Vettel wins: Di Resta 11thposted in F107 | 07 | 2013
BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA failed to score a world championship point for only the second time in the opening nine race of the Formula One season.
The 27-year-old Scot, who started the German Grand Prix from 12th on the grid in his Sahara Force India, had to content himself with 11th.
"It's obviously not where we wanted to finish," Di Resta said afterwards, "but in the end I was a bit of a sitting duck simply because we'd lost grip with the rear tyres.
"We thought the tyres would last right through to the end, but I basically was fighting just to keep the car on the track over the closing few laps.
"I lost two places over the last four or five laps: I guess we underestimated exactly how much they'd drop off.
"It's a pity not to score points, but really I'd say we've struggled all weekend here. We just never got the balance 100% right with the car.
"After the first stop, which was quite early, I massively struggled with the car's balance. After that the car was pretty good, but the problem was we were out of position.
"I got held up by Ricciardo and just never got loose to maximise the pace I had in the car.
"It was always a bit of a gamble to run a two-stop strategy, and we came very close to making it work. Ultimately though I think our race was also compromised when I couldn't get past Maldonado immediately after the safety car.
"I think it was better than expected for the second half of the race, but far worse for the opening stint.
"We've a bit of work to do, and obviously the Silverstone test is going to be important. It will definitely give us a better steer on the tyres before we go to Hungary, and hopefully allow us to get back to where we were."
Sebastian Vettel won his home race for the first time, and the first grand prix of his F1 career in the month of July, when he led from the first corner.
Starting from second on the grid behind the Mercedes of polesitter Lewis Hamilton, the Red Bull driver scorched ahead as soon as the five red lights went off.
From there Vettel, the triple world champ, controlled the race establishing a lead.
The appearance though of the safety car, following the retirement of Jules Bianchi's Marussia — which unbelievably, then rolled, unmanned, backwards across the track — bunched the field up again.
Vettel and the Lotus of second-placed Romain Grosjean pitted, followed by Kimi Raikkonen's third-placed Lotus.
The three battled to the end, with the Finn passing Grosjean with four laps remaining, but the former world champ eventually finished just a second behind Vettel.
The German's 30th career, win in just 110 races saw him extend his world championship lead over Fernando Alonso to 34 points: the Spaniard finished fourth in his Ferrari.
Hamilton, whose car struggled on the Pirelli tyres, finished fifth, just ahead of former McLaren team-mate Jenson Button. Mark Webber brought his Red Bull home seventh.
But the Aussie's race was almost ruined by a botched pitstop which saw his car's right-rear wheel fly off the hub and strike a cameraman.
The injured Brit, Paul Allen, was hit on the left hand side was conscious throughout the accident before being transferred immediately to the Nurburgring circuit's medical centre.
"He was treated at the circuit medical centre and then transported by helicopter to Koblenz Hospital," a statement from the FIA said.
"The Briton has been kept there, under observation. Further information from the hospital will be provided as soon as it becomes available."
DRIVER QUOTES:
Sebastian Vettel — Red Bull:
“It was a tough race; it was one of the toughest for a long time. I’m happy the race wasn’t two or three laps longer, as Kimi was a bit quicker towards the end. I’m very happy that it worked out and it’s very special.
"The team worked really hard to give me the chance to win this weekend and we got it. First of all you have to remember that it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to race in your home country; we have around 20 races, but there are obviously more than 20 countries, so it’s special to race at home and get so much support.
"I had a good start and then just focused on every single lap during the race. You don’t really think about where you are while you are racing, you can’t allow your mind to drift, but when the flag came out and the race was over I really let myself enjoy the parade lap and saw a lot of people in the grandstands cheering and waving flags. These pictures will remain in my head for a long, long time.”
Kimi Räikkönen — Lotus:
“We had a pretty good last stint of the race, but the cars are close on performance so it’s difficult to overtake. Maybe some more laps would have helped us, but the race is only 60 laps so you have to do your best with that.
"After my first stop I was stuck behind a Mercedes for a while, but once I was past the car was pretty good. After the safety car three of us were able to pull away, but we were too close on speed to change the order. It was a good day for the team.
"Of course, we wanted to win; we couldn’t, but we did score the most points here. The warmer temperatures definitely helped us, so let’s hope for some more hot weather in Budapest.”
Romain Grosjean — Lotus:
“After some difficult races, everything went right today and it was pretty special when I was leading the race and returning to the podium is naturally a good thing. My car felt great on the first stint with the soft tyres and it’s clear that the summer weather really suits us.
"Hopefully we’ll have a long summer now in Europe! Letting Kimi past at the end of the race was the sensible thing to do as we were on different strategies and he had more of a chance of going for the win than I did at that point.
"We didn’t know which tyre would be the best at the end of the race, so we didn’t put all our eggs in one basket.”
Mark Webber — Red Bull:
“I knew we had lost the tyre in the pit stop of course, but not that someone got hit by it. That’s bad and I hope he is okay, that’s the main thing. Today was a bit of a nightmare and you want to wake up tomorrow and have another go at it.
"We had an excellent start and were in a great position leading up to the first stop with Seb, but we lost all of that. We lost a lot of points today and a chance to challenge for the win, but there’s no rewind button now.”
Fernando Alonso — Ferrari:
“This was a difficult race, we weren’t very quick and at some moments we were not competitive enough. In the first stint, we paid the price for being on used tyres, because by lap 12 they were already finished, which cost us some of the advantage we hoped to gain from our strategic choice.
"Even if we were hoping to finish on the podium, finishing less than eight seconds off Vettel after starting eighth is an encouraging result. The team is doing its utmost to make the car more competitive and after tackling a few races without being too sure about our updates.
"Today we can claim to have cleared up many of our doubts and to have understood which are the areas we must concentrate on to move the development forward.
"When we arrived here on Thursday, the Silverstone test did not seem that important, because the race drivers were only meant to be testing the tyres, but having heard what the FIA had to say, it’s been confirmed that we can test updates and this makes it a much more sensible proposition. If I get the call from the team, I’m ready to go."
Felipe Massa — Ferrari:
“I am very disappointed with what happened, especially after the rest of the weekend had gone well. At the start of lap four, when I was on the straight, at the moment when I braked, the rear wheels locked up and I couldn’t stop the car from spinning.
"When the car came to a stop, it was stuck in fifth gear and I couldn’t stop the engine from stalling. It’s very odd that it got stuck like that, even if so far, the team has not seen anything unusual.
"The mediums did not have the pace we expected after Friday’s free practice, but maybe other factors, such as the higher temperatures, came into play and made the difference. Now I want to focus on the next race when I plan to do my utmost to turn things around”.
Jenson Button — McLaren:
“There are a lot of positives to take away from this weekend; our pace was reasonably good; it’s nice to be racing cars closer to the front, such as the Mercedes; our laptimes compared to the four cars at the front weren’t too bad either; and today’s points are badly needed right now.
"Unfortunately, the two Caterhams fighting in front of me in the closing laps probably cost me fifth place. When you’re fighting for position, you expect the backmarkers to move over, even if they’re fighting for position themselves.
"It’s a shame – those points could be so important for us later in the season. The Safety Car also didn’t help our strategy – but we were a lot stronger this weekend than we’ve been for the past few races.
"We can be positive – as a team, we didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend, and we got the best out of what we have. Overall, it’s a positive day for the team – now we just need to find some more pace in the car.”
Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes:
“That was really a tough race out there for us today. I didn't have a great start and the Red Bulls were much quicker off the line, dropping me back to third. We really struggled with the second set of tyres which then compromised the rest of my race.
"It's a real shame as the team are working so hard and doing such a good job. We've clearly got a good car but for some reason, it doesn't work in these hot conditions.
"We'll keep working on it and the positive from today is that we were able to recover to fifth place with a good strategy and great pit stops, and we're still second in the Constructors' table.
"Hopefully we'll have a better chance at the next race but, for now, there's a lot of hard work ahead of us.”
Nico Rosberg — Mercedes:
“The car didn't feel so nice to drive today. We struggled a lot with the rear tyres and that's why we weren't able to match the pace of the guys in the front. Even so, I had a bit of fun when I changed to the option tyres and could really push to at least score a few points.
"But we need to understand the new tyres a bit more because it seems that the new construction has shuffled things around, especially in these hot conditions. We have to do a lot of work in the next weeks to make sure we arrive in Hungary in good shape.”
F1 German Grand Prix, Nurburgring — Results:
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h41m14.711s;
2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault +1.008s;
3. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault +5.830s;
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +7.721s;
5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +26.927s;
6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +27.996s;
7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault +37.562s;
8. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes +38.306s;
9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes +46.821s;
10. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari +49.892s;
11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes +53.771s;
12. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari +56.975s;
13. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes +57.738s;
14. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1m00.160s;
15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault +1m01.929s;
16. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault +1 lap;
17. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault +1 lap;
18. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault +1 lap;
19. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth +1 lap.
Retirements:
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 22 laps
Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 21 laps
Felipe Massa Ferrari 3 laps
World Championship standings (After 9 0f 20 grands prix)
Drivers:
1. Vettel 157
2. Alonso 123
3. Raikkonen 116
4. Hamilton 99
5. Webber 93
6. Rosberg 84
7. Massa 57
8. Grosjean 41
9. Di Resta 36
10. Button 33
11. Sutil 23
12. Perez 16
13. Vergne 13
14. Ricciardo 11
15. Hulkenberg 7
Constructors:
1. Red Bull-Renault 250
2. Mercedes 183
3. Ferrari 180
4. Lotus-Renault 157
5. Force India-Mercedes 59
6. McLaren-Mercedes 49
7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 24
8. Sauber-Ferrari 7
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Jim McGill