2011 German Grand Prix

The 2011 German Grand Prix , formally the Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland 2011 , was a Formula One motor race that was held on 24 July 2011 at the Nürburgring in Nürburg , Germany . [ 1 ] It was the tenth round of the 2011 Formula One season . The 60-lap race was won by McLaren 's Lewis Hamilton , who had started from second position on the grid. Ferrari 's Fernando Alonso finished in second place, and Mark Webber , who had started the race from pole position , completed the po...

The start line was moved 240 m (790 ft) closer to Turn 1 than it had been before, for the weekend. This meant that the race start could be less crucial for the drivers as the distance to the first corner was roughly half what it had been before.

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought its white-banded medium compound tyre as the harder "prime" tyre and the yellow-banded soft compound as the softer "option" compound. [ 4 ]

As far as the Constructors were concerned, Red Bull Racing were looking good on 328 points - 110 ahead of a McLaren who had faltered somewhat at the last two races. Ferrari were third on 164 points, 54 behind McLaren, but 103 ahead of Mercedes GP who were ahead of Renault for the first time this season, after the deterioration of Renault's form had already begun. Before the race, all teams and all drivers were in Championship contention, but many were not after this race. Also, Red Bull Racing ,...

On the fourth lap, Alonso ran wide at Turn 2 getting a wheel on the wet grass, forcing him onto the tarmac. This allowed Vettel to gain third place. Only a few laps later though, Alonso repassed Vettel into Turn 1. Later, on lap 16, Rubens Barrichello suffered an engine failure, however he was able to limp back to the pits.

Heidfeld received a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident with di Resta, but did not have time to serve it. Whilst trying to make progress through the field, he was squeezed off the track by Sébastien Buemi at the chicane and crashed out. Buemi had to pit for new tyres, and was later given a five-place grid penalty at the next race, the Hungarian Grand Prix . [ 5 ] Di Resta, fought his way through the field to finish in thirteenth by the end of the race.

Vitaly Petrov was defending very well against Button's McLaren for ninth place; whilst Felipe Massa overtook Rosberg's Mercedes for fifth place after Massa's Ferrari engineer, Rob Smedley , had told him it was necessary for his strategy to work. Button eventually passed Petrov and started closing on Schumacher. Before the first round of pit stops, Hamilton ran wide allowing Webber to come up the inside of him through the final corner. Hamilton instantly dived up the inside on the run down to Tur...

Vettel spun at Turn 10 putting him eleven seconds behind third placed Fernando Alonso , the first three positions were covered by just three seconds and Vettel was lapping half a second slower than them. At the pit stops, Webber pitted first in an attempt to get the undercut and came out behind Sutil, but managed to work it out, passing Vettel and catching Massa when Hamilton and Alonso pitted at the same time, bringing them just out of the pits as soon as Webber and Massa were braking for turn ...

It looked as if Sutil and Button's two-stop strategies were successful as Sutil got ahead of Rosberg in the later pit stops and finished the race in sixth place. Button was also going strong – catching and passing many drivers including Rosberg for sixth at Turn 1 when Rosberg outbraked himself and ran wide. Button, like Sutil, was only passed in the pit-line and not on the track, although his bad luck continued from Silverstone and he suffered his second successive mechanical retirement, with a...

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