The 2010 German Grand Prix (formally the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland 2010) was a Formula One motor race held on 25 July at the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was the 11th round of the 2010 Formula One World Championship and the 71st German Grand Prix. Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso won the 67-lap race starting from second position. His teammate Felipe Massa finished second, and Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel took third.
Lewis Hamilton led the World Drivers' Championship and his team McLaren led the World Constructors' Championship heading into the race. Although Vettel and Alonso were on the grid's front row, both drivers were passed by Massa at the start of the race. Alonso and Massa traded the fastest times in the first 12 laps until a sequence of pit stops. Massa struggled with tyre temperatures and Alonso challenged him on the 21st lap but fended off his efforts to take the lead. Massa pulled away slightly from Alonso until traffic slowed him and reduced the time deficit between the two drivers. Alonso took over the lead after Ferrari invoked team orders on Massa to allow Alonso past. Massa resisted pressure from Vettel while Alonso maintained the lead for the rest of the race to take the 23rd victory of his career.
Ferrari's team orders resulted in a fine of $100,000 by the race stewards but avoided further punishment from the FIA World Motor Sport Council in September 2010. Alonso's victory put him within 13 championship points of Vettel in the World Drivers' Championship, while the leader Lewis Hamilton extended his advantage over teammate Jenson Button by two championship points. Red Bull slightly reduced the deficit to McLaren in the World Constructors' Championship, while Ferrari moved further ahead of Mercedes, with eight races left in the season.
Background The 2010 German Grand Prix was the 11th scheduled race of the 2010 Formula One World Championship and was held on 25 July 2010 at the Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Grand Prix was contested by twelve teams with two drivers each. The teams (also known as constructors) were: McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, Williams, Renault, Force India, Toro Rosso, Lotus, Hispania, Sauber and Virgin. Tyre supplier Bridgestone brought four types of tyre to the race; two dry compounds (super-soft "options" and hard "primes") and two wet-weather compounds (intermediate and full wet). Bridgestone selected those compounds in an attempt to improve the excitement of Formula One after a large amount of degradation and graining was observed during the . The soft compounds were denoted by a green stripe on their side-walls; the wet compound tyres were identified by a green line at the bottom of their central groove.
Before the race, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton led the Drivers' Championship with 145 championship points, 12 ahead of teammate Jenson Button in second who was five championship points in front of Mark Webber in third. Webber's teammate Sebastian Vettel was fourth on 121 championship points and Fernando Alonso was fifth on 98 championship points. McLaren were leading the Constructors' Championship with 278 championship points; Red Bull and Ferrari were second and third with 249 and 165 championship points, while Mercedes (126 championship points) and Renault (89) contended for fourth place. McLaren and Red Bull had dominated the championship, while Alonso won the season-opening . His teammate Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica had finished in second place, and Nico Rosberg (three times) Massa and Kubica (once) had taken third-place finishes.
After the previous German Grand Prix (at the Nürburgring) in July 2009, the future of the race was in doubt after the government of Baden-Württemberg and the town of Hockenheim withdrew their funding for the event. Planned discussions between the owner of Formula One's commercial rights Bernie Ecclestone and Günther Oettinger, the Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, to renegotiate the expenses for hosting the event had ended after Ecclestone made controversial comments regarding Adolf Hitler, and the organisers of the Nürburgring circuit announced that they would not hold the race in 2010 because of a commitment to hold the event in 2011. An agreement was reached in September which would see the event run until 2018 with both circuit's management and Formula One Management agreeing to cover any losses incurred.
Despite winning the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso faced pressure heading into the second half of the season; he was 47 championship points behind Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship after scoring four championship points in the last two races. Alonso had been largely affected by safety car periods in Valencia and Silverstone despite his team having narrowed the performance gap on their championship rivals. However, Alonso remained upbeat about his title chances and said his team had more motivation to succeed despite his recent results. Journalist Tony Dodgins wrote that Ferrari had decided the marque had to prioritise Alonso over teammate Massa at this point in the season. Hamilton, the defending race winner at the Hockenheimring, spoke of his feeling the race would provide an indication on form for the second half of the year and believed McLaren should have a successful car balance to be competitive at the track.
Several teams made alterations to their cars in preparation for the event. Mercedes introduced a new version of their car's rear wing which was designed to work more efficiently with their F-duct system. Ferrari brought a refinement to their exhaust system and modified their diffuser's side channels. Red Bull introduced minor improvements to their car's F-duct system and both of their drivers used a front wing specification which courted controversy at the preceding British Grand Prix. McLaren used a blown diffuser which was discarded after the Friday practice sessions at the previous Grand Prix and was changed for the German Grand Prix. The diffuser been moved outwards but had a longer inner section, the pipe was cut off at an angle, and the carbon materials for its side channel were changed. Sauber came to the circuit with their car carrying several aerodynamic upgrades which included a modified diffuser.
There was one driver change heading into the race. Karun Chandhok was dropped from the Hispania Racing team and was replaced by Sakon Yamamoto while Bruno Senna reclaimed his race seat after sitting out the British Grand Prix. Hispania released a statement which said Yamamoto was given another opportunity to race after impressing at the previous race and that Chandhok remained part of the team.
Practice
There were three practice sessions—two 90-minute sessions on Friday and a 60-minute session on Saturday—preceding Sunday's race. The first session was initially held in wet-weather conditions before less rain fell and drivers were required to adapt to changing levels of grip. Full wet tyres were used in the session's opening period before the field utilised intermediate tyres in its closing minutes. The conditions prevented the teams from collecting data on how the dry-compound tyres would perform. Adrian Sutil was the fastest driver with a time of 1:25.701, ahead of Massa who spun several times and had the fastest time until Sutil's lap. Jenson Button was third-fastest despite reporting a handling imbalance, ahead of Rubens Barrichello (who spun at high-speed at turn three after driving into a large amount of standing water) Vitaly Petrov, Rosberg and Sébastien Buemi. Nico Hülkenberg, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Pedro de la Rosa rounded out the session's top-ten drivers. Hamilton drove over standing water at the exit of the turn three left-hander twenty minutes before the session ended and slid sideways into the turn four tyre barrier, heavily damaging his car.
Most of the track dried up despite a light rain shower before the second practice session and drivers recorded more lap times to make up for the lack of running in the first session. Some drivers also went off the circuit. Alonso set the fastest lap of the day with a time of 1:16.265; Massa finished with the third-fastest time. The two Red Bull drivers were second and fourth (with Vettel ahead of Webber). All of the top four quickest drivers set their fastest lap times on the super-soft dry compound tyre. Rosberg was fifth-fastest (despite damaging his front wing after he collided with a kerb bollard), ahead of his Mercedes teammate Michael Schumacher in sixth. Hamilton, Kubica, Barrichello and Hülkenberg followed in the top ten. A heavy rain shower hit the circuit on Saturday morning which stopped before the final practice session started. Drivers were initially forced to use intermediate tyres before switching later to dry-weather conditions and the teams worked on car set-up for qualifying. Vettel set the fastest lap, a 1:15.503; Webber finished with the third-fastest time. They were separated by the Ferrari drivers in second and fourth (with Alonso ahead of Massa). Rosberg duplicated his second-session result in fifth. Hamilton, Schumacher, Barrichello, Kubica and Hülkenberg completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. Sutil was unable to record a lap time when his Force India's driveshaft broke though he managed to return to his garage and lost 45 minutes of running.
Qualifying
Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 20 minutes and eliminated the cars that finished 18th or lower. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 17. The final session ran for ten minutes and determined pole position to 10th. Cars which competed in the final session were not allowed to change tyres before the race. They started the race fitted with the tyres used when they set their quickest lap times. The session was held in dry weather conditions but dark clouds brought a risk of further rain showers. With limited dry running in the final practice session grip levels rose as qualifying progressed.
Vettel set the fastest time in the final session which clinched him the sixth pole position of his season (and his third consecutive) with a lap of 1:13.791 which was recorded on his final timed lap. Although he was happy to start on the pole he said his lap was not "100% perfect" as he drove off the circuit after he pushed hard. Vettel was joined on the grid's front row by Alonso who was 0.002 seconds after Alonso had recorded the fastest times in the first and second sessions. Massa took third despite running wide on his final timed lap but was optimistic on a track where he felt comfortable. Webber, fourth, ran wide at the Nordkurve right-hand corner on his final lap when he turned in late and cut the kerb which cost him three seconds and he opted to abandon his lap. The two McLaren cars lined up on the grid's third row (with Button ahead of Hamilton). Button was happy with his lap whilst Hamilton said his qualifying pace was poor despite the McLaren drivers recording the fastest speeds on the circuit's main straight. Kubica qualified seventh and felt he could have set a faster lap time as he was held up in the track's final sector. Barrichello in eighth experienced understeer in the final session and lost his car's balance. Rosberg and Hülkenberg rounded out the top ten qualifiers.