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Grand Prix of Germany — Hockenheim
| Place | Grid | Race | ||
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| 1 2 3 |
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Kimi Räikkönen Michael Schumacher Felipe Massa |
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Michael Schumacher Felipe Massa Kimi Räikkönen |
| 4 5 6 7 8 |
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Jenson Button Giancarlo Fisichella Rubens Barrichello Fernando Alonso Ralf Schumacher |
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Jenson Button Fernando Alonso Giancarlo Fisichella Jarno Trulli Christian Klien |
| 9 10 |
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Pedro de la Rosa David Coulthard |
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Ralf Schumacher Vitantonio Liuzzi |
| 11 12 13 14 15 16 |
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Mark Webber Christian Klien Jacques Villeneuve (Q=14) Nico Rosberg (Q=15) Nick Heidfeld (Q=16) Vitantonio Liuzzi (Q=17) |
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David Coulthard Scott Speed Mark Webber Takuma Sato Jacques Villeneuve Rubens Barrichello |
| 17 18 19 20 21 22 |
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Takuma Sato (Q=19) Tiago Monteiro (Q=20) Scott Speed (Q=22) Jarno Trulli (Q=13) Christijan Albers (Q=18) Sakon Yamamoto (Q=21) |
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Nick Heidfeld Pedro de la Rosa Sakon Yamamoto Nico Rosberg Christijan Albers Tiago Monteiro |
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 Pole: 1'14"070 |
Best Lap: 1'16"357 |
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Motor change penalty | |
did not finish | |
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Car failure | |
drive-through penalty | |
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Spin or accident | |
disqualified | |
| (Q=) | original qualifying place | |||
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final 15' session (race fuel+tires) | |
Podium | |
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second 15' session (low fuel load) | |
Points | |
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first 15' session (low fuel load) | |
- no points - (from 8th down) | |
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See this GP's history & stats at Wikipedia. Sakon Yamamoto, Super Aguri's new test & reserve driver (since the Silverstone racing weekend), was promoted to Franck Montagny's race seat, in the German Grand Prix. His F1 debut, however, was over after one lap, due to a drive shaft failure. Scott Speed lost his Toro Rosso through the first corner, spun across the track, and crashed quite heavily, in qualifying, before he could set a time. To everyone's relief, the young American was quickly out of the car, unharmed. Christijan Albers needed an engine change on Friday (the first for the MF1 cars!) and Jarno Trulli on Saturday morning; whereas new Super Aguri boy Sakon Yamamoto needed to swap to the spare car without sufficient time also to swap his undamaged race engine to the spare car. So he ended up suffering a grid demotion penalty for an engine change, since the engine he was using was not his race engine. A mistake made by the McLaren Team actually helped Kimi Räikkönen conquer his first pole position of the Season: at the last qualifying session, McLaren mistakenly placed a far smaller fuel load in Räikkönen's car tank than they were to have given him for the race, thus forcing the Finn to make a very early pit stop, but unintentionally making his car light enough, at qualifying, to beat the two Ferraris. 
Incidentally, it is worth remarking that the McLaren cars have clearly shown improvement. Were it not for this odd fuel mix-up (and a few other mishaps, such as a slow wheel-change, along with an hydraulic problem during the race and blistering tires in Räikkönen's last stint), the Finn's result could well have been better. The Honda's, too, have definitely made a step forward and upped their game, in Germany–at last! Just too bad that Rubens Barrichello had to suffer an engine fire early on in the Grand Prix...but Jenson Button was third most of the race, only losing his P-3 to a hard-fighting Kimi Räikkönen, on an improved McLaren. The Williams's, too, have shown good progress, despite this not being directly evident in their final race results. A silly mistake from young Nico Rosberg cost him his race, as he crashed out only on the race's first lap...but the unlucky Mark Webber was 5th, when a water pipe failure had him retire on lap 59. By the way, it is now definite that Toyota will be powering the Williams's cars, in 2007. They will be racing with the same specification V8s used by the factory Panasonic Toyota Racing team. Despite Jarno Trulli's modest P-7 and Ralf Schumacher's finishing just outside the points, the Toyotas have likewise shown progress, in Germany. Incidentally, it has been announced that Jarno Trulli has had his contract with Toyota extended through 2009. Ralf Schumacher had a racing weekend to forget, though: his drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane ended up constituting just a detail... Before that, the German had already gotten entangled with David Coulthard on the first lap, and then nearly driven into Jenson Button in the pit lane–not to mention Ralf Schumacher's having run into Pedro de la Rosa during qualifying, on Saturday. Incidentally, this was Ralf Schumacher's third drive-through penalty, this Season–all three penalties for speeding in the pit lane! The other two were in Canada (where the German had another weekend to forget) and in Australia (a less eventful racing weekend, for the German driver). No other driver has had as many drive-through's as Ralf Schumacher, this Season. At the same time, team-mate Jarno Trulli has not had a single drive-through in the Season; so Ralf Schumacher's three penalties won't be due to an issue inherent to the Toyotas, it seems. Why, then?... (See the Penalties stats page.) Though Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro had finished 13th and 14th, respectively, both MF1 cars were disqualified from the German Grand Prix, following the stewards' judgment that their rear wings were illegally flexible. The Sauber-BMW Team likewise left Germany with much to regret, as Jacques Villeneuve first crashed into team-mate Nick Heidfeld's car (both BMW's having to pit for repairs), and finally crashed his own car out of the race, on lap 31. Heidfeld, in turn, already running at the back of the field (due to that unscheduled early stop), had to pull off and retire only on lap 8. (See related notes on the page for the Grand Prix of Hungary.)
On a happy note, Bridgestone scored their 100th GP victory, in the German GP. Ferrari, by the way, seemed to have been the one team to get it all right, in the German GP weekend. This possibly played a reasonable role in what looked like a sudden impressing superiority over the rest, at first glance–though evidently the team have visibly been taking steps forward, at just about every one of the last racing weekends, especially. Felipe Massa's soberness during the race's top three interview–quite in contrast with team-mate Michael Schumacher's undeniable joy–seemed to suggest that, under normal racing circumstances, Felipe Massa could have won this German GP. In fact, everyone could see the young Brazilian easing off, as Michael Schumacher left the pit lane after his last stop, so the German would retain the P-1 he had pitted from (right ahead of Massa). Another indication of a possible 'moral winner' within the Ferrari Team might have been Michael Schumacher's gesture of inviting Felipe Massa to join him on top of the German's own Ferrari, to celebrate that victory, as soon as the drivers exited their cockpits in the parc-fermé. Michael Schumacher had earlier had an analogous gesture toward his then team-mate Rubens Barrichello, just it had not been on top of his own car, at that time, after a race at the end of which Barrichello had clearly handed the German the victory. Of course Felipe Massa would like to win his first race–who wouldn't?...but he was extremely discrete regarding a possible frustration, especially considering his age, if his evident soberness was indeed an indication of the disappointment it must have meant purposefully to let a much wished first win slip by, into the hands of (ironically) the record holder of F1 victories... Stunningly, the Renault cars had such a tough time, in Germany, that their fastest race laps were just slightly ahead of Vintantonio Liuzzi's, in a Toro Rosso (i.e., former Minardi)! Giancarlo Fisichella's and Fernando Alonso's fastest race laps were, respectively, just the top 8th and 9th fastest laps in the race–admittedly, a concerning performance for a Team aiming at retaining their driver+constructor World Titles. It is worth remarking that this astonishing lack of pace came on a weekend for which the Team had announced that they would bring the biggest of their aerodynamic updates, thus far in the Season, and so they expected to go quicker!... 
Could the mass dampers issue be solely blamed for this shocking underperforming of the Renault cars, which has now left the Team a mere ten points ahead of Ferrari, and allowed Fernando Alonso's previously comfortable advantage over Michael Schumacher to shrink to just eleven points?!... (See the Hungary GP page, in special, and Renault's Pat Symonds' and Fernando Alonso's words, on the F1 Quotes-6 page) Possibly the hardest disadvantage from not using the mass damping system has been felt on Renault's Michelin tires, which suffered from serious blistering, at Hockenheim. At any rate, it is reportedly suspected that Renault's performance without the use of these mass dampers could have dropped as much as three-tenths of a second per lap. Fernando Alonso, by the way, had a big moment on lap 61, running off the track but luckily managing it back just in time to remain ahead of team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, who had anyway been running behind the Spaniard. Incidentally, Giancarlo Fisichella's topping Fernando Alonso's both race and qualifying speeds, in cars that they both found difficult to drive, might suggest that the Italian's best performances can somehow rather be achieved in cars other than the smoothest. Remember, for example, how Fisichella usually out-performed Felipe Massa, in the old Sauber? In fact, this was likely what motivated Renault to hire him. But, once in a top car, Fisichella's performances have not compared to those he used to have when in the Sauber (and other smaller teams than Renault). Disappointingly, Fisichella has consistently been out-performed by Alonso, since they have been team-mates. Could it be that the experienced Italian somehow has the edge when it comes to 'taming' a difficult car to drive, but somehow can't find the same pace as the best drivers, when the car functions optimally and smoothly?... 
See the 2006 Race Weekend Timetable See Track & Lap Related Data Follow all Practice, Qualifying & Race Sessions in real time on MieNet.
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