F1 GP Germany: Rain helps Verstappen to his first victory

Qualifying had not promised Ferrari much good, due to technical glitches Vettel ended up in last place, Leclerc made it to 10th place after breaking down in Q3. Instead, the Silver Arrows and Red Bull shared the first two rows of the grid.

Rain does not promise anything good
Three warm-up laps until the safety car led the race to a standing start did not bode well for the course of the race on Sunday. Responsible for this was the onset of rain. What followed were three or four safety car starts, too early changes from slicks to intermediates and repeated unpredictable retirements.

After a solid start from Mercedes, the Silver Arrows took the lead. In turn, the Red Bulls botched theirs and lagged behind. Max Verstappen in particular slept through the start and was overtaken by his rivals, but in the end still managed to convince his biggest critics of his ability as a rain specialist and won the race at Hockenheim in commanding fashion.

But no one really expected Sebastian Vettel to finish second on the podium alongside Max at the start. After retiring from qualifying due to turbo damage, which dropped him back to 20th on the grid, the man from Heppenheim never gave up and impressively sought his chances and fought his way to the front.

The retirement of Charles Leclerc, who underestimated the wet conditions and slid off the track after a promising position, was unfortunate. The same happened to Nico Hülkenberg, who was running in second place at one point. A little less risk and more careful driving would have been advisable and more successful. But Valtteri Bottas, who had previously been stuck on Hülkenberg's rear wheel, also hit the wet curbs with his tires seven laps from the end, spun and shot into the barriers. Because Lewis Hamilton was running in 15th place at the time, due to his race mishap earlier, Bottas buried the Mercedes crew's last hope of succeeding as a German team at the German GP, which Toto Wolf acknowledged with a fist bump on the table.

At the final safety car phase with four laps to go, Max Verstappen led ahead of Daniil Kvyat, Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel. The leading quintet at a Formula 1 GP couldn't have been more unusual, just like Daniil Kviat's third place finish. For Sebastian Vettel in particular, the podium finish must have felt like redemption after a botched qualifying session. Vettel commented after the race: "What a special race! I had a great time, although it wasn't easy at all and it often felt like a lottery."