29 July,2019 07:41 AM IST | | Abhishek Takle
Hockenheim (Germany): Max Verstappen kept his head and his Red Bull on the road to win a rain hit and chaotic German Grand Prix, even as championship leader Lewis Hamilton failed to score.
The Dutchman crossed the line 7.333 seconds ahead of home hero Sebastian Vettel, who carved his way up from dead last in a race that was shortened by three laps after the safety car had led the field away before a standing start.
Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat, who became a father overnight, was third capping a dramatic afternoon of racing that saw constantly changing fortunes, plenty of pitstops, safety cars and several drivers spinning out or crashing.
Hamilton was among those, smashing his front wing, earning a five second time penalty and surviving a wild spin, to cross the line 11th of 14 classified finishers.
Recording his worst finish since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, he was the only Mercedes to cross the line in the team's home race after teammate Valtteri Bottas crashed out in the dying laps. But he could still extend his 39-point advantage over the Finn in the overall standings with the points finishing Alfa Romeo pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi facing penalties.
That at least left his 39-point advantage over the Finn at the top of the standings unchanged.
But it also poured cold water on Mercedes's celebration of 125 years of motorsport involvement, as the German marque came away empty handed from their 200th Formula One start.
Yesterday's win was the seventh of Verstappen's career and second in three races, with the Dutchman, 21, also winning last month's race at Red Bull's home track in Austria.
"To come out on top it was all about not making mistakes," said Verstappen immediately after the race.
"It's amazing to win here."
"It's a day for wise heads, you're such a young man, but you're still a wise head on young shoulders," former-racer-turned-TV-pundit Martin Brundle told Verstappen while interviewing him.
Like Verstappen, Vettel, who crashed out in the wet last year, was another driver who kept his nose clean.
The German had started from the back of the grid after failing to set a time in qualifying due to a turbocharger issue but mounted a late charge in drying conditions to sweep through into second.
He ran out of time to catch Verstappen but more than made up for his mistake, the most high profile of a slew of errors that undid his title challenge last year.
"I'm just happy," said the 32-year-old, who was born a half hour's drive away in Heppenheim and received plenty of cheers from his home fans.
"I think before the last safety car I realised I was quite a bit faster, and I had some good moves on the back straight.
"It was about getting the next car, and the next car, and the next car."
His podium must have given Ferrari some consolation on a bittersweet afternoon on which Charles Leclerc crashed out while running second.
Kvyat earned only his third podium of a rollercoaster career.
It was also only the second podium for Toro Rosso after Vettel won for them in 2008 at a rain hit Italian Grand Prix.
"It's amazing to be back on the podium," said Kvyat, who last finished on the podium in the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix while driving for Red Bull.
"And to bring one back for the team after so many years is special.
"It was a horror movie with a bit of black comedy out there!"
With the heavens opening over Hockenheim and providing relief from the European heatwave, it was wet weather specialist Hamilton who held the early initiative.
He settled into an early lead ahead of Bottas after Verstappen, starting alongside, bogged down dropped to fourth.
Reeling off fastest lap after fastest lap, the Briton - feeling poorly this weekend - seemed firmly in control.
His race began to unravel when he ran off the track and smashed into the barriers, at the same penultimate corner that had claimed Leclerc and other drivers.
His front-wing broken, he dived into the pits where he spent nearly a minute getting serviced with his Mercedes team caught unawares and milling about in confusion.
Rubbing salt into his wounds, he was hit with a five-second time penalty for entering the pits on the wrong side of the bollard marking the entrance to the pits.
"How has this gone so bad?" Hamilton asked on the team radio.
"That's something we'll review," replied his race engineer.
Behind the top-three, Canadian Lance Stroll was fourth for Racing Point with Spaniard Carlos Sainz fifth for McLaren.
Thai driver Alexander Albon gave Toro Rosso more points in sixth place and made it three Honda-powered cars in the top-six.
Raikkonen and Giovinazzi were provisionally seventh and eighth.
The two Haas cars of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, who once again made contact, completed the scoring places.
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