Fernando Alonso took his third win of the season in scarlet Ferrari, gaining substantial over the Red Bull duo. The Spanish driver led all the way from the first lap, keeping both Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button at bay. Alonso on two -stop tyre-strategy kept momentum, while Button had to easy down in the end to defend position on rapidly degrading tyres.
The defending champion was second to cross the finish line, but was penalized 20 seconds by stewards for illegal overtaking maneuver; dropping him down to fifth position. Jenson Button move to second place due to the ruling, while Kimi Raikkonen took the last spot on podium in Renault powered Lotus. Kamui Kobayashi was fourth and his teammate, Perez, sixth in yet another strong performance by Sauber. Michael Schumacher in seventh was the first on three stop strategy to score points, while fellow Germans Nico Hulkenberg and Nico Rosberg finished ninth and tenth.
The F1 GP was held at the Hockenheim circuit after a gap of two year, with teams having no test data on performance of Pirelli tyres. This did complicate the weekend for all teams, but Williams and Toro Rosso were the only midfield teams to not score points. Narain Karthikeyan was the last car to cross the finish line in 23rd position, while Lewis Hamilton was the only retirement of the race.
At the exact halfway point in the 2012 season, Fernando Alonso leads with 154 points, ahead of Mark Webber 120 and Vettel with 110 points. Kimi Raikkonen (98), Lewis Hamilton (92) are also not far behind and still very much in contention for championship. Red Bull leads constructors’ table with 230 points far ahead of second place Ferrari (177 points). The round 11 will be held on the coming weekend at Budapest in Hungary; following that, the competition will take mid-season break and return in Belgium in September.
