Max Verstappen wins German Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton crashes

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took his second win of the year in a chaotic and incident-strewn German Grand Prix held in intermittent rain.

Crazy racing: Who could have predicted this podium combination before lights out?

The Dutchman led a topsy-turvy result in which Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel took second from last on the grid and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was third.

Lewis Hamilton had a day to forget, finishing 11th after two mistakes.

But the Briton did not lose any ground to team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the championship after the Finn crashed.

It was a dismal way for Mercedes to end a weekend when the team celebrated 125 years in motorsport and their 200th Formula 1 race.

But the Mercedes drivers were not the only ones to fall foul of the treacherous conditions in a race that featured a remarkable six safety cars – two of them virtual – and the winner made five pit stops to change back and forth between wet and dry tyres.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed when looking in strong shape for at least second place. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg went off at the same place, the treacherous penultimate corner, which was also where Hamilton made one of his errors.

After the race Hamilton was classified as finishing ninth following 30-second penalties handed to the Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi for driver aid infringements. Hamilton therefore gained two points in the title race over Bottas. The action also ensured Williams scored an unlikely point for the first time this season, with Robert Kubica 10th.

Verstappen supreme as Mercedes slip up

Through the chaos, Verstappen drove an almost flawless race, tracking the Mercedes in third place through the first half of the grand prix and then moving to the front as the world champions’ race fell apart.

Red Bull made all the strategy calls correctly and Verstappen judged the conditions perfectly to take a well-deserved victory which made him look the class of the field – although even he had a big spin, one corner before the bend that took out Leclerc, Hulkenberg and Hamilton.

Mercedes’ race began to unravel when Hamilton ran wide at the penultimate corner, slid across the slippery run-off and hit the wall.

Unlike Leclerc, who had gone off into the gravel the lap before when looking poised to take second place and was unable to get out of it, Hamilton did rejoin the track but with a damaged front wing. -bbc.com