Grand Prix 2012 German Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The German GP marks the half way point in this strangest of seasons.

There have been seven different winners, with Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber the only two able to notch up more than one win.

From having a car which looked to be well off the pace at the start of the season, Fernando Alonso is still leading by 13 points, from Mark Webber of all people. Can he and Ferrari maintain the momentum going forward?

Indeed, in a drastic reverse of fortunes from last season, Mark is comfortably winning the head to head over his double world champion team mate, Sebastian Vettel.
The Red Bull car appears to suit both drivers though and is the class of the field so expect things to change between the top three before the summer break.

It's a different tale at McLaren. Button has gone from winning the first race to only scoring seven points in the last six races. His team mate, Lewis Hamilton has fared better, despite multiple team errors and the best efforts of certain other drivers. He is however languishing in fourth place in the standings, as are McLaren who have been overtaken by Lotus.

What is clear, is the McLaren is no longer in the top three and some (including Button) are even claiming it is behind several of the mid-field teams. This after the results of both McLaren drivers at Silverstone, where they barely scraped 8th and 10th place finishes.
It's a big change from just a few races ago when Hamilton was leading the Drivers' Championship and McLaren were second behind Red Bull in the Constructors'.

Lotus appear to be getting stronger with every race. Surely it's just a matter of time before one of their drivers is on the top step. Which one though? Romain Grosjean looks every bit as good as Kimi Räikkönen and if not for some unfortunate collisions earlier in the season would most likely be ahead of him in the standings.

Mercedes are consistently inconsistent. Michael Schumacher appears to have broken his dreadful run of results and bad luck but Nico Rosberg had a very poor race last time out, finishing a lowly 15th.

Likewise for Williams; the car appears to have the pace, if only the drivers were capable of exploiting it.

It has been two years since F1 last raced at the Hockenheimring, due to the alternating calendar with the Nürburgring. As a result the teams will have no data concerning the Pirelli tyres, so expect lots of running in the free practice sessions, weather permitting.

Will we see the eighth different winner of the season? Will this race finally reveal the pecking order and see things settling down?
Will McLaren be able to recover their position amongst the top three with their much vaunted upgrade package they are planning to bring?

All these questions and more will be answered soon.

For the circuit write up, stat's, map and videos, see here: http://cliptheapex.com/pages/hockenheimring/

 

[Slyboogy]

Didn't find this Grand Prix that exciting, I remember I used to find any Grand Prix exciting, don't know what's happened now.
To be fair it wasn't too bad, I think Alonso extending his lead again, is what probably peeved me off, and somehow the DRS zone working for every overtake from 6th downwards, but for the front 3 it didn't work at all.

Add to the fact that qualifying mixed up the grid for the rain and benefitted the championship leader once again.

Alonso himself stated, if it wasn't for the rain in qualifying he wouldn't have achieved pole, and I agree with him. The McLarens, Vettel and Raikkonen would have probably started ahead of him, with him finishing 5th in the race or so. But it's the season that he and Ferrari are having, that everythings kind of falling into there laps. A bit like Vettel and Red Bull last year, and Button and Brawn in 2009, although to a lesser extent. Once he had pole the victory was his for the taking. In clean air, while his faster rivals behind him fighting each other and him ruining their tyres. It just shows how crucial leading into Turn 1 is this season, only a couple due to certain cirumstances have won the race while not leading the first lap. Nevertheless he defended well, and one thing I noticed, and I have noticed before, is the way he uses KERS for defence. He uses it wisely, and basically uses most if not all on the DRS zone, then just after. A race where a lot of his rivals where faster, but he comes out on top as they falter due to the bad qualifying session. I've said this since Monaco, I think we are looking at the 2012 World Champion.

Sebastian Vettel did not have the pace as we all thought. Struggled for the first two laps as he was getting hounded by Schumacher. But after that he started closing in on Alonso, but everytime he was in the DRS zone he couldn't pull a pass. Which brings me on to something else, I've seen this several times this season with both Red Bull cars. When they are in the DRS zone, they never seem to gain. Surely they should set up their cars for this, since now in this season it's crucial since they don't start on pole very often, and overtaking is needed. Vettel only managed to get past Button due to Button's tyres going off. The move was illegal, but I think the team rather than Sebastian made the big mistake out of the two. Vettel can't see several replays while he's driving, the team can, they should have told him to give Button the position back. Instead, it's cost Vettel 5 points in the championship.

The man that had only scored 7 points in 6 races, managed to finish on the podium after a big slump. Started 6th, and made his way forward, he usually loses out at the start, but it seems like his team-mate inherited that flaw in this race. His pace was great showing how well the upgrades have worked on the McLaren, and was out of position at the start. McLaren's undercut in the final stint was the best way to go, and they nearly achieved victory by it. Back on the podium since China, that champagne must have tasted good for him.

Qualifying, a bad first few laps and strategy, again costs Kimi Raikkonen a chance to fight for the victory. The driver that always manages to come so good in the second half of the race, banging in constant fastest laps misses out again. They just make it hard for themselves, they've had several lost oppurtunities, Lotus and Raikkonen really should be in the title fight, but opposite to Alonso, this season hasn't been kind to them. A great move on Di Resta, and a solid result for the man who's been out for 2 years. Elevated up to a podium due to Vettel's penalty, starting from 10th, that was the best he was going to achieve. The question is though, will he or Lotus, even win a race this season?

In the early parts of the race, to me, it looked as if Kobayashi was getting out-performed by his team-mate. How he ended up 5th(4th after the penalty) I just don't know. That's his best result this season, and his best career result in Formula One. Had he started further up on the grid, one must wonder if he would have got his first ever podium finish.

Perez seemed as if he was going to fight for 4th, but in the end his strategy didn't work out, but he done extrememly well to finish in 6th(5th) from the position he started in, had an amazing first and second stint.

The home race for Michael Schumacher went the same way as Silverstone. Had a great qualifying, started 3rd, but didn't have the the pace to finish better than 7th. The Maestro proves he's still got it in the wet, out-performed his team-mate again. Is his season coming together now after that podium in Valencia? I hope so. The Mercedes car though is slipping back, and slipping back rapidly. It's beginning to become like last season, where 7th will be the best result for a Mercedes car, as the rest have pulled away. Hope to see them back up soon, don't think Mercedes will be happy with one win and 2 podiums this season.

Mr.Anonymous would seem to be the perfect title for Webber in this race. Started 8th and finished 8th, clearly didn't have the pace compared to the top 4 or even his team-mate, even if he started 3rd if he had no penalty, I doubt he would have finished in the top 3. Could have been no points for Webber if the Force India's actually had pace and several drivers not being out of position.

Again Hulkenberg out-performs Di Resta in qualifying and race. Finally coming good, but is Di Resta too far away for Hulkenberg to catch after that 6th place in Bahrain? Judging by the way things are going it seems so, as Force India are only fighting for the final points positions. The team really should be fighting in the midfield rather than the back end, luckily for them that Sauber have been unlucky and Williams are hot and cold, otherwise it would be far worse for them. Anyway, solid drive by Hulkenberg, who had a great first stint, but once on the mediums, the car dropped back.

Rosberg managed to salvage a point from 21st. The first time this season that Rosberg has finished ahead of his starting position, that may not be much of an achievement in this case since he started 21st, and with Grosjean, Hamilton, Massa and Maldonado all having problems he was lucky to get 10th. Despite that, he did well to make his strategy work to earn a point.

Grosjean was all at sea this weekend, judging by the way he performs, the next race should bring a good result, as it's usually hit and miss with him.

Maldonado dropped back so fast after what looked like a promising weekend, but reading reports, his car was severly damaged, hence why he dropped back rapidly.

Hamilton was plain unlucky, that's him I would say out of the championship, he really should be fighting Alonso, Vettel, Webber and Raikkonen for the title, but the he and the latter three, have all had external problems preventing them to take the fight to the Ferrari number 1.

As far as the championship goes, from several contenders to, probably over. Webber often has mechanical problems plus goes "MIA" (missing in action) in some races, Vettel's had two non-scores when he should have more, plus an unfair penalty in Spain that he and Massa got. Hamilton's had several pitstops and team errors in his direction. Raikkonen has had a few mechanical problems, plus missed oppurtunities in nearly every race as the car can't qualify well. Like I said before after Monaco, Alonso will probably be world champion come to the end of the season, that is unless he has at least 2 DNFS or a non scores, (hopefully for us all which he will have).

However, in saying that, (sorry for rambling on by the way) with McLaren back on form, and with Lotus with big upgrades, we could see Alonso not finishing on the podium in a few races time.

 

[Slyboogy]

 

[Slyboogy]

 

[Il_leone]

The Red Bull can't be so slow down the straight due to the Renault engines to pass other cars ....it seems Newey likes to set the car up to have very good traction in medium to high speed corners aided by superior downforce..off course in doing so it means the car is like a tow truck down the straight

Amusingly Algarsuari was wondering how Red Bull suddenly lost all their superiority of the last two races in pace.... was it to do with the engine mapping

Vettel deserved the penalty..which his former Red Bull stablemate Algarsuari says ....and typically Marko has to but in and say it is double standards his charge got punished

Kimi thinks Lotus have failed to make their opportunities count so his best chance of winning a race would be Spa as he is a master of the circuit if it at all

Grosjean... it was looking good for him in Valencia being a possible race winner and he's had two untidy races.... JYS could have taught you a few things Romain if you bothered to take his advice

Webber - another one of those races where he does not exist at all..his achilles heel again - starts being heavier than the others plus poor straightline speed meant he was going nowhere

Interestingly he got in the way of Vettel in quali which could have caused some anxiety in the garage