MARK WEBBER - GRAND PRIX WINNER
First the teams are happy, then they're butting heads with Max Mosley again. Could someone sort this mess out once and for all? In the meantime we had the German Grand Prix to enjoy, at the Nurburgring. The last time a Grand Prix was held at the Nurburgring was the European race of '07. The last time the German Grand Prix was held there was in 1985 in a race won by Italian Ferrari driver Michele Alboreto. Back to the present day and McLaren looked to be returning to form with Lewis finishing fastest in two of the three practice sessions. Brawn were still looking iffy in the cool weather though and the worry was that this would be another off race for them.
Qualifying turned out to be amazingly smooth for the Brits with both of them making Q2 for the first time in a few races, though Kubica wasn't so lucky. In Q2, well again both Brits survived(for the first time since Bahrain) though Jenson dodged a bullet. Alonso spun late on though and didn't make the cut. Barrichello was the first guy to set a time in Q3 but due to the rain, all the action happened in the last minute. Suddenly Lewis got provisional pole, and with Jenson backing him up it looked as though we were on for an all-British front row! Webber had other ideas though an came out of nowhere to not only grab the first pole of a career that started in Australia '02 but the first F1 pole by an Auusie since Alan Jones in Germany 1980! Barrichelo took P2(his second front row start in a row) and Jenson P3. Further down, Lewis came up with P5(matching his best grid position of the season).
In the race, well Lewis had an amazing start and was actually in the lead briefly from the start but then he clashes with Webber and the result was a flat tyre and a busted undertray. That forced him into and early pitstop and from there his race was pretty much over. He came out at the back of the pack and couldn't do much with a car that wasn't in full working order. He was even wanting to retire early at one point! As it wass he kept going with McLaren deciding to treat the race as a test session but Lewis still finished 18th - the worst finish of his career yet! Still, his qualifying performance shows some promise, maybe Lewis will get some better results before the end of the season.
Jenson certainly didn't have a good start, finding himself down in 5th pretty quickly before overtaking Massa to grab 4th. Finding himself held up by the slower Kovalainen in 3rd, he had to go into the pits early as he was fuelled light. After that Jenson found himself having to make his way back up through the pack, making his way to 3rd at one point before going back into the pits. He found himself back out in 5th with 4th place seemingly out of reach and not on the best tyres. Still, he held on to 5th to at least pick up some points. Another not-so-good race this time due to Brawn's inability to adapt to changing weather conditions over the weekend.
Up front though, the first major event was a clash between Webber and Barrichello. That led to the Brazilian leading early on and when the Aussie got given a drive-through penalty, he found himself up against it. Yet somehow he managed to carve his way through the pack, benefitting from the timing of some of his rivals pitstops to take the lead by mid-race and from there no one was able to stop him taking what was not only the first win of his career(took him long enough) but the first Grand Prix win by an Aussie since Alan Jones in Las Vegas 1981! Vettel came in 2nd for Red Bull's second 1-2 in a row. Massa had a solid race to grab 3rd, his first podium of the season and Rosberg came away with 4th for his best result of the season so far.
However, one thing hasn't changed. Jenson still leads the world championship with 68 points, though his lead has been cut down to twenty one points. Further down, Lewis remains in 11th with 9 points.
Great work from Mark Webber and now Jenson needs to at least be on amber alert.
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