German GP - Rain and rubber could hold the key
Nurburg, 23 July – Fernando Alonso and Pat Fry claimed there were no surprises at the end of this afternoon’s qualifying session for the German Grand Prix, in which the Spaniard claimed a spot on the outside of Row 2 of the grid, in fourth place with Felipe Massa taking the other 150º Italia to the inside of Row 3 in fifth. However, one major surprise came courtesy of Sebastian Vettel who, for the first time this season will not start a Grand Prix from the front row. It was the reigning world champion’s team-mate, Mark Webber who delivered another pole for Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton put in a strong lap in the McLaren to guarantee himself an uninterrupted view of the run down to the first corner tomorrow. Felipe shares his row with Nico Rosberg who set the sixth best time for Mercedes. The order at the top shows that nothing stays the same for very long in Formula 1 and a combination of yet another regulation change regarding engine mapping and the fact that teams do not always introduce major changes at the same time means the hierarchical map is in a constant state of flux, even if one team still seems to be at the top of the pile.
It makes predicting the likely outcome of tomorrow’s tenth round of the championship almost as difficult as it was back in March in Australia. Every race this year has had some of the uncertainty of going to a new track because of the tactical trio of new elements, DRS, KERS and Pirelli tyres. How easy will it be to pass another car in the DRS zone is one question mark, while the fact that the Prime tyre is working very well over a long distance means that a one-stop strategy might finally be the top choice tomorrow. However, that is not entirely clear, while the biggest unknown concerns the weather. Summer has definitely not made any attempt to attend this race meeting and tomorrow, rain is reckoned to be on the menu. Starting from fourth and fifth, a podium has to be the minimum target for Scuderia Ferrari, but the cliché that “anything can happen” looks like being the order of the day tomorrow.
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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