Vettel to win home race for first time

Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel is a good value bet at around 11-4 to become the first German driver with a surname other than Schumacher to win the German Grand Prix.

Michael Schumacher has won the German Grand Prix four times - 1995, 2002, 2004 and 2006 - and Ralf Schumacher, absent from the Formula One competition since the end of the 2007 season, took out his home race in 2001. Despite 22 career victories, never has Vettel won the German Grand Prix, finishing eighth, second, third and fourth since 2008.

Another, more quirky statistic is never has Vettel won a race in the month of July, the month of his birth. The 25-year-old German has, however, won races in every other Formula One calendar month - March through to November.

That could be about to change. Vettel has looked the class act of the Formula One grid in recent races and there is no doubt whatsoever that he would be much shorter than 11-4 to win at Hockenheim had he not experienced mechanical failure just after the halfway point of the European Grand Prix.

Vettel qualified for the Valencia race in pole position, more than three-tenths of a second faster than a group of drivers over whom you could have thrown a blanket. In the race itself, the two-time Formula One champion opened up a 15-second gap in the first 15 laps, dominating in a way reminiscent of his performances during the 2011 season.

Had the alternator on Vettel`s Red Bull car not failed and the German phenomenon had gone on to win the European Grand Prix emphatically, bookmakers would be quoting him at lower than 2-1 to end his wait for a German Grand Prix triumph.

Between the European Grand Prix and the German Grand Prix was the British Grand Prix. Rain turned qualifying into something of a lottery, with Vettel having to settle for fourth place on the Silverstone grid and then having to pit earlier than he would have liked so as to assist his Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber, who ended up winning the race.

In reality, Vettel`s British Grand Prix third was everything bit as good as Webber`s drive. There was nothing to choose between the lap times of the Red Bull drivers when they had clear track in front of them, all this despite the widely held view that Webber is a Silverstone specialist.

Back Vettel to win at Hockenheim for the first time and significantly improve his chance of claiming his third consecutive Formula One title. Currently 29 and 16 points behind Fernando Alonso and Webber respectively, Vettel has the machinery and the skills to overhaul the Spaniard and the Australian as the championship hits its midway point.

Lewis Hamilton is the defending German Grand Prix champion having won last year`s race by just under four seconds from Alonso. Note, though, that the 2011 German Grand Prix took place at the Nurburgring because of an agreement active since 2008 that it hosts the race in odd-numbered years.

Hamilton is around 11-2 to celebrate what will be his 100th grand prix drive with what would be his third German Grand Prix victory. He triumphed at Hockenheim four years ago.

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20/07/2012     © Frixo 2024