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 Germany 20-22 Jul 2012Grosser Preis Santander von Deutchland Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany Race Distance: 67 laps, 306.458 km The German Grand Prix swaps back to the Hockenheimring for 2012. The original 8km circuit built in 1932 was used for motorcycle racing and as a Mercedes and Auto Union test track. It was shortened and sterilized in the 1960's as several drivers lost their lives (the great Jim Clark died at the 1st chicane in 1968 in an F2 car). For the 2002 Grand Prix, the track was redesigned to its current Tilke configuration. In 2010 at the Hockenheimring, Massa finally had a win in the bag, until team orders required him to trade with Alonso. Vettel took 3rd. The 2011 race at the Nurburgring was taken by Hamilton over Alonso and Webber. For the 2nd race in a row, rain hits qualifying. Q1 was merely damp, but as the day went on, it only got wetter. Making the most out of the full-wet running in Q3 was Alonso who tops the times. Vettel and Webber came next, though Webber will start +5 spots for a gearbox change. Schumacher and Hulkenberg take the next spots in front of their home fans. Button and Hamilton are surprisingly far back with only the 7th and 8th fastest times, though perhaps they were running with a dry setup on the car. The top 10 in Germany: ALO VET WEB* MSC HUL MAL BUT HAM DIR RAI *5 spot penalty The rain stayed away on Sunday's race, allowing Button's gamble to qualify in the rain on a dry setup to pay off. Coming from 6th on the grid, Button worked his way to the front of the pack. However he just didn't have quite enough pace to pass Alonso who used his pole position to dominate the race. Vettel too used his front-row start to stay up front, battling with Alonso and Button throughout the race, even putting a fantastic pass on Button for 2nd with 2 laps to go. But the stewards ruled his wide-exit across the curb after the pass was an advantage gained off-track, and penalized him 20 seconds, dropping him from 2nd to 5th. The other McLaren of Hamilton did not fair as well as Button's. With an early puncture dropping him to the back, he never recovered and eventually became the only car to retire from the race.
Grosser Preis Santander von Deutchland Hockenheimring, Hockenheim, Germany 
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