After qualifying for the 2011 German Grand Prix it was announced that Buemi had been sent to the rear of the grid for a fuel irregularity. This would not affect the start positions for the AT&T Williams F1 drivers as Buemi had qualified in sixteenth. Pastor Maldonado and Rubens Barrichello would start from thirteenth and fourteenth. The weather had seen rain prior to the start with still very cold conditions. The rain was expected to return at some stage during the race leading to very changeable conditions. As the drivers went out onto the grid the track was drying but light rain would start to fall. Rubens would remain in his car
with an umbrella over him. The big question was what tyres to start the race on as the rain continued to fall.

For the start of the race the DRS would be disabled given the wet conditions. Slick tyres would be the choice of the drivers as they moved off on their parade lap for the sixty lap race. If the rain got worse on this lap we may see cars take to the pit lane for a change of tyres. They would form up and with the start of the race we would see Hamilton taking the lead from Webber and Alonso going into Turn one. Vettel was fourth from Rosberg, Massa, Sutil, and Petrov. Di Resta would spin at Turn three as Vettel tried to pass Alonso. He would not make the pass stick and by the end of lap one Hamilton was leading by 1.2 seconds. Rubens had made up several places running in eleventh while Pastor was in thirteenth.

Heidfeld had lost a lot of places dropping to the rear of the field joining Di Resta. Lap two and Alonso would make a mistake allowing Vettel to pass him. The DRS was now enabled while Button was now in tenth. Lap three and Hamilton was leading by 1.9 seconds from Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Rosberg, and Massa. Lap four and a new fastest lap from Webber, 1m:38.189, to close by one tenth on Hamilton. Rubens had dropped to twelfth with Pastor one place behind. Alonso was having problems running wide at Turn three. Heidfeld was now up to eighteenth while at the front Webber had closed in onto Hamilton. Massa was told by his engineer to get past Rosberg or it will ruin his race.

Lap twenty six and Webber was leading by 1.3 seconds over Hamilton. Alonso was 1.4 seconds behind Hamilton with Massa 22.7 seconds behind his team-mate. Vettel was now fifth from Rosberg, Sutil, Button, Schumacher, and Kobayashi in tenth. Vettel's engineer would come on his radio saying that there may be a problem with the rear brakes. At the front Hamilton and Alonso would start to find a few tenths with Hamilton now 0.8
behind Webber after lap twenty nine. Alonso was 0.7 seconds behind Hamilton. Lap thirty one Webber would pit again seeing Hamilton take the lead. Pastor was now 3.4 seconds behind Kobayashi as Hamilton would also pit one lap later matching Webber. Hamilton was able to come out just in front of Webber going into the first corner. Webber would try to get back past but Hamilton would not having anything to do with it seeing Webber
running wide at Turn two. Alonso was now leading but he would also pit on lap thirty three.

Perez was closing in onto Pastor while at the front Alonso would come out in front of Hamilton but Hamilton would get past his going around the outside at Turn two. Alonso was now second and Webber third. Hamilton was now 2.4 seconds ahead of Alonso after lap thirty four. The next lap and the lead was out to 2.7 seconds with Webber losing time to Alonso, the gap now 2.5 seconds after a mistake from Webber at the final chicane.
Button would pit from eighth on lap thirty six retiring in his pit with a hydraulic problem. Pastor would make his second stop on the same lap. Rosberg would pit on lap thirty seven while team-mate Schumacher would pit the next lap. Lap forty and Hamilton was now leading by 2.8 seconds from Alonso with Webber 4.6 seconds behind the Ferrari.

Lap forty one and Vettel would pit from fifth. Rosberg would pass Kobayashi going into Turn one seeing Rosberg seventh. Massa would pit from fourth on lap forty two coming out just in front of Vettel. Pastor was now one lap down and 15.6 seconds behind thirteenth place Di Resta. Perez would pit from eleventh on lap forty three as Vettel would take to the escape road going into the final chicane. Vettel would continue still behind Massa. Lap forty five and Hamilton's lead was now 3.1 seconds over Alonso. Webber was 5.1 seconds behind the Ferrari. Massa was fourth from Vettel, Sutil, Rosberg, Kobayashi, Petrov, and Schumacher
in tenth. Now the question was as to when the teams would bring their cars in for their final stop to take on the medium tyre given that this tyre could be a second per lap slower. Lap forty eight and Petrov would pit from tenth taking on the medium tyre.

Pos  Driver  	   Team		       	      Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h37:30.334
 2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +     3.980
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     9.788
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    47.921
 5.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    52.252
 6.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +  1:26.208
 7.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +     1 lap
 8.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +     1 lap
 9.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
10.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
12.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
13.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
14.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
15.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
16.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +    2 laps
17.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    3 laps
18.  D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +    3 laps
19.  Ricciardo     HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps
20.  Chandhok      Lotus-Renault              +    4 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:34.587

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth                 44
Button        McLaren-Mercedes             42
Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth            23
Heidfeld      Renault                      10