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Black racing suit, red helmet: Lewis Hamilton
Photo:
Bryn Lennon / AP
A special helmet:
With his victory at the Nürburgring, Lewis Hamilton set a great record for Michael Schumacher: In the presence of around 13,500 spectators, Hamilton achieved his 91st race victory - like Schumacher once did.
He then received a red helmet from his father's last Formula 1 season from his son Mick Schumacher.
Perhaps the gesture should mean that Hamilton is not only at Schumacher's level when it comes to records.
What both have in common is that they are exceptional athletes, driven people who have achieved more than most of their competitors and yet seem not to let up.
"I'm very honored," but no one could ever compare himself to Schumacher despite all the records, said Hamilton.
At the award ceremony that followed, he still had the helmet with him.
The result of the race: In
addition to the Briton, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) made it onto the podium.
Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas retired due to a technical defect, only 15 cars even crossed the finish line.
Of the Ferrari drivers, only Charles Leclerc made it into the points in seventh place, Sebastian Vettel was eleventh.
Read the race report here.
Ready on call:
some success stories were written during the race.
In addition to Hamilton's coup, the 40-year-old Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa Romeo) set a record with his 323rd race start (even though he only finished twelfth because of a ten-second penalty).
And for Renault it was the first podium finish since 2011. Nico Hülkenberg, without a contract, showed a special performance, who started as a substitute driver for Racing Point for the third time this season, finished last in qualifying and finally moved from 20th to eighth drove up.
Icon: enlarge Photo: Ina Fassbender / AP
Left coffee, raced into the Eifel:
Actually, Hülkenberg was supposed to give the experts this weekend at RTL in the Cologne studio.
He was about to drink coffee there on Saturday morning when Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal of Racing Point, called him and recruited him to replace Lance Stroll, who had lost due to illness.
Hülkenberg drove to the Eifel and started qualifying straight away: "Without any preparation, it's not an easy story, really out of the cold pants," he said afterwards: "But I'm a racing driver, that's my job. You have to have such a chance grab your head. "
And he did, with ten championship points he is in 15th place in the drivers' standings - just seven points behind Vettel, whom he was able to overtake on lap 42.
Racing Point has always had Hülkenberg's adapted seat with them since Silverstone.
The last Eifel winner was Vettel:
The Nürburgring only slipped into the racing calendar for a short time due to the corona pandemic.
Originally, no German race track had received a contract for the 2020 season, in recent years the races have taken place, if at all, at the Hockenheimring.
Vettel won the last Grand Prix in the Eifel in 2013 - at that time still in the Red Bull - for the first time in his career.
In the same year, the then 26-year-old became world champion for the fourth and so far last time.
It was a turbulent race, among other things a cameraman was injured in the pit lane by a flying tire and a car parked after an engine failure rolled backwards uncontrollably onto the track.
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A special route:
the three-time Formula 1 world champion Jackie Stewart described the Nordschleife, once notorious for its ruthlessness, as the "Green Hell".
The route, which was completed in 1927, was initially driven over 20.832 kilometers per lap.
After Niki Lauda's fire accident on August 1, 1976, Formula 1 avoided the Nordschleife.
It only returned to the Eifel in 1984 - but not on the old route, but on the significantly shortened Grand Prix course of 5.148 kilometers.
60 laps are driven today, the undulating track is still demanding, the capricious weather conditions in the Eifel also make it unpredictable - as the drivers had to find out this time too.
The most absurd bet of the weekend:
With Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul, joy and sorrow were close together.
After Ricciardo crossed the finish line in third place at the Nürburgring, the Australian immediately reminded his boss of a bet: Because Ricciardo did so well, Abiteboul had to get a tattoo.
"That's right, that will happen. We urgently need to get together now," said Ricciardo, who is allowed to determine the motive as agreed.
The 42-year-old Abiteboul, around whom there are rumors of farewell, should only decide on the position.
Ricciardo already has very specific ideas about the tattoo for his boss: "It will probably have something to do with me - and also a German influence, because it is linked to this place."
What's next:
With the win in the Eifel, Hamilton already has 69 points ahead of Bottas.
This means that the Finn can no longer overtake Hamilton on his own in six races remaining.
On October 25th, Hamilton can continue towards seventh world title at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
This would equalize the most important Schumacher brand.
With material from
dpa
and sid.
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