The racing weekend that was

Formula 1, Grosser Preis Santader von Deutschland, at Hockenheim:
Ahead of the third practice session, Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean and Nico Rosberg changed gearboxes and had to take a five grid penalty after qualifying. In a rain-affected qualifying session, Ferarri's Fernando Alonso, for the second time in a row, made the most of his Pirelli's extreme wet tires in poor weather conditions and secured pole position.

Alonso leads into the first turn

On race Sunday, Alonso picked up where he left off and made a great start to the race without having to defend his line going into the first corner. And even though the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton was quicker than his Ferrari, and both Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button pressed him hard, the Spaniard led from start to finish in commanding fashion and took home the win.

Despite having just a few overtaking, the race was an exciting one for the leaders and their teams showcased their very best, without the interference of "Lady Luck" in the latter stages of the race. During first round pit-stops, Alonso (P1) and Vettel (P2) came in together and with his pitbox just behind Ferrari's, the suspense grew immensely. Usually, passing is done on the track and rarely in the pits in front of the pit-crew that committed a mistake. However, Ferrari boys stepped up to the plate and hit the ball out of the park, with a great stop.

In the second round of pitstops third place sitter Button pitted ahead of Vettel, who pitted a lap later. But when Vettel rejoined the race he came out just behind Button, who moved up to second place. Vettel made a charge on the McLaren driver on the penultimate lap and used his DRS on the run up to the hairpin. The German took the outside line and completed the pass on Button by putting all four tires off the track. Immediately hereafter,  Button complained on his radio that by going off the track Vettel had gained a competitive advantage.

Alonso celebrates his 3rd win of the season

In the end, Fernando Alonso won the race, Vettel who finished second was handed a 20 second penalty by the race stewards which pushed him back to fifth place. Jenson Button was brought up to second and Kimi Raikkonen to third place. To read selected driver quotes, click here.
With his win, Alonso extended his lead in the championship with a dominant lead of 34 points.

The Ferrari team mate of Alonso, the Brazilian Felipe Massa ran in the back of a Toro Rosso at the start of the race and had to come in for a new wing. This incidents' debris punctured Lewis' left rear on the second lap which effectively put  him out of the race. He retired due to damage to the rear of the car caused by the flat tire.

The next stop on the calendar is the ENI Magyar Nagydij, in Hungary, on July 29 next.

NASCAR, at Chicagoland:

Allgaier giving Sadler a push on last lap

In a very competitive racing championship, such as Nascar's Nationwide series, drivers must often dig deep in order to pull a win out of the hat. But none had to dig deeper than Elliott Sadler, who battled illness throughout the weekend. Luckily he had his doctor with him and by keeping hydrated through lots of fluid and a few IV's, Sadler was able rally late and capture the win.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had lead the majority of the race, but some ill-timed cautions caused him to finish in second place. Last year's Chicagoland race winner, Justin Allgaier was running second at the start of the green-white-checkered finish and was able to give Sadler a push and then protect him own position. However, he could hold off Stenhouse who passed him coming out of turn two relinquishing him to finish in third place.

Take a look at the last two laps of the race, in the 1 minute video below:

"I'm still not 100 percent, but it feels good to win here in Chicago," Sadler said. "My wife and I came here with another couple, which also happens to be my doctor, and we had to put him to work."

The next race will take place this Sunday, at Indy at 4 pm (ET).

Thanks for reading.

Source: Formula One, Crash.net, the F1 Times, NASCAR,
Photo credit: Totallycoolpix, NASCAR
Video credit: NASCAR