Overall, I thought it was the best race of the season so far and one of the best Grand Prix I have seen for a while. Sebastian Vettel on pole for Sunday's race while Current Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton started in fourteenth place after a hydraulic failure in qualifying. Come race day, Vettel was unstoppable, leading the first half of his home Grand Prix. By lap 26, Vettel pitted for tyres while Valtteri Bottas lead. By lap 30, Bottas pitted for tyres while Kimi Räikkönen lead. By lap 40, Vettel overtake Räikkönen for the lead of the race with a little help from team-orders, with that you thought it would be a home win for Vettel.
The race awake itself on lap 52, Vettel had led comfortably throughout when the race was thrown wide open by rain showers, with drivers trying to stay out on slick tires as the rain hit only certain parts of the track. Vettel went straight on at the Sachskurve and hit the wall, throwing away what had looked to be victory in his home race and his first DNF of the season, which leads the Safety Car was deployed.
With Bottas, Räikkönen and Max Verstappen opted for new tyres, Hamilton who was fifth place before Vettel crash, stayed on used tyres when the safety car appeared and took the lead.
The race restarted with ten laps remaining, Bottas immediately made use of his fresh tyres to attack Hamilton into Turn 6. The pair went wheel-to-wheel all the way to Turn 8 but Hamilton emerged ahead before Mercedes team opted for team-orders to make sure Hamilton leads the race and take the lead of the Drivers' Championship when Vettel didn't score points.
Which meant Lewis Hamilton from fourteenth place at the start, sixty-seven laps later wins this seasons German Grand Prix for Hamilton's fourth race win of the season.
While, Hamilton's team-mate and Valtteri Bottas finished in second place in the other Mercedes to give the team its second one-two finish of the season, Bottas was four and half seconds behind Hamilton at the end.
Meanwhile, Kimi Räikkönen finished in third place in the Ferrari to complete the podium, Räikkönen was seven seconds behind Hamilton at the end of the sixty-seven lap race.
Highlights of the race below, enjoy.
Rate the Teams and Drivers
Mercedes - 8
Lewis Hamilton - 9 (race win, fastest lap)
Valtteri Bottas - 8 (finished second)
Ferrari - 8
Sebastian Vettel - 8 (pole, DNF, Accident)
Kimi Räikkönen - 8 (finished third)
Red Bull Racing - 6
Daniel Ricciardo - 6 (DNF, Engine)
Max Verstappen - 7 (finished fourth)
Force India - 7
Sergio Pérez- 7 (finished seventh)
Esteban Ocon- 7 (finished eighth)
Williams - 5
Lance Stroll - 5 (DNF, Engine)
Sergey Sirotkin - 5 (DNF, Engine)
Renault - 8
Nico Hülkenberg - 10 (finished fifth)
Carlos Sainz Jr. - 6 (finished twelfth)
Toro Rosso - 5
Pierre Gasly - 4 (finished fourteenth, lap down)
Brendon Hartley - 7 (finished tenth)
Haas - 7
Romain Grosjean - 9 (finished sixth)
Kevin Magnussen - 6 (finished eleventh)
McLaren - 5
Fernando Alonso - 6 (DNF, Gearbox)
Stoffel Vandoorne - 4 (finished thirteenth)
Sauber - 6
Marcus Ericsson - 7 (finished ninth)
Charles Leclerc - 6 (finished fifteenth, lap down)
Next stop Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix in two weeks time.
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