Bojan Vrbnjak
Mercedes had a practically open path to victory again today, which could, even they themselves expressed fears, be stolen only by Max Verstappen. But the young Dutchman started the race very badly, fell a few places back and thus gave Mercedes a double lead.
But due to changing conditions on the track, we have witnessed events ripe for the movie screen. There were so many stops in the pits that the mechanics probably took a breather when the race was over. Each racer had between five and six stops. From rain tires to interemediates, then to dry track tires, in between again to intermediates, and back to dry track. Given the fact that we had the stages of a safety car and a virtual safety car, some racers took advantage of the extra stops to put on fresh tires.
Somewhere in the middle of the race, it seemed that despite the confusion, Mercedes would still break through to the top, even though Verstappen was leading at the moment. But the second half of the race served with a tension we haven't remembered for a long time. Let’s leave Silverstone and also a tense race, but this one here was something completely different. The racers staged overtaking, spinning on wet curbs, but unfortunately some went too far and had to resign. There were many of them, but Perez started in the third round. The most prominent men to resign are certainly Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas. Lewis Hamilton, who did not have his day today, also took a look at the place where Leclerc and Bottas resigned, but were lucky to break only the left part of the front wing.
But then his stupidity followed, as the current champion improperly wrapped up in the pits and received a five-second mark-up penalty for it. Even Mercedes mechanics, who always worked like a Swiss watch, were at one point just a Chinese copy today. Headless and confused, they searched for the tires behind Lewis ’race car, so the Briton fell far back.
Of course, we must not forget the two other heroes of today, but the conditions on the track and resign up or down. The first is Sebastian Vettel, who eventually swung from 20th to second place and to some extent repeated the legendary march of Rubens Barrichello. If Vettl's result was to some extent expected, we cannot say the same for Daniil Kvyat, who took third place with the most beautiful gift at the birth of his daughter, who was born yesterday. Also, the young Russian let the Red Bulls know that if they happen to consider replacing Gasly in the first team, he is definitely ready.
And in the end, let’s go back to the serial champions. To score a zero in the home race and on the 125th anniversary of motorsport was certainly a severe blow and a disappointment to those responsible. This was also shown by team boss Toto Wolff after the collision and the resignation of Bottas. Of course, it is unbelievable that now this race was a turning point in the championship and that they will fight Red Bull and Ferrari began to approach with great strides. Far from it, because the advantage of Mercedes is still great, Hockenheim was just a work accident of both racers, life goes on, and the next race will be next weekend in Hungary and the opportunity for Mercedes to return the blow and rehabilitate.
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