I´ve had a perfect summer day! Life doesn´t get any more perfect than this! I woke up at the summer cottage by the lake and there were no clouds in the sky: just blue blue sky and the sun was shining. After a quick breakfast I walked through a forest to a peer nearby and had a wonderful morning with my sister: we enjoyed the sun and went swimming in the lake many times! It was a perfect carpe diem morning, enjoying the very moment at hand!
It was almost 3 o´clock in the afternoon when I got home and the warm-up lap was just about to get underway. The Formula 1 race today couldn´t have matched my expectations any better! German GP was a truly magical race! At the start Sebastian made instantly his way past Hamilton and snatched the lead. Also Sebastian´s team-mate Webber was able to overtake Hamilton at the start so the Briton lost two places immediately. Ferrari´s Massa was the first driver to retire from the race and that happened already on lap 4 when the Brasilian spun at turn one and the engine of his F138 turned down so Massa´s race was over.
The first pit stops were seen sooner than I expected: not even 10 laps were completed before the Red Bull duo came in for a new set of medium tyres. Webber had a very unlucky and bizarre pit stop: he was released from the pits with his rear-right tyre still loose. Immediately after that the tyre went off and it struck a cameraman who fell down on to the asphalt. Luckily the man only got a shoulder injury and some broken ribs but this incident could have had even life-threatening consequences! Webber was able to continue the race after a new rear tyre had been put on but naturally he dropped way down to the very back.
Another dramatic incident occurred on lap 24 when Marussia´s Bianchi had an engine failure with a lot of smoke and the car even caught fire causing big flames. Bianchi got out of his car but something absolutely bizarre happened after that: I saw on TV how the Marussia started rolling down the track with no driver in the cockpit! Luckily there were no drivers at that part of the track at that moment. This, too could have evolved into being a serious situation! Safety car was deployed so that the Marussia could safely be removed from the track. The top three (Vettel, Grosjean, Räikkönen) all came in for a pit stop.
On lap 42 Sebastian pitted for the third and final time. Kimi was leading the race and there was speculation about his race strategy: could the Iceman make one pit stop less than his rivals and make the last stint as long as over 30 laps? Kimi´s pace looked excellent and I was sure the victory was what Kimi hunted. When there were only 10 laps to go Kimi pitted for a new set of option tyres. Alonso pitted on the same lap but Kimi had no difficulty to keep the Spaniard behind him. Sebastian in his Red Bull was leading the race but Grosjean at the wheel of his E21 was right behind the German and Kimi was right behind his team-mate. The Lotus drivers had a different strategy: Grosjean had had a long first stint with the option tyres and in the last stint he had the prime tyres. Kimi instead had the faster soft tyres in his last stint. On the team radio we heard that Grosjean was told that Kimi had different tyres and was faster than Grosjean and the Frenchman shouldn´t hold up his team-mate. With 5 laps to go Grosjean let the Iceman go past him so Lotus used team orders so that Kimi would have a chance to try and catch Sebastian in the lead.
We saw thrilling closing laps as Kimi had the fresh option tyres whilst Sebastian in the lead had the old prime tyres. Kimi decreased the gap to Sebastian sector by sector and lap by lap. On the final lap Kimi was near enough so that the Iceman was allowed to open the DRS and try to make an overtaking move. It didn´t pay off this time and Sebastian drove to the chequered flag as the winner of his home grand prix! Only a second separated Sebastian and the Iceman at the race finish. Grosjean finished the race in P3 so it was the second podium finish for the French Lotus driver. Alonso was 4th, Hamilton 5th, Button 6th, Webber 7th, Perez 8th, Rosberg 9th and Hulkenberg 10th. Webber´s result is impressive considering the pit stop incident that dropped him to the very back at the beginning of the race. At the warm Nurburgring Mercedes suffered again from tyre degradation and they faced some setbacks in terms of their race pace.
Finally Sebastian managed to win his home grand prix! It was so heartwarming to see Sebastian and Kimi on the podium together. What a magical race! Which wasn´t totally problem-free for either one of the drivers. Sebastian had had a KERS problem for a couple of laps but luckily the system had started to work again. Kimi instead had problems with his radio: the Iceman could hear what the team told him but the team couldn´t hear Kimi! So in that regard, both of them drove a fantastic race! If the race had lasted a couple of laps longer, who knows what would have happened! Kimi really hunted down Sebastian and was hungry for the victory. I would have been equally happy if Kimi had won the race. Those two guys are my heroes!
Seb leads the championship with a 34-point gap over Alonso. Kimi on the other hand is only 7 points off Alonso. And now we´re facing another 3-week break before the F1 circus moves to Hungary. Luckily today´s mesmerising result has given me wonderful memories to think about during this too long break!
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