Following his remarkable climb from 14th on the grid to win the German Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was asked whether the speed with which he was catching the front-runners put Sebastian Vettel under pressure and contributed to the Ferrari driver’s crash.

Hamilton pointed out this was unlikely unless Vettel was being told his lead over the fourth-placed driver at the time, which it seems he wasn’t. Nonetheless, Hamilton made remarkable progress in the laps before Vettel crashed out. And the Ferrari driver had just matched Hamilton’s pace for the first time in the wet period of the race when he went off.

He gained nine places in the first 14 laps to take up fifth place, leaving him with just Max Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas and the two Ferraris ahead. These were always going to be the hardest cars for Hamilton pass.

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Starting on fresh tyres allowed him to run a long first stint and switch to ultra-softs for the sprint to the chequered flag. But rain was beginning to fall as he began his second stint, and this was where Hamilton really began to catch the leaders.

Over the seven laps after he left the pits Hamilton almost halved Vettel’s lead from 23.7 seconds to 12.1 by lap 50. That time around Hamilton was 2.2 seconds quicker than Vettel, but the next time by the Ferrari driver, on much older rubber, matched Hamilton’s lap time of 1’29.2.

That was his last complete lap. When he reached the hairpin in the Motodrom on the next lap, Vettel skidded into the barrier.

While Hamilton made up an impressive 13 places to take his win, the next-biggest improvement was Esteban Ocon’s seven=place climb to take eighth place. Kevin Magnussen lost the same number of places, unable to recover from the tactical error of fitting intermediates, though his team mate did the same yet still came in sixth.

2018 German Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2018 German Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

Position change

2018 German Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2018 German Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

2018 German Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

Stint 1 Stint 2 Stint 3 Stint 4 Lewis Hamilton Soft (42) Ultra soft (25) Valtteri Bottas Ultra soft (28) Soft (24) Ultra soft (15) Kimi Raikkonen Ultra soft (14) Soft (39) Ultra soft (14) Max Verstappen Ultra soft (29) Soft (17) Intermediate (2) Ultra soft (19) Nico Hulkenberg Ultra soft (18) Medium (33) Intermediate (4) Ultra soft (12) Romain Grosjean Ultra soft (21) Medium (30) Intermediate (4) Ultra soft (12) Sergio Perez Ultra soft (22) Soft (45) Esteban Ocon Ultra soft (25) Soft (42) Marcus Ericsson Soft (38) Ultra soft (29) Carlos Sainz Jnr Ultra soft (20) Medium (30) Intermediate (6) Ultra soft (11) Brendon Hartley Soft (28) Medium (24) Ultra soft (15) Kevin Magnussen Ultra soft (20) Medium (31) Intermediate (4) Ultra soft (12) Stoffel Vandoorne Soft (29) Medium (23) Ultra soft (15) Pierre Gasly Soft (43) Wet (3) Ultra soft (20) Charles Leclerc Ultra soft (20) Soft (23) Intermediate (3) Ultra soft (20) Fernando Alonso Soft (31) Medium (12) Intermediate (4) Soft (18) Lance Stroll Soft (27) Medium (23) Intermediate (3) Sebastian Vettel Ultra soft (25) Soft (26) Sergey Sirotkin Soft (28) Medium (23) Intermediate (0) Daniel Ricciardo Medium (27)

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2018 German Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Driver Team Pit stop time Gap On lap 1 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 18.657 25 2 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 18.840 0.183 38 3 Fernando Alonso McLaren 18.956 0.299 31 4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 18.978 0.321 42 5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 19.087 0.430 48 6 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 19.188 0.531 28 7 Charles Leclerc Sauber 19.267 0.610 20 8 Max Verstappen Red Bull 19.297 0.640 46 9 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 19.309 0.652 28 10 Lance Stroll Williams 19.476 0.819 27 11 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 19.512 0.855 46 12 Lance Stroll Williams 19.526 0.869 50 13 Esteban Ocon Force India 19.570 0.913 25 14 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 19.584 0.927 18 15 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 19.621 0.964 52 16 Carlos Sainz Jnr Renault 19.637 0.980 50 17 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 19.647 0.990 14 18 Max Verstappen Red Bull 19.742 1.085 29 19 Romain Grosjean Haas 19.752 1.095 55 20 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 19.778 1.121 29 21 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 19.806 1.149 43 22 Kevin Magnussen Haas 19.818 1.161 20 23 Brendon Hartley Toro Rosso 19.985 1.328 52 24 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 19.988 1.331 53 25 Carlos Sainz Jnr Renault 20.160 1.503 20 26 Romain Grosjean Haas 20.198 1.541 21 27 Carlos Sainz Jnr Renault 20.530 1.873 56 28 Charles Leclerc Sauber 20.653 1.996 46 29 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 20.752 2.095 51 30 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 20.812 2.155 55 31 Fernando Alonso McLaren 20.927 2.270 47 32 Fernando Alonso McLaren 21.119 2.462 43 33 Charles Leclerc Sauber 21.200 2.543 43 34 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 21.711 3.054 51 35 Romain Grosjean Haas 22.738 4.081 51 36 Sergey Sirotkin Williams 24.173 5.516 28 37 Sergio Perez Force India 25.130 6.473 22 38 Kevin Magnussen Haas 27.736 9.079 55 39 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 33.279 14.622 52 40 Kevin Magnussen Haas 34.742 16.085 51

2018 German Grand Prix