Posted by ashleigh on
August 1, 2006
German Grand Prix
The German grand prix proved interesting on a number of fronts. The Bridgestone/Ferrari combination showed again that the Japanese tyre giant has taken a substantial step up in performance of late, even the new 'experimental' Michelin tyre had not got the pace needed.
The Renault's showed that they do require the 'outlawed' mass damper system they have employed for the past 18 months, as the car was not it's settled easy to drive self (with Fisi calling the car un-drivable in his second stint), it also seems to have caused blistering to the tyres on the car in the race.
McLaren also showed they have found some performance from somewhere, yes it's not as much as they need, but it's a clear step up, and last but not least Honda have found the level of pace that they showed in the early stages of the season.
Did all of these factors then make for a good race? Well no, the Ferrari's ran off and hid after the mistakenly short fuelled Kimi Raikkonen had to pit on lap 10.
So if we ignore the scarlet cars what do we make of the rest of the bunch?
Well, although Kimi was short fuelled, and then had a stuck wheel during the first pit stop (for the second week running) he fought through and came 3rd, a great drive by the Fin, and shows why so many teams are fighting for his signature at the end of the year. Pedro de la Rossa showed decent pace as well, however his engine packed up on him early on in the race.
The pitting of the leading McLaren allowed the Ferrari's to take the first two spot's and have an unhindered race to the flag. However the other teams running on Japanese rubber showed it was the tyre of choice, with both the Toyota and Williams cars setting good pace.
Barrichello suffered an engine failure on lap 18, this caused him to retire from the race, leaving only button to make point's for the Japanese Honda team.
Button was now running in third behind the quickly disappearing Ferrari's. He pitted on lap 15, showing just how much pace the Ferrari's had in the bag. Alonso was loosing ground in fifth to team mate Fisichella when both he and Massa pitted on lap 19.
Lap 30 brought a big crash from Jacques Villeneuve, who looked to have something in his suspension break as he was mid corner, the car seemed to loose it's front end and come to a halt in the barriers leading onto the home straight. Both him and team mate Nick Heidfeld had separate coming together’s on lap one with other cars, this could have been the root cause of the failure. Nick Heidfeld had already retired after the lap one incident, meaning both of the German BMW cars were out of their home GP.
Fisichella started to struggle with his Renault, allowing Alonso to catch up and overtake him in the stops, Button, Raikkonen and Mark Webber where in a battle for the last podium step.
The weekend of the Toyota driver Ralph Schumacher got worse, he was penalised with a drive through penalty for speeding in the pits. However Trulli after starting from the back of the grid (penalised for an engine change) had made his way into the points scoring positions.
The 3 way race for the third step came to an abrupt end, when Webber's Cosworth engine let go allowing the race to be between Jenson and Kimi.
The race had one final climax, with Trulli coming on fast behind the obviously suffering Renault of Fisichella. The Renault however had just enough pace to fend off the Toyota assault until the end of the race.
The final kick came when after the race, the stewards deemed the rear wings of the Midland Toyota cars to be flexing, and disqualified them from the race. As they only finished 13th and 14th there were no point's involved, however it seems that even the smaller teams are now trying out the 'flexi' technologies the larger teams have obviously been running.
Posted by ashleigh on
July 29, 2006
German Qualifying
The qualifying session started with some strange occurrences, even though Renault asked the German Stewards over turned an FIA injunction about the mass damper system, they still decided not to run the system on the car, worried the FIA would overturn it and penalise Renault.
The SA06 of Takuma Sato showed it had a little better pace than the 'Orange Arrows' car that they have been running by popping in between the two Midland cars.
Trulli started his weekend off badly in the Toyota, when his new specification RX06 engine gave up on him in practice and he has had to take a 10 place penalty for replacing it.
The qualifying proper showed up some strange issues as well, the Renault's had very little pace, all the grid believed they had been sand bagging in practice, but it seems that it is not the case. Fisichella was the fastest Renault only getting the 5th spot.
The Ferrari cars where both quick, Massa making the first showing of speed, with Michael close behind. The two Scarlet cars are 2nd and 3rd for Sundays race.
The surprise of the day though was the McLaren of Kimi. Not only did he pop it onto pole on Mercedes home grand prix, he did it in style setting a 1:14:070 with race fuel. Michael could only manage a 1:14:205, this proves that the McLaren team have certainly found some pace over the last couple of weeks, or that they are running Kimi very light indeed.
The tyre war looks to be closer this weekend as well. Michelin have brought a new 'experimental' tyre to the race and it seems (in Qualifying at least) to have brought the Michelin teams back up to the same performance level as the Bridgestone teams.
Let's hope the race turns out to be a good one, the track has a few good overtaking opportunities, and with Alonso so far back on the grid, we should get to see some good driving.
Posted by ashleigh on
July 28, 2006
German Free Practice
If you would like to see allof the free practice from the Friday sessions of the German Grand Prix then head over to EasyNews
Posted by ashleigh on
July 28, 2006
Show Time’s
The German Grand Prix is this weekend, and as usual it will be airing on ITV in the UK.
Saturday - 12:10 Qualifying
Sunday - 12:00 Race Live
Sunday - 23:15 Race Highlights
And for our American readers, SpeedTV are showing it at
Saturday -08:00ET Qualifying
Sunday - 06:00ET GP2
Sunday - 07:30ET Race Live
Sunday - 12:30ET Race Repeat
Enjoy the race!
Posted by ashleigh on
July 28, 2006
German stewards allow dampers
After the FIA banned the mass damping system that Renault are running in the nose of their car, the German stewards have deemed it ok to use.
The FIA will take this to the FIA International Court of Appeal, however it is unlikely that the matter will be cleaned up before the Hunagrian Grand Prix.
