The F60 had some updates and the set up was pretty much ok, but we’re still paying a high price in terms of downforce as you could see in some sectors of the track. The qualifying was really difficult, because the grip was constantly changing, although the conditions were the same for everybody out there: in Q1 and Q2 it was really important to find the right moment to go onto the track, while in Q3, on the dry track, we decided to put lots of petrol in the car, because we didn’t have the possibility to be on one of the front rows. 

At the beginning of the race I was right behind Felipe and we both had the possibility to gain a good position. At a certain point, and we still don’t know exactly when, debris got stuck in the radiator and perforated it. On lap 14 I was asked by the pitwall to lower the revs and then, after the pit stop, I started losing performance right until the moment I had to stop. On lap 29 I collided with Sutil: he came out of the box while I was on my line; he tried to defend his position on the inside. The cars collided and he lost a bit of his front wing, while the side of mine was slightly damaged. 

With these wide wings it’s quite easy to collide and break them. I went with Adrian to meet the stewards and we thought that it was a normal race accident, as indeed did the stewards. 

The next race is in Hungary. Traditionally this is some sort of a home race for us Finns, because there are so many fellow countrymen on the grandstands. I’ll show up with a new rear wing, which worked really well on Felipe’s car and there’s the possibility that we’ll have further modifications. The F60 should run pretty well at the Hungaroring with its many slow corners; furthermore the temperatures should be slightly higher than at the weekend in Germany: it would be great to gain another podium.

Source - Ferrari’s Official Site

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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After 8 years of trying it wasn’t a surprise to hear his radio transmission after his crossed the line! It was refreshing to hear him so passionate and elated, although a lot of it was probably relief I’m sure.

The biggest surprise wasn’t that he won it but that he managed to cross the line P1 even after being handed a ridiculous driver through penalty by the stewards and without the help of rain. His team were ’stoked’ off course, especially as this was the second 1-2 in a row for Red Bull.

Vettel missed out on that home win his fans wanted so much but he did an awesome job to finish second and still take more points of championship leader Button. Brawn must be pretty worried now as Red Bull can beat them in the wet & dry. The only thing against Red Bull’s title hopes is that they have two very competitive drivers and are doing things fairly by not backing one horse this early on.

Massa and Rosberg had a great race and managed to beat the Brawns to third and fourth place, thanks to a pitstop refuelling error for Rubens and both cars struggling with their tyres towards the later stages of the race. Alonso too was on a charge in the late stages

Another bad day for Hamilton with his race effectively over by lap 1. He kept asking to retire and save the engine & gearbox but McLaren kept him out running last just in case the rain came but it didn’t.

It feels like deja vu writing this review as sadly it was yet another disappointing race result for our Kimster. And yet again another retirement. Kimi had another great start and with the heavier full loads the Ferrari’s were carrying it was looking promising for some solid points. 

Unfortunately things went wrong as early as lap 14, when Kimi’s car was damaged by some debris effecting his pace and then this finally ended his race after a lose of  power.

Sadly that wasn’t all of Kimi’s bad luck for this race. It seems that the BBC F1 team are just as keen on bring up the Kimi/Sutil Monaco 08 accident up at every race possible as ITV-F1 were. Now even more so after Raikkonen and Sutil had a coming together as Sutil exited the pits. It was clearly a racing incident, with Adrian blaming himself more than Kimi, yet BBC commentary decided to bash Kimi and had him a ‘penalty’ for Hungary. Luckily the stewards decided not to after reviewing the incident after the GP.

We now look to the Hungarian GP. Its a circuit that should suit the Ferrari’s and Massa has shown they can beat the Brawns. So Kimi will be aiming for a podium. Lets hope lady luck is on his side this time.

Jemela Coventry

Gokimi.com

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The German Grand Prix

Nurburgring, Germamy;

60 laps; 306.458km;

Weather: Cloudy, dry.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time

 1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1h36:43.310

 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +     9.252

 3.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +    15.906

 4.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    21.099

 5.  Button        Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  +    23.609

 6.  Barrichello   Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  +    24.468

 7.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    24.888

 8.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    58.692

 9.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +  1:01.457

10.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +  1:01.925

11.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  1:02.327

12.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +  1:02.876

13.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +  1:08.328

14.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +  1:09.555

15.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  1:11.941

16.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:30.225

17.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +  1:30.970

18.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:33.365

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap

Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)    35

Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    19

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Kimi Raikkonen - DNF: ”Germany definitely doesn’t seem to bring me luck. I don’t know how many times a problem beyond my control has forced me to retire and this time it was down to debris. A shame, as I think I could have got a good result. The car was a bit difficult to drive at the start, but I think it was the same for everyone. Around lap 14, we began to see that something wasn’t right and we tried to manage the situation. Then I started to lose a lot of power and the team asked me to pit because there was nothing that could be done anymore. The incident with Sutil? These things happen in racing, we spoke to one another and I think that he also sees it that way, as indeed did the Stewards.”

Stefano Domenicali: ”It’s a nice feeling to be back on the podium and this result for Felipe is a good reward for all the effort put in by him in producing a perfect race and by all the team, at the track and in Maranello. A shame for Kimi who could have secured a good finish: it was really unlucky. Our aim, as we’ve already said is to finish third in the Constructors’ championship and today’s result has helped us make up some ground on the squad ahead of us. However, we have to work very hard to succeed, because this season is still very hard to interpret: once again this weekend we have seen an incredible see-sawing in performance between some of the teams compared to the previous race and within this Grand Prix itself. There are many variables, especially those linked to the behaviour of the tyres which does not seem to be completely under control: getting to grips with this could be very important for the rest of the championship.”

Chris Dyer: ”This podium from Felipe is a really great reward for the whole team, who did a great job this weekend and in preparing for this race. However, we are also very disappointed about what happened to Kimi, who could have brought home some important points. This result is a great motivation for the rest of the season. We must continue to work with the same intensity to get back to where we want to be. The choice to stick with the softer tyre for the second stint of the race was based on what we had seen in the first stint, where it’s true that Felipe had suffered a bit, while Kimi had no problems. We were also concerned about how the harder compound would work in these temperatures.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Despite being given a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable collision at the start, Webber finished 9.2 seconds ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel with Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver Felipe Massa taking third. Vettel used a super soft – medium – super soft strategy and Massa used a super soft – super soft - medium strategy for his first podium finish of the season. 



Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, says 
“Congratulations to Mark Webber for taking his first ever Grand Prix win at the 130th attempt. This illustrates the Japanese proverb ‘continuing is the force’ and we are very happy that this win occurred using Bridgestone tyres. From a tyre analysis perspective this was a thrilling race. The conditions, such as temperature and track condition, meant that for most of the race it was very difficult to determine which was the better race tyre. This meant that drivers and strategists had to use a lot of brain power today and we saw a good variety of strategies through the field, even from drivers in the same team. 



“The track conditions started very green and this caused some competitors who started on the super soft tyre problems with graining and degradation. Some competitors used the medium compound very well, and Fernando Alonso was notable with his fastest lap on this tyre, however others struggled for grip and temperature with this tyre. This all added to the interest.” 


Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Felipe Massa:

“This qualifying was a bit of a lottery: first dry, then rain then dry again. It could have gone better, but it could also have gone much worse. I’m not jumping for joy over eighth place, but it’s not so bad. We have a good strategy aimed at getting us into the points, although a podium seems hard to reach to be honest.”

Kimi Raikkonen:

“It was a pretty complicated session, with track conditions changing all the time. Therefore, it’s difficult to say if this result reflects the real standings down the order. Clearly, we were penalized by not having a single set of new tyres for Q3. I believe that in normal conditions we could have got a better grid position. Having said that, we are not in bad shape for the race: we have a good strategy and we will try and make the most of it.”

Chris Dyer:

“This morning, we were fairly satisfied with the performance of the car in the dry. Then, in qualifying, we found ourselves up against rapidly changing conditions and it was therefore a good result to get both cars into Q3. At that point however, we no longer had any more new soft tyres available and that cost us very dear. We therefore opted to start with a good amount of fuel on board to try and make up ground in tomorrow’s race, when I think we will nevertheless be competitive, whatever the weather. We also hope to make the most of the KERS at the start, given that the main straight is very long.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Post Qualifying car weights, sorted by qualifying position:

Pos  Driver                             Weight (kg)

 1.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault       661.0

 2.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes         647.0

 3.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes         644.0

 4.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault       661.0

 5.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes       654.5

 6.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes       664.0

 7.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes   678.5

 8.  Massa        Ferrari                673.5

 9.  Raikkonen    Ferrari                674.0

10.  Piquet       Renault                676.0

11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber             681.0*

12.  Alonso       Renault                668.2*

13.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota        683.6*

14.  Trulli       Toyota                 683.7*

15.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota        689.6*

16.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber             673.5*

17.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari     674.5*

18.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes   662.5*

19.  Glock        Toyota                 662.3*

20.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     689.5*

* declared weight

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Webber set a time of 1min 32.230secs, just over a tenth faster than Brawn GP Formula 1 Team driver Rubens Barrichello. Jenson Button (Brawn GP Formula 1 Team) went third fastest. Notably, Adrian Sutil and Force India achieved their highest ever qualifying with seventh.

Bridgestone’s new intermediate tyre was used by a number of competitors during the qualifying session in Q2, when rainfall visited the circuit a number of times. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton used the super soft Bridgestone to go fastest in the morning session with a time of 1min 31.121secs.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?
“Today was very interesting and what an exciting way for Mark Webber to achieve his first ever pole position. The weather was cold, and then we had the additional difficulty for making tyre choice of the rain falling during parts of qualifying too. This was a difficult day for the drivers behind the wheel and the team strategists on the pit wall, but both Red Bull and Brawn achieved good results.”

What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?
“Anyone who is at Nurburgring will tell you that the weather is going to be the primary consideration and a lot of time tomorrow will be spent looking at the sky and wondering what will happen next. Two years ago we had a very exciting race here with very variable weather, and tomorrow we might have something similar. If it is dry and cold, then the Bridgestone super soft could be the preferred race tyre. If it is wet, then competitors will have to match their tyre choices from the Bridgestone wet, intermediate and dry tyres to the track conditions at that time. This is a very difficult task if the weather is variable, but very exciting too.” 

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Kimi Raikkonen- 16th: ”I think we are more or less where we were at Silverstone. We are still struggling a bit to find the best balance on the car, but I am sure that we will find a way of fixing that. In the second session, I only used the softer tyres because we had to work on the car in between the two sessions, which cost me a bit of time. We certainly struggled to get the harder tyre up to the right operating temperature, as was to be expected given the weather.”

Chris Dyer: ”It was rather a difficult day, with changing weather conditions and a few little technical glitches (Kimi’s gearbox had an oil leak) which meant we had to compress our work programme. However, in the end, we managed to complete almost all the tasks on our list, including the evaluation of some new aerodynamic components. There is definitely more work to be done to get the balance right on the car, in order to achieve our objectives which are to get both cars into Q3 and to do well in the race. The low temperatures do not suit us, especially when it comes to doing a good time on the first flying lap.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:33.082            19
 2.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:33.463  + 0.381   18
 3.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:33.745  + 0.663   21
 4.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:33.795  + 0.713   23
 5.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:33.839  + 0.757   26
 6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:33.840  + 0.758   23
 7.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:33.902  + 0.820   26
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:33.909  + 0.827   13
 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:33.952  + 0.870   25
10.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:34.148  + 1.066   16
11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:34.221  + 1.139   25
12.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:34.227  + 1.145   17
13.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:34.483  + 1.401   14
14.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:34.694  + 1.612   23
15.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:34.738  + 1.656   24
16.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:34.827  + 1.745   27
17.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:34.878  + 1.796   28
18.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:34.893  + 1.811   26
19.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:34.911  + 1.829   23
20.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:35.092  + 2.010    6

Free Practice Two

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:32.149            23
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:32.331  + 0.182   31
 3.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:32.369  + 0.220   32
 4.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:32.480  + 0.331   28
 5.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:32.511  + 0.362   32
 6.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:32.585  + 0.436   32
 7.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:32.664  + 0.515   26
 8.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:32.774  + 0.625   24
 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:32.872  + 0.723   32
10.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:32.992  + 0.843   29
11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:33.012  + 0.863   36
12.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:33.052  + 0.903   34
13.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:33.128  + 0.979   34
14.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:33.161  + 1.012   28
15.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:33.172  + 1.023   34
16.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:33.182  + 1.033   29
17.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:33.724  + 1.575   27
18.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:33.903  + 1.754   30
19.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:34.025  + 1.876   30
20.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:38.877  + 6.728    3

All Timing Unofficial

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

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