2009 Grand Prix of Germany, Practice Sessions 1, 2 & 3

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:32.149            23
 2.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:32.331  + 0.182   31
 3.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:32.369  + 0.220   32
 4.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:32.480  + 0.331   28
 5.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:32.511  + 0.362   32
 6.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:32.585  + 0.436   32
 7.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:32.664  + 0.515   26
 8.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:32.774  + 0.625   24
 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:32.872  + 0.723   32
10.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:32.992  + 0.843   29
11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:33.012  + 0.863   36
12.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:33.052  + 0.903   34
13.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:33.128  + 0.979   34
14.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:33.161  + 1.012   28
15.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:33.172  + 1.023   34
16.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:33.182  + 1.033   29
17.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:33.724  + 1.575   27
18.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:33.903  + 1.754   30
19.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:34.025  + 1.876   30
20.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:38.877  + 6.728    3

News & Quotes:

Ferrari Team Quotes – Kimi Raikkonen – “I think we are more or less where we were at

Silverstone. We are still struggling a bit to find the best balance on

the car, but I am sure that we will find a way of fixing that. In the

second session, I only used the softer tyres because we had to work on

the car in between the two sessions, which cost me a bit of time. We

certainly struggled to get the harder tyre up to the right operating

temperature, as was to be expected given the weather.” 

Chris Dyer – “It was rather a difficult day, with changing

weather conditions and a few little technical glitches (Kimi’s gearbox

had an oil leak) which meant we had to compress our work programme.

However, in the end, we managed to complete almost all the tasks on our

list, including the evaluation of some new aerodynamic components.

There is definitely more work to be done to get the balance right on

the car, in order to achieve our objectives which are to get both cars

into Q3 and to do well in the race. The low temperatures do not suit

us, especially when it comes to doing a good time on the first flying

lap.”
Formula1.com Q&A with Kimi – Q: Kimi, after Friday practice, what are your expectations for the race? 

Kimi Raikkonen: We

are in a similar position as we were in Silverstone. The car was quite

difficult to handle today but I am pretty sure that we will be able to

find a solution for that. Friday is always hard to judge as you never

know what the other guys are running on. We will see what we can do

tomorrow, but I think we are more or less where we were at the last

race. 
Q: Yesterday you were hopeful for the car in Germany.  Was the reality better or worse than you expected?
KR: Well,

I wasn’t really thinking too much. In reality I expected the car to be

more or less the same. Hopefully we can make it a little bit better in

terms of both downforce and speed. 
Q: Can you tell us something about the times in Sector One and Two. There have been some quite big differences… 
KR: As

I said the car was quite difficult today so it’s no surprise that the

lap times were not so good, but I am very confident that we can find a

solution for Sector Two. But overall there is a lot of time to lose,

including in the first sector. In my opinion in Sector One there is the

biggest potential to lose time. 
Q: How difficult was it switching the tyres in these cool temperatures? 
KR: I

only had the softs on because we had some issues with the harder tyres

and the soft seem to be working well. In the morning we tried the hard

but when we realized that we would have an issue, we switched entirely

to the soft and that felt okay.

Free Practice 1 – Webber Fastest From Button
Full practice report can be read here  


Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:33.082            19
 2.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:33.463  + 0.381   18
 3.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:33.745  + 0.663   21
 4.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:33.795  + 0.713   23
 5.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:33.839  + 0.757   26
 6.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:33.840  + 0.758   23
 7.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:33.902  + 0.820   26
 8.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:33.909  + 0.827   13
 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:33.952  + 0.870   25
10.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:34.148  + 1.066   16
11.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:34.221  + 1.139   25
12.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:34.227  + 1.145   17
13.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:34.483  + 1.401   14
14.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:34.694  + 1.612   23
15.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:34.738  + 1.656   24
16.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:34.827  + 1.745   27
17.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:34.878  + 1.796   28
18.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:34.893  + 1.811   26
19.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:34.911  + 1.829   23
20.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:35.092  + 2.010    6


News & Quotes:
 Melbourne could pull out over F1 rows 
FOTA pushing ahead with breakaway 
Melbourne won’t host ‘half an F1 race’ 
Massa: Ferrari must work flat out 
Webber says no pressure to beat Vettel 
Ferrari.com – An interesting performance by the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro this

morning at the first 90-minute free practice session. The weather

conditions are pretty instable here at the Nürburgring with some rain

at the start of the session and although the track dried over the rest

of the 90 minutes, the temperatures remained quite low (10/12° air and

14/21° track). Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen drove the third

(1:33.745) and sixth (1:33.840) fastest time respectively. Felipe Massa

went out for three runs, always on the hard compound, while his F60

presented some improvements brought to the German track. Kimi Raikkonen

drove the same number of runs, also on the hard compound.