Germany and the Ferrari farce
The German GP was a good one apart from a single corner that has overshadowed the whole weekend. Qualifying showed that the Ferraris are back on form and that it’s a six car race each time out. Hopefully that also means that the championship will stay tight at the front as Red Bull seem insistent on throwing away all the advantages that they get. McLaren also need Ferrari to take these points away from Red Bull at a point in the season when their challenge has faded a little. With the top few in title so close and all in competitive cars it should be a great run in.
The race itself was won (more on that later) in the first corner, Vettel was too concerned with Alonso that Massa drove clean past them both and with that distraction Alonso took second place too. The Ferraris also had the form of the other teams and so were able to stay out in front through the various strategies and finish with a 1-2. Vettel salvaged third in a rather uninspiring drive to draw level to Mark Webber on points in the championship, just to make that relationship more interesting.
The McLarens finished in 4th and 5th with Button dragging his way back up after being held up on the first corner and losing out heavily, he used his customary gentleness with the tyres to drag himself further than anyone else and leapfrog Mark Webber. Hamilton’s first lap moves put him into his fourth spot that never really looked in danger though they will be concerned that they couldn’t make an impression on the top three.
It seems that the main story of the weekend is the fact that Ferrari issued team orders to Massa to let Alonso pass for a win. Now firstly let me say that team orders are historically part of the sport and so though I don’t agree with them I do understand their basis. But, they are not in the rule book now, they were banned, they were outlawed, why can’t Ferrari see that the rules also apply to them? The order took away what was Massa’s best drive of the year by far, it took away his chance to win a year after his horrific accident, it took away the chance for the spectator to see Alonso trying to overtake Massa. It was disgracefully executed too, if they really want to do it, do it behind a smoke screen, Massa can lose the car in corner and give Alonso a run, he have an ‘issue’ at his stop. It just shows that Massa’s heart wasn’t in it and that he wanted the world to know what was going on. Come on Ferrari buckle up and make Alonso earn all that money.
Alonso himself was a disgrace, at least Massa said that he didn’t need to talk about it, Alonso actually lied in the press conference destroying all the hard work he has done to rebuild his reputation after the year at McLaren.
Let’s see what next weekend brings and whether F1 can put this behind it quickly enough.
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