2010 German Grand Prix

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. 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. 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. at the , Sakon Yamamoto replaced Karun Chandhok in Hispania Racing's second car. 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==

crashed in the first practice session. There were three practice sessions—two 90-minute sessions on Friday and a 60-minute session on Saturday—preceding Sunday's race. 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==

took his sixth pole position of his season. 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. 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. He had been one tenth of a second quicker than his teammate Rosberg in the first session; Rosberg's lap caused Schumacher to be eliminated from qualifying and the latter stated he had brake problems. • – Timo Glock was given two five-place grid penalties for a gearbox change, and for fitting a seventh-gear ratio that was not declared on Friday. == Race ==

The race took place in the afternoon from 14:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2). The conditions on the grid were cloudy before the start; there was an air temperature between , with a track temperature ranging from , and no rain was expected. The top ten qualifiers started on the super-soft compound tyre. As the five red lights went out to signal the start of the race, Vettel released his clutch pedal, found that he had poor acceleration driving off his starting position, but avoided stalling his engine. He drove right towards Alonso in an attempt to put the latter towards the pit lane wall heading into the first corner. Alonso was on the racing line and overtook Vettel. However, neither driver took the lead as Massa had made a fast start and passed both drivers around the outside. Button avoided hitting the back of Vettel's car by swerving and braking early for the first corner. Buemi was pushed back into his garage and became the race's first retirement with accident damage on the second lap. Fourth-place finisher Hamilton said it had been a tough race for him because his car did not feel as good as he hoped. He had also hoped the gap would be closer than it was in qualifying. Webber stated that he enjoyed the first part of the event and was looking forward to the next race of the season. Force India's chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer said the confusion resulting in the error of fitting the wrong tyres for both their drivers was an example of cause and effect. He wanted to disregard the issue and look forward to the next few races. Ferrari's use of team orders, which resulted in Massa relinquishing the lead to Alonso on lap 49, risked the team's exclusion from the race results. Team principal Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari manager Massimo Rivola, and Alonso and Massa were summoned by the stewards because they were considered have transgressed Article 39.1 of the 2010 Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Sporting Regulations, and were charged with violating Article 151c of the FIA's sporting code. Ferrari was referred to the FIA World Motor Sport Council for further deliberation. The team was heavily criticised by the Formula One paddock. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called it "the clearest team order I've ever seen". BBC Sport pundit and former team owner Eddie Jordan was more vocal, stating the orders were "unlawful", felt it was "theft", and prevented the chance of having a race-winning battle between the two Ferrari drivers. He felt the two cars should have been disqualified. Schumacher argued that Ferrari were concentrating on securing the Drivers' Championship. Domenicali insisted there were no team orders and that it was Massa who chose to allow Alonso past. Alonso reaffirmed Domenicalli's statement and admitted he was surprised when Massa slowed and claimed that he felt Massa had a gearbox issue. At the World Motor Sport Council meeting held in Paris on 8 September, the tribunal elected to uphold the $100,000 fine imposed on Ferrari, decided that no further action would be taken against the team, and that Formula One's Sporting Working Group would review the rule that prohibited team orders. In December, the FIA announced a reversion on the rule barring team orders from the 2011 season onwards because it was difficult to enforce. Parallels were made between the race and the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix where Barrichello was ordered by Ferrari to concede the event's victory to Schumacher on its final lap, although team orders were allowed then. The result extended Hamilton's lead in the World Drivers' Championship to 14 championship points over Button. Vettel's third-place finish tied him with Webber in third place on 136 championship points, and Alonso's victory put him within 13 championship points of the Red Bull drivers. McLaren maintained their lead in the World Constructors' Championship, although Red Bull's finish of third and sixth meant they reduced the gap by one championship point. Ferrari's one-two result allowed them to reduce the points deficit to Red Bull slightly. Mercedes and Renault remained in fourth and fifth positions, with eight races left in the season. Race classification Drivers who scored championship points are denoted in bold. ;Notes: • – Ferrari were called before the Race Stewards after the race, and were found guilty of breaching Article 39.1 of the FIA Sporting Regulations, in relation to team orders and Article 151c of the FIA International Sporting Code for bringing the sport into disrepute. The result stood, although Ferrari were fined US$100,000 and the matter was referred to the FIA World Motor Sport Council. ==Championship standings after the race==

;Drivers' Championship standings ;Constructors' Championship standings • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. == See also ==