Lewis eyes gatecrashing Vettel homecoming
LESS than two weeks after an acrimonious aftermath to the British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton will this weekend bid to wreck Sebastian Vettel’s homecoming at Hockenheim just as the German ruined his own carnival at Silverstone.
As the Formula One world championship heads to its halfway mark and a simmering rivalry shows hints of boiling over, championship leader Vettel has a chance to land another telling blow for Ferrari as Hamilton’s Mercedes team, also on home soil, seek to recover their consistency.
Vettel leads Hamilton (pictured, AFP) by eight points after his British triumph and would dearly love another success, in front of his family, friends and fans, to ensure he heads into the European summer break with a clear advantage.
While Vettel, who was born in nearby Heppenheim, has never won at Hockenheim and only once in Germany – at the Nurburgring – while Hamilton won at the Baden-Wurttemberg circuit in 2016 and is seeking his fourth German triumph overall.
Following some unexpectedly off-key performances in recent races, Mercedes badly need to bounce back.
“Going to Hockenheim always feels like coming home,” said team chief Toto Wolff. “It’s only about a 90-minute drive from out Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart.
“We will fight hard to not only put on a good show for our friends and fans in Hockenheim, but also get the result that they will be hoping for.”
Wolff was a downcast figure at Silverstone after Ferrari romped to victory, but has since reviewed Mercedes’ overall showing in the unprecedented triple header of races in France, Austria and Britain.
“We didn’t score as many points in the triple-header as we had hoped,” he said.
“A lot of that was down to our own mistakes. However, there is a silver lining to this.
“While we didn’t maximise on points, we did bring the quickest car to all three races.”
He added that Mercedes had had a “decent first half” as they head into the 11th race on the 21-race calendar, but had “left points on the table and had to do damage limitation more often than we wanted.”
As Wolff rallied lied his team, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo ardo suggested that they no longer enjoyed oyed the supremacy y of previous seasons and were looking vulnerable. rable.
“They are not as dominant as they hey have been the last few years,” said the Red Bull driver. river.
“That was inevitanevitably going to start to mellow out at some point. I still think hink they are the oververa l l t o u g h e s t package to beat at on the grid, but t for sure they y hav e shown n some signs of f weaknesses in some s areas. “Compared to t how they’ve been, they look vulnerable, but in the big scheme schem of things they are a strong team tea and difficult to beat.”
The Australian Australi and his Red Bull team-mate team-m Max Verstappen may m emerge as challengers challenge on the modern Hockenheim Hock ring – no lon longer the highspeed power track it was following an overhaul overh in 2002. But Bu it is expected that Vettel, back at the circuit c where he saw his first F1 race as a boy, will be scrap scrapping with Hamilton as a the two fourtime c champions lock horns again.