Flashback Friday this week goes back to Hockenheim 2019, a weekend which celebrated Mercedes’ 125th anniversary, but ended up going down in history for a number of other reasons.
Qualifying
While the Ferrari looked set to take pole position in Hockenheim, the SF90’s of both Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc suffered reliability issues which allowed the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton to claim the top spot. Vettel failed to set a lap time throughout Q1, meaning he was unable to progress further. He was joined in the bottom five by Robert Kubica, George Russell, Alexander Albon and Lando Norris.
There was a close battle in Q2 for the coveted spots in the final session. However, Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat, and Lance Stroll were knocked out of the session and unable to continue to the pole position shoot-out.
As previously mentioned, Lewis Hamilton achieved the fastest time and pole position, with teammate Valtteri Bottas in third, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen sandwiched between the two in second place. Charles Leclerc was unable to set a time in the Ferrari, and as a result started the race in tenth place.
Race
Hockenheim provided the fans and teams with dreary, wet conditions on Sunday – which meant more pitstops, more tyre compounds, and buckets full of drama (and water). Due to the weather, the race began behind the safety car and continued to follow for three laps. When the cars were let by and allowed to race, allowing Hamilton to shoot into the lead, almost immediately backed by teammate Bottas, while the Red Bull of Max Verstappen was slowed down by wheelspin. This allowed Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen to pass the Dutch driver for third place. However, Raikkonen and teammate Antonio Giovinazzi would go on to be penalised after the race due to the use of driver aids at the start.
In the end, Max Verstappen was able to redeem himself by keeping control of his car through the conditions (which even Lewis Hamilton could not do, after a spin and damage caused him to pit and lose places) and eventually went on to win the race. Verstappen pit a total of five times, always making the right calls when they were needed.
While Hamilton suffered losses through losing track position, long pitstops and unfortunate penalties, his teammate Valtteri Bottas suffered just as much, having to retire his car when it slid off the track and into the barrier, ending in a dismal weekend for the team which should have been celebrating their anniversary.
It was an incredible race for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel – after a disappointing Saturday the German driver was able to make his way through the grid, from last place to second, in front of his home fans. However, the same lucky fate did not exist for teammate Leclerc, who retired from the race after a collision with the barriers.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat took a joyful (if surprising) third place on the podium after a particularly strong race for the Russian driver, topping off an excellent weekend for him following the birth of his daughter, Penelope.
In the end, only 13 drivers finished the race in the awful conditions. Perez, Ricciardo, Norris, Leclerc, Hulkenberg, Bottas and Gasly all failed to finish the race and left the weekend with no points to their names. However, surprises presented themselves in the point-scoring places too – a notable example being Lance Stroll finishing strongly in fourth place. Hockenhein 2019 really did give us a race to remember!
Written by Tara Gardener
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