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Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer, who left Renault during the 2017 season, joined the BBC team to offer insight and analysis from the competitors' point of view.
I love the sport because of the ups and downs, the moments of brilliance and the expensive mistakes. At the German Grand Prix, all this happened in just 24 hours.
First, there was the drama of the qualification. Lewis Hamilton, who was already on a difficult race in recent major prizes, had more bad luck.
A non-finish in Austria after a scorching run that he had initially led, then a defeat in his home race at Silverstone last time, had left the Mercedes driver slightly behind in his championship bout with Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
But bad luck struck again in qualifying Saturday in Germany. This time it was a hydraulic leak and that meant that Hamilton had been relegated to 14th place.
These things happen from time to time. In fact, before Austria, Hamilton had been in the extremely lucky position of not having retired due to a mechanical problem since his costly engine failure of Malaysia 2016. However, the injury was very obvious in this case .
for Renault when the engine of Hamilton blew in Malaysia, actually costing him the title of his teammate Nico Rosberg. He caused a bit of a storm when he complained on TV about it, saying "something or someone does not want me to win this year". But I do not remember his reaction as disillusioned and as low as after the qualifications of Saturday
Anguish for Hamilton; A top for Vettel
Saturday, Hamilton was so desperate to return to the pits. car back – when he still had more than a third of the tour to go!
The despair was clear, as was the despair, as his car was finally pushed by the marshals on the edge of the track, so the qualifications could resume without him.
He squatted against the car, his head bowed and looked at a figure of misery.
The fallout, with everyone trying to find out if it was his fault or not, did nothing to cheer him up either.
At first, it seemed that Hamilton had caused the breakdown by passing over the curbs. Mercedes first said as much before the team and the driver concluded that the car had already failed, which caused the bounce incident.
In the end, it did not matter. The damage was done. But Hamilton seemed affected. He posted quotes from Nelson Mandela on the meaning of love and hate on his Instagram page, and what was a bad day seemed to be out of emotional control.
The contrast Saturday was Vettel.
He took a brilliant pole position in front of a rejuvenated German audience, the tallest I've seen in Hockenheim by far (I was not there for the glory days Michael Schumacher).
The Vettel eruption line to take the boom was noisy – loud enough for Hamilton to hear and deepen the wounds of a scorching day.
Fate turns on its head
The key element for professional sportsmen is to deal with the "lorry". adversity. It happens to everyone in varying degrees.
I had a turning point in my career when I recognized that I could no longer control everything that had already happened. It sounds so simple and so obvious, but it's no use considering the frustration of days gone by or thinking about what could have been.
You do not need to forget the past; it's good to learn from it. But whenever a new session or a new day comes, it's about maximizing what you can do that day.
On Sunday, Hamilton did just that. From 14, with the speed advantage of the top three teams and with Daniel Ricciardo from behind in a Red Bull, a good number of points was surely the minimum expectation, as long as He kept his nose clean through the opening few corners in the middle of scrum.
Top five; minimum. A podium? Perhaps. But a victory? Surely no chance.
Well, a little over an hour and a half after the lights went out, Hamilton was coming back one way or another with this win. As he celebrated, his engineer Pete Bonnington said that "miracles happen, mate" on the radio.
The Great Hamilton Campaign
But it was not a miracle. It was the sheer determination of a driver who had firmly put his bad luck behind him. His first stint was crucial, leaving his tender tires alive while others struggled, and lining up the Ferrari for much older tires, even after they had stung for the new one.
That meant Hamilton could find new ultra-sweet tires just as it started to rain and the track started to get slippery, and with that its pace was electric. Hamilton always shines when it rains, and sometimes he made three turns a lap faster than those who waited for him.
Even without Vettel's departure, it is conceivable that Hamilton was able to win the race, so much was his pace in the conditions.
The rain fell after the podium celebrations, but Hamilton did not care. He was still celebrating with fans, amid thunderbolts and thunderbolts.
The same fans had encouraged Vettel to pole 24 hours earlier. They had witnessed not only a fantastic race but a fantastic performance from a driver who had gone through all the emotions of the same period.
Vettel's costly mistake
The contrast Sunday was again Vettel
He was leading from the front and, within a few minutes needed exchanges between himself, the team and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, he was in full control … until lap 52.
When riding with smooth and unpleated tires and that # & # 39; It's raining, it's the toughest conditions in the race. There is now enough rain to put up "wet" tires – as others have wrongly done – so you only have to move on a tire that is not designed for the conditions, with a small margin of error.
I was wrong. He misjudged the conditions, putting himself too late in Sachs Kurve, a notoriously punitive corner in the stadium section of Hockenheim, and found himself in the wall.
He immediately began to swear and hit the steering wheel. he apologized to the team for the accident.
It was a triple blow of pain. First, crush the lead of the race. Secondly, because it was his home run, one that meant a lot and he had crashed right in front of the mass of 120,000 fans. Third, because he then had to watch Hamilton drive without fail to take all the applause and a championship lead of 17 points as well.
What could have been.
How does Vettel bounce?
It was an accident very different from that of Singapore last year, when it probably triggered a stack of several cars initially, but in many ways it's a situation similar.
In Singapore, Vettel started in pole position and Hamilton was fifth. And, as in Germany on Sunday, Vettel collapsed and Hamilton won. It seemed like a turning point in the championship as Vettel never recovered.
Although there are similarities, this year is different. Not least because Ferrari are more competitive in the set. But Vettel really needs to come back this weekend to Budapest.
A 17-point lead in the championship midway is minimal, almost irrelevant. But if Hamilton wins at the Hungaroring on Sunday and something happens to Vettel, the leader could leap to 42 points over the summer holidays. The gap would go from almost irrelevant to very big, almost insurmountable.
It's a good thing for Vettel that he only has to wait a few days to be back in the car and get forgiven. As a driver, the worst thing is to make a mistake and stay there too long without being able to fix it
A season to savor
This brilliant season has been a two-way fight for the title between the giants of sport – Hamilton vs. Vettel; Mercedes vs. Ferrari
It was a wonderful year full of twists and I'm sure there will be many more to come.
But in so many championships, you can look back with a little hindsight at a key moment that determined the title's destination.
On Saturday, everyone was wondering if Hamilton's hydraulic failure could be a turning point in the season. Clearly now it will not be.
Instead, the question marks focus on whether the Vettel accident will be the decisive moment of the season. It's up to him to respond now in the same way as Hamilton on Sunday and make sure that it will not be the case
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