German Grand Prix LIVE: Max Verstappen wins second race of the season as Hamilton and Bottas crash
Max Verstappen mastered the tricky Hockenheim conditions to win the German Grand Prix as both Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas crashed out of the running on a miserable day for the championship leaders.
Hamilton looked on course for victory after leading from the front, but repeated accidents throughout the field caused chaos in the running order as different strategies played out. After Ferrari's Charles Leclerc crashed out of fourth position, Hamilton followed him into the wall the following lap with the safety car already deployed, which required him to pit immediately for a new front wing and land him a five-second time penalty for missing the pit entry.
The error allowed Verstappen to take the lead of the race, and despite further safety car periods due to Bottas' accident at Turn One, the Red Bull youngster was able to take the chequered flag and finish ahead of a hard-charging Sebastian Vettel who went from last to second, with the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat a surprise finisher in third, one day after the birth of his first child. Re-live the action below.
Welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the German Grand Prix, brought to you from Hockenheim as the 11th race of the season promises to be an action-packed one.
There is heavy rain in the air that could give the drivers further down the field a chance, with Charles Leclerc starting down in 10th and Sebastian Vettel 20th and last after a horror qualifying session.
It's a wet Hockenheim that greets the drivers this afternoon, and incredibly not a single driver on the current grid has completed a lap in the wet in these current cars, which brings a certain unpredictability to today's race.
In fact, the 2019 rookies in George Russell, Alexander Albon and Lando Norris have not even completed a lap at all in the wet while behind the wheel of an F1 car, and with the three already a long way back in the pack, they look to be in for a difficult day.
Strategy is always crucially important during a race, but today that may just go out the window.
The hot temperatures that hit Fridays running have not returned ove the weekend, but it does mean that most drivers have an abundance of soft and medium tyre to use throughout the race, with only one set of hard tyres available to the entire field.
But with current conditions needing wet weather tyres, the dry weather tyre rules will go out of the window.
I think it's fair to say that the dry tyre rules are good to be scrapped as the rain has just returned, meaning we'll get underway with a wet race and, possibly, a safety car start depending on how the track clears up between now and 2:10pm.
The pit lane comes alive with 40 minutes to go as the drivers head out for some much-needed reconaissance laps, with the first experience of driving these cars in the rain set to provide crucial data for the teams.
The beauty is that we have no idea who will be able to hande the conditions the best.
With the field practising their starts down at the end of the pit lane, you can see just how much wheelspin each car is producing, meaning a hugely uncertain start is in store.
Meanwhile, Hamilton has gone straight back into the garage after his first lap. Do Mercedes have a problem?
No. Not right now, according to Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, but it may be the best tyre to go with as short term pain will result in long-term gain, given how quickly the track will dry out if it doesn't rain again.
But those out currently on the intermediate tyres are finding just how difficult it is, as nearly every single one of them has gone off at the Turmn 6 hairpin.
The message from the drivers are mixed, with half wanting a standing start and the other half wanting a safety car start because it will be safer. This is very much the unknown for the 20 drivers on the grid, and has all the ingredients of being an action-packed race.
The FIA have confirmed that the formation lap ill be behind the safety car, but they have not announced a saftey car start as of yet. As it stands, we're going racing in 10 minutes' time.
This is starting to get a bit confusing now. Hamilton has been told to set off behind the safety car for "a few laps", with the driver Bernd Maylander set to then make a decision on whether there should be a standing start or safety car start.
Basically, we have no idea right now how the race will start.
It's a second lap under the safety car, but to be honest the track doesn't look in a bad condition. The bigger problem is the spray that is coming off the cars, which gives the drivers about zero visibility, according to Carlos Sainz.
It's worth remembering that these laps do not count towards the Grand Prix like they used to, although cars have been fuelled for the 67 lap race which could just play a part later in the afternoon.
Both Verstappen and Hamilton radio in for the race to get underway. "It's not even that wet", says Hamilton.
