Nuerburg, 11 July 2009

Even if rain is hardly a surprise at this circuit, set high in the Eifel mountains, with its own unique micro-climate, when the rain did come it managed to turn this afternoon’s qualifying session into something of a lottery. At the end of the day, both our drivers got through to final Top Ten shoot-out, with Felipe Massa securing a starting position on the outside of Row 4 in eighth place. Kimi Raikkonen starts one place behind in ninth spot. Light rain arrived as predicted in the middle of Q1 and then got heavier in Q2, before the track dried out again enough to use slicks for Q3. By this stage, both F60s had used up their full allocation of new softer tyres, which meant that running on the harder rubber, both Ferrari men were at a slight disadvantage, but whether or not they would have been higher up the grid is debatable. The team strategists obviously took the tyre situation into account, opting to run the cars with a comparatively high fuel load, which should bring two advantages in tomorrow’s 60 lap German Grand Prix: firstly it will see Felipe and Kimi hopefully gain an advantage in terms of track position by running a longer first stint and secondly, a bigger fuel load leaves a driver in a more flexible position in the event of rain and/or a Safety Car period.



Mark Webber took the first ever pole position of his F1 career for Red Bull Renault, which probably did not please the local crowd, who saw the Australian’s team mate, Germany’s Sebastian Vettel claim fourth spot on the grid. This was the first time an Australian has taken pole since Alan Jones in 1980, also at the German GP, held that year at Hockenheim. Splitting the two of them are the Brawn Mercedes’ of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Although only Lewis Hamilton’s car is fitted with major updates that have seen a considerable improvement for McLaren, both he and his team-mate share Row 3 with the Englishman ahead of Heikki Kovalainen. Felipe shares Row 4 with another surprising name, that of Germany ’s Adrian Sutil who is in seventh place for Force India . Kimi has Nelson Piquet’s Renault outside him on Row 5.

Michael Schumacher is here this weekend, at what used to be one of the highlights of the season in his racing days, as the Schumi Army of fans would turn out in their thousands to cheer on their hero. He drove from his home in a Ferrari California, the company’s latest road car which the German helped develop. The amazing new motorsport entertainment complex built here at the Nurburgring is hosting its first ever boxing match this evening and one of the fighters, Domenico Spade is Italian. Apparently, he has urged all the Ferrari mechanics to turn up to cheer him on tonight.