Nurburg, 7 July

Scuderia Ferrari came away from the German Grand Prix with a fourth place, courtesy of Fernando Alonso, who ran a three stop race, before taking the chequered flag seven seconds behind the winner, Sebastian Vettel. Felipe Massa was forced to retire on lap 4 when he went off the track at the first corner. The team is currently investigating the cause of this incident that brought the Brazilian’s race to a premature end.

Alonso was on a different strategy to those around him on the grid, starting with the Medium tyres, making his first stop on lap 12. He then made up places after a low key start, managing to catch up to those battling for podium places. After a second stop on lap 24, again to fit Mediums, he finally switched to the Softs on lap 49, then putting in a series of very fast laps that nevertheless were not enough to give him third place, which eluded him by two seconds. Alonso leaves Germany still in second place in the Drivers’ classification, now on 123 points.