2009 German GP: Lewis Hamilton Steals the Show, but Brawn GP Still Strong

German Practice Two

Practice One was certainly strange.  Whilst the Red Bulls were consistently strong; (Vettel had an electrical failure, but was still fast), Brawn had a mixed session.  Jenson was convincingly second, as Rubens struggled to pull off the bottom spot!  

Though the BGP001s had new front cockpit covers, both drivers lacked front end grip which was obviously more of a problem for Rubens...but could the team improve for Practice Two?

As the lights went green for P2, Bourdais and Vettel opened proceedings.  Vettel was going very quickly and in fact nearly clashed with Bourdais into turn one, as he passed the Torro Rosso! Calm down Seb, it’s only P2!

Vettel recorded the first time but was quickly toppled by Glock with a 1:37:252 after just five minutes.  Encouragingly for spectators, at this early stage we had nine times on the board.  

The session got even better when, just as Vettel crossed the line for pole (1:35:577), the rain began to fall.  Which meant that seven minutes in, the stewards announced that the track was officially ‘wet’. 

Jen’s first time saw him take P11, though it wasn’t clear what tyre he was on; (though I guess as the rain wasn’t particularly strong at this stage, he was on slicks).

When Fisichella had an off in turn 11 after 10 minutes, yellow flags compromised the drivers' times and temporarily paused the action.  As the rain began to fall faster and harder, 13 minutes in, the track was in fact empty.

Heidfeld was the grid’s guinea pig, when he left the pits with 15 minutes gone on wet tyres.  After a sighter, the German returned to his pits and Bourdais took over as the lone driver on the track.

After about 22 minutes, the sun re-emerged and the track began to dry out again.  All this weather trouble meant that after almost half an hour we still hadn’t really seen much of Brawn GP.  At this stage, whilst Vettel was second, Jenson was last in P14, but at least the other Red Bull of Webber was only two places higher in P12.

Thankfully most of the cars were now exiting the pits to get some more times up on the board.  Amongst them was Rubens, who put in his first time of 1:37:937 (P13).

Rubens’s second try raised him to P12 as Jenson pulled himself from last to third!  At this stage, Webber was the Red Bull man to beat.  Rubens was certainly much stronger though this afternoon, as his third lap elevated the Brazilian to P7 (1:33:54).  Meanwhile, Jenson, who had fallen to P5, re-took P3 with a 1:34:384.

With 50 minutes left, Webber was first (1:32:584), Jens was third, and Rubens was P11.  On his fourth try, Rubens seemed to be struggling and was 1.975 seconds slower than the Australian in pole position. 

It may have been a problem with his front grip again, as by this stage his tyres should have been warm enough.  Whatever the problem was, the Brazilian compromised his fifth lap as he went wide into turn one.

As Rubens crossed the line to get up to P9 (1:33:95), he called his team to confirm that he was in fact struggling with front grip.  The team informed him that at this stage they weren’t sure whether it was a mechanical or tyre problem, but suggested that he changed to the softer compound for his next run.

With 40 minutes left, the Brawns were in the pits and Jens was P8, Rubens P13.  Webber was still top and his team mate was fifth.

When Jens went back out on track three minutes later, he raised himself to P7 (1:33:158), whilst Rubens remained in the pits with his BGP001’s nose removed and surrounded by mechanics.  

On his second attempt, Jenson became the first Brawn man to top the sheets with a 1:32:369 on the super soft tyres.

After an hour’s testing, Jens was on top in P1, whilst Rubens was out on track again on the super softs hoping to improve on his performances so far.  Sure enough the Brazilian managed to raise himself to P4 on a much better 1:32:664.  

With 24 minutes to go, Vettel knocked Jens off the top spot (with a 1:32:342), whilst Rubens lapped around in P7.  

Four minutes later, the rain began to fall again.  However, it wasn’t particularly strong at this stage (so no need for inters, or wets yet).  In the end, it proved just to be a passing shower.

With 12 minutes left, Jens was back out and trying to retake P1.  I didn’t quite know what to expect for his first run as he was really pushing his used softs on his hot lap.  Eventually his lap was compromised by a Williams and he instead decided to warm up his tyres for another lap.

When he did eventually put in a competitive flying lap, he remained second, but hey! thats no bad thing!

With six minutes left, Hamilton (1:32:149) knocked Vettel off of the top spot and relegated Jens to P3, and stuck him in a Red Bull sandwich; Rubens was P7.

So Hamilton back on top for a long time, Jenson P3, Rubens, P7.

All in all this was a great practice session for the Brawn team.  Red Bull were strong, but didn’t destroy the rest of the field.  Jenson was very competitive, despite some issues and Rubens, who had struggled all day, really did very well to finish where he did.

I think the key will be P3.  Brawn really improved over the two sessions today and I hope they can keep the momentum into tomorrow.  I can’t wait! It’s great to have F1 back after a few weeks off!

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap	Laps
1	1	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:32.149
2	15	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:32.331	0.182
3	22	Jenson Button	Brawn-Mercedes	1:32.369	0.220
4	14	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:32.480	0.331
5	9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:32.511	0.362
6	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:32.585	0.436
7	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn-Mercedes	1:32.664	0.515
8	7	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:32.774	0.625
9	17	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	1:32.872	0.723
10	8	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	1:32.992	0.843
11	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:33.012	0.863
12	3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:33.052	0.903
13	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:33.128	0.979
14	5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:33.161	1.012
15	10	Timo Glock	Toyota	1:33.172	1.023
16	4	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:33.182	1.033
17	2	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:33.724	1.575
18	12	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:33.903	1.754
19	11	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	1:34.025	1.876
20	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.877	6.728