Today’s German Grand Prix has ended in a Ferrari 1-2, for the first time since the season opener in Bahrain. However, their win has been spoilt by the team orders they dished out, denying Felipe Massa his first win since 2008.
It was another poor start for Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel, as he went from pole to 3rd following the first corner. He was so busy focussing on squeezing Fernando Alonso into the wall, he left Felipe Massa to get around the outside and into the lead, with Alonso in 2nd place.
After the Ferrari drivers had made their pit stops, Massa struggled a little on the hard tyres, and for a period it seemed Alonso had the lead, before the Brazilian battled back into the lead, causing Alonso to say: “This is ridculous!” in his native Spanish over the team radio.
There were disgraceful scenes with just 18 laps remaining as Felipe Massa was quite blatantly passed under team orders by Alonso. Race engineer to Massa, Rob Smedley who was visibly gutted with the decision by team management, said: “Good lad, carry on…. sorry” to his driver, a move we can only hope is investigated by the FIA.
Sebastian Vettel then proceeded to put Massa under pressure for 2nd, setting fastest laps and gaining time on the Brazilian, who managed to hold his position to the chequered flag, with Vettel 3rd.
Lewis Hamilton finished 4th, ahead of teammate Jenson Button. Mark Webber took 6th after a high oil consumption affected his race.
Teammates Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher on home turf picked up points in 8th and 9th, with Vitaly Petrov rounding off the top 10.
Classification
1. Alonso – Ferrari – 1h28:38.866
2. Massa – Ferrari +4.196
3. Vettel – Red Bull +5.121
4. Hamilton – McLaren +26.896
5. Button – McLaren +29.482
6. Webber – Red Bull +43.606
7. Kubica – Renault +1 lap
8. Rosberg – Mercedes +1 lap
9. Schumacher – Mercedes +1 lap
10. Petrov – Renault +1 lap
11. Kobayashi – Sauber +1 lap
12. Barrichello – Williams +1 lap
13. Hulkenberg – Williams +1 lap
14. De la Rosa – Sauber +1 lap
15. Alguersuari – Toro Rosso +1 lap
16. Liuzzi – Force India +2 laps
17. Sutil – Force India +2 laps
18. Glock – Virgin +3 laps
19. Senna – HRT +4 laps
Fastest lap: Vettel – 1:15.824
DNF:
Kovalainen – Lotus – 58 laps
Di Grassi – Virgin – 51 laps
Yamamoto – HRT – 20 laps
Trulli – Lotus – 4 laps
Buemi – Toro Rosso – 2 laps
Jack Sargeant is the editor-in-chief and designer of An F1 Blog. Follow him on 
This season has been fantastic -PROPER racing -the events of today ruined it all as had been said It was a theft by Ferrari cheats. If the Spanish ego had legally overtaken Vettel, fine but to get a result like this – it’s almost not worth watching any more
I feel for Massa. Poor guy. As if having to work with Alonso wasn’t enough, being forced to play second fiddle to him must be unbearable. Fernando’s nothing more than an annoying, spoilt brat who thinks the world’s against him when things don’t go his way. But I’m sure we all know that already.
Is it something about Brazilian drivers? Brazilian drivers at Ferrari? Brazilian drivers at Ferrari playing second fiddle to drivers who may be talented, but have a skewed understanding of what is ‘sportsmanlike’.
Deja Vu anyone? Or is that just me?
I’ve gone through this a thousand times and I’m still not sure what to think.
Brazil 07, China 08 and 09 the slower Ferrari driver let the quicker one through and/or the one ahead in the title which is the same as today.
It was the anniversary of that accident which makes it worse. Massa is still in it and let’s be honest, we’ve all been waiting for this from Alonso because of his reputation whether it’s even right or not. I don’t blame him at all though but it blows the story up.
The racing should always be done on track so this was wrong but it’s not the end of the world. People saying they hate Ferrari need a history lesson as this has happened before. Fine, hate Ferrari today but don’t pretend they invented this.
I don’t know what to think of Massa either. He’s a team player and as a Ferrari fan I love that but looking solely at a driver maybe today (although under pressure) he showed just why he isn’t the double world champion in the team. Massa could have gone quicker or just said no. I don’t agree in principal but in a competitive world I’d probably do the same as Ferrari to win. I suppose it’s working out whether it’s first you can win and then make it fair or be fair then see if you can win.
Ferrari should be investigated. If anyone has complaints they should be but they won’t get done for it or if they do I’ll be surprised. They didn’t blatantly say. We think we know what happened but Ferrari can wriggle out of it as it wasn’t a clear cut message. I actually feel sorry for Ferrari today. They’re the most passionate team for racing but they lost that today and it was all about winning and God, everyone will hate them now.
Steph we know the Ferrari history, we also know what’s fair, if Alonso can’t do it on the track it shouldn’t be handed to him. If it was Massas choice he wouldn’t of been told on the radio, it wasn’t a get a move on warning it was get out the way after Alonsos ‘this is ridiculous’ comment a few laps previous.
I didn’t say I liked it but I understand. I’m actually a Massa fan too. As for Ferrari’s history every team on the grid has this history
Interesting point Steph. Imagine things the other way around – Alonso being told to move over for his teammate. I think his head would explode.
Do you have to be self-absorbed to be a world champion? I refuse to believe the answer is yes.
I thnik all drivers are self absorbed just they go about it in different ways and the ones withn the most titles generally are the most self absorbed