium compound tyres are on offer, with the wet qualifying session meaning drivers have a free choice of starting rubber. That opens the possibility of contrasting strategies, with some outfits surely eying a start on the harder tyres and seeing how far they last before a switch to softs when the track improves.

Wear rates could turn out to be high - with temperatures much warmer today and rainy practice days meaning limited rubber remains on the track surface.

Raikkonen's Lotus crew is being told to be very careful not to reveal the starting choice of tyres.

With several penalties being applied, here's how the shuffled grid will line up this afternoon: Pos Driver Team 1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 3. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 4. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 5. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 7. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 8. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault * 9. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 10. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 11. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 12. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 13. Felipe Massa Ferrari 14. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 15. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 16. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 17. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari ** 18. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 19. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault * 20. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 21. Nico Rosberg Mercedes * 22. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth * Five-place penalty for gearbox change ** Five-place penalty for impeding

Lewis Hamilton readies himself on the grid ahead of a 100th start for McLaren. He is lines up seventh in an upgraded MP4-27.

What a change 24 hours makes. It has been fine, dry and mainly sunny so far today and this trend will continue into the race.

Air temperature is up to 20 degrees and, with continuing sunshine this afternoon, we may see track temperatures nudge through the 30 Celsius barrier during the event.

A light north-easterly breeze will keep the spectators cool this afternoon, but the action on track should be pretty hot.

Here's how the standings look as the season reaches the half way stage: World Championship standings, round 9: Drivers: Constructors: 1. Alonso 129 1. Red Bull-Renault 216 2. Webber 116 2. Ferrari 152 3. Vettel 100 3. Lotus-Renault 144 4. Hamilton 92 4. McLaren-Mercedes 142 5. Raikkonen 83 5. Mercedes 98 6. Rosberg 75 6. Sauber-Ferrari 60 7. Grosjean 61 7. Williams-Renault 47 8. Button 50 8. Force India-Mercedes 44

The crowd rises as the German national anthem rings out over Hockenheim.

Alonso

Hello everyone and welcome to AUTOSPORT Live for coverage of round 10 in this year's FIA Formula 1 world championship - the German Grand Prix from Hockenheim.

Fernando Alonso starts today's 67-lap race from pole position after coming through yet more weather chaos. Alongside him on the front row is Sebastian Vettel, but there was consternation in the paddock this morning, as both he and team-mate Mark Webber's participation in the race was thrown into doubt, following a stewards investigation into the legality of the RB8's engine mapping.

After more than two hours of deliberation and intrigue, the stewards decided that the team has obeyed the ECU regulation to the letter. While the stewards indicated that they weren't completely satisfied with the explanation from the team, ultimately no penalty will be imposed.

No further action taken over Red Bull

So Vettel keeps his front row position, with Michael Schumacher and Nico Hulkenberg pulling out sensational performances in qualifying to make it three Germans in the top four at home. Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado is a fine fifth on the grid, followed by McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.