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Verstappen wins wild German GP from Vettel, disaster for Mercedes

Max Verstappen mastered both wet and dry conditions to win the 2019 Formula 1 German Grand Prix for Red Bull as Mercedes faltered badly at its home race

Rain before the start and during the race made for an incident-packed event in which polesitter Lewis Hamilton spun twice on his way to an eventual 11th place finish, and his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas crashed out.

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel raced from the back of the grid to finish second, but it was a mixed day for the team after Charles Leclerc hit the barriers and retired.

Daniil Kvyat was third thanks to astute tactical choices by Toro Rosso. Torrential rain throughout the morning ensured this would be the first test of the wet-weather starting procedures F1 announced in 2017, with the safety car leading the pack for several formation laps.

Predictably, a number of the more combative-minded drivers began to lobby for the it to be withdrawn so the race could begin, and it eventually peeled off to enable a standing start.

Hamilton seamlessly converted pole into the race lead as Verstappen squandered his front-row start with too much wheelspin, conceding two places as both Bottas and Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen went by.

He almost lost a further place to the fast-starting Haas of Romain Grosjean, too, but reasserted himself into Turn 1 and recovered third place from Raikkonen next time around.

Spray and uncertain grip levels precipitated chaos in their wake as Carlos Sainz's McLaren ran wide in Turn 2 and Nico Hulkenberg and Leclerc pounced, and the midfielders bumped and banged their way through the opening laps.

At the end of the second lap, Sergio Perez rotated his Racing Point into the barrier at the exit of Turn 11, bringing out the safety car.

Vettel - starting from the back of the grid after failing to run in qualifying - and Toro Rosso's Alex Albon dived straight into the pits for intermediates while Hamilton and the rest of the frontrunners had to complete another lap before doing likewise.

A handful of teams gambled on leaving drivers out on the full wet tyres but that soon proved to have been the wrong option as a dry line began to form.

Kevin Magnussen was one such and, although he was running second behind Hamilton in the safety car queue, he was quickly swamped by Bottas and Verstappen when the race was green-flagged on lap 4 of 64.

Stopping a lap earlier elevated Vettel to 12th and he quickly cut through the midfielders ahead to run seventh.

But he was still over half a minute behind Hamilton, who remained serene in the rapidly changing conditions at this stage, stretching his advantage over Bottas beyond five seconds.

Leclerc and Hulkenberg stopped early for new intermediates during a brief virtual safety car period on lap 15 after Daniel Ricciardo pulled off with his Renault engine badly smoking, and Leclerc shot clear.

By lap 22, Leclerc had closed the gap to Verstappen to below four seconds, leaving Hulkenberg 20s down the road, though the threat to him from Raikkonen and Vettel was diminished by their worn intermediates.

On lap 23, Vettel was one of the first to pit for slicks, taking on the soft compound, and Red Bull brought Verstappen in from third place a lap later and fitted mediums.

Mercedes opted to fit mediums as well when it pitted Bottas on lap 26, while Ferrari went for softs on Leclerc's car on the following lap.

Hamilton was next in, for mediums, but his arrival in the pits coincided with a fresh downpour unheralded on the weather radar.

Leclerc immediately went off at the penultimate corner after making a small mistake and slid into the barriers at slow speed, beaching himself in the gravel and bringing out the safety car.

But then Hamilton speared off-track at the same point on the following lap.

He managed to gather his Mercedes into line and just glanced the barrier, breaking his front wing, but he was able to head straight into the pits.

There, chaotic scenes ensued as his unprepared crew fumbled for a new set of intermediate tyres and a replacement front wing, and to heap further misfortune on Hamilton's plate he was hit with a five-second penalty for driving on the wrong side of the pit-entry bollard.

The rest of the field then pitted for intermediates as it became obvious that the slicks were unsuitable, leaving Verstappen in the lead ahead of Bottas, Hulkenberg, Albon, Hamilton, Sainz, Raikkonen and Vettel.

Hamilton made short work of Albon in green-flag conditions as Hulkenberg pressured Bottas, handing Verstappen the opportunity to break nearly 10s clear.

That enabled Verstappen to gain a free pitstop for fresh intermediates when the safety car came out again on lap 40, triggered when Hulkenberg went off at the last corner in a similar fashion to Leclerc shortly after being passed by Hamilton for third.

The track began to dry again as the field circulated behind the safety car for four laps, prompting Racing Point to gamble by pitting the previously anonymous Lance Stroll for slicks the lap before the green flag, and he was followed by Kvyat.

This dropped them to the tail of the field, but after the other runners also broke for the pits after the track had gone live, the duo benefitted massively to run second and third behind Verstappen.

Kvyat used DRS to pass Stroll on the run to the hairpin on lap 50, while Mercedes' day went from bad to worse as Hamilton spun down to 15th place with a high-speed moment at Turn 1 and then Bottas had a near-identical moment a few laps later but hit the barriers hard at Turn 1, bringing out the safety car.

With five laps to run the track went green again with Verstappen leading from Kvyat and Stroll, while Vettel relieved Sainz of fourth immediately after the restart.

Two laps later, Vettel blasted by Stroll on the straight before the hairpin, and he nailed Kvyat next time round to annex second place in the final reckoning, crossing the lap 7.3s seconds behind the victorious Verstappen.

Stroll survived late attention from Sainz to retain fourth, while Albon made it to the flag ahead of Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi despite a tag from Gasly that sent the second Red Bull into retirement late-on.

Grosjean and Magnussen rounded out the top 10, though bonhomie was likely to be in short supply in the Haas camp since they contrived to collide once again in the closing laps, this time without eliminating each other.

Results - 64 laps

Pos Driver Car Gap
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda 1h44m31.275s
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 7.333s
3 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso/Honda 8.305s
4 Lance Stroll Racing Point/Mercedes 8.966s
5 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren/Renault 9.583s
6 Alexander Albon Toro Rosso/Honda 10.052s
7 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 16.838s
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 18.765s
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 19.667s
10 Robert Kubica Williams/Mercedes 24.987s
11 George Russell Williams/Mercedes 26.404s
12 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 42.214s
13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 43.849s
14 Pierre Gasly Red Bull/Honda Collision
- Valtteri Bottas Mercedes Spun off
- Nico Hulkenberg Renault Spun off
- Charles Leclerc Ferrari Spun off
- Lando Norris McLaren/Renault Power Unit
- Daniel Ricciardo Renault Exhaust
- Sergio Perez Racing Point/Mercedes Spun off

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver Points
1 Lewis Hamilton 225
2 Valtteri Bottas 184
3 Max Verstappen 162
4 Sebastian Vettel 141
5 Charles Leclerc 120
6 Pierre Gasly 55
7 Carlos Sainz Jr. 48
8 Daniil Kvyat 27
9 Kimi Raikkonen 25
10 Lando Norris 22
11 Daniel Ricciardo 22
12 Lance Stroll 18
13 Kevin Magnussen 18
14 Nico Hulkenberg 17
15 Alexander Albon 15
16 Sergio Perez 13
17 Romain Grosjean 8
18 Antonio Giovinazzi 1
19 Robert Kubica 1
20 George Russell 0

Constructors' championship

Pos Constructor Points
1 Mercedes 409
2 Ferrari 261
3 Red Bull/Honda 217
4 McLaren/Renault 70
5 Toro Rosso/Honda 42
6 Renault 39
7 Racing Point/Mercedes 31
8 Haas/Ferrari 26
9 Alfa Romeo/Ferrari 26
10 Williams/Mercedes 1



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