GROβER PREIS VON DEUTSCHLAND!

We're backing racing again at the all awaited for Nurburgring track. Amidst all financial constraints, Bernie and his new scheme of things did a tremendous job bringing back the historical track back into the calendar after all the hardships.

This weekend will be yet another start to the season as Pirelli have brought in new tyre compounds following a British Grand Prix dominated by tyre blows every minute. The season so far has been dictated by the tyres, as no matter what, they've made the headlines every weekend for all the ruckus they've made. But a positive out of all this is that other teams struggling with the excessive tyre wear are getting a chance to come under spotlight because of the concept of having new compounds for each race, on the other hand we're witnessing the Lotus team slowly drifting away into the positions between 5 and below.

The championship at this stage is very open. Last race showcased new possibilities for divers like Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen to catch up to the leader. Along with lady luck and possibly a retirement from Vettel, will re-kindle their chances of the title. The constructors title is well settled in the hands of Red Bull once again, with both their drivers constantly performing to keep them up in the leader boards. Further back, Mercedes is just 3 points shy of the much valued 2nd place displacing Ferrari in the constructors.

Practice 1 and 2 were dry and pretty conclusive. And the new tyres worked very well as they didnn't blow up. The morning session was slightly colder than the latter, hence saw the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton dominating. Nico Rosberg worked  the tyres well too to take the checkered flag in P2 in FP1. Here are the full results for FP1:

1		Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:31.754
2		Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:31.973
3		Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:32.789
4		Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:32.822
5		Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:32.956
6		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:33.065
7		Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:33.139
8		Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:33.213
9		Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:33.260
10		Sergio Perez	McLaren-Mercedes	1:33.456

Practice 2 saw the sudden lightning place from Red Bull. After FP1 Red Bulls were looked down upon for a while in this race, but the transition within 2 hours was remarkable and scared their rivals. Home hero slash birthday boy Sebastian Vettel made his way comfortably to the top in the hotter of the two sessions, while his teammate Mark Webber finished 3rd. Equally good were the Mercedes' of Hamilton and Rosberg, who looked strong throughout Practice sessions.

1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:30.416
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:30.651
3	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:30.683
4	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:30.843
5	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:30.848
6	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:31.056
7	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:31.059
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:31.304
9	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:31.568
10	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:31.797

Fernando Alonso's Ferrari was marred by technical failures with the ECU and hence couldn't run in the first session. But he covered up the running time in FP2 as he finished in P6. The Ferrari doesn't look particlulary phenomenal around the Nurburgring. Even Felipe Massa for that matter struggled to get temperature and pace in his tyres and car. Though making it into the top 10, Ferrari as a constructor isn't happy considering pace. 

Lotus too was one another team which struggled on the tyres and around the track. Their low fuel runs were off place, and the one lap pace was far from bad. Kimi Raikkonen managed a P5 in both the sessions while his teammate P9 and P4 in FP1 and FP2 respectively. 

Practice 3: Once again the Sebastian Vettel rule was established as Vettel's very last lap with just 2 minutes to spare during the session saw him take out 6 tenths away from Lewis' best time to claim P1. As the rubber got laid in during the session, the track became faster hence the laptimes in 1:29s. 

Here are the full results: 

1		Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:29.517
2		Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:30.193
3		Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:30.211
4		Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:30.621
5		Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:30.639
6		Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:30.671
7		Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:30.744
8		Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:30.781
9		Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber-Ferrari	1:30.966
10		Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:31.009