F1 German Grand Prix: Vettel breaks home win duck in thrilling race

Three-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel's march towards rewriting Formula 1's record books, and correct some statistical 'anomalies', continued unabated at the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

The German won his home race as well as an F1 race in July by beating Lotus F1's Kimi Raikkonen by just 1.008 seconds to record his 3oth career victory.

The 60-lap race was eventful from the get-go as pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton's poor start saw him lose position to both Vettel and Red Bull Racing teammate Mark Webber.

Webber was soon to become a non-factor for the race win after a mistake by the Red Bull Racing pit crew saw him released from his first tyre stop before correctly fitting the car's right-rear tyre.

The tyre came off as the Australian exited his pit box and hit a cameraman in the chest hard enough to knock him over. The cameraman was reported to be suffering from chest pains and a concussion and was taken to the nearest hospital where he is said to be in stable condition.

Hamilton's Mercedes soon started to develop the familiar problems with tyre wear that saw him drop out of the top 10 before recovering to finish fifth after a late race charge that saw him pass former McLaren teammate Jenson Button.

Hamilton's recovery was also aided by a safety car period that followed a massive engine failure in Jules Bianchi's Marussia that left a large amount of oil on the track.

The safety car period also allowed Raikkonen as well as Lotus F1 teammate Romain Grosjean to close up on Vettel who both drivers challenged in different parts of the race.

Grosjean put in a strong first stint on soft tyres and carried his form through to the third and final round of tyre stops (for the majority of the field) where he was second to Vettel with 10 laps to go.

However, Raikkonen's strategy to save his soft tyres right till the very end of the race saw the Finn lap fast enough for the Lotus F1 pitwall to instruct the Frenchman to move over and let the 2007 world champion go off into pursuit of Vettel.

Grosjean's third position briefly came under threat from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who also opted to use his soft tyres on his final stint.

The 2005 and 2006 world champion ultimately finished 1.9 seconds behind Grosjean to take fourth ahead of former teammate Hamilton.

The top 10 was rounded out by Button, Webber (who recovered after dropping to the tail of the field), Sergio Perez, Nico Rosberg and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg.

Hulkenberg managed to beat both Force Indias of Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil after a tense battle with both.

The race saw only three retirements. One of which was Ferrari's Felipe Massa who spun out of the race in its early stages at turn one of the 5.148 km circuit and stalled the car.