2009 German Grand Prix *spoilers*

[PTRACER]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Good session First pole for an Aussie since Alan Jones in Las Vegas back in 1981

[kals]

Three great sessions. Very happy for Webber and also Barrichello. Nice to see the McLarens back up towards the front. Brilliant result for Sutil, P7

[Everso Biggyballies]

Brilliant performance from Sutil. Hopefully he can go on and get some points.

[Lunatic Armchair]

that was an odd Q session

[kals]

Anyone else notice that Mercedes-Benz powered cars occupy 5 of the top 7 places on the grid? They have also announced they plan to continue supplying three teams in 2010. I know Brawn are keen to continue but Red Bull are chasing for that supply. As Force India have a technical partnership with McLaren and Mercedes their supply will remained unchanged.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Great lap from Webber, (8 years into his career the so called qualifying specialist finally gets a pole position). Equally it was no doubt helped by an enourmous Ferrari-esque stuff up by Red Bull over the timing of sending out Der Seb on his final run, with him missing out on the neccessary 2nd flying lap that gave everyone else their best times. Sadly it has certainly cost Der Seb his likely place ahead of the Brawns, as they both eclipsed his one flying lap time with their second flying lap.

The Brawns are clearly in strife here with Button more than 0.8secs slower than Webber on fuel-adjusted time and is probably stopping seven laps before the Australian. Interestingly even Hamilton is faster than the Brawns on weight (fuel) corrected times.

The two Red Bulls actually have exactly the same weight of fuel on board.
All things being equal, Webber should be able to take advantage of the same benefit that Seb had at Silverstone and be able to vault away at the start with his teamate baulked behind the Brawns and maybe also the KERS assisted Lewis. He will just have to make sure he does not make a mess of his start and not make any mistakes..

Vettel's biggest problem will be whether he can stop the McLarens from getting ahead of him at the start as much as whether he can pass the Brawns. If that happens his race like Webbers at Silverstone may well be over by turn one.

With KERS supposedly being worth at least 20 metres over the length to the first corner braking zone at the Nurb, and the grid spotd 7 metres apart, that is KERS = 3 spots. We know from what we have seen of the Ferrari's start at Silverstone that 3 spots is easily achievable given both Massa and KR'ss starts there.

Interesting it seems Ferrari concentrated on getting into Q3, and once there put grid position within the 10 out of the window, going for the strategy that gave Massa the benefit at Silverstone (where starting just outside the 10 he made his positions on strategy rather than performance, being filled longer than the top 10 runners) Ferrari here have basically filled the cars heavy to pick up track position after the front runners all pit and they have a few laps on a lighter weight before their own stops. With a KERS assisted start they could put themselves into a reasoble near podium finish..

To me the standout qualifying performance is undoubtedly Sutil, heaviest of all the top 10 runners and up in 7th place. Sadly for him he will likely be swamped at the start by the two Ferraris.

On paper at least it is Webbers race to lose.

Of course if it is wet then it is again all bets are off, and we have a different ball game altogether. For a start the KERS benefit in the wet is much reduced....


Fuel adjusted top 10:

1 Mark Webber (lap 20)
2 Sebastian Vettel +0.250secs (lap 19)
3 Lewis Hamilton +0.614 (lap 18)
4 Rubens Barrichello +0.617 (lap 14)
5 Jenson Button +0.838 (lap 13)
6 Adrian Sutil +1.474 (lap 28)
7 Heikki Kovalainen +1.524 (lap 21)
8 Felipe Massa +1.906 (lap 25)
9 Kimi Raikkonen +2.025 (lap 26)
10 Nelson Piquet +2.048 (lap 26)

[DoubleFault]

With KERS supposedly being worth at least 20 metres over the length to the first corner braking zone at the Nurb, and the grid spotd 7 metres apart, that is KERS = 3 spots. We know from what we have seen of the Ferrari's start at Silverstone that 3 spots is easily achievable given both Massa and KR'ss starts there.

I don't think Ferrari ran KERS at Silverstone..

[DoubleFault]

Bloody bullshit penalty just given out to Petrov in the GP2 race. He bumped into Di Grassi 50m from the start, both drivers continued because contact was so light. Its very wet on the start finish straight and it was a racing incident. Absolutely stupid. The worst thing? It took them 11 laps of the Nurburgring in wet conditions to give the penalty. Thats about 20 minutes for heavens sake.

Don't get too excited about my use of the word rain though, it will be dry by the F1

Sleepy time from 1.05 til 2.30 I think...

[Everso Biggyballies]

With KERS supposedly being worth at least 20 metres over the length to the first corner braking zone at the Nurb, and the grid spotd 7 metres apart, that is KERS = 3 spots. We know from what we have seen of the Ferrari's start at Silverstone that 3 spots is easily achievable given both Massa and KR'ss starts there.

I don't think Ferrari ran KERS at Silverstone..

Ferrari didnt run it on Friday but had it for the race and Saturday. McLaren didnt use it.

[DoubleFault]

Ah right. I didnt see the race live and knowing the result I skipped through all but 5 laps of the race so didnt see if they had KERS or not...

[kals]

And the two-bit stewards are at it again... what a bullshit penalty for Webber! Yes he did swerve and make minor contact but there was no need for a drive through. Reprimand, yes. Fine, yes. Drive through, no way!!! It seems nowadays the stewards are playing god rather than let the drivers attempt to race...

[kals]

Sutil is doing an awesome job and is now in P2 having not yet made his pit stop. To put that into context, he was only 3 seconds behing Felipe Massa before Felipe pitted just a couple of laps before him.

And just as I write this Sutil pits and then collides with Kimi on the exit of his pit stop, the result being a broken front wing!!!! What does this guy need to do to get a decent result!!

This is Red Bulls race to lose now. Webber is still favourite to win and is only a handful of seconds behind now. Rubens has still to make 2 more stops to Mark's 1.

[DoubleFault]

And the two-bit stewards are at it again... what a bullshit penalty for Webber! Yes he did swerve and make minor contact but there was no need for a drive through. Reprimand, yes. Fine, yes. Drive through, no way!!! It seems nowadays the stewards are playing god rather than let the drivers attempt to race...

Ok, I thought this was bullshit aswell at first, but then reconsidered.

There are 18 cars behind Webber and Barichello when they make contact. That would have been one BIG accident.



RE: Barichello, he's not fuelled til the end.

[kals]

Oh yes I agree, there was a possibility of that, but it didn't happen. Drive through was harsh, I feel it didn't fit the crime.

[DoubleFault]

I COULD FUCKING KILL MARK WEBBER RIGHT NOW!

I had a bet on him winning (which was correct) and that he would win by over 10 seconds. The bastard slowed so much on the last few laps that Vettel was 9.2 seconds behind. Gaahh!

[Edgar Jessop]

You just can't trust any of the bastids, DF!