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Delayed Race Notes: European Grand Prix 2009

[Preface – Due to studies I fell behind with the editing of these posts. They were written live as usual, but needed a lot of work to make readable. Anything in italics in square brackets was written during the edit, just like this paragraph.]

2009 Formula 1 Telefonica Grand Prix of Europe
Date: 23 August 2009
Circuit: Valencia Street Circuit
Location: Valencia, Spain
Distance: 57 laps

Coverage: BBC One / BBC Radio 5 Live[*]
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)

R5 commentary[*]: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 pitlane[*]: Holly Samos

Tyre selection (red): SS / S / M / H

[*for many years the BBC has held the UK radio rights to F1. In ’09 they also picked up the TV rights and they now offer an alternate feed on digital television, combining TV pics with radio commentary. I tend to use this feed.]

Coverage begins at 12.10pm.

We start with a recap of the title race so far. Button leading early, but Vettel and Webber are catching up but the McLaren resurgence is helping Button retain his lead.

JH, DC and EJ are chatting. JH and EJ in pink shirts, which has been the theme for every Button win so far. John Button wears a pink shirt ‘for luck’ and early in the season Jake followed his lead.

Just over their shoulder the RTL guys are talking with Niki Lauda. M Schumacher is walking around – Eddie tries to grab his arm, misses, gestures to him, then runs off and grabs him and brings him to the camera!
MS is disappointed that he’s not in the car, say his fitness was far below the level to withstand the forces in the car. We can hardly hear him because of the engine right behind him.
Just a quick chat. Jake says we are all keen for him to get back in a car sooner rather than later…. errr, no Jake.

Quali recap.
Story of qualifying: Badoer is subbing for Massa, leading to a Ferrari qualifying slowest on merit for the first time – they’ve been last before due to crashes/penalties, but not lack of speed;
Badoer says he’ll be better at the next race;

Webber’s car overheated the soft tyres. What’s the problem? “laptimes of other people”;
Alonso isn’t happy with 8th but says they did the maximum they could do;
Button says he’s not in a bad position, Vettel just in front, not too bad;
Barrichello thought he could put the car on pole;
Hamilton got pole position – a grinning Lewis says it has been a long time since they’ve battled for pole, this time they had the pace and were able to do it but the Brawns are still quick;

Grid:
Hamilton, Kovalainen
Barrichello, Vettel
Button, Raikkonen
Rosberg, Alonso
Webber, Kubica
Heidfeld, Sutil
Glock, Grosjean
Buemi, Fisichella
Nakajima, Trulli
Alguersuari, Badoer

Now live with Lewis.
– Great feeling, very relaxed and casual for the team. Still very tough as always, Heikki did an excellent job next to me. Clean side of the grid, drag race with Heikki ‘cos he has KERS, same power same everything. He generally gets a good start so I have to make sure I start well.

Now a recorded segment with Lewis. Gushing platitudes for team. He’s visibly proud of having his own ‘bay’ in the factory for his car, says he came here as a kid and saw Mika, David, Juan’s bays and wanted his own. He reckons he notices each upgrade, asks when things will be tested, why haven’t things been tested yet.. Says he gets really involved with the team, learning about the car, can talk for ages about the car. Ropes Jake into doing pull-ups in the gym!

Martin Whitmarsh, first win a weight off your shoulders?:
“When you’ve got one win you want more. We’ve already forgotten what happened in Hungary, we feel we can win here. We hope we can win this afternoon.”
Jordan apologises for calling his car a dog earlier in the year. Whitmarsh says he always enjoys Jordan’s apologies.” From this evening after this race we’ll be looking at Spa, we need to win at a high-speed circuit, it is a great circuit and we are looking forward to it.”

He talks about drivers as well but we can’t hear him because engines are firing.

12.30 UK time. Pitlane is open.

Focus switches to Jenson, pre-record with Lee:
“I’ve got a 19 and a half point lead still. Its not easy, not a walk in the park as some people might think it is. We did a better job but I don’t think we had the best car all the time. Rest of the season will be very competitive. Red Bull are challenging, McLaren are very strong.”
He did a triathlon in London during the summer break, then went on holiday. It took his mind off it, and he says if you don’t take your mind off it you’ll go mad. He’s nice and refreshed now.

Jump into a Martin Brundle package on pit stops, a running feature for some races now. This time we’re looking at the layout of the pit lane. Fast lane for entry/exit, inner lane where work is carried out. 26 men waiting for the driver when he arrives. Tyre changers, jackmen, fire extinquisher, fuellers. We know all of this Martin, tell us something we don’t know.

Gridwalk!
Martin Brundle
– Expected the Safety Car last year, didn’t happen, maybe we’ll see it today.
We find Eric Clapton – “I don’t know what to make of [Badoer]. He’s got the experience but its going to be tough for him. If he can stay with the field its a great thing.”
MB – “I find it bizarre. Give him an Enzo for a month and put someone quick in.”
EC – “With the rules he’s just dropped in it so I thought he did really well considering – even if he gets around in one piece its a result.”

Martin says it feels like Bahrain temperature and humidity.

Bernie with the president or mayor or something, via translator.
Valencia has re-signed for a further 5 years.
Dignitary: “We’d like to make this one of the best Grands Prix in the world. We are very pleased that Alonso has made it after the penalty was rescinded.”

Rubens would love to win the race. He’s wearing a ‘cool suit’ which extracts the warm air away from his body. Ahem.
Barrichello: “Would you rather be less fuel on pole or not? We thought about it, the guys in front have KERS and they’d just overtake me, so it is a bit of a game in a way. I would love to win the race today and I think it’s my best chance.”

There’s a queue for Seb.. haha, Brundle pushes in front of Sky Germany to get to Vettel! She’s not impressed…
Vettel: “Not a secret that this track is not the best for us. 4th is not a disaster. Our focus is on Rubens, Jenson, Kimi.”
Martin walks away and apologises to German TV as he leaves..

Horner: “Our priority is to beat both Jenson and Rubens. Mark isn’t happy with the car, the stop/start nature of the track doesn’t suit our car.”

Rosberg says he has more fuel than the guys ahead of him, is worried slightly about Kimi and his KERS but may be saved by the short run to turn 1.

Anthem

Err, we stop for the Spanish national anthem but are unable to hear it, it fades up a little but very quiet. Shouldn’t it be the European anthem? This is the European GP. We can now hear the Spanish anthem in the background but enough time has passed that maybe they played the European song first.

Jake says Martin is in serious trouble with Tanya from German TV, he’ll be lucky to make it out alive..

Fuel-corrected quali report with Ted – to the tune of Push It by Salt’N’Pepa! I am not making this up! Haha.
Rubens would have been quickest on equalised fuel, so he has the best strategy. Kovalainen looks better than Hamilton on strategy. Both McLarens (and Vettel) are stopping ahead of the rest. He tips Barrichello for the win with a slightly later stop.

Ross Brawn: “The start will be what it is, thereafter it’ll be making the tyres last. It’ll be marginal for us with our fuel load.”

Pundits, pick a winner: EJ says Hamilton by a big margin. DC says McLaren.

Grid Recap
Hamilton (pole), Kovalainen
Barrichello, Vettel
Button, Raikkonen
Rosberg, Alonso
Webber, Kubica
Heidfeld, Sutil
Glock, Grosjean
Buemi, Fisichella
Nakajima, Trulli
Alguersuari, Badoer

FORMATION LAP
Switching to 5 Live audio. I love the 5Live coverage of the formation lap. BBC1 is just the two guys filling to almost dead air while they wait for the cars to come around. 5Live has music, rapid-fire scene-setting, a real tension-builder.

GRID

Lights are 1.2.3.4.5…GO!!

Badoer up four places before turn 2!
Someone loses part of the front wing.
5Live says Grosjean,
Button runs off course.

Button tries to repass Alonso, goes too deep.

Grosjean, Glock and Buemi all pit for damage repairs.

L3 (2 laps done, we’re on lap 3) Badoer is now 17th, he’s fallen back behind the guys he beat at the start.

L5 Badoer spun?
Webber on the radio, he says Button should be behind him because Jenson cut the chicane.

L8 Things settled down really early. Not much going on. I didn’t expect it to be this boring so early!

L10 Grosjean has a half-spin.

L14 According to official live timing at f1.com there has been no change of position since lap 5. Literally NOTHING has happened.

L17 Here we go, Hamilton pits. Vettel and Kubica are also in.
L18 Kovalainen and Alonso pit.
Vettel is also in again, looks like the rig may have failed on the last stop!!

Fastest Lap from Rubens Barrichello on lap 18. The BBC guys tipped him for the win earlier, said he had the best fuel load / position.

L20 Raikkonen and Button pit.
L21 Barrichello pits and he’s out between the two McLarens!
Webber also pitted, he’s out in front of Fisichella and Button but Giancarlo has yet to stop.

L22 Rubens has gone for another stint on the harder of the two tyre choices. Hamilton is on the softer tyre.

L23 Heidfeld and Sutil pit. Confirmation from Holly Samos that Vettel had a fuel rig problem and didn’t get any on that first stop. Ant says this has cost him 20-30 seconds.

Hamilton told to ‘lift and coast’ to keep rear temps low

L25 ANOTHER engine failure for Vettel!
He manages to pull over to the side of the road and into an escape road, track is clear although there may be oil.

L29 The heavier runners are about to make their stops.
Badoer and Grosjean pit. Clean stops, but Badoer pulls to the right and isn’t accelerating, Grosjean drives past him!! Badoer then momentarily puts his wheels over the white line where the pitlane joins the racetrack. Big no-no!

Grosjean not at fault there, clearly if a car slows and pulls to the side he’s in trouble (even if he wasn’t really).

L32 Drive-thru penalty for Badoer for crossing the white line on pit exit.

Rubens told he must cut the deficit to Hamilton from 4.5sec to 2sec in 8 laps.

L33 Glock has pitted and Badoer takes his penalty. Luca is 18th.

L34 New FL from Rubens. Button is also fast, catching Webber.

L37 Badoer spins..again.. Braked too late at turn 17.

L38 Hamilton in. Early stop? Pit stop is slow, tyres were not ready! He’s lost a place to Rosberg, and lost a good 4 seconds on a usual stop time.
Rubens needs to PUSH HARD now to take advantage of this.

RB sets another fastest lap of the race.

L39 Kovalainen pits.

L40 Puncture for Nakajima, rubber everywhere. SC?
Rubens should pit now just in case of Safety Car..

So far it is covered with a waved yellow flag, and white flag. Rubens does pit.

RB is back out, wow that’s a huge gap to LH.

Nakajima makes it back to the pitlane for a replacement set of tyres. Yellows clear.

Message from Holly in the pits, the pitwall called in Hamilton but the garage was not ready..

L43 Button and Alonso pits. Kimi has passed Heikki, was that through the stops? I missed it.

L44 Rosberg is in. Webber and Heidfeld in, a spinning Toro Rosso! We cut away to see the stop of Webber, who rejoins the track some way behind Button. Jenson’s quick laps and shorter stop really gained him some ground.

The spinning STR was Buemi, Ant says it looks like his brakes were too hot…

Barrichello, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Alonso, Button, Kubica! Where’d he come from?

New Fastest Lap from Button. 1:38.874 Catching Alonso.

10 laps to go.

Rosberg is setting personal best times, so is Webber, and Button is still catching Alonso. They are going to run out of laps.

5 laps now. The only action in this race was during the pit stops, the intervening parts have been pretty dull… Not for the drivers who have been pushing like hell, drivers who have been pushing like hell, unforunately that’s not very interesting when they are running by themselves.

3 to go.

Drivers are setting the odd personal best sector here and there as the fuel loads come down and the rubber is being laid on the track. The gaps aren’t really changing much, we’re talking tenths.

Glock sets Fastest Lap! He did pit a 3rd time so maybe down to low fuel and new tyres.. He is 14th and 22sec down on Trulli in 13th.

Final Lap

Rubens Barrichello WINS!

Brawn on the radio: “Fantastic, just like the old days, fantastic.”
I can’t make out Rubinho’s response! He’s crying??

Parc Ferme

Applause in the pit lane for Rubens.
Congratulates the mechanics.. up the stairs, kisses the camera, little dance on the way to the podium!

Brazilian national anthem.
British anthem for Brawn.

Another stealthy podium from Kimi. We hardly saw him all race.

Trophies.
Champaaggggne!

Whitmarsh denies the pitstop was the reason for losing the race, and says it was down to race pace. The error only lost 2 seconds, he says, they weren’t quick enough on race pace.
I don’t agree with that! They lost more than 2 seconds and there would have been a fight, Lewis may not have won it without it, but he may have done….

Brawn says it was one of Barrichello’s best races. Could have been more aggressive on strategy, worked for Rubens not for Jenson.

Conference with James Allen:
(ex-ITV commentator Allen now does the conference, Peter Windsor has his USF1 job so can’t work for F1/FOM due conflict of interest)

Rubens:

“It’s been fantastic, a weekend I will never forget. After 5 years you don’t forget how to do it. The car has been perfect, I want to thank the team for that.”

Lewis:

“We win and we lose together. We’ve had a tremendous effort to get us here, we had extraordinary pace in the last 2 or 3 races, it was a tremendous race for everyone. We’ll keep pushing, we need to catch these guys.”

Kimi:

“We needed to go 100% all the time, we knew on Friday I had a good feeling from the car. We know we are not where we want to be, we’re not bringing new parts to the car but usually we can fight for 3rd place and if something weird happens we can fight for the win.”

Kimi is happy with a podium.

Okay, that’s all from me. Here are the stats:

Race Result


Pos	Driver	Gap	Pts
1	Barrichello	57 laps	10
2	Hamilton	2.3sec	8
3	Räikkönen	15.9sec	6
4	Kovalainen	20.0sec	5
5	Rosberg	20.8sec	4
6	Alonso	27.7sec	3
7	Button	34.9sec	2
8	Kubica	36.6sec	1
9	Webber	44.9sec
10	Sutil	47.9sec
11	Heidfeld	48.8sec
12	Fisichella	63.6sec
13	Trulli	64.5sec
14	Glock	86.5sec
15	Grosjean	91.7sec
16	Alguersuari	1 lap
17	Badoer	1 lap
18	Nakajima	retired
DNF	Buemi	brakes
DNS	Vettel	engine

Drivers

Pos	Driver	Prev	EUR	Total
1	Button	70	2	72
2	Barrichello	44	10	54
3	Webber	51.5		51.5
4	Vettel	47		47
5	Rosberg	25.5	4	29.5
6	Hamilton	19	8	27
7	Räikkönen	18	6	24
8	Trulli	22.5		22.5
9	Massa	22		22
10	Glock	16		16
11	Alonso	13	3	16
12	Kovalainen	9	5	14
13	Heidfeld	6		6
14	Buemi	3		3
15	Kubica	2	1	3
16	Bourdais	2		2

Barrichello makes a big gain on Button, and both Brawns extend their advantage over the Red Bulls.
Hamilton and Raikkonen are well and truly up and running with big scores now expected at every race, they ought to reel in Rosberg fairly soon (even with Nico scoring well) and then set about closing the gap to the Red Bull drivers.
Kovalainen is starting to make his presence felt in the middle order now.

Constructors

Pos	Constructor	Prev	EUR	Total
1	Brawn	114	12	126
2	Red Bull	98.5		98.5
3	Ferrari	40	6	46
4	McLaren	28	13	41
5	Toyota	38.5		38.5
6	Williams	25.5	4	29.5
7	Renault	13	3	16
8	BMW	8	1	9
9	Toro Rosso	5		5
10	Force India	0		0

Brawn now have a 27.5 point lead over Red Bull, not insurmountable but we will quickly run out of races to pull that gap back over the coming stretch.
Ferrari and McLaren have overtaken Toyota, and given Toyota’s current form it is unlikely they will mount a challenge. Realistically this table has broken into a series of team vs team battles. Brawn & Red Bull, Ferrari & McLaren, Toyota & Williams (along with maybe Renault), then the tail-enders.

The next race is the Belgian Grand Prix at the fantastic Spa-Francorchamps, the middle of the 3-race close to the European F1 season before the flyaways resume. I hope to have notes up soon.

F1 Points After Hungary (11 of 17)

I’ve posted my notes up as far as the Hungarian Grand Prix, just before the summer break, and that seems like the ideal place to take a look at the season so far in the points race.

Drivers

Button built up a huge lead, but you can see the change in fortunes since Silverstone, considerably fewer points scored for both Brawns. By contrast, both Red Bulls have been scoring heavily since Istanbul and overhauled Barrichello after Germany. Can they maintain this momentum and catch Button before the end of the year? Vettel’s non-score certainly doesn’t help!

Meanwhile in the main field, Rosberg’s regular scoring has brought him ahead of the now-injured Massa. Both Hamilton’s and Raikkonen’s dire run of results has ended with their win and 2nd positions respectively. Is this a turnaround or a one-off?

[Obviously we now know the answers – I will sum that up after I post the Monza notes!]

Constructors

That massive lead set up by Brawn earlier in the year has been eaten into by Red Bull but trailed off at this race, while McLaren and to a lesser extent Ferrari are starting to pick up and take bigger points.

Meanwhile Toyota’s early season gains have ended and they are scoring only occasional points, looks like they will be easy meat for the improving teams, and Williams have already been overhauled despite their relentless scoring of lower-order points.

* * *
I will revisit this theme after this weekend’s race at Monza, actually after I post the respective notes the following weekend, this race representing the close of the European F1 season. After the Italian GP the teams climb aboard the jets once more for the end of season flyaway races.

At the end of the season I may even be tempted to do versions for other series.. let me know if you are interested in seeing those.

Delayed Race Notes: Hungarian Grand Prix 2009

[Preface – Due to accountancy studies I fell behind with the editing of these posts. They were written during the live BBC coverage as usual, save for the race result and points. Anything in italics in square brackets was written during the edit, just like this paragraph.]

Formula 1 ING Magyar Nagydig 2009
/ 2009 Formula 1 ING Hungarian Grand Prix
Circuit: Hungaroring
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Distance: 70 laps

Coverage: BBC One / BBC Radio 5 Live[*]
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)

R5 commentary[*]: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 pitlane[*]: Holly Samos

Coverage begins at 12.10pm. Update on the season so far.

Hungaroring is 14 corners in roughly 3 miles. I can’t see how that many corners in such a small space can produce good racing – and it doesn’t at this track.

Massa is in a stable condition after his horrible accident yesterday.
Ted reports. Felipe didn’t need another lap as he was already through, but went again to make sure. Failure on Barrichello’s car when a spring fell off at 140mph, 3 seconds later Massa drove into the path of the spring.
It cut a 4″ groove out of the helmet shell but it remained structurally intact.

Luca Colajanni, Ferrari – He was concious when he arrived at hospital, he went through medical checks, he had a cut in his forehead, bone damage to his skull, brain concussion. He has to undergo and operation.

Ross Brawn – Heavy object, 1.5 – 2 pounds, a kilo, at those speeds its a serious impact. Spring is from the gearbox. It is part of the assembly, we’ve raced it all season, it is subject to a lot of testing. Not happened before, first occurrence. We need to understand what happened.

Ted says surgery was successful and he remains stable in intensive care.

Colajanni again, live this time – He went for a CT scan which had a negative outcome, which is positive, now he sleeps. His family have just arrived from Brazil. Now he sleeps, we just have to wait.

[Thankfully, as we all know now, Felipe is well on the way to recovery! He’s very lucky.]

David Coulthard – It’s been a freakish week [with Surtees the week before]. We just have to look at the positive side of this, Felipe should make a full recovery, we should move on and try and stop things falling off cars in future.

Eddie Jordan has a spring from a GP2 car to illustrate the size/weight, says the F1 version is very similar.

DC – Felipe is a well-liked member of the drivers’ association. Ironically enough the part that has fallen off has been used since the invention of racing.

Qualifying update with Lee
Alguersuari struggled in his first Q session.
Force India had to repair Sutil’s car after a big hit in practice. He says 18th is not so bad..
Button could only do one Q3 run because they were changing the spring on his car after Barrichello’s failed, the team and the FIA wanted to make sure it was safe.
Hamilton starts 4th, his best of the season.

Then the official timing system went down! Alonso was going to each driver asking their time! Each driver gets their own time on the dash so they knew that, but not what others had.

Vettel (P2) – Our biggest threat is coming from behind with the KERS cars.
Alonso (P1) – Car worked fine in qualifying, the most stressful time was in parc ferme afterwards asking ‘what time you did’, what time you did’!

Pat Symonds – We knew what we’d done, it was a little bit better than we expected but we didn’t expect pole.
DC – Did you think you went too short on strategy?
PS – We came here to be aggressive, we knew tyres would be a big part, they are marginal here and a three stop is not a silly thing to do.
He says Piquet has the same car as Alonso this weekend, completely identical.

Nelson has been complaining because his drive is under threat. Yesterday in the quali show we learned he must score half the points of Alonso to keep his drive and he hasn’t done that – but he says he hasn’t had the car.

The grid has moved forward to fill Massa’s space, so only the top 9 ran their fuel load in qualifying.

Grid from BlogF1 (thanks for the shout!):
http://blogf1.co.uk/2009/07/25/hungary-2009-the-grid/

Ollie puts together a great grid line-up which you should check out before each race. My little summary pales into comparison:

Alonso, Vettel
Webber, Hamilton
Rosberg, Kovalainen
Raikkonen, Button
Nakajima, Buemi
Trulli, Barrichello
Glock, Piquet
Heidfeld, Fisichella
Sutil, Kubica
Alguersuari

Piece with Mark Webber cycling with Jake. Says winning was “total emotion” and the next two races will decide the championship. [erm, maybe not!]

12.30 and the pitlane is open, cars are leaving for the grid over the next 15 mins.

Refuelling piece with Martin Brundle and Force India. Refuelling was reintroduced to F1 in 1994.
The refueller delivers ‘clean’ fuel (road fuel with a small amount of biofuel) at 12.1 litres per second.
Sometimes the first rig fails, a reserve rig is on standby. Force India have a reserve crew ready. At Brawn they hand the spare hose to the main refueller.
The filler on the car is designed for the height and angle of the man doing the refuelling – assuming the car stops in the right place it should make things as smooth as possible.
Martin – Enjoy it while you can, refuelling is banned for 2010.

GRIDWALK – Jake, Eddie, David
The Hungarian GP attracts fans from across Europe, there are flags from everywhere in the stands. Martin joins them briefly and then walks off to start the Gridwalk proper – with EJ! This can only go well.

Martin says it has been 26 years since EJ was on a Formula 3 grid telling MB he’s going to beat Ayrton Senna.

EJ – Your thoughts are with Massa but you have to put it to one side and focus on your job.

Little argument already! Martin saying he was upset in the Imola ’94 race when he wasn’t told what was going on, EJ defending his situation saying the teams didn’t know either, they were told he was okay, until they got on the plane to come home.

Button: We’ve got a lot of fuel on board. The KERS cars are in front of me, which is good because they are aiming at the Red Bulls. It would be lovely to win this race but the most important thing is to finish in front of the Red Bulls, I’m not sure Alonso is going to be a factor in this race.

Martin asks EJ about championship strategy. Let them race or focus on one driver, shouldn’t RBR concentrate on Vettel?
EJ says RBR haven’t made that decision yet, and with Mark Webber’s recent races you can’t rule him out, he could be the dark horse.
MB – Absolutely.

Webber: Its a long race. Different people have different ideas about tyres. I’m looking to get away clean and get in Alonso’s tow and try and get Sebastien. The Williams is no slouch off the line either, it’s going to be aggressive to turn one.

MB: KERS. Ferrari have got it, McLaren is the only team who’ve made it work.

They find Flav and Bernie!
EJ (arm around Bernie): Do you remember me?
BE: No.
EJ: Why haven’t you done signed Concorde yet?
BE: I can’t write.
MB: Flavio, is Alonso driving with you next year?
FB: For the moment he’s with us, we see race by race.

Evasive Bernie.. Martin bails out to go to the Hungarian National Anthem. Probably a good thing, that interview could have been even more embarrassing than it was. (not for the first time this year, there is no singing with this anthem.. maybe it doesn’t have words?)

Ferrari mechanics gathered with a pitboard: Forza Felipe

FUEL LOADS
Alonso only has 29kg of fuel on board. Fuel-corrected, the Red Bulls were fastest with Vettel on pole, then Webber. Button is well placed because he saved 4 laps of fuel compared to the others in qualifying.

Martin Whitmarsh saying they hope the KERS will help them jump a few cars at the start, they want to challenge for a podium with both drivers.

Guys are filling again to hit the next mark.. A check of the points shows Button leading Vettel by 21 points, and Brawn ahead of Red Bull by 19.5 points.

Pick a winner in one word?
DC – Have to go with Red Bull, Vettel.
EJ – Hamilton by a big margin.
JH – That wasn’t one word but it was quicker than usual.

FOM Intro

BBC One crosses to Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle.
I cross to Freeview channel 302 to have the same pictures but with the BBC Radio feed of David Croft and guest commentator Johnny Herbert – Anthony Davidson is at Spa for the FIA GT 24 Hours.

Cars are away for the formation lap. This will be a 70 lap race.

Extreme tyre warming as they arrive on the grid!

1.2.3.4.5…GO!

Banging wheels at the start, Kimi tries to barge his way through the Red Bulls and Lewis touches wheels with a Red Bull as well.

Start of Lap 2. Adrian Sutil pits with damage, he’s being wheeled back into the garage.

Replays:

Lewis and Kimi both try for the same space in the gap between RBRs. Kimi backs out and Lewis passes both.
Onboard LH: KERS off the start. Webber repasses him out of turn one.

After the shake up of the start the order is:
Alonso, Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Vettel, Button, Nakajima, Trulli, Piquet, Glock, Kubica, Buemi, Heidfeld, Barrichello, Fisichella, Alguersuari
Sutil is listed as RETIRED on the live timing. What happened to Rubens?

Holly Samos on 5Live says Sutil’s car is overheating, they will try to go back out later.

L5 Hamilton on the KERS passes Webber with ease.

L6 Raikkonen with KERS is catching Webber now.

Hamilton just set Fastest Lap.

L8 He’s done another FL and is 3/10ths faster than Alonso, Webber and Raikkonen.

L9 The reverse situation a little further back with Vettel on the tail of Kovalainen – but Seb can’t pass because Heikki can defend with KERS.

L11 Button on the radio. Seems to have tyre problems? Hard ot hear him through the noise.

“Incident involving Car 4 under investigation”
That’s Kimi – the wheel-banging start?

L13 Alonso pits after completing 12 laps. He’s out in from of Piquet, behind Trulli. Immediately he’s off the road, vibrating front right.
The wheel has come off! It is bouncing down the road, and luckily comes to a rest by a barrier before anyone else comes along – that could have been much much worse. Yellows in that area only.

He slowly makes it back to the pits for a replacement but he is now last.

L16 Hamilton leads and is setting fastest laps every lap now the yellows are clear. He’s 4.2sec up over Webber.

Alonso pits once more and it seems his race may be over.

L18 Nakajima is catching Button but Jenson is much lighter on fuel.

L20 Both Webber and Raikkonen pit. Webber is slow away, he almost hits Raikkonen!! Expect a penalty for dangerous release. Webber under pressure and passed by Glock.

L21 Hamilton pits, so does Rosberg. Rosberg slots in between Glock and Webber but Webber passes him!

L22 Kovalainen and Vettel come in together. Sebastien has a very long stop – we saw RBR struggle with Mark Webber’s stop, same problem here or did they fuel Vettel long?

L23 Naikajima in – wouldn’t normally mention it but he could get points this week!

Piquet vs Nakajima! Piquet wins that battle.. for 14th..

Button radio: We have to go long, would you like prime or option? “We know the car doesn’t work with prime.”

Button pits and emerges behind Barrichello – and Fisichella passes him in turn one as well. Button will probably be trapped behind Giancarlo for some time now, Crofty says Fisi isn’t pitting for another 6 laps.

L27 Vettel is on the radio saying something broke on the car.
Replays: Smoke from the car. Barrichello passes him. The car seems to be dropped down at an angle.
Vettel pits and they are changing the front wing. They are carefully checking the front left wheel.
He’s back out.

L29 Alguesuari pits, a nice solid first F1 pit stop!
Fisichella is in one lap later.

L31 Something still wrong with Vettel’s car, looks very hard to control. He pits and the team rolls it into the garage, day over.

L32 Button is complaining again. “How, how can this car be so bad??”

L33 Glock pits from 3rd, he’s got himself ahead of Button with that long run.

Barrichello has pitted and drops back from 7th to 13th.

Order at half distance (lap 35)

Hamilton, Raikkonen +6.6, Webber +18.6 to LH, Kovalainen +19.5, Rosberg +21.1, Glock +35.3, Trulli +41.0, Button +44.9, Piquet +45.9, Nakajima +46.8, Heidfeld, Kubica, Barrichello, Buemi, Fisichella, Alg.

Lewis team radio: Pace is good. We’ve got 3 or 4 tenths on Kimi.

Kovalainen is pressuring Webber, which is good to see. Heikki seemed to be nowhere earlier – although is this down to Mark being on the soft tyre and the others still on the supersoft?

L40 Buemi runs wide on his in-lap. He is the first of the second-stoppers and is now last.

Shots of small boy having his pass autographed by Bernie. RUN. RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN

Holly with Vettel: In the first corner I had contact with Kimi. He hit my front left and that was the reason the pit stop took very long, to change the front left tyre, all of a sudden it was game over and the front left suspension gave up.

L45 Kovalainen pits and takes the soft, which is the harder of the two compounds this week.

L46 Kimi Raikkonen pits but he can’t get going again… he’s slow away and rejoins having lost 4 or 5 seconds.

L47 Lewis Hamilton pits and rejoins still leading.

Everyone is changing to the soft tyre for the last stint – except Mark Webber who can use the faster supersofts.

L50 Rosberg pits, is out in 5th. Good points for he and Williams this week!

L51 Mark Webber pits and is out just ahead of Rosberg for 4th, he actually maintains 3rd position because Glock got ahead of him in that stop, and he’s soon to pit.

L54 Glock is right on the tail of Raikkonen but does need that stop. Kimi is actually costing Timo time.

L56 Hamilton radio – he’s turning his engine down.
Since he has a 17 second lead over Raikkonen that’s probably a reasonable thing to do.
Button pits, a lap later Nakajima pits.

L58 Barrichello pits now.

L59 5Live discussing whether Glock is pitting. He’s taking his time over it. There’s no way he could have run the supersofts this long though.

Trulli pits, so Glock should be next. Trulli is out just behind Button.

10 laps to go.

L61 Timo Glock pits from 3rd and gets out on a clear track, other than a lapped Toro Rosso a little way behind him.

Holly Samos: The aim for Rubens Barrichello is to overtake the two cars ahead of him on soft tyres, he is on supersofts.

Rubens is 10th, behind Trulli and Nakajima. Points to 8th remember. Finally, Trulli has developed himself a little train. He just can’t help himself.

L66, 5 to go. Mark Webber just set the fastest lap its too late now Mark. He’s 5 seconds behind Kimi but there aren’t enough laps to make the move.

The last 10-15 laps have been really dull.

2 to go.

Final Lap. Obligatory pointless shot of his dad and girlfriend. Crofty says Hamilton hasn’t even scored a point for six races (Bahrain).

Lewis Hamilton wins!!!

Raikkonen 2nd, Webber 3rd

Parc Ferme
Lewis is bouncing around!

Green room thing.

Podium
Anthem
Trophies… really very strange trophies..
Champagne!

We await the result of the stewards investigation into Kimi’s incident – he could yet be DQ’d or dropped back.

Back to BBC1 for Jake/DC/EJ.

Button with Lee:

Friday our pace was good on the option, everyone else struggled with graining. Today after 4 laps my tyres were destroyed, I had rear graining and couldn’t keep with the cars in front. I don’t know why we’re graining the tyres today. We’ve had two updates on the car but they shouldn’t unbalance the car in any way. The other teams have improved but our car is not what it was to drive a few weeks ago.

Press conference with James Allen:

Lewis in his shiny suit:

An incredible feeling to be back here after what seems a long time away. I’m so proud of the guys, they never give up. We didn’t expect to win this weekend.

Kimi in his oversize hat:

I made a very good start, that defintely helped. The gap stayed more or less the same all the time, then I has some issues on the last pit stop. Its difficult to challenge for the win right now but we’re closer than expected. Difficult weekend for the team but this is something positive at least.

Mark, the orange squash hog according to @SniffPetrol:

I was worried about the length of the stint so it was difficult to know what tyre to put on. Our guys and Renault have a lot to be proud of.

BBC1 are out of here ASAP to cross to Donington Park for live MotoGP, I’m hitting Red Button for the F1 Forum post-race debrief which I won’t note-take as it is quite long.

Race Result

Pos	Driver	Gap	Pts
1	Hamilton	70 laps	10
2	Räikkönen	11.5sec	8
3	Webber	16.8sec	6
4	Rosberg	26.9sec	5
5	Kovalainen	34.3sec	4
6	Glock	35.2sec	3
7	Button	55.0sec	2
8	Trulli	68.1sec	1
9	Nakajima	68.7sec
10	Barrichello	69.2sec
11	Heidfeld	70.6sec
12	Piquet	71.5sec
13	Kubica	74.0sec
14	Fisichella	1 lap
15	Alguersuari	1 lap
16	Buemi	1 lap
DNF	Vettel	41 laps	suspension
DNF	Alonso	55 laps	fuel pump
DNF	Sutil	69 laps	engine
DNS	Massa	n/a	accident

Drivers’ Championship

	Driver	Prev	HUN	Total
1	Button	68	2	70
2	Webber	45.5	6	51.5
3	Vettel	47		47
4	Barrichello	44		44
5	Rosberg	20.5	5	25.5
6	Trulli	21.5	1	22.5
7	Massa	22		22
8	Hamilton	9	10	19
9	Räikkönen	10	8	18
10	Glock	13	3	16
11	Alonso	13		13
12	Kovalainen	5	4	9
13	Heidfeld	6		6
14	Buemi	3		3
15	Bourdais	2		2
16	Kubica	2		2

Webber overhauls Vettel for 2nd.
Rosberg and Trulli pass the out-of-action Massa.
Lewis and Kimi finally make some in-roads into the field, pushing Alonso back.

Constructors’ Championship

	Constructor	Prev	HUN	Total
1	Brawn	112	2	114
2	Red Bull	86.5	6	92.5
3	Toyota	40.5	4	44.5
4	Ferrari	29	8	37
5	McLaren	14	14	28
6	Williams	20.5	5	25.5
7	Renault	13		13
8	BMW	8		8
9	Toro Rosso	5		5
10	Force India	0		0

Red Bull closes on Brawn for the 4th consecutive race.
Ferrari are beginning to challenge Toyota for 3rd.
McLaren make their first big gain of the season to double their score and leap into 5th.
Williams are establishing themselves in 6th with a consistent string of results.

That’s it from Hungary! Hope these notes were in some way useful. The next race is the European Grand Prix around the harbour of Valencia after the summer break, on 23rd August.

Hungarian flag courtesy of 4 International Flags

Delayed Race Notes: German Grand Prix 2009

2009 Formula 1 Grosser Preis Santander von Deutschland
/ 2009 Formula 1 Santander German Grand Prix
Circuit: Nürburgring
Location: Nürburgring, Eifel, Germany
Distance: 60 laps

Coverage: BBC One / BBC Radio 5 Live[*]
Anchor: Jake Humphrey
Analysts in the paddock: David Coulthard (DC) and Eddie Jordan (EJ)

R5 commentary[*]: David Croft (Crofty) and Anthony Davidson (Ant)
R5 pitlane[*]: Holly Samos
Tyre selection (red): SS / S / M / H

[*for many years the BBC has held the UK radio rights to F1. In ’09 they also picked up the TV rights and they now offer an alternate feed on digital television, combining TV pics with radio commentary. I tend to use this feed.]

Coverage begins at 12.10pm.

Focus on the 5 German drivers. Soundbyte-style. Nick says his first pole position was at this track, Sebastian says he should know the circuit off by heart, Adrian says his first F3 win was here, Timo says Michael Schumacher made F1 huge in Germany in the 90s, and Nico says it was because of MS that he got a whole bunch of sponsors. Seb: “German drivers are just bloody quick!”

Jake, pink shirt, pitlane.

Qualifying report with Lee:
Drivers were sent out early in Q2 to avoid rain, but everyone got caught out on a greasy damp track, spins aplenty.
Heikki turned his engine off in qualifying because he was given tyres he didn’t want.
Confusion at Ferrari where they fitted the wrong tyres, had to delay getaway to fit the right ones.
Piquet outqualified Alonso for the first time.
Webber threw down the challenge, Vettel could not respond, he blames himself not the car. Barrichello beat Button.

Webber (pole), Barrichello
Button, Vettel
Hamilton, Kovalainen
Sutil, Massa
Raikkonen, Piquet
Heidfeld, Alonso
Nakajima, Trulli
Rosberg, Kubica
Buemi, Fisichella
(gap), Bourdais
Pitlane: Glock

Glock had a grid penalty for blocking Alonso in qualifying and so Toyota elected to start from pitlane.

Jake is talking to Lewis. He and McLaren are very happy that their new improvements to the car are working. Jake says Lewis has been bouncing around the paddock like Tigger! Optimistic of getting a couple of positions at the start.
Lewis has a new diffuser but Heikki does not, yet Kovy lines up alongside the Ham.

Recorded segment, DC with Mark Webber after quals.
‘It all came together at the crucial time, guys did a great job. 20% of the job done, its a big part of it [but got to get] track position early in the race.’
He still has metal in his leg from his pre-season crash, he was on a mountain bike when he hit a car. Says he’s on the mend and confidence is high. ‘Red Bull have been very patient with my injury.’

The pundits, DC and EJ, are saying it is Webber’s race to lose.

Ted Kravitz: No more rain for 30 minutes. Track is bone dry, not a huge crowd but plenty of money spent on the new complex to driver’s left of the main straight, including a rollercoaster running alongside the track, reaching over 135mph before doing ‘it’s rollercoaster bit’.

Pit feature with Brundle – the driver:
In the 50s a driver had to stay out of the way of the fuel hose, grab a drink, clean his own screen, etc.
These days you think about the in-lap, the stop and the out-lap – and drivers don’t always agree with the radio call. Footage of Nick Heidfeld disagreeing with the pit call at Silverstone to change his wing settings. Driver has to have a fast in-lap, you’re still against the stopwatch, remembering to hit the pitlane speed limit of 100km/h (62mph) or be penalised. Sweep in at the limit to a garage of your own guys. Remember to release pit limiter in the right place..

Lots of pit features from the BBC this year..

Straight into a discussion between Jake Humphrey and Michael Schumacher… with David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan sat right there!
Says he didn’t dream much of F1, seemed too far away. His manager Willi Weber convinced Eddie Jordan that Michael knew Spa, when he didn’t.. Eddie pipes in to say he answered the question correctly, Eddie had asked “Do you know Spa?” – they answered ‘yes’, everyone knows of Spa…

On Spa ’98 and THAT collision with Coulthard (DC raised the subject!), he says in that sort of spray you have no chance, you see nothing, no feeling of distance. He’s still sure David is responsible for the accident. He apologises to David for saying it was McLaren’s fault, he thought McLaren had arranged it because Mika Hakkinen in the other car was his title rival..
Eddie Jordan thanks both of them for allowing Jordan to take a 1-2 finish that day. Schumacher jokingly says it was a gift for giving him his first F1 drive!

On prompting from DC, he says it took a long time for him to build up the trust of people, fans, media, which is why he maybe didn’t come across so well personally.

His favourite moment from his career? He says he has too many! The most important was 2000 to win the championship, it took away so much pressure.
On working with Ross Brawn again? ‘If I had wanted to work I had all the options, I may even now have options, its not what I’m looking for.”

Back live in the paddock.. David says he was glad to still have his helmet on when MS was seeking him out in that Spa pitlane in 1998..

Cars are leaving pitlane to head to the grid.

With Martin Whitmarsh, who says this season has been painful. Eddie Jordan says he thought their car was a dog, apologises to Martin and is impressed by the rate of improvement this year.

Gridwalk

MW’s car hit a wheel gun as he parked on the grid. “I’m not happy with 2nd or 3rd place, I want to win”. Brundle can’t see why he won’t get this race done. 28 years since the last Aussie winner.

JB says the circuit feels better. Car felt stable, circuit is 10 or 12 degrees hotter than yesterday. Got a bit of stripey paint on his grid spot, that’ll make the wheels spin up, not too happy with that. Not sure if he’ll win this but he’ll give it his best shot.

We try and talk to Vettel, no, but watch as Seb grabs the Bridgestone man for a discussion… Martin speculates it is about the change in temperatures and how it’ll affect grip, says it is unusual to have that kind of talk this late on.

Mclaren people. Pat Fry. Kudos to BBC graphics team, caption straight up despite us maybe speaking to him what once this year, twice maybe? Planned? Fibreglass on the front wing…

Adrian Sutil: “Lot of fuel on board, heaviest car in top ten qualifying, looking good! The car improved in the last few races, today we have to show it in the race. Rain maybe would be easier for us. Two Ferraris, lot of KERS cars around, going to be harder to start but nobody wants to crash into my back especially not the Ferrari guys! Top ten would be good, maybe one point will be the dream.”

German National Anthem
A very American-style rendition there with the OTT emphasis on the words, is that the new trend?

Fuel-adjusted qual report:
Webber was still quickest and deserves his pole position.
Hamilton would have been 3rd on the same fuel. Button struggled.
The picture was clouded by the damp conditions.

GRID

Webber, Barrichello
Button, Vettel
Hamilton, Kovalainen
Sutil, Massa
Raikkonen, Piquet
Heidfeld, Alonso
Nakajima, Trulli
Rosberg, Kubica
Buemi, Fisichella
(gap), Bourdais
Pitlane: Glock

Engines fired.

FORMATION LAP

Legard insists on calling this the new Nurburgring despite it being 25 years old. He says we are only 15 miles from Belgium and 15 miles from Bonn.

Alonso spins. I have switched to 5Live.

Grid… 1.2.3.4.5… go!

Webber and RB bang wheels, Rubens leads through turn 1!

Lap 2, Button passes Massa into turn 1!
Right rear puncture for Hamilton on the first lap, he’s pitting. He’s going to lose a lap if McLaren aren’t quick.

Replays: Webber comes across and hits Barrichello.

Onboard Hamilton: Passes everyone at the start but runs very wide and gets the puncture, Ant Davidson says possibly on the drain off the circuit. David Croft says it could have been by touching Webber’s front wing.

Lap 4. Kovalainen found his way through the start nicely.
Barrichello, Webber, Heikki!, Button, Massa, Vettel, Kimi, Sutil, Rosberg, Kubica.

The Ferraris both got Sutil, presumably with their KERS.

Lap 5. Webber told to look after his tyres.
Button tries several times to get Kovalainen, not quite!
Hamilton is lapped by this group of cars now.

Holly: Trulli is running 19th after changing a wing after collision with Nakajima.

Very nicely positioned onboard camera with Vettel, just over his left shoulder – a much better driver’s eye view than normal! Traditionally the camera is mounted on the ‘t-bar’ above the engine air intake.

Lap 9. Heidfeld concedes to Fisichella. Fisi now 12th.

No sign of the predicted rain!

Lap 10. Vettel makes a move into the chicane! Wheel to wheel but Vettel ran out of road.
“Race Control: Incident involving cars 14 and 23 under investigation by the stewards”
That’s Webber and Barrichello!

Lap 12. A drive-thru penalty for Webber, for causing a collision! Replay from RB’s car: Big bang from Webber. I’d still call that a racing incident, Rubens’ race was not interrupted (say for repairs or a DNF).

Lap 14. Button on the radio to complain about his tyres – he pits now.
Lap 15. Both Barrichello and Webber are in. Mark is taking his penalty.
Rubens is out behind Massa and ahead of Vettel. RB and MW built up a nice margin over Kovy.

Lap 16. Kovalainen pits. Webber leads but he does need to make his first fuel stop soon.

Lap 18. Replay: Button passes Buemi around the outside, through the Mercedes section for 12th.

Lap 19. Fisichella pits from 9th position, Force India should have a good day today. Meanwhile Button continues to work his way through the slower traffic who are on longer, heavier stints. Taken Heidfeld.

Bourdais is off the course, he rejoins and makes his way very slowly to the pits. His fault or a technical problem? This could be his last day in a Formula 1 car if Alguesuari takes his place as rumoured.

Lap 20. Mark Webber makes his scheduled stop, takes the hard tyre and gets out ahead of Button.

Lap 23. Webber is caught behind Kubica which is allowing Button to catch up, Jenson looking left and right but can’t quite make the move.

Lap 24. Bourdais goes to the STR pit wall and practically says goodbye to his race engineer – hugs are involved.

Lap 25. Raikkonen pits from 5th. Massa leads but has yet to stop, he should be up next.
Holly with Bourdais:
“We had a good strategy, we had the primes on the car and we were still in contact with the guys ahead of us so it was looking good, we’ll look forward to Hungary.”
Holly: You’ll be in Hungary?
Seb: “I have a contract so yeah.”

Lap 26. Massa is in, and out behind Vettel.
Adrian Sutil hasn’t pitted but he is 1.2 sec behind Rubens and catching fast! What price an underdog podium??

Lap 28. Sutil pits, out with Kimi outside of him, they touch!! Adrian’s front wing is damaged by Kimi’s left front tyre, lots of debris comes off both cars.

Lap 29. Sutil pits for a new nose.

Lap 31. After all those stops Webber has emerged up front again:
Barrichello, Webber, Button, Vettel, Massa, Rosberg, Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Nakajima, Fisichella.

Incident involving Kimi and Adrian will being investigated after the race.

Lap 32. Button makes his second stop.
Lap 33. Rubens in now, so Webber leads once again! Long stop for RB, he’s beaten Raikkonen for 5th.

Jenson didn’t beat Kimi in the pits and now passes him on the track! Davidson says he saw smoke from Kimi’s car, sounds okay but something is wrong.

Turns out Rubens’ long stop was down to a fuel rig problem, they had to switch to the spare.

Lap 35. Raikkonen pits. He’s out of the car. Helmet off, oversize cap on.

Lap 37. Webber is absolutely flying, he’s setting Fastest Laps every lap now and he’s 1sec/lap quicker than anyone else.

Kimi with Holly:
“We kept losing power, [the thing with Sutil] was more or less a normal racing incident.”

Black clouds have been seen by Lewis Hamilton – he’ll hope it will rain because he’s still a lap down.

Lap 42. Kovalainen pits.
Replay: Heidfeld passes Kubica for 9th position.

So both Brawns have pitted twice and the Red Bulls only once. Webber leads Vettel, Massa (1 stop), Rosberg (1), Barrichello (2), Button (2), Alonso (1), Heidfeld (1), Kubica (1), Piquet (1).
Kovalainen has dropped back because after his second stop.

Lap 43. Mark Webber pits with a 20 second lead over his team-mate. Good stop. Vettel takes the lead temporarily.

Lap 44. Vettel is in and out, falls behind the Brawns.
Button is having to weave from left to right to get some heat into his tyres, yet he’s catching Barrichello.

Lap 45. Massa pits, he’s back behind Vettel for 6th.

Lap 48. Lots of midfield pitting over the last few laps.

Lap 49. Alonso just set a 1m33.744s laps! That’s a third of a second faster than Webber’s best which itself was miles faster than the others.

Brawn are getting ready again, a 3-stop race for them.

Lap 50. Alonso just went even quicker, he’s working on catching Rosberg 9 seconds ahead of him.

Lap 51. 10 laps to go and Barrichello pits.
Brawn getting ready for Button as the clouds look ominously dark. Will we get this race completed before the rain comes, or will the whole thing be turned to chaos?

Button pits, will he beat Rubens out? Yes he does!
Jenson put in a good lap.

Lap 53. Alonso is right behind Barrichello now – those stops put both Brawns between Rosberg and Alonso. Will Fernando make the move?

Order:
Webber, Vettel, Massa who I’ve hardly mentioned, Rosberg, Button, Barrichello, Alonso, Kovalainen, Glock, Heidfeld.

Kovalainen is slow and holding up a train of four cars, but he’s seems able to hang on for that point for 8th – he and McLaren need that point!

Lap 56. Sutil is now 15th after that wing change. This is the second time Raikkonen has ruined a good points finish for Sutil, after Monaco 2008.

Lap 57. Fernando Alonso is pushing the Brawns hard.

Lap 58. Webber has backed it off to save the car, the gap has dropped by 5 seconds. Vettel is now only 10sec back but with 3 laps to go there will be no change.

Lap 60. FINAL LAP

CHEQUERED FLAG – MARK WEBBER WINS!!!

Absolutely brilliant drive from Webber! Top class.

Radio – he shouts in delight! screams even! Brilliant!

The first Australian win since Alan Jones in 1981!

Parc Ferme

Big congratulatory hug for Mark from Seb Vettel.
Shame the mechanics are kept so far back from the drivers, that sorta sucks the life out of it.

Podium

Advance Australia Fair for Mark.
The Austrian one for Red Bull.
Horrible corporate trophy.
Champaaggnee!!
Seb and Felipe soak Mark in the stuff, and deservedly so.

Conference

Webber, winner:

“The only thing that was going to beat me was the rain and that held off. It was a bit testing, I lost Rubens at the start and moved over and hit Rubens, I got a drive-through for that. Sebastien showed what the car could do in winter testing while I was hurting a lot, it keps my motivation going.”

Vettel, 2nd:

“Congratulations, today he was unbeatable. I am very happy with the result, all the KERS cars around me, it was quite difficult to start 4th and go into the first corner maybe 8th.”

Massa, 3rd:

“To be honest I missed to be in the top three. Fantastic race, passed many cars, struggled with soft tyres like most people. Put down a good pace with 2nd set of tyres. Very happy. Podium will help the people to push hard.”

BBC Interviews:

Rubens, where did it go wrong?:

“On the strategy. It was a good show from the team for how to lose a race today. I’m upset. I did all I had to do, get first on the first corner that’s all I did, they made me lose the race. If this is what’s going on we’re gonna lose both championships and that’s even more terrible. I feel sorry for myself, I feel sorry for the team. I wish I could get on the plane and go right home. All the team will be bla bla bla bla and I don’t want that.”

Does this mean they are favouring Jenson?

“I’m not saying they are favouring anyone.”

Wow! Harsh stuff from Rubens. He may well be right but you don’t do this in public! Anyone think there will some driver shopping for that seat for next year? Maybe he already knows?

David Coulthard says it is ‘remarkable’ that he’d say such things, he’s very surprised.
Eddie Jordan knows him, Rubens drove for him for 4 years. ‘He wears his heart on his sleeve, he’s not to know the fuel rig gave up, that there was a mechanical error. He’s made a mistake, he’s opened mouth’.

I don’t note-take the F1 Forum after the race, just to say Sir Frank joined the guys and watched Rubens’ comments with them: “That’s a red card job.” Says he’s not impressed with an outburst like that – you save it for behind closed doors.

Okay that’s enough from me for this race, let’s round things up:

Result Result

	Driver	Gap	Pts
1	Webber	60 laps	10
2	Vettel	9.2sec	8
3	Massa	15.9sec	6
4	Rosberg	21.0sec	5
5	Button	23.6sec	4
6	Barrichello	24.4sec	3
7	Alonso	24.8sec	2
8	Kovalainen	58.6sec	1
9	Glock	61.4sec
10	Heidfeld	61.9sec
11	Fisichella	62.3sec
12	Nakajima	62.8sec
13	Piquet	68.3sec
14	Kubica	69.5sec
15	Sutil	71.9sec
16	Buemi	90.2sec
17	Trulli	90.9sec
18	Hamilton	1 lap
DNF	Räikkönen	radiator
DNF	Bourdais	hydraulics

Drivers’ Championship

	Driver	Prev	GER	Total
1	Button	64	4	68
2	Vettel	39	8	47
3	Webber	35.5	10	45.5
4	Barrichello	41	3	44
5	Massa	16	6	22
6	Trulli	21.5		21.5
7	Rosberg	15.5	5	20.5
8	Glock	13		13
9	Alonso	11	2	13
10	Räikkönen	10		10
11	Hamilton	9		9
12	Heidfeld	6		6
13	Kovalainen	4	1	5
14	Buemi	3		3
15	Bourdais	2		2
16	Kubica	2		2

The two Red Bulls have overtaken Barrichello, pushing him down to 4th. Massa makes up a position on Trulli while Rosberg lines himself up to do the same.

Constructors’ Championship

	Constructor	Prev	GER	Total
1	Brawn	105	7	112
2	Red Bull	68.5	18	86.5
3	Toyota	40.5		40.5
4	Ferrari	23	6	29
5	Williams	15.5	5	20.5
6	McLaren	13	1	14
7	Renault	11	2	13
8	BMW	8		8
9	Toro Rosso	5		5
10	Force India	0		0

Red Bull score more than double Brawn in Germany, hopefully making the title fight last as far as possible. Ferrari and Williams are gradually moving their way closer to Toyota who’s advantage was built up early in the season.

That’s all from Germany! The next race is the Hungarian GP on 26 July.

German flag courtesy of 4 International Flags