It was an impressive drive from Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Brendon Hartley in the Emirates German F1 Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Germany, overnight. The Kiwi finished tenth collecting valuable championship points in the process.
Considering that both he and his team mate Pierre Gasly had a lacklustre qualifying performance on Saturday, Hartley’s race could be described as his best so far this season.
The threat of rain mid-way through the race had some drivers’ and teams scrambling for intermediate wet weather tyres. While parts of the track became damp it eventually proved that the best option was to stay on dry weather tyres. Hartley, staying on drys, took advantage of those in front of him who had to pit twice. His consistent performance progressively moved him up the leader-board rewarding him with 10th place and a championship point.
“I’m happy with how today went,” commented Hartley. “I lost some time behind the Williams at the beginning but I had some fun battles out there. We definitely had good pace on the harder compound tyre, but I struggled at the end when I moved on to the Ultrasoft (tyre).
“I was disappointed to lose a place to Grosjean but he had a lot more pace than me. I kept it clean and we made the right call to brave it and stay out when the rain came. The team and myself had great communication during the changing conditions and in the end it paid off. I also used some of my experience from endurance racing to help make the call, so I’m really happy with the race I did and to bring home one point”
“Starting from the back of the grid was of course not an easy task,” said Franz Tost (Team Principal). “However, both drivers managed to have a reasonably good start and during the race they could show a decent performance.
“At the end, it was good for Brendon to be able to score a point. As for Pierre, we decided to gamble and called him in for the pit stop to the Full Wets because heavy rain was a high possibility, but unfortunately it didn’t arrive. I’m sorry for Pierre, but sometimes you need to dare and this is what we opted for today. Our performance has improved during the race as we managed to do some good lap times, and this gives us confidence we’ll be able to show a strong performance in Budapest.”
As for Gasly’s gamble, he finished in 14th place. “We knew it was going to be difficult today starting from the back because of the tactical engine penalty, so, as we didn’t have much to lose we could be bold with our strategy,:” commented Gasly. “The weather made things very tricky and we were unlucky gambling on our strategy when we pitted for the wet tyres as we expected more rain, but the track wasn’t wet enough and the heavier rain didn’t come.
“As the wet tyre began to overheat on the dry track, we were forced to make an additional stop to go back to the Ultrasofts. This didn’t help but we had to take the risk. It just didn’t work today, so we will reset and focus on next week in Budapest.”
Race results
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 67 1h32m29.845s
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 67 4.535s
3 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 67 6.732s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 67 7.654s
5 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 67 26.609s
6 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 67 28.871s
7 Sergio Perez Force India/Mercedes 67 30.556s
8 Esteban Ocon Force India/Mercedes 67 31.750s
9 Marcus Ericsson Sauber/Ferrari 67 32.362s
10 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso/Honda 67 34.197s
11 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 67 34.919s
12 Carlos Sainz Renault 67 43.069s
13 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 67 46.617s
14 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso/Honda 66 1 Lap
15 Charles Leclerc Sauber/Ferrari 66 1 Lap
16 Fernando Alonso McLaren/Renault 65 Gearbox
– Lance Stroll Williams/Mercedes 53 Brakes
– Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 51 Spun off
– Sergey Sirotkin Williams/Mercedes 51 Oil leak
– Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull/Renault 27 Power Unit
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