Highlights of the German Grand Prix

Safety Cars, pit stops, and chaos in Hockenheim

It is hard to imagine a more chaotic race than Sunday’s German Grand Prix in Hockenheim. The changeable conditions saw drivers making five or six stops, while a succession of Safety Cars – largely triggered by drivers on the wrong tyre compound making errors and hitting the barriers – meant that the podium was impossible to predict until the final laps.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took the chequered flag, while Sebastian Vettel delivered a stunning recovery from the back of the grid to second across the line. Capitalising on all the chaos, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat finished third on the podium, knocking Lance Stroll off it. Elsewhere, Alexander Albon auditioned for a race seat with Red Bull, passing Pierre Gasly on multiple occasions.

Mercedes have worst weekend of 2019

For the first time since Mexico 2018, Mercedes failed to put either of their drivers on the podium. Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas led the race at various stages, but uncharacteristic errors from both drivers proved costly. Hamilton span and damaged his front wing following a pit stop for slick tyres, and the return trip to the pits for repairs put the British driver on a back foot from which he never recovered. Bottas was in contention for a podium finish until lap 57, when a similar spin to Hamilton’s saw the #77 car in the barriers and out of the race. Bottas’ shunt came when the Finn was pushing hard to overtake the Racing Point of Lance Stroll, who narrowly missed out on a podium finish.

"How has this gone so bad?" asked Hamilton on the Mercedes team radio.

Hulk goes from hero to zero

Nico Hulkenberg has the unenviable record of most grand prix starts without a podium finish. For much of Sunday afternoon it looked like 167 would be the Hulk’s magic number, but on lap 41 the German driver fell victim to the same barriers that had earlier taken out the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. The first wet race of 2019 was a merciless one: Hulkenberg’s retirement marked the end of a miserable race for Renault, who had already seen Daniel Ricciardo’s point-scoring hopes go up in a puff of smoke on lap 15, when his ancient power unit gave up the ghost. Prior to Hulkenberg’s crash, which saw the RS19 aquaplaning into the barriers at Turn 16 with the driver little more than a passenger, the German racer was looking on course for a home podium.