The 2013 German Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Großer Preis Santander von Deutschland 2013) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 7 July 2013 at the Nürburgring in Nürburg, Germany, as the ninth round of the 2013 Formula One World Championship.
It marked the 74th running of the German Grand Prix overall, and the 60th running of the German Grand Prix since 1950, when the racing series now known as the Formula One World Championship was created. This is the earliest a German Grand Prix has been held in a calendar year, followed by the 1926 and the 2009 editions of the race, though the 1996 European Grand Prix was held at the Nürburgring in late April.
The 60-lap race was won by local driver Sebastian Vettel, driving a Red Bull after starting from second position on the grid. This was the first and only home victory for the German driver. Kimi Räikkönen finished second for Lotus. Räikkönen's teammate Romain Grosjean finished third. A charging Fernando Alonso finished fourth and also set the fastest lap driving a Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton, who started from pole position driving a Mercedes, ended up finishing 5th, only a second ahead of his former teammate Jenson Button.
As a result of the race, Sebastian Vettel increased his championship lead to 34 points from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. Kimi Räikkönen's second place moved him just 7 points behind Alonso in the standings. Lewis Hamilton remained fourth, while Mark Webber also remained in 5th spot. This was also Sergio Pérez's first points finish since Spain, and also for his teammate Jenson Button, since Monaco. This was the last Formula One Grand Prix to be held at the Nürburgring until the .
Background
Tyre changes
In the aftermath of the British Grand Prix, in which four drivers experienced explosive punctures at some of the fastest points of the Silverstone Circuit, tyre supplier Pirelli announced plans to alter the structure of the tyres for the German Grand Prix, ahead of a more-permanent solution to be introduced at the next race in Hungary. The new tyres replaced the steel belts used in the rear wheels with Kevlar in order to lower the operating temperature by up to and reduce the likelihood of explosive punctures. In addition to this, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) banned the practice of swapping the left- and right-side tyres around on the cars, which teams had discovered increased the life expectancy of each tyre. Pirelli further lobbied to the FIA to make their recommendations for tyre pressure and camber settings to be made mandatory, after it was discovered that teams were deliberately using pressure and camber settings outside Pirelli's recommendations in order to maximise performance. This followed a similar incident at the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix, where teams used camber settings outside Pirelli's recommendations, which created blistering on the inside edge of the tyres as they experienced higher-than-normal operating temperatures.
Report
Qualifying
Q1
Felipe Massa was the fastest driver in Q1, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen's Lotus. The drivers eliminated in Q1, were Valtteri Bottas, Pastor Maldonado, Charles Pic, Jules Bianchi, Giedo van der Garde and Max Chilton.
Q2
This session saw a rapid improvement in times in the closing stages which caught some teams out, such as Nico Rosberg being eliminated due to a mistake on the part of the Mercedes team and Mark Webber only barely making it into Q3 by five one-hundredths of a second Felipe Massa was fastest again ahead of Kimi Räikkönen again as well. Jean-Éric Vergne was eliminated, as well as Adrian Sutil, Esteban Gutiérrez, Sergio Pérez and Paul di Resta,.
Q3
Lewis Hamilton took pole position with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber in second and third, respectively. Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean qualified 4th and 5th. Alonso qualified 8th behind his teammate Felipe Massa and both opted to start the race on the medium tyre. Daniel Ricciardo managed to qualify on the 3rd row for the second race in succession. Jenson Button and Nico Hülkenberg elected not to set a time, saving their tyres for the race.