The F1 German GP turned out to be an epic ride as Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen took the win but the statistics side had plenty on offer too.
Already on Saturday, there was supreme drama with both Ferrari having issues as Sebastian Vettel couldn’t even set a time for the F1 German GP, while Charles Leclerc made it to Q3 but couldn’t start, which meant Mercedes had a free reign.
Only Verstappen looked likely threat but Lewis Hamilton was on-song to secure pole but the Dutchman had front-row to his name. The race, though, was a different game together with all the rain pouring at Hockenheim as both Red Bull cars had it slow at the start.
It was Mercedes leading the way but with changing conditions and multiple safety car periods, it was Verstappen in the end to score the win as Vettel fought his way through to second ahead of a surprise third in the form of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.
The Russian was followed by another surprise with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll inside the Top 5 as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was fifth and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon sixth. It were the Alfa Romeo drivers originally in seventh and eighth but penalty dropped them out.
It pushed Haas’ Romain Grosjean to seventh ahead of his teammate Kevin Magnussen, as Mercedes’ Hamilton moved up to ninth and Williams’ Robert Kubica took 10th among the 14 classified finishers.
Here’s some key statistics and information from the German GP weekend:
- Verstappen scored his seventh career win, second of 2019 and first in Germany. It is his fifth different grand prix win.
- Red Bull registered its 61st F1 win and third in Germany – first since the 2013 season.
- Verstappen took his 26th podium with Vettel his 116th and Kvyat his third. Vettel gained 18 places from 20th to be second as Kvyat scored his first podium for Toro Rosso.
- It was Kvyat’s first podium since 2015 Chinese GP, which also had Vettel in second, while it was the first podium for Toro Rosso since Vettel won the 2008 Italian GP – their only other podium finish till date.
- With Verstappen and Kvyat on the podium, it is the first time since the 1988 Australian GP that Honda has been represented by two teams. It was McLaren and Lotus then and it is Red Bull and Toro Rosso now. It is also the first time since 1992 Portuguese GP when two Honda-powered cars have made it in the Top 3.
- Hamilton scored his 87th pole and fourth for 2019 as Verstappen took the point for the fastest lap, his second of 2019.
- The time penalty to Alfa Romeo drivers meant Haas scored double points for the second time in 2019. Also, only Toro Rosso and Haas had both their drivers in the Top 10. Haas is eighth in the championship but tied on 26 points with Alfa Romeo.
- The penalty also helped Kubica to score a point which is his first since the 2010 Abu Dhabi GP. Only Vettel, Hamilton and Hulkenberg were present in that race from the current grid along with Kubica. He now also has a record of longest time between two races in points at 3,178 days.
- Williams scored their first point of 2019 and first since the 2018 Italian GP. With a retirement for Bottas, Williams remains the only team with 100% reliability in 2019.
- Apart from Kvyat equaling his best result since 2015 Chinese GP, Stroll’s fourth is his best since his podium in 2017 Azerbaijan GP, Sainz’s since 2018 Azerbaijan GP where he was fifth as well. Albon, though, registered his best career result of sixth.
- This is Toro Rosso’s biggest points haul from a race with 23 scored. They also moved from eighth to fifth in the constructors’ table.
- Hamilton extended his points scoring races to 23 as Bottas ended its with 22 after his first DNF since 2018 Austrian GP. Verstappen not only has 20 consecutive races in points but he has finished each of it inside the Top 5.
- There 78 pit stops in total which is 10 short of the record from the 2011 Hungarian GP.
- Red Bull set the official record of 1.88s pit stop time for Verstappen beating the previous record held by them from 2019 British GP.
- Six classified retirements with Gasly also retired, although he completed enough laps to be classified as finished. At the same time, Vettel, Kvyat, Stroll and Albon made up more than 10 places in the race.
- Hamilton and Bottas are the only drivers to have reached Q3 in every race so far after Vettel’s no-show. The last time Vettel failed to qualify was in 2017 Malaysian GP.
- There were eight different teams inside the Top 10 in qualifying, the last time it happened was in 2018 Italian GP. The drivers from eighth to 13th were separated by just 0.033s in Q2.
- Kvyat’s podium moved him from 14th to 8th in the drivers’ standings as fourth for Stroll moved him from 16th to 12th.
- No penalty points were given during the race weekend, with only a fine for Ferrari for Leclerc’s unsafe release.
Incredible! Another new pit stop world record! Well done, @redbullracing! #GermanGP #DHLF1 #F1 #MomentsThatDeliver
➡️All pit stop times from Hockenheim: https://t.co/J27YVFsufC pic.twitter.com/6oll5T5yDl
— DHL_Motorsports (@DHL_Motorsports) July 29, 2019
The stats were compiled by Jack Elleker and Darshan Chokhani
British GP: Key statistics and information from 2019 F1 race