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[Denthúl]

I think Rubens' lap was pretty impressive - he was nowhere on the previous two. I wonder what kind of fuel load he has? I'm concerned for Vettel when it comes to fuel, but I don't think he will be anywhere near as light as he was in Monaco.

[bud]

thank god for Vettel to cure the Brawn Boredom! he is the winner of Germanies got talent 09!

[EwanM]

Surely it's not Boredom ?

[Gilles 27]

That did not go well for Hamilton! Fair play to Heikki getting into Q2, that car looked awful, as bad as I've seen it all season! Kimi out qualifying Massa at Massa's best circuit was a bit of a surprise too but fuel could tell a tale there...
I thought Alonso and Rosberg did good jobs in cars that are evidently not on the pace.
Ferrari ended up where i thought they might but I'm disappointed to see Trulli that high up, he'll only cause a train.

On Piquet's 'brake failure', i find it a bit strange how his 'brake failure's seem to exhibit none of the outward visual characteristics of other brake failures and in fact look more like driver errors. It is also a tad strange how this specific type of failure (as in one which looks like a driver error) seems to only be happening to him.

[darwin dali]

On Piquet's 'brake failure', i find it a bit strange how his 'brake failure's seem to exhibit none of the outward visual characteristics of other brake failures and in fact look more like driver errors. It is also a tad strange how this specific type of failure (as in one which looks like a driver error) seems to only be happening to him.

Ah bah: minor detail

[7UpJordan]

Man the BBC pit walk was soooo scripted. So bad

LOL I do like it compared to the ITV guff, but I find it all a little awkward. And I'm not liking the Eddie / DC thing all that much, though I think Jake does a good job.

I agree the BEEB do really make an effort with F1. I just found it funny when they were walking down and by chance Sam Michael would have a microphone, as would Flavio... and those mics just happened to belong to the BBC... Then Fisi was randomly walking out of the garage at the very same time

The BBC crew may be still loitering in the pitlane, but they are making much better use of it than ITV did, all Steve Rider and Mark Blundell did was camp outside the McLaren garage and stalk Hamilton.

[cap-dude]

Piquet.... Brake Failure??? The rears locked up, so clearly the brakes were working. Unless they got stuck or something like that.

But Vettel.
I was happy to say the least. As soon as I seen Button start going purple, all I could think was, not again. I was watching Vettel's sector times closely. He needed to make up time in the last sector, the section Red Bull haven't been great in, and he done it. Again, I think Button has rapped up the title, but i'll be backing Vettel down to the last lap.

Massa slower than Kimi again?? Kimi has upped his game this year, but unfortunately the car hasn't. Usually its Massa faster in quali and Kimi faster in the race. But Massa was faster during the race last weekend. It's like a bit of role reversal for the Ferrari drivers this year. Hopefully Massa will be faster during the race again then. Perhaps a 4th would be great.

Toyota look good once again. Truili ahead of both Ferrari's, so that'll be encouraging for the team.

Williams, I don't think face palm is enough right now. I'll wait to see what the fuel loads are like, but haven't they noticed yet, that their car is weak on heavy fuel loads. They need to be going more aggressive and to allow Nico to have free air to bang in some good laps. As he said himself, that's his strength. Not fuelling him heavy and landing him in the mid-feild.

[Denthúl]

Well, the car weights are out and there are a couple of surprises. Vettel is quite a big lighter than Jenson, Kimi is heavier than Massa. But the biggest surprise for me is Barrichello - he's significantly lighter than Jenson and could only manage to qualify in P3. He really needs to jump at least Button at the start. If he could do what he did at Barcelona and get past Jenson and Vettel, then he might be able to take the win as long as he builds up a big enough lead and then runs a longer middle stint. But it's looking like another race for Jenson to win. Of course, any of the top four could pull off a victory if they start the race well enough.

At least Rosberg has a reasonable amount of fuel onboard, but it's obvious that with any fuel in the Williams just isn't good over one-lap. Race pace is good, but starting so far back hinders them.

Number Car Driver Weight [kg]

01 McLaren Mercedes Lewis Hamilton 696.5*
02 McLaren Mercedes Heikki Kovalainen 665.0*
03 Ferrari Felipe Massa 654.0
04 Ferrari Kimi Räikkönen 658.0
05 BMW Sauber Robert Kubica 664.0
06 BMW Sauber Nick Heidfeld 681.5*
07 Renault Fernando Alonso 644.5
08 Renault Nelson Piquet 689.6*
09 Toyota Jarno Trulli 652.0
10 Toyota Timo Glock 689.0*
11 STR Ferrari Sébastien Bourdais 701.0*
12 STR Ferrari Sébastien Buemi 686.5*
14 RBR Renault Mark Webber 656.0
15 RBR Renault Sebastian Vettel 649.5
16 Williams Toyota Nico Rosberg 660.0
17 Williams Toyota Kazuki Nakajima 680.4*
20 Force India Mercedes Adrian Sutil 668.5*
21 Force India Mercedes Giancarlo Fisichella 688.5*
22 Brawn Mercedes Jenson Button 655.5
23 Brawn Mercedes Rubens Barrichello 652.5

[8-ball]

It was my fear that Vettel went light. Jenson's got at least 2 laps more fuel and we know that his tyre management on both compounds is superb. I predict that he will win this race during the pitstops, but I hope for the sake of eliminating boredom, I am wrong.

Mark Webber's pace shows that the Red Bull is almost up to the Brawn cars, he pulled out a great qualifying lap. I want him to win soon, he is to good not have a win next to his name

[Gilles 27]

As expected really except Massa being heavier than Kimi. I'm not going to draw any conclusions just yet but it does look like Kimi has regained a level of performance that was absent last year and to some extent in 2007.

I don't understand where people get off thinknig that Rosberg is underperforming, he generally qualifies where he should given his car and fuel load. I mean what else is he supposed to have done today with that car and that fuel load? Everyone ahead of him is in a faster car or is Alonso, with roughly no fuel. The idea that the Williams is somewhere near the front-running pace is also rubbish, it doesn't treat the tires well and looking at practice times means absolutely nothing, Kovelainen was fastest in P2 yesterday! Rosberg's race performances haven't been stunning but he's had poor qualifying positions (due to the car being poor at the track and fuel loads), poor strategies and massive performance drop-off from the option tire to contend with in various races this year.

[McLaren Fan]

From autosport.com:

Pos Driver Team Weight (kg)
1. Sebastian Vettel RBR Renault 649.5
2. Jenson Button Brawn Mercedes 655.5
3. Rubens Barrichello Brawn Mercedes 652.5
4. Mark Webber RBR Renault 656.0
5. Jarno Trulli Toyota 652.0
6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 658.0
7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 654.0
8. Fernando Alonso Renault 644.5
9. Nico Rosberg Williams Toyota 660.0
10. Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 664.0
11. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 681.5*
12. Kazuki Nakajima Williams Toyota 680.4*
13. Timo Glock Toyota 689.0*
14. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 665.0*
15. Adrian Sutil Force India Mercedes 668.5*
16. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 696.5*
17. Nelson Piquet Renault 689.6*
18. Sebastien Buemi STR Ferrari 686.5*
19. Giancarlo Fisichella Force India Mercedes 688.5*
20. Sebastien Bourdais STR Ferrari 701.0*

[cap-dude]

So Ferrari still have a little advantage over Toyota. Ferrari actually running heavier than those in front. So that'll be interesting to watch.

Massa apparently had troubles with balance with fuel on board. Clearly barrichello had similar trouble somewhere along the line. Vettel and Red Bull got the strategy just right in my opinion, since they need to start on the front row, and they've done it with the optimum amount of fuel. Any heavier and Button would be on pole.

[Rivelution]

YESSSSS!!!!!! Webber is the heaviest of the top 4, Webber FTW!!!!!!

[Gilles 27]

Webber looked liek he was driving pretty well tbh

[Rivelution]

Webber and Kimi are the guys I want to win, although anyone other than Button would make me happy.