Rate the race: 2014 German Grand Prix

2014 German Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the German Grand Prix.

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought of every race during the season.

Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2014 German Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (6%)
  • 9 (23%)
  • 8 (43%)
  • 7 (20%)
  • 6 (5%)
  • 5 (2%)
  • 4 (1%)
  • 3 (1%)
  • 2 (0%)
  • 1 (1%)

Total Voters: 657

 Loading ...

1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

You need an F1 Fanatic account to vote. Register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.

See the results for past seasons here:

2014 German Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 German Grand Prix articles

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

150 comments on “Rate the race: 2014 German Grand Prix”

  1. Stellar effort by Bottas yet again – fantastic defensive performance!

    Overall, a race full of overtaking, and honestly I am starting to convert to liking DRS – it has been working this season very well.

    1. I didn’t liked that the DRS secured penty of “highway” passes throughout the race. However I liked when the drivers closed to each other with it and in the hairpin there were fighting closely in the following corners. And specially when they were more than 3 cars like in the first laps. That was awesome.

      1. There were a few passes that were a bit too easy, but with Vettel and Ricciardo’s battles with Alonso for example it worked really well I felt – just allowing the drivers to get close enough.

        1. It’s still not perfect though of course and I would rather they tried an alternative solution which doesn’t have to have the “highway” passes as an unwelcome bonus.

          1. A solution I would recommend is to use the DRS only 15 times. That seems a lot but think about how many times on the races drivers have the ability to use it. However, I don’t think DRS will take a big part of action in Hungary. Also looking forward to it, I expect good action in that restrictive track like in the second sector on Hockenheim.

          2. Perhaps the reverse of DRS is an idea? Perhaps deploying extra wings would allow more corner overtakes, or at the very least allow drivers to set themselves up for a good exit onto the straight for the overtake. Maybe that’s going a little too far, but I think that instead of having the option to deploy reduced downforce, the option to deploy more downforce would encourage more of the ‘pure’ overtakes that DRS doesn’t encourage.

          3. It’s actually not a bad idea at all @williamstuart, since it’s the corners where you need downforce that are causing the problems. And they are not the overtaking zones, either.

      2. What saved it maybe was seeing drivers go 3 abreast at so many opportunities IMO @cocaine-mackeine

        1. FOR: Some good scraps,………………………………………………………………………………
          AGAINST; To many pit-stops making following the race almost impossible, to many passes involving the same unequal battle between the same drivers on different strategies, to many battles won/lost because of new/old tyres. …………………………………………
          SUMMARY; Will be better viewing as a “highlights” program than it was live.

    2. Yeah great race from Bottas, his stock is really rising.

      It was a brilliant race, over-all 9/10 from me, there was only a couple of laps without any action. Great racing from Ricardo and Alonso and a fair amount of hospital overtakes really added to the spectacle.

      Got to hand it to the TV directors as well, I would say the German grand prix in the past has had a tendency to ignore the action and focus on the German drives driving around in circles, certainly not the case today.

    3. I don’t think that the defending was the impressive aspect of Bottas’ drive (seeing as Hamilton had lost his end plate and was probably losing a few tenths a lap), it was one of those anonymous drives that the very good drivers can race, there are no issues, everything is managed perfectly so the strategy is completed to a tee. Even Rosberg sounded flustered leading at the front. He is really starting to hit his stride, it really is very impressive.

  2. A 9 for me. It was a pretty good race with pretty good battles (Both through strategy and on-track) What the hell is the matter with Ferrari? Why would they pit Alonso so late, seeing as though he was losing 2 seconds a lap to the people around him. It was obvious that he needed to pit again. I was literally shouting to Andrea Stella (a.k.a TV) to pit him ASAP. They should’ve pitted Alonso 1 or 2 laps after Vettel and put on the Softs again. Ferrari have just become more and more mediocore every year. Back in 2012, it was strategy which allowed them to be so far into the title fight. And now? Unbeliveable.

    P.S. Did Alonso run out of fuel at the end? He was so slow at the straights that Ricciardo was less than a tenth behind and the run to the line is unbelievably short!

  3. 10 for me. Great race. Alot of good battles. Enjoyed it alot.

    1. Lots of good battles…except for P1. The FOM TV directors did a decent job for a change.

      1. I didn’t see the race, and so I haven’t voted. But I do sometimes wonder if we are rating the race or the TV Director’s performance.

      2. Yeah there was only the one jarring moment if I remember, when they cut away from what seemed to be a car pulling out to dive down the inside to another battle. But apart from that there was nothing noticeable, which is good.

    2. @me4me seriously 10 … so then what would you rate Brazil 2008 GP ???? Just curious ?

      1. @tmax, I haven’t seen that race in full lenght. I know some races have been more thrilling than todays, even the last couple of years, but it gave me what i want out of an F1 race. Exept maybe a battle for the win, but that didn’t bother me today. Alonso-Vettel-Raikkonen going into the same corner, who doesn’t get exited? :)

      2. The people in here don’t know anything about rating to be honest. They say “meh it was an average race” and then they give it a 7. Ridiculous. In my book though this race was an 8. Third best race this year, most other races this year have been 5s and 4s for me.

    3. I felt the same although i rated 9; but i am really surprised with fellow f1f ratings on average.. I loved all the overtakes.. I dont mind whether it be with DRS or not.. well at the end we have seen how difficult it is for HAM even with those DRS to overtake BOT.. i believe it is not making things that too artificial after all…

  4. 8/10

    Thourughly enjoyed that. It’s nice to be actually seeing proper battles again! DRS stopped this from being a 9, it was a bit too much here, but overall it was great, and there were plenty of overtakes outside of the DRS. Very nice!

    1. I gave it an 8 as well, dropped 2 points because 1 and 2 on the grid finished 1 and 2. Perhaps this race will give Bernie the idea for reverse grids. All that was missing today were the rain showers that threatened but didn’t actually occur. Maybe Bernis’s idea of track sprinklers isn’t so mad after all.

    2. And to think we’re saying that after all the talk of the DRS zones not being powerful enough when the two zones were announced.

  5. 8. A pretty good race. The first part before the pit stops was pretty good but towards the half of the race it came a little bit boring. To much DRS-ing nearly ruined the race. However the latter fights in the end were incredible. Kudos to Ricciardo and specially Bottas.

    1. Agreed. Definitely better than the British GP, but that race helped the championship and had a great crowd, today though there was less retirements more fighting but still no fighting at the front but all round 8 just too much DRS and the lack of fight at the sharp end. Should have been a safety car but I think that would hurt the Rosberg…

      1. The SC would have put Rosberg’s lead under treat, because Hamilton would have pitted and with fresh tyres and shorter gap, he could fight Bottas (who also could have pitted) easily and closed on Rosberg and that could have been a gripping end.
        PS: I considered the British GP better than this one tho.

        1. Argreed it was a good race though I have to say the when sutil went off and stopped in the middle of the track off the last bend I thought there should have been a safety car bearing in mind when one was deployed for a bit of damaged barrier at the British gp. Would have been very interesting with Hamilton then right on rosberg’s gearbox. Maybe it would have been too embarrassing for a German to lose to a Brit on home soil when the Brit started from 20th. We can’t spoil the german’s perfect week can we!!! Lol

        2. Yeah does anyone know the thinking from Charlie as to why there was no sc after Sutil’s stall? I wonder what the checklist is for the deployment of the safety car, as we’ve seen less serious incidents given safety cars. Besides this safety car would have potentially made the race a 10 if Hamilton could’ve changed a wing in his pitstop and then got out ahead of the rest of the field (potentially that is).

          1. Who knows that Whiting was thinking @williamstuart it was ludicrous – I’ve never seen anything like it. But if it rains we have an SC out for 10 laps, or a bit of debris on track, even when off-line we sometimes get a SC. It was madness.

            I just had the horrible image of a poor Marshal falling over, injuring him or herself, and attempting to hobble on.. only for a car to come swooping around the corner. There’s a reason the usual response to this circumstance is to call out the safety car. My word!

            What I’m even more surprised about is the lack of coverage of this by media and fan outlets. Sure, all’s well that ends well but it was a poor call that could have, and in the past has, resulted in serious injury or death to a marshal. Crazy stuff from Charlie there.

  6. Nice racing (Alonso-Ricciardo, Alonso-Vettel, Bottas-Hamilton, the three way tussles involving Raikkonen..), interesting strategies and an entertaining race. 8/10

    Not too happy about the marshals crossing the track to recover Sutil’s car, but that’s a different topic.

    1. It was a good race but I’m starting to think that Ferrari should find another driver for 2015 because Kimi is not good enough. Their car is not the class of the field but there’s a gulf between Kimi and Fernando and that’s not good for his reputation… Red Bull promoting Daniel instead of taking Kimi was actually an inspired decision (thanks, hindsight.)

      1. Perhaps Bottas will be the man of the moment at the end if the season with several teams potentially trying to fish him away from Williams. At the least Ferrari and McLaren will be trying to tempt him away, perhaps even Lotus would have a go too as a long shot, if they show enough pace towards the end of the season and in testing. However I think Williams will be able to keep him as they are the team most likely to be potential front runners next year, and saying that makes me so proud of the guys down in Grove for turning it around so spectacularly. I can’t see mclaren not being far off the pace either next year, their development rate at the moment is out of this world, and the car really seems to be improving even if the results dont quite show it.

        1. pastaman (@)
          21st July 2014, 1:58

          No, he will not be on Ferrari’s radar. Not sure why you said “at the least”

    2. The marshals running across the track while the cars were still racing seemed like footage from the 1960’s. It seems to me that the stewards didn’t want to influence the race by bringing out the safety car. Otherwise, I don’t understand why they did it that way.

      1. Except they were told there was a large gap there so they could run across quite safely. Unlike the bumbling morons at Canada in 2011.

        1. pastaman (@)
          21st July 2014, 18:10

          Yes, except a “large gap” at F1 speeds is not really that large. Also consider that crossing the track is one thing, but then having to maneuver the car off of the track while cars are coming around a blind high speed turn is another

  7. 9/10 – Racing was a bit DRSy but not too bad and really enjoyed the battles going on throughout the race

  8. A solid 7.

    Plenty of drama and battles in the first half of the race, and a few good ones towards the end too. Bit of a lull in the middle though, but you can’t have everything.

    1. Agreed, 7 from me for the same reasons.

    2. Took it that way too. Had some nice battles going on, 3 abreast makes it that little bit better. And a solid defence from Bottas (again) to keep 2nd in the end.

  9. A few nice scraps, nothing special though. A solid 4/10. Rain would’ve helped a lot.

    Gerhard Berger stepping in as commentator for Alex Wurz was the worst decision Austrian TV has ever made. Constant Renault-bashing and telling people how good the Austrian GP was compared to any other race while talking over EVERY SINGLE team radio.

    1. I think that you’re supposed to “Rate the race”, not ur TV broadcast and experience of it

    2. And you haven’t seen Mexican broadcast men. Same issues with Team Radios and break-ads on good moments. I missed action from Ricciardo, Alonso and Hamilton thanks to them as well as Kvyat’s fire.

      1. Yeah, sounds exactly like German TV. That’s why I bought a satellite thingie to watch the Austrian channel. It’s usually pretty good, Alex Wurz does a great job and he’s a funny guy. Also, it’s free and in HD with no advertising.

    3. I´m very disappointed with Gerhard, too. I thought it would be fun… it wasn´t.

      Still, the race itself was good, especially the Vet/Alo and Ric/Alo-battles, some other nice scraps, too, so I gave it 8/10.

    4. At least you dont have to suffer listening to Crofty saying “Lewis Hamilton” all afternoon long. The guy would mow Lewis’ lawn and wash the dog if he asked him to. Way too OTT for a commentator.
      I’ll need to confirm it but I beleive he went a whole lap without saying HAMs name. If I’m correct it was lap 23.

      1. @Glenn

        LOL! epic post mate….yeah, OTT…you think? I believe you’re being quite kind there, it’s becoming so intolerable watching it that I actually switched to the French language broadcasts just so I don’t have to hear histrionic screams about how he passed a Marussia for 16th…a TR for 14th, what collar he fits his dog with to make it look more gansta, how his rap career is shaping up etc etc etc…meanwhile Button, although not in as competitive a car, is treated like a has been, which he is not in any way, shape or form. In the same car, JB consistently outperformed HAM as a teammate.

    5. Fully agree on an annoying Gerhard Berger. I really like him as a person but he’s just too biased to serve as a co-commentator – and hasn’t been instructed to actually stop talking when there are team radio messages.
      Nothing’s ever gonna beat Heinz Prüller being joined by Niki Lauda from the hospital for the broadcast of the 2005 US GP though anyway – legendary!

    6. If only there was a kind of SAP option or something with no commentator at all.

  10. 5/10 for me.

    DRS was too powerful, I just don’t enjoy seeing that sort of pathetic highway passing. Every DRS pass like that just takes away a big chunk of the excitement for me.

    1. +1. Although, I gave the race an 8. Lots of great battles.

      DRS is just wrong. The idea that you can get your DRS enabled by lapping a back marker just opens up a set of possibilities, doesn’t it :-)

  11. The compound brought by Pirelli this time + the DRS “spiced up the show” , nevertheless i enjoyed the good battles between the drivers 4/10

  12. Not very good race 5/10. Three laps with a car stopped in the middle of the track and no safety car? Tire saving boring strategy and Hamilton overtaking family cars till the end when he had to face a Williams and he did nothing. Ferrariuseless again.

    1. Red Bull and Ferrari = family cars now? Sad times.

      1. SUVs at most.

      2. @DavidBR2 Sad times indeed !!!!!!

    2. @Paul2013 Family cars…. Good One …. LOL …

      Good time to for Toyota to get back to F1. They are family car makers too ;). They don’t need to build a new car or something. They can bring in Toyota Camry Hybrid. It has good Fuel efficiency, KERS, Not hard on tires (The same set of tires will run the entire season maybe a coupe of seasons too. Lots of cost savings) and yeah it is Rated highly by JD Power :)

      1. They will be on Q3 Every GP.

  13. Nice win Nico. Great chase Lewis. Alonso, you’re a master!

  14. 4/10.
    DRS ruined this race, Watching all those utterly horrid DRS highway passes saw me lose interest in the race. I ended up playing my playstation with the race just on in the background.

    Really not sure if i’ll continue watching F1 next year, DRS, Pirelli, Double points & Standing restarts ontop of all the other gimmicks have pretty much completely killed my 40 year love of the sport.

  15. Gave it a 9. Really nice race, never boring. My favourite race of the year so far, barely found the time to pick up something to eat in the fridge. And one could very well see Bottas clinch a third DOTW :)

  16. Great race. 9/10. Only thing missing was a battle for the win.

  17. Yay
    More crap trophies !

    Excellent race though

    I gave a 7

    Because the best battles where not for the lead

    Enjoyed the wheel to wheel with Red Bull and Red Tractors

    Lewis made a mistake losing his front end plate and a to early pitstop i think cost Lewis , maybe not enough to get past Valteri as the Martini Williams was mega down the chute

  18. drs was way too much, really sapped my enjoyment of the race.

    5/10.

  19. 8/10. Great race, lots of incidents, Massa was being an idiot again, Bottas was flawless, Ricciardo and Alonso was great to watch and Hamilton was unlucky as usual but good comeback to 3rd. We might have seen a battle for the win had Hamilton’s brakes not failed which would have pushed the score up to a 9 and rain would have given this race a 10. And please Sauber, ditch Sutil. He is a mediocre driver.

  20. I gave 7. A decent race, but lacked a bit of drama. There were great battles all the way down the field, except for first place. Alonso and Red Bull are getting well together recently – they’re finding each other on the track more often. It’s a bit of surprise, because Red Bull seems to be losing development race, which is quite strange for the best team in recent 4 years.

    And if there were thoughts yesterday that pack is catching Mercedes, today they showed that in race trim they’re still almighty. Hope, it changes sooner rather than later.

    1. I suspect RB are devoting more resources to next year’s car now that they see how far off the pace they are with the current Renault engine, which cannot be structurally developed at all. Software fixes and the best aero are not going to close an 80 hp gap. I think Newey signalled same by openly wanting to spend time on “other projects.”

      1. @slowhands Christian Horner was telling that they will develop this year’s car until the last race and Vettel told this weekend that upgrades to the car haven’t given the desired performance boost. So I think RBR are just losing development battle.

    2. Drama ?!? There was lots of drama with HAM ! His recovery has pretty reckless, lots of collisions and extreme racing. I think a penalty for HAM should have been considered.

      1. And i think you should watch other sport.

      2. If Ham had taken out Button, then maybe a penalty, but it was a racing incident, and the stewards were correct in not inflicting their justice upon such an incident. I’m sure Button will see the onboard view and agree that he did (inadvertently?) entice Ham to jam it in there. They handled it like a couple of champs, I thought.

  21. Another great one… at this rate, 2014 will be the highest rated season since these polls exist!
    I hope Keith puts together a mid-season stats update!

    1. @mtlracer No offense but do you seriously believe that 2014 had the best races among all the years so far ????

      I really wish @Keithcollantine puts in those statistics not by the Rate the Race numbers but by the website traffic, comments and activity etc !!!!!

      1. @tmax I don’t know what you mean.

        1. @keithcollantine I had posted a comment on a different page requesting you about some stats.

          https://www.racefans.net/2014/07/20/rate-race-2014-german-grand-prix/comment-page-3/#comment-2414393

          I was referring to that.

      2. pastaman (@)
        21st July 2014, 2:02

        @tmax By that metric, the most hated races will be at the top since people like to complain a lot more than celebrate

        1. @pastaman sometimes i watch a boring race ( I dont call it hated ) and say there is nothing much about it and I dont log into F1 Fanatic to read the articles or write comments.

  22. Great race. Another one this season. But as Alonso is not winning some will say the season has been awful…
    Controled race by Nico. Amazing drive by Bottas, and great drive by Hamilton.
    Down side was the work on Sutil’s car. Very surprised that SC wasn’t deployed. Let’s see if this will continue on other races…

    1. I was happy there was no SC. But I have the feeling it was on purpose: ROS (german driver), driving a Mercedes (german car), 1st position on the German GP… how could they bring the SC on track when HAM was 4th with fresh tyres ?!?

    2. Come on! Alonso and his battles driving a red mini-van are giving us the only pieces of excitement.

  23. Good, strong 8. Didn’t really mind the DRS, most certainly it wasn’t as bad as last season or two seasons ago. As long as the overtake takes place in the braking zone, that’s fine by me. We can’t always complain about it, there were some great passes in other parts of the track (Alonso/Ricciardo battle was great). Until cars are much more equal to each-other we won’t see racing like yesterday’s GP2 race, so DRS is fine by me until then.

    1. How is ok that cars drive past the car infront before braking and with no defense cuz of drs beingntoo strong and the need to preserve tires. F1 has become for the most part a timentrial durinf the races with drs,pirelli and pitstops

      1. It’s ok because it was only one race. I don’t think it was too strong in the other races, maybe the second DRS zone was too strong today. But, if you ask me, most passes were done because of good traction and not really because of DRS. The perfect example was Alonso and Ricciardo: Alonso should have easily breezed passed in the DRS zone and didn’t. And if I have to choose between no passing and DRS passing being a bit too easy sometimes, I’ll choose the second one every time.

  24. liked it. we saw a lot of overtakes which was cool. great drive from bottas, for me DotW, though i supect most people will give hamilton their vote. i won’t.

    it’s a shame about magnussen getting taken out by massa, would’ve been interesting to see how he would have done. massa is an idiot, who should just retire already.

  25. 8/10
    Very good battles, especially at the beginning and after the first stop. Shame that there weren’t a lot of people to see it!
    The layout of the new Hockenheim isn’t that great, but it offers a lot of good possibilities for wheel to wheel action.

  26. Can’t give it more than 7 and that’s mostly for the first-half for some good midfield battles. Hamilton not being up there meant there never really was going to be a battle for the lead. Meanwhile the Brit would have been disappointed with himself for not taking 2nd off Bottas. I think it is safe to say that it doesn’t matter where the Mercs start. As long as there is a long straight on the track, a P2 is the least that the Merc can extract. I will go ahead and assert that this car is in relative terms faster than Michael’s F2004. So to finish P3 is not a case of 15 points gained, but 3 points lost for Hamilton.

  27. Seriously enjoyed the Alonso battles today. The guy has been involved in some of the best battles since I’ve been watching the sport. The better drivers must look forward to squaring off against him. Vettel, Webber and now Ricciardo have had me out of my chair as they take on Alonso. Great to see the absolute professionalism and respect they give each other.
    Bravo.

    1. +1. The sport NEEDS Alonso in a car that can fight at the front. Can you imagine next year if Renault, Ferrari, and Honda can at least get into the same time zone as the Merc engine? Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel, Bottas, Ricciardo, and Magnussen street-fighting every weekend? Crying shame if Alonso doesn’t get another shot at the title due to poor equipment.

      1. @slowhands Trust me if Alonso gets a good car then all the little bit of excitement that we are getting would be gone. He will keep winning races by a mile and then it would be Formula Snore !!!!

        Now that Alonso has a really crappy car, the poor guy is single handed trying to do whatever he can to make F1 exciting.

        1. @tmax

          I doubt it. If that were true Alonso would have done so in 2006 and 2007 as well.

  28. Everything you can expect from motorsport racing action but a battle for the win – what casual viewers want. 9/10

  29. No real race for the win, but plenty of action elsewhere. Good enough to keep me entertained on a Sunday afternoon, and that’s all I ask for. 7/10

  30. An 8 from me.

    Fantastic to watch Hamilton battle through the field. Great wheel to wheel action from so many – Alonso, Vettel, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Kvyat, Hamilton and several others. The last few laps were great, watching Bottas keep Hamilton at bay.

    True, there was no battle for the lead but there was enough great action behind Rosberg along with several spectacular incidents that I didn’t really mind!

  31. Considering the DRS-talk about today’s race: I think we got a widely inconclusive picture about DRS all season long since the major variable and force here are the differing top speeds of the cars. Things would most probably leave a totally different impression if each of the cars did the same top speeds. But right now it’s a matter of which two cars are facing each other in the DRS zone for us to judge it “just right” or “too DRSy”.

    1. exactly right

  32. drivers giving way to others may have given a false impression that DRS was over-powerful

  33. Boring race, 2/10

    1. @noob

      Maybe Ultimate Fighting Championship is more to your liking.

  34. Great race, tv even showed proper battles and didn’t cut off at the heat of the action, overall very enjoyable! Another DOTW for Bottas I guess, stellar, stellar job! Also kudos to Ricciardo, Alonso, Vettel.

  35. An OK race. I gave it a 7 as there were good battles throughout but there was nothing memorable about it. I give the producer a 10 for us the battles in mid-field rather than focusing on the home boy driving around by himself.

  36. I see a lot of 8, 9 and 10 ratings. I did watch the race from Green lights to Chequered flag. I did not see any excitement anywhere. The TV commentators are working hard as much as they can to make it a little interesting. But that is it. Yeah Alonso Ricciardo duel was nice. Kimi-Vettel-Alonso sandwich moment was 2 seconds of fun. But otherwise it was a dull race. Maybe people are seeing more than what I am , but I have honestly watched better races in 20+ years to call this an exciting race. I gave it a 5/10.

    @keithcollantine you will have the best statistics here on this . I am getting a feeling that the post race activity on F1 Fanatic Website this year is very less compared to the previous years. I felt that the numbers of comments after the race has gone down considerably. If this is true then I am very convinced to the fact that these races are starting to become a boring affair and people have nothing much to say. Any thoughts here Keith ? Correlation between Exciting races and website traffic !!!

    If you can please post an article/statistics on that, I am sure it would be an exciting stuff !!!!

    1. I’m somewhat new here, but I see a fair amount of personal, ad hominem attacks on commenters rather than discussion of the comment per se. I’m sure that turns people off. Anyone else think this is an issue?

    2. What is your life… You didn’t see excitement anywhere during that race, but you do want to see an article on the statistics of footfall and comments on a website?! Either you have a reeeal fetish for stats, or we were watching different races mate.

      1. @slowhands Now I totally understand what you meant ;)

        @redwan I am happy for you that you were excited and thrilled by the race. Good for you.

    3. Don’t feed the Droll.

    4. @tmax I don’t keep tabs on whether the number of comments for regular articles is going up or down. With comments the objective isn’t quantity, it’s quality. However other indicative metrics I do track – page impressions, poll responses etc… – are tending upwards.

  37. 6/10 It is difficult for me to get overly excited about a GP where Alonso and Ricciardo are fighting tooth and nail (aka racing) for fifth position while Bottas is being told not to race Lewis too hard for second in order to conserve his tyres. Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand Valterri’s engineer, however tyre management, fuel management and fake DRS passing is not that thrilling to me. It also does not help that the cars resemble something my cat coughed up and they sound like my riding mower. Give us real racing please and not the gimmicky sideshow which now passes for F1.

    1. @Jackal It is not “Formula 1 Racing” anymore…. It is “Formula 1 Saving” . Save Tires, Save Fuel, Save Engine, Save Brakes, Save Gearbox !!!!! But who will Save Formula 1 ????

      It is absolute bliss to hear Rocky telling Vettel “Don’t try to overtake Alonso, we need to save Fuel…” and Vettel asking “what am i supposed to do here !!!! “

  38. The german gp was a small improvement maybe 4/10 at a push, the people giving it a 7/10 an up must not have seen the real F1 racing of old when racing driver’s were on the limit all through the race not just a few laps then coast! I’ll hold on a few months more in hope that F1 will improve then if not sky sports is cancelled!!!! I think mr ecclestone has gone too far in controlling the racing an ruined it in the process :( sad but true!!!!

  39. Without Lewis the race was 3/10
    With Lewis the race was 8/10
    IF there was a safety car to close things up 9/10
    IF there was a safety car and rain with 10 laps to go 10/10

    1. LOL ! HAM has his part of fun in this race, but his racing was too much this time ! Too many collisions, extreme racing and passes ! ALO and VET blamed each other for pushing them off track, but HAM took this to another level. The guy looked like not really in control and the question was who’s race he’s going to destroy !

  40. 8. Excellent race but zero fight for the lead.

  41. A “borefest” is a 6 in my book and I rated the race 7.

  42. A race with so many utterly pathetic excuses for ‘overtakes’ helped by an equally pathetic artificial gimmick is not worthy of anything above 2/10.

    Others may be happy watching push of a button, Pathetically easy DRS-ing, But its just a pathetic spectacle watching 1 car with wing open cruise past the defenseless car ahead in a boring & utterly unexciting manor.

    I’ve stuck with this nonsense for 3 1/2 years & after todays farce I watch F1 no more!
    F1 has lost another very long time fan to these pathetic gimmicks!!!!!!!
    (When will they actually look at the free-falling Tv figures since these gimmicks were brought in?)

    1. You’ll watch the next race, and the next, and the next. I guarantee it.

    2. You should check out gp2, it might be more of your thing. The race this Saturday was great.

    3. I watch MotoGP for real racing, you should give it a try.

  43. 2 of the most impressive overtakes at the hairpin i have seen in years.

    Sure, Rosberg leading unthreatened was a shame, Hamilton declassing the rest of the field showed how badly balanced the current season is.

    Bottas Holding out against Hamilton showed how good he is though. Also, the championship is still solidly alive with a gap less then 25 points between Rosberg and Hamilton.

    And Crofty being too much about Hamilton… Besides Rosberg who else is in the run for the championship and thus who will he talk about. @glennb seems to miss the understanding that the main contesters are talked about the most. If you don’t like that, don’t watch any sports at all.

    1. “Besides Rosberg who else is in the run for the championship and thus who will he talk about.”

      How about talking about who is gonna be third in the championship? That is far more important, meaningful and interesting this year than the title-battle, which only consists of 2 drivers.

  44. A solid 8/10. Lots of action all through the field. Some crazy moments (Sutil, Kvyat). Great battles (Alonso, Ricciardo) and overtaking (Hamilton).

    Trophies: awful.
    Kai the interview guy: oh dearie me.

  45. I rated it a 7. Too much use of DRS for overtaking.Great wheel to wheel driving from Alonso and Ricciardo. Bottas also had a good race.

  46. The race for the lead was a zero, LH was inevitable for him to get a podium and the rest of the race was a bunch of misfortunes missed opportunities especially for DR who was nearly taken out at the start. F1 2014 is as predictable as the last four seasons when SV was dominant, boring and I turned it off after the first lap and will not watch this PETRONAS circus ever again.

  47. 8 from me. Really nice race overall. Massa is the new crashdriver.

  48. It was a 7 for me. The most amusing part of the race was Hamilton’s radio chat where he didn’t know what or where this “magic” button was that his engineer wanted him to press. The more I think about it, the more I think they orchestrated that little comical sound bite.

  49. By lap 20 the order was 1) Rosberg, 2) Bottas, 3) Hamilton, 4) Vettel. And that’s the way it stayed, with only temporary changes for pit stops, for the next 47 laps. A decent race, but it wasn’t THAT exciting.

  50. I rated it an 8 out of 10, it was much more exciting than a lot of the races so far this season, watching guys like Ricciardo, Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Raikkonen go at it was great. Shame that the battle for the lead was killed off on Saturday.

  51. This is nothing to do with rating the race, but I hope you will all enjoy it here. This is the headline and start of the Daily Record report of the race
    ” Nico Rosberg comes from behind wins German F1 on home turf from 20th position on the grid

    Jul 20, 2014 16:39
    By Dailyrecord.co.uk
    0 Comments

    NINE days after getting married, the German takes a win at home despite the five-place grid penalty after a crash during qualifying led to a necessary gearbox change.”

    Read it for yourselves at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/motor-sports/nico-rosberg-comes-behind-wins-3887702
    It’s the best example of completely stupid journalism and sub-editing I have ever seen.

    1. @timothykatz

      That is truly amazing writing right there. Especially since the article itself is entirely correct.

      “on a day when Lewis Hamilton produced a backs-to-the-wall drive to limit the damage to his team-mate and title rival.
      From 20th on the grid at Hockenheim, following a qualifying crash and five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change due to the damage sustained, 29-year-old Hamilton was third in his Mercedes behind Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.”

      Something has gone seriously wrong there.

      1. @baron-2 @timothykatz

        The article was probably written by an agency, whereas the headlines are put together by the newspaper editor.

  52. I gave it a 6.

    No fight for the lead (though thankfully we didn’t get half the race on TV just seeing Nico drone around like we have done in the past with Michael). Rosberg won’t win an easier race in his career. McLaren at Imola 1988 anyone?

    DRS overtaking was too easy for mine, though it was pleasing to see Botas holding off Hamilon over the closing laps.

    I really do wonder if the lack of a safety car for the Sauber had anything to do with a German driver in a German car leading the German Grand Prix? Not saying it did, but stranger things have happened…..

    Dan Ricciardo may have been beaten by Vettel today, but he lost 10 places on the first lap when he went wide to avoid the Massa flip. And the Aussie showed he’s not intimidated and will run wheel to wheel with current and past World Champions and his fight with Alonso was good to watch (when they showed it). It would be interesting to see how he would go in a Mercedes or Williams…..or if the RB10 had a Mercedes engine (or at least something more powerful than the Renault).

    What Mercedes did today with Nico cruising to victory and Lewis starting dead last and finishing an easy third, was confirm that they have by far the best race package in F1 right now, kinda like McLaren did in 1988.

    1. John C (@jouetsdejohn)
      20th July 2014, 22:51

      @holdenv8

      You make a very valid comment about the lack of seeing Nico during the race. I can’t see that he had more that a couple of minutes of on screen time (including his checkered flag lap). Hamilton’s rise through the ranks seemed to take up the majority of the director’s interest, and we also got to see first hand most of the main battles. Carry on is my view, in future, if Mercs are 1 and 2, show the rest of the race, there are after all 22 competitors.

      Not sending out the safety car was nuts, but I think more due to a mistaken non intervention policy (we tend to complain when intervene too much). I don’t think ( and I love conspiracy theories) that it was to give any advantage to another driver.

      Ricc’i’ardo’s rise only reaffirms his place in the team. Brilliant car, rubbish engine, good driving. Less titles than Vettel doesn’t mean he isn’t better, Mark was an excellent driver, but Daniel is making it look easy.

  53. John C (@jouetsdejohn)
    20th July 2014, 22:27

    Sorry to see another DNF for Felippe, he deserves some luck, kicked off the Prancing Horse just as he started to regain some flair (to be replaced by Raikkonen…….)

    “Hamilton fan alert” – thought he did a good job today, if a little eager on the Raik and Jenson passes, the latter losing him his tyre advantage on Bottas. The other side is that he could have had another DNF on several occasions, luck or experience, only he (and probably Bernie) knows.

    Some nice racing and overtaking, not all DRS (despite other comments), and once again Alonso (the man I hate to love), producing some amazing driving for the the benefit of all. Am I the only one wanting to see a same chassis same engine competition at the end of the season.

    Rosberg, out in front, managing things perfectly, as Vettel did so superbly before him.
    Bottas, driver of the day, holding onto that place this time, brilliant, he had given it away in the past due to lack of confidence.
    Hamilton, excellent drive, bringing what was left of his Merc back to the parc fermé. Lots of what if’s, but solid drive, and entertained us all.
    Solid day from Vettel and some nice driving from Alonso, Ricc’i’ardio pulled back from a bad start, Button once again showed McLaren that he isn’t the loser that they make him out to be and Perez & Maldonado avoided killing anyone.

    Overall a fun grand prix to watch (bar the first 2 mins of angst), from start to finish.

    Role on Hungary…..

  54. I rated to 10. It was very exciting, there were a lot of overtakes.

  55. Maybe I was too generous giving it a 9 but it felt like there was racing happening throughout the field on pretty much every lap.

  56. I am in agreement with the majority, this is a first, I must of missed something. Anyway there was a lot of racing going on in the field from P2 on at one point or another during the race. Plus the rain drama possibility, and maybe NicoR’s brakes going up in dust or smoke any moment… Very large gaps between most all of the cars in the points. Always happy to see that no one had to relinquish a spot due to fuel management. For some reason this always annoys me much more than tires going away…. or tyres. Only 5 days and practice and we are off again. Thanks, RnR

  57. 8/10 the business with Sutil’s car was unreal. lots of good battles. Good to see that Massa is OK after “meeting” the runoff area at Turn 1.

  58. Apart from the leader being untouchable it was a SPECTACULAR race. Three wide into a hairpin = what more could you ask for.
    As an Aussie I am damn proud of how skilled RIC is. Awesome.

    Great drive from Lewis.

    Williams need to be cut-throat and ditch massa at the end of the season. The crash isn’t as black and white as saying it was his fault — but it was *massa’s to avoid*. GOOD drivers know when self-preservation is the best choice. Bad drivers put self-importance above all.

  59. 9/10 Exciting race, albeit slightly too exciting, what with the stewards running across the track. I think that it was correct not to have a safety car, but better steward protocols are needed. I’ve decided that I quite like this track. Bottas continues to impress with his level-headedness. The Sebastian/Kimi/Fernando moment was classic. The win felt right. I’m enjoying it while I can.

  60. As much as everyone loved the old circuit, the current one is also a really good layout. How awesome would it have been if they had kept the old layout, and alternated between the old and new layouts every year?

    1. As much as I loved the old, super fast Hockenheim circuit…..can you imagine racing on those 4 LONG straights with DRS on at least 2 of them? And people think there is too much artificial passing with DRS as it is…..

  61. You GUYS are all missing the point.
    By a million miles ,Hamilton’s performance in coming from 20th to 3rd was the most impressive, given that he was traveling with a damage car from about half way.
    Bottas was a good performance but her only held off Hamilton because of Hamilton’s Damaged front wing.Does anyone notice how Rosberg only seems to beat Hamilton either by cheating(Monoco Grand prix) or when Hamilton has car or mechanical failure, or else
    Hamiltons pits stop crew will again let him down with extra long pit stop.
    I bet my mate £80 that something would go wrong with Hamilton’s car in Germany.
    I just knew it would

    1. “By a million miles ,Hamilton’s performance in coming from 20th to 3rd was the most impressive, given that he was traveling with a damage car from about half way.” @Deano

      Agreed, pretty impressive. Seems like he is almost as good as Vettel, who climbed from 24th to 3rd two years ago.

    2. It was, but kinda reckless too, so not that impressive if you ask me. I’ve seen better/cleaner recoveries. He bumped into RAI (destroyed his wing), RIC, BUT, almost touch with HUL. That’s unacceptable if we think that he’s not a rookie, then his car was a lot faster than anybody else on track except ROS and BOT.

    3. “how Rosberg only seems to beat Hamilton either by cheating” Can you seriously not just let that go? I’m sure if Hamilton did that, you’d just call it a ‘mistake’. These conspiracies, favouritism theories and cheating accusations are getting old.

  62. I have really mixed feelings about this race. On the other hand, there were once again some great duels and nice overtaking. Then there were those horrible DRS passes, where the other car simply breezes past with 25 kph speed difference. While I’m not really complaining about the number of overtaking, it just felt like the overtaking moves did not really matter that much. Also, we saw some interesting strategies, but then again no real battle for the lead. I suppose overall there just wasn’t a clear “story” for this race. If I was a reporter, I would struggle to write a complete review, as it felt like after Hamilton had showed the usual Mercedes dominance by climbing up to P2/3 by lap 15 there just wasn’t that much going on – apart from the great ending with Bottas’ defensive drive.

  63. Judging by the ratings recent races get, F1 is in great shape and there’s little to be done to improve it, why should you change, it’s an 8/10 on average.

    Come on, such a boring and dull season with predictable processional races! Yeah, LH got through the field on 1sec/lap faster Mercedes, Massa rolled over and some minor changes on 4-8 positions.

    But hey, it’s just me, the race was an 8.

  64. I gave this race an 8/10 which really is pretty high considering all aspects of the race. Firstly the race lacked any real challenge for the win. After Lewis’s crash on the Saturday, it was a Rosberg win (not banking on failures). Considering this there is the first point lost, it isn’t a good race overall if the race winner isn’t shown on the TV for half the race (Although this is good by the producer not to show him just because he is German-ish).

    The race lost another point because of the first lap drama. I know to some it may add to the race that the first lap is action packed and accidents happen but for me, we lost a great race in regards to the podium. Massa and Ricciardo could of fought for 2nd and 3rd and offered Lewis a better run during the race, that alongside Vettel and K-Mag knocking about there alongside Alonso could of offered is a better race for the podium.

    Here’s the point which I was debating for and against is the ease of which Hamilton came from the back and onto the podium. Yes he may have the better car and an overall advantage but the DRS assisted and overtakes due to strategy differences handed him a large proportion of his places. Hardly an amazing drive considering his overall speed advantage without DRS but with it he was able to just breeze past them (Jenson and Kimi aside).

  65. It looks like I have missed the voting for the German GP but here are my thoughts anyway.

    I thought it was another great race.

    After Hamilton’s brake failure on Saturday I thought the winner was never in doubt unless Rosberg suffered car trouble, which usually detracts from the race a bit for me but I still really enjoyed it.

    There seemed to be plenty of action throughout the Grand Prix, but I only saw the BBC highlights so obviously any dull moments could have been edited out.

    You had Hamilton charging through the field to the podium and also Ricciardo having to put in a recovery drive after avoiding the Massa and Magnussen coming together at the first corner.

    For another race Alonso treated us to some fantastic battles mosdt notably with Ricciardo.

    As with any race where I only see the highlights it doesn’t feel the same as a live race and I don’t enjoy it as much, so I have tried to adjust my rating to compensate for that so I decided to rate it the same as the British GP which was 8.5 rounded up to a 9.

Comments are closed.