F1 Germany 2011

It was yet another great race that was completely unpredictable until the last few laps. Are we becoming spoiled by all this great action? ^_^

It started with an incredible qualifying lap from Webber which put him on poll ahead of Hamilton, but converting poll into a win remains a problem for Webber.

For the first time this season Vettel was not on the front row, which was big surprise. He was unable find a good set up, but both Redbull's struggled on race day, with Webber and Vettel only finishing third and fourth respectively. Vettel also made his first unforced error of the season when he drifted onto the damp grass and spun. Vettel had an uncharacteristically bad weekend.

Hamilton truly earned the win with terrific manoeuvres on Webber and Alonso, and some great heads up strategy by the team. It was expected that the medium compound prime tire would be very slow. McLaren were the first to notice that the cars on a two stop strategy were going very well on the prime tire. The team switched Hamilton onto the primes long before the other the front runners.

It was the kind of race where you had to get everything just right: car setup, start, strategy, pit stops, and a great drive. Miss one and victory was impossible. Note I did not mention poll position. ^_^

McLaren and Ferrari definitely had the upper hand in the race but once again it was difficult to draw conclusions. Was it the unusually cool temperatures that hurt Redbull more than the others? Or was it due to actual McLaren and Ferrari improvements. Neither team admitted to bring any major upgrades, but then they never reveal everything. We won't know for sure how much they have improved until we have a race with ideal conditions.

Alonso pointed out in the post race interviews that, if Vettel keeps finishing fourth or higher, he has the drivers' championship in the bag. It will take the combined efforts of Webber and both drivers from Ferrari and McLaren, to all finish ahead of Vettel in order to starve him of points. Of course, implicit in Alonso's comment was that he would be the winner in every case. Never let it be said that F1 drivers are not motivated by self interest. ^_^

F1 Germany 2010

Ferrari was surprisingly fast and came very, very close to a Alonso-Massa one-two in the grid. Vettel spoiled the party, however, with a sensational qualifying lap that was only 0.002 seconds faster than Alonso. Webber blew his qualifying lap but still managed fourth on the grid, ahead of the Maclarens who were having difficulties.

Vettel's start was sloppy. He fixated on Alonso, almost forcing him into the wall, which allowed Massa to waltz into lead. Alonso held his line and kept his second place while Vettel fell back to third. Did I mention his start was very sloppy?

The race kind of settled down after the first lap, and it looked like an easy one-two finish for Ferrari, except that the wrong driver was going to win. Then Massa received message on his radio and a few turns later slowed down and Alonso passed to take the lead. Now, the message did not explicitly tell Massa to let Alonso pass, but the intent was clear. In other words, it was a team order that altered the out come of the race, which is clearly against the regulations.

I was miffed. We were deprived of seeing some interesting racing. If Alonso was indeed faster, he had more than enough laps to prove it and try to pass Massa. A win for Massa would have been particularly poignant as it was one year since his accident. The worst part was the team orders overshadowed Ferrari's wonderful race performance. Anyway, the stewards agreed that it was team orders and sanctioned Ferrari with a fine, although the result was allowed stand. It was all very ugly.

F1 Germany

A damp track made qualifying very interesting with lots of surprises. The second session was kind of funny. Everyone went out on slicks in a long procession, skated around the slippery track once, and then promptly went back in to get intermediates.

Mark Webber didn't look that great in Q1 and Q2 but he was unbeatable in Q3 when it counted. Barrichello managed to out qualifying Jenson for the second race in a row. It seems Jenson only does well when the car is going perfectly, which isn't the mark of a champion in my opinion. For only the second time this season, Vettel qualified out the top three, in fourth position. I expected him to do better at his home race on a track he knows very well. MacLaren made a huge step forward for this race and their efforts got fifth and sixth on the grid. The biggest surprise was Sutil and Force India who made it into Q3 for the first time, and even out qualified both Ferrari's! How sweet is that?

The race was equally exciting with good action everywhere down the field. Webber scored his first win but it certainly was not easy. Before the first corner he had contact with both Barrichello and Hamilton, who had used his magical KERS button to storm to the front. Barrichello took the lead in first corner but Webber would be running longer so it really wasn't so bad. But then Webber received an undeserved drive through penalty for the contact with Barrichello. The penalty should have ended Webber's chance for a win, but the team saved it by having him serve the penalty when Barrichello pitted. After that, Webber drove like a demon to make up the lost time, and earned a well deserved first win.

It was bizarre watching Button weaving down the straights to keep the tire temperatures up. I can understand Barichello's frustration, but with the Brawn GP Achilles heel in full effect, blaming the race strategy doesn't make any sense. Brawn GP have lost a lot of ground and I still have doubts they have the budget to keep up with the rest of field.

I wonder if Hamilton regrets using so much KERS power at the start. He was barely able to slow it down for turn one but his sudden appearance must have surprised Webber quite a lot. The resulting contact with Webber gave Hamilton a puncture which ended any chance for a good result and all that work from the team went down the drain.

Sutil is on the other end the heart break scale. He was having a great race with an excellent chance to score some points when Räikkönen basically drove over Sutil's front wing. Sutil was on the racing line after exiting the pits and really had no where to go. Will Räikkönen apologize like he did after Monaco 2008? Well, it looks like that won't necessary.

So an exciting F1 season continues. Unfortunately, so does the politics. Will this nonsense never end?