2010 F1 GERMAN GRAND PRIX

[Xyon]

Germany's grand prix this year returns to the Hockenheimring circuit, famous for its high-speed nature and the dramatic effect it has on the brakes. With 13 corners, 9 left and 4 right-hand, and a total lap length 2.842 miles, I think it'll be interesting to see which team's car the track favours.

Here you can see the darker line, which is the F1 track for this race, while the dimmer, grey line, marks the old F1 circuit, used before 2001. It's pretty evident to see why they changed it, because there are only spectators in the stadium section, which meant that for a long part of the lap, nobody could see the cars at all, and the long lap meant they really weren't getting the most from their ticket price.

The newer circuit has one cast-iron overtaking place, the hairpin. The cars will come at it from the parabolika, in 7th gear and as close to maximum speed as possible. Expect to see some locked brakes and cars running wide, but there's plenty of run-off here for that eventuality. With such a high-speed approach and long braking zone, the possibility for outbraking and getting high ground into the corner is probably the best here than anywhere else on the track.

Session times:

Session|Start Time (Local, UTC+2)|Timer
Practice 1|23rd July 10:00| [eventTimer]2010-07-23 8:00;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds[/eventTimer] - Session finished
Practice 2|23rd July 14:00| [eventTimer]2010-07-23 12:00;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds[/eventTimer] - Session finished
Practice 3|24th July 11:00| [eventTimer]2010-07-24 9:00;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds[/eventTimer] - Session finished
Qualifying|24th July 13:00| [eventTimer]2010-07-24 11:00;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds[/eventTimer]
Race|25th July 13:00| [eventTimer]2010-07-25 11:00;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds[/eventTimer]

The FIA held a press conference yesterday, with some of the drivers (Timo Glock (Virgin), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Mark Webber (Red Bull).), which you can read at F1.com: FIA Thursday press conference - Germany.

In the meantime, McLaren are confident that their upgrades, which they will reintroduce this weekend, will give them the edge over Red Bull, as reported at BBC F1: McLaren confident over upgrades for German Grand Prix

And finally, in the wake of the events of last weekend, Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz has joined in the team's adamant claim that there is no favouritism present in their team; BBC F1: Red Bull F1 team boss rules out driver favouritism

---------- Post added at 09:00 ---------- Previous post was at 05:08 ----------

Practice 1 green light. Track is very damp .

---------- Post added at 10:46 ---------- Previous post was at 09:00 ----------

A lovely first practice session amid the rain. Track did dry out towards the end, but the weather radar shows a rather large rainstorm heading for the track, expected to hit in around an hour, which would mean Practice 2 will also start in the rain.

Two drivers failed to complete the session, notably Lewis Hamilton, who crashed into tyres under braking and aquaplaning, breaking his rear suspension and front and sides of the car. It's not yet understood whether the car will be driveable in P2, though it probably will be. The other was Bruno Senna, who beached his car in the gravel in similar circumstances.

Full practice 1 result:

Pos|No|Driver|Team|Time/Retired|Gap
1|14|Adrian Sutil|Force India-Mercedes|1:25.701
2|7|Felipe Massa|Ferrari|1:26.850|1.149
3|1|Jenson Button|McLaren-Mercedes|1:26.936|1.235
4|9|Rubens Barrichello|Williams-Cosworth|1:26.947|1.246
5|12|Vitaly Petrov|Renault|1:26.948|1.247
6|4|Nico Rosberg|Mercedes GP|1:27.448|1.747
7|16|Sebastien Buemi|STR-Ferrari|1:28.114|2.413
8|10|Nico Hulkenberg|Williams-Cosworth|1:28.193|2.492
9|15|Vitantonio Liuzzi|Force India-Mercedes|1:28.300|2.599
10|22|Pedro de la Rosa|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|1:28.486|2.785
11|5|Sebastian Vettel|RBR-Renault|1:28.735|3.034
12|24|Timo Glock|Virgin-Cosworth|1:28.735|3.034
13|11|Robert Kubica|Renault|1:28.903|3.202
14|6|Mark Webber|RBR-Renault|1:29.048|3.347
15|18|Jarno Trulli|Lotus-Cosworth|1:29.280|3.579
16|17|Jaime Alguersuari|STR-Ferrari|1:29.366|3.665
17|2|Lewis Hamilton*|McLaren-Mercedes|1:29.429|3.728
18|25|Lucas di Grassi|Virgin-Cosworth|1:29.500|3.799
19|8|Fernando Alonso|Ferrari|1:29.684|3.983
20|23|Kamui Kobayashi|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|1:29.690|3.989
21|19|Fairuz Fauzy|Lotus-Cosworth|1:30.938|5.237
22|21|Bruno Senna*|HRT-Cosworth|1:31.720|6.019
23|3|Michael Schumacher|Mercedes GP|1:32.450|6.749
24|20|Sakon Yamamoto|HRT-Cosworth|1:32.791|7.090

* Driver DNF session.

---------- Post added at 11:08 ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 ----------

The previously mentioned rain storm just hit the track. Any hopes for a dry P2 are now but fond memories.

---------- Post added at 12:59 ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 ----------

My previous post suggesting that P2 would be wet is now just a fond memory, it looks like it will be dry after all. For now at least.

Practice 2 is now green lighted.

---------- Post added at 14:58 ---------- Previous post was at 12:59 ----------

Practice 2 results, another wet and dry session:

Pos|No|Driver|Team|Time/Retired|Gap|Laps
1|8|Fernando Alonso|Ferrari|1:16.265||35
2|5|Sebastian Vettel|RBR-Renault|1:16.294|0.029|26
3|7|Felipe Massa|Ferrari|1:16.438|0.173|37
4|6|Mark Webber|RBR-Renault|1:16.585|0.320|40
5|4|Nico Rosberg|Mercedes GP|1:16.827|0.562|32
6|3|Michael Schumacher|Mercedes GP|1:16.971|0.706|20
7|2|Lewis Hamilton|McLaren-Mercedes|1:17.004|0.739|10
8|11|Robert Kubica|Renault|1:17.009|0.744|37
9|9|Rubens Barrichello|Williams-Cosworth|1:17.056|0.791|37
10|10|Nico Hulkenberg|Williams-Cosworth|1:17.204|0.939|44
11|23|Kamui Kobayashi|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|1:17.336|1.071|44
12|12|Vitaly Petrov|Renault|1:17.547|1.282|35
13|22|Pedro de la Rosa|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|1:17.573|1.308|39
14|14|Adrian Sutil|Force India-Mercedes|1:17.701|1.436|38
15|1|Jenson Button|McLaren-Mercedes|1:17.739|1.474|36
16|15|Vitantonio Liuzzi|Force India-Mercedes|1:17.871|1.606|33
17|16|Sebastien Buemi|STR-Ferrari|1:18.147|1.882|45
18|17|Jaime Alguersuari|STR-Ferrari|1:19.327|3.062|48
19|24|Timo Glock|Virgin-Cosworth|1:19.553|3.288|30
20|18|Jarno Trulli|Lotus-Cosworth|1:20.008|3.743|34
21|25|Lucas di Grassi|Virgin-Cosworth|1:20.106|3.841|31
22|19|Heikki Kovalainen|Lotus-Cosworth|1:20.377|4.112|37
23|21|Bruno Senna|HRT-Cosworth|1:21.988|5.723|37
24|20|Sakon Yamamoto|HRT-Cosworth|1:23.066|6.801|37

---------- Post added 24-07-10 at 10:00 ---------- Previous post was 23-07-10 at 14:58 ----------

Practice 3 is green. There's some rain out there at the moment which is expected to die off not too far into the session.

---------- Post added at 11:14 ---------- Previous post was at 10:00 ----------

And that's practice 3 over! The session started wet but dried fairly quickly, the track itself took a little longer. One of the wettest parts is actually the braking zone for the hairpin, where the track has been resurfaced. Lots of trees and a different grade of surface covering mean that the circuit holds its water much longer than the older sections of the track. Seen a lot of cars going off there even on intermediate tyres when the rest of the track was almost dry.

The track finally dried out and gave the drivers a short dry running window just in the last ten minutes of the session, and lap by lap it's rubbering in and coming to the drivers, meaning they'll be quicker and quicker. This will, if it stays dry for qualifying, happen there too, and it wouldn't be surprising to see some drivers miss the chequered flag due to leaving it a touch too late to put their hot lap in.

Qualifying next!

Official result for practice 3:

Pos|No|Driver|Team|Time/Retired|Gap|Laps
1|5|Sebastian Vettel|RBR-Renault|1:15.103||18
2|8|Fernando Alonso|Ferrari|1:15.387|0.284|21
3|6|Mark Webber|RBR-Renault|1:15.708|0.605|16
4|7|Felipe Massa|Ferrari|1:15.854|0.751|20
5|4|Nico Rosberg|Mercedes GP|1:16.046|0.943|20
6|2|Lewis Hamilton|McLaren-Mercedes|1:16.207|1.104|13
7|3|Michael Schumacher|Mercedes GP|1:16.473|1.370|16
8|9|Rubens Barrichello|Williams-Cosworth|1:16.481|1.378|23
9|11|Robert Kubica|Renault|1:16.646|1.543|20
10|10|Nico Hulkenberg|Williams-Cosworth|1:16.743|1.640|17
11|23|Kamui Kobayashi|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|1:16.882|1.779|19
12|16|Sebastien Buemi|STR-Ferrari|1:16.990|1.887|21
13|1|Jenson Button|McLaren-Mercedes|1:17.037|1.934|15
14|12|Vitaly Petrov|Renault|1:17.148|2.045|20
15|22|Pedro de la Rosa|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|1:17.220|2.117|19
16|17|Jaime Alguersuari|STR-Ferrari|1:17.341|2.238|21
17|15|Vitantonio Liuzzi|Force India-Mercedes|1:17.538|2.435|
18|19|Heikki Kovalainen|Lotus-Cosworth|1:19.193|4.090|
19|18|Jarno Trulli|Lotus-Cosworth|1:19.607|4.504|
20|21|Bruno Senna|HRT-Cosworth|1:20.533|5.430|
21|20|Sakon Yamamoto|HRT-Cosworth|1:21.538|6.435|
22|25|Lucas di Grassi|Virgin-Cosworth|1:23.444|8.341|
23|24|Timo Glock|Virgin-Cosworth|1:23.873|8.770|
24|14|Adrian Sutil|Force India-Mercedes|||

Adrian Sutil retired early with what was suspected to be a clutch problem, but was later tracked to the driveshaft. He took no further part in the session. Force India have reported that he has had to have his gearbox changed as part of the fix; He'll take a 5 place penalty after qualifying but will take part.

---------- Post added at 13:00 ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 ----------

Qualifying session 1 is green, no rain expected in the first 30 minutes at present.

---------- Post added at 13:05 ---------- Previous post was at 13:00 ----------

Session red flagged due to a crash at the last corner by Liuzzi. Looks like he caught the wet astroturf on the outside of the corner, lost traction, spun 90 degrees into the pit wall at around 140 mph. Car lost a wheel and most of the front end, which was delivered back out onto track and nearly hit a Virgin Racing car, but thankfully did not. Liuzzi is fine, but will take no further part in the session. 14:30 remain in Q1, session will resume at 14:13 local, in two minutes.

---------- Post added at 13:12 ---------- Previous post was at 13:05 ----------

Q1 green flagged again, session resumed with 14:30 on the clock.

 

[Stevodoran]

Gona be a good race

 

[Xyon]

Gona be a good race

Should be, should be.

Qualifying one has ended with the usual names in the drop zone;

Di Grassi, who took no part in the session due to a gear box issue, will start 24th and most likely from the pit lane.

Fallers:

Jarno Trulli (Lotus)
Timo Glock (Virgin)
Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus)
Bruno Senna (Hispania)
Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India) (DNF session)
Sakon Yamamoto (Hispania)
Luca Di Grassi (Virgin) (DNS session)

In sight of the reintroduction of the 107% rule for next year, all drivers were within 107% of the fastest time and would all take part regardless. Note that the rule is not in force this season but will be next season, this is just a frame of reference to indicate the difference it will make.

---------- Post added at 13:34 ---------- Previous post was at 13:31 ----------

Qualifying 2 green light.

 

[Stevodoran]

cool

 

[Xyon]

Qualifying 2 is over! Right at the very end of the session Nico Hulkenberg sets a 1:14.943 which is enough to knock Schumacher down into 11th and out of qualifying.

Fallers:

Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)
Kamui Kobayashi (BMW Sauber)
Vitaly Petrov (Renault)
Adrian Sutil (Force India)
Pedro De La Rosa (BMW Sauber)
Jaime Alguersuari (Torro Rosso)
Sebastien Buemi (Torro Rosso)

---------- Post added at 13:57 ---------- Previous post was at 13:53 ----------

Qualifying session 3 green light

---------- Post added at 14:21 ---------- Previous post was at 13:57 ----------

Qualifying is over! Vettel takes pole with a stunning 1:13.791 lap which was just 0.011 seconds off the lap record of 1:13.780 (Set by Kimi Räikkönen, McLaren, 2004), beating Alonso by just 2 thousandths of a second!

Provisional grid from FIA: (* indicates driver with 5-place penalty pending)

POS|COUNTRY|DRIVER|CAR|TEAM|Q1|Q2|Q3|
1|Germany|Sebastian Vettel|5|Red Bull-Renault|1:15.152|1:14.249| 1:13.791
2|Spain|Fernando Alonso|8|Ferrari| 1:14.808 | 1:14.081 |1:13.793
3|Brazil|Felipe Massa|7|Ferrari|1:15.216|1:14.478|1:14.290
4|Australia|Mark Webber|6|Red Bull-Renault|1:15.334|1:14.340|1:14.347
5|Great Britain|Jenson Button|1|McLaren-Mercedes|1:15.823|1:14.716|1:14.427
6|Great Britain|Lewis Hamilton|2|McLaren-Mercedes|1:15.505|1:14.488|1:14.566
7|Poland|Robert Kubica|11|Renault|1:15.736|1:14.835|1:15.079
8|Brazil|Rubens Barrichello|9|Williams-Cosworth|1:16.398|1:14.698|1:15.109
9|Germany|Nico Rosberg|4|Mercedes GP|1:16.178|1:15.018|1:15.179
10|Germany|Nico Hulkenberg|10|Williams-Cosworth|1:16.387|1:14.943|1:15.339
11|Germany|Michael Schumacher|3|Mercedes GP|1:16.084|1:15.026|
12|Japan|Kamui Kobayashi|23|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|1:15.951|1:15.084|
13|Russia|Vitaly Petrov|12|Renault|1:16.521|1:15.307|
14|Germany|Adrian Sutil*|14|Force India-Mercedes|1:16.220|1:15.467|
15|Spain|Pedro de la Rosa|22|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|1:16.450|1:15.550|
16|Spain|Jaime Alguersuari|17|Toro Rosso-Ferrari|1:16.664|1:15.588|
17|Switzerland|Sebastien Buemi|16|Toro Rosso-Ferrari|1:16.029|1:15.974|
18|Italy|Jarno Trulli|18|Lotus-Cosworth|1:17.583||
19|Finland|Heikki Kovalainen|19|Lotus-Cosworth|1:18.300||
20|Germany|Timo Glock*|24|Virgin-Cosworth|1:18.343||
21|Brazil|Bruno Senna|21|Hispania-Cosworth|1:18.592||
22|Italy|Vitantonio Liuzzi|15|Force India-Mercedes|1:18.952||
23|Japan|Sakon Yamamoto|20|Hispania-Cosworth|1:19.844||
24|Brazil|Lucas di Grassi*|25|Virgin-Cosworth|No time||

---------- Post added at 15:46 ---------- Previous post was at 14:21 ----------

There's been a lot about Jimmy Clark on the BBC this weekend as we're back at the Hockenheimring again. 42 years have passed since the circuit took his life.

:tiphat: To a legend.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Clark"]Jim Clark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Xyon]

What a race...

In perhaps the most blatant violation of the rules of F1, particularly the one outlawing so-called "team orders" - that is, any order to either driver which directly affects the result of a race - Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who had been leading most of the race at the point, handed victory to his teammate Fernando Alonso after receiving perhaps the worst "coded" radio message F1 has seen in a long time.

This incident occurred on lap 49 of the race, when the message transmitted to Massa, leading his team mate Alonso at the time, was broadcast over the FOM feed as well. The message was from Massa's race engineer, Rob Smedley, and it went like this:

"Felipe. Alonso is quicker than you. Can you confirm you understood this message?"

It was delivered very slowly, and deliberately, and the result was that on turn 6 of that lap, the hairpin, Massa was suspiciously slow on the exit, allowing Alonso to run past him without challenge. After a few moments, a second radio transmission was broadcast, again from Smedley to Massa, saying simply:

"Good lad. Just stick with it now, sorry."

After the race, both drivers were interviewed in the press conference as normal, Alonso playing down and denying the suggestion that a team order had been given, and a questions which was too direct, namely "At any point were you getting on the radio to the team asking them to let you past Massa?". Alonso dodged the question with the skill one would expect a politician, instead talking about tyre degradation and other irrelevant matters. The interview moved on to Massa.

The first question was regarding the pass. Massa's response was brief, but his body language told the same story Webber's had back during the wing scandal - he looked like a man betrayed, exactly one year on from his crash in Hungary which ended his season, and nearly his career. When asked the question, he said only:

I don't need to say anything about that. He passed me.

To the next question on the same subject he repeated that he had nothing to say on the matter and asked the interviewers to ask him something else.

Smedley was also interviewed, and his explanation of the radio transmissions when asked was this:

Smedley: I was telling him Fernando was faster, giving him the hurry up.
Interviewer: And the next message, why did you say "sorry"?
Smedley: Sorry that happened, that he got passed.

Since Austria 2002, Formula 1's governing body the FIA, have had a Rule 39.1:

"Team orders which interfere with a race result are prohibited."

Ferrari bosses have since been called to the race stewards to explain the situation and have been fined $100,000 for breaching sporting regulations and have also been referred to the sport's governing body, the FIA.

However the result of the race is unaffected.

This smacks very strongly of Austria 2002, where Rubens Barrichello was famously instructed to slow down and allow Michael Schumacher to pass him for the win, which he did begrudgingly on the final lap of the race, causing an uproar from the spectators in the stands.

Provisional race result:

Pos|No|Driver|Team|Laps|Time/Retired|Grid|Pts
1|8|Fernando Alonso|Ferrari|67|Winner|2|25
2|7|Felipe Massa|Ferrari|67|+4.1 secs|3|18
3|5|Sebastian Vettel|RBR-Renault|67|+5.1 secs|1|15
4|2|Lewis Hamilton|McLaren-Mercedes|67|+26.8 secs|6|12
5|1|Jenson Button|McLaren-Mercedes|67|+29.4 secs|5|10
6|6|Mark Webber|RBR-Renault|67|+43.6 secs|4|8
7|11|Robert Kubica|Renault|66|+1 Lap|7|6
8|4|Nico Rosberg|Mercedes GP|66|+1 Lap|9|4
9|3|Michael Schumacher|Mercedes GP|66|+1 Lap|11|2
10|12|Vitaly Petrov|Renault|66|+1 Lap|13|1
11|23|Kamui Kobayashi|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|66|+1 Lap|12|
12|9|Rubens Barrichello|Williams-Cosworth|66|+1 Lap|8|
13|10|Nico Hulkenberg|Williams-Cosworth|66|+1 Lap|10|
14|22|Pedro de la Rosa|BMW Sauber-Ferrari|66|+1 Lap|14|
15|17|Jaime Alguersuari|STR-Ferrari|66|+1 Lap|15|
16|15|Vitantonio Liuzzi|Force India-Mercedes|65|+2 Laps|21|
17|14|Adrian Sutil|Force India-Mercedes|65|+2 Laps|19|
18|24|Timo Glock|Virgin-Cosworth|64|+3 Laps|23|
19|21|Bruno Senna|HRT-Cosworth|63|+4 Laps|20|
Ret|19|Heikki Kovalainen|Lotus-Cosworth|56|Accident damage|18|
Ret|25|Lucas di Grassi|Virgin-Cosworth|50|+17 Laps|24|
Ret|20|Sakon Yamamoto|HRT-Cosworth|19|Mechanical|22|
Ret|18|Jarno Trulli|Lotus-Cosworth|3|Gearbox|17|
Ret|16|Sebastien Buemi|STR-Ferrari|1|Accident damage|16|