SECOND CHANCE
Boost for Button as Vettel is penalised
IF LEWIS HAMILTON had his way he would have already been halfway back to his Monaco pad by the time Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso had clinched victory in the German Grand Prix.
Forced to limp into the pits after an early puncture, Hamilton was urging his team to call it a day as early as the fourth lap having dropped to 22nd in the order.
Sebastian Vettel would certainly have liked Mclaren to have heeded the call after Hamilton passed the Red Bull driver to unlap himself on lap 35.
Vettel, trying to close in on Alonso in the lead while holding off Jenson Button in third, showed his displeasure by gesticulating three times in Hamilton’s direction from the cockpit of his car.
Vettel’s anger had not abated by the post-race press conference as he branded Hamilton ‘a bit stupid’ for dicing with the leaders despite being so far down the field.
Hamilton responded to the jibe by sarcastically declaring: ‘ It shows his maturity. I didn’t want to get in the way of Jenson. That was the reason (I overtook him).’
With the spat developing the stewards ensured Vettel’s mood took a turn for the worse and Button’s for the better.
Judging that the tussle with Hamilton had slowed him up, Vettel then found himself dropping to third behind Button thanks to a 2.4 second stop by Mclaren which beat the previous record they set in Valencia.
The knock- on effect was that Vettel needed to pass Button on the penultimate lap to regain second place. Using his DRS overtaking aid, Vettel went around the outside of Button at the hairpin and in doing so he was forced to put all four wheels beyond the kerb and off the track.
The stewards refused to accept Vettel’s explanation — that he was trying to avoid a collision and there was less grip on the painted run-of area — and hit him with a 20-second penalty which demoted him to fifth and promoted Button to second.
‘I drove into the pits and they were just putting on the replay,’ said Button who had already complained about the move over his radio. ‘You could see that he overtook me off the circuit.
‘He thought it was working out for him at the time but obviously the stewards didn’t think it was correct. We know what the limits of the track are and we have got to make sure we don’t push our luck.’
Button dismissed the idea that Hamilton taking on Vettel was a Chris Froome to Bradley Wiggins style example of teamwork.
‘I don’t think Lewis was helping me out,’ Button said. ‘I don’t think Sebastian lost anything, he will obviously say he did. He (Hamilton) is allowed to do that.’
All good knockabout stuff and, having survived a pre-race steward’s inquiry into their engine mapping system and the suspected aerodynamic advantage it produces, Red Bull’s luck with the authorities was always likely to run out.
Button, of course, was delighted with the extra points after collecting just seven in the previous six races not to mention his first podium since the Chinese Grand Prix in April. Indeed, the signs are good for both McLaren drivers that their updated car is now able to give Red Bull and Ferrari a run for their money.
‘ It’s nice to be back on the podium,’ said Button. ‘In the last couple of races, I’ve been very happy with the car but the results haven’t been there because the pace hasn’t been there. This race gives me a lot of confidence.’
Even so, the only real winner at Hockenheim yesterday was Alonso. His progress to the chequered flag, and a 34 point advantage over nearest challenger, Red Bull’s Mark Webber, was about as serene as it can get behind the wheel of a Formula One car.
All a far cry from Ferrari’s disastrous pre-season testing and early campaign form.
‘We made a very good recovery when you think of where we started in the Jerez test where we were maybe two seconds off the pace,’ Alonso said. ‘ We are very happy with the points we have achieved but it means nothing, there are still another ten races. We need to be consistent.’ If Alonso does that he will take some stopping. Hamilton rates the Spaniard as his most dangerous rival and, aware early on he would not be fighting with him at the front, perhaps it was understandable that he wanted to knock it on the head.
Hamilton stuck to his guns after the race about the wisdom of ploughing on given all was lost.
‘I was a lap down and my car was damaged,’ insisted Hamilton despite being able to set a fastest lap and having the pace to overtake Vettel. ‘I don’t understand any point in driving around in a broken car. My differential was badly damaged, so was my rear floor, so I was just driving for the sake of driving.’
With next weekend’s race in Hungary the last before the summer break and what promise to be some interesting contract negotiations with McLaren, Hamilton will be hopeful of a more meaningful driving experience.