Alonso last man standing in Nurburgring chaos.

Coming to Nurburgring means were into the 10th race of the season. The grind or testing racing and yet more testing to go racing may start to take its toll on the teams. Its where a lapse of concentration or the smallest mistake by driver or team can have big consequences in the fight for the championship.

Kimi Raikkonen knows how small mistakes can destroy your race when in 2005 lapping Jacques Villeneuve he flat spotted his tire which built up to destroy his suspension and send him in to the tire wall on the last lap. In fact Kimi's luck at this circuit has been pretty dismal an engine blow up while leading in 03 and only one finish in six attempts. An improvement in his recent form with back to back victories in France and Britain in his attempt to take the lead in the standings. The man leading the points Lewis Hamilton who was disappointed with third at Silverstone wanted to keep his lead intact and keep his teammate Alonso in check who like Kimi was finally getting on top of this seasons Bridgestone tire. Behind Bmw were still clearly 3rd fastest team Renault still in 4th but confident of better races in the second part of the season though they had several teams behind them snapping at there rear wings. Toyota were showing improvement in the tight mid field battle Williams and Red Bull also up there too. Super Aguri, Honda, Torro Rosso and Spyker filling the rest of the grid.

Qualifying Confirmed this losing New Spyker driver Markus Winkelhock who replaced Albers, Sutil, Coulthard who said he got his timing all wrong when going to set his lap, Liuzzi, Speed, Button who had been outqualified by both Super Aguris in Q1 in Q2 we lost Sato then Davidson. Barrichello, Fisichella, Wurz And Rosberg. The first surprise of the weekend though was that Lewis Hamilton was 10th after a big accident. It turned out that a wheel gun had failed to fully tighten the nut on the right hand front wheel. This allowed the wheel to ever so slightly move about sending him off the circuit at 260km/h straight in to the tire wall. Medical teams were straight at the scene and he was air lifted to hospital for checks It took 30 minutes to clear the car and debris and it left only 5 minutes for the drivers to set a time. Raikkonen took pole from Alonso with Massa in 3rd Heidfeld 4th Kubica 5th Webber 6th Kovalainen 7th then Trulli and Schumacher 8th and 9th.

The talk before the race was would Lewis be fit to race after his accident? yes. It was established that Lewis suffered around a 20g impact (compared to Kubica's 75g accident in Canada this was small in comparison) He had suffered some light bruising but nothing more. come 30 seconds into the race this was the least of his problems. before the start there had been talk of rain during the race and as what was to happen it was surprising that so many teams were caught out. For once the rain actually happened as the cars were on there warm up lap. Only one car went into the pits for wets though. That was Markus Winklehock. The German rookie in his first race had nothing to loose and decided to go for wet tires and see what happens. Now this part of the race was about to get confusing. As the lights went out Raikkonen kept the lead Massa Jumped Alonso pushing him to third. The Bmw drivers committed the deadly sin of clashing with each other Hamilton had a lightening start up to 4th coming out the 2nd corner only to get tagged by one of the Bmw's and have a rear puncture. Meanwhile as all this is going on the rain starts to come down heavy all the cars having difficulty staying on the track and going into the pitlane which is exactly what happened to Raikkonen. Coming into the entry of the pitlane he turned only to under steer out wide missing the pitlane and forcing him to do another lap of a soaking wet track on slick tires. This benefitted Massa who now wouldn't have to que up behind his teammate and risk losing places. Instead he would lead the race. Well actually he wouldn't Winkelhock happily sailed into the lead being the only driver to pit for wets. Not only did he lead but by some 20 seconds! Sadly he wouldn't be able to exploit this as on lap 3 mayhem ensued. Coming into turn 1 all the front runners had gone for intermediates. This included Button who was running in a season highest 4th. Until the braking zone at turn 1 became a one way river to the tirewall. then went Hamilton onto the gravel just avoiding damaging his car. Not to worry as the brits within seconds would have Scott Speed Nico Rosberg all joining the expensive car park. The safety car was deployed but Raikkonen also took a trip across the gravel but rejoined and there was room for one more brit with Davidson in his Super Aguri spinning at turn one too. Davidson was able to reverse and rejoin and surprisingly and possibly quite cheekily too Hamilton rejoined. In what was probably a first in F1 the JCB truck that was moving the stricken cars put Lewis back on track and as Lewis had managed to keep his engine ticking over he was able to rejoin the race because his car was deemed in a dangerous position and is then allowed marshal help to rejoin as long as his engine is running. Any other time and it would equal an instant black flag. During these brief laps an intense fight for 4th was going on between the two red bull drivers just before he safety car was deployed Coulthard and Webber. Each sniffing a possible podium. But the race was Red Flagged and the 2nd Torro Rosso car of Liuzzi aqua planed of at turn one straight into the JCB that was recovering the stricken cars. Luckily it was only a small tap and no one was injured but it could of been much worse.

The restart would be behind the safetycar and after Two laps it pulled into the pitlane Winkelhock quickly lost the lead but he would have the memories of leading his first race which was his home Grand Prix. Hamilton was allowed to unlap himself under the safetycar but pitted for dry tires 4 laps too soon and went a lap back down again. With the conditions too damp for the tires. At the front Massa started to set fastest laps while Raikkonen who despite his problems started from 7th and was quickly up to 6th passing Winkelhock who had stuck with extreme wet weather tires in hope of more rain. By lap 11 Hamilton had set the fastest 3rd sector indicating slicks were now the best tire. Kimi pitted the next lap as did Wurz. The extra lap on the dry tires helped Kimi jump from 6th to 3rd and right on the back of Alonso and Massa. behind the top 3 it was then Webber, Wurz, Kovalainen who would then pass Wurz a few laps later. Heidfeld would try to pass Ralf Schumacher but Schumacher closed the door and Heldfeld knocked the Toyota into the gravel at the final turn as the Bmw carried on. Hamilton was still setting fastest laps but was still 20 seconds behind the next car up the road Trulli who was 3 seconds a lap slower than the Mclaren.

As the race approached the half way point on lap 30 Massa had managed to build up his lead to just over 6 seconds eventually making it 11 by the time he would pit. This would be the only car that Ferrari would have to stop as on lap 34 Raikkonen lost 4 seconds to Alonso and on lap 35 the hydraulics packed up. And Raikkonen was yet again out of the European GP, He'll probably be glad that the race is at Hockenhiem next year. After the stops had been completed Massa still lead but only by 6 seconds from Alonso with Webber in 3rd the Red Bull driver probably hoping his car would last the distance. With 10 laps to go the top 8 was Massa, Alonso, Webber, Wurz, Coulthard, Kubica, Heidfeld, and Kovalainen. Strangely though on lap 50 Kovalainen pitted to put intermediate tyres on even though the track was bone dry. Rain was forecast for the last part of the race and it came finally on lap 52 sending the leaders and what was left of the field into the pits. Alonso had got the gap down to 4 seconds before the rain this was reduced to 0 as massa defended the Mclaren that looked more comfortable in the wet conditions. On lap 56 Alonso went round the outside of Massa who under-steered into the Mclarens side pod but no damage was done and over the last few laps the reigning world champion blasted away. Two laps to go and Heidfeld passed his teammate Kubica making no contact this time. So Alonso won from Massa with Webber taking Red Bulls second ever podium in 3rd just 0.2 from Wurz, Coulthard, Heidfeld, Kubica and Kovalainen. In 9th was Hamilton after a horrible weekend for the Brit just 1.5 seconds outside the points.

Race Bits

• Ferrari 2 steps forward 3 steps back. (Part 2)
  Ferrari came away from the Nurburgring with a case of what could of been. The cars were easily quicker in the dry but the weather and reliability went against the team leaving them with just 8 points instead of a possible 18. With Massa 11 points behind Hamilton and Kimi 18 and 7 races left Ferrari cannot afford another weekend like this. It also makes you wonder how long before Ferrari tell Kimi to help Massa win the title. If the Finn loses more points next round in Hungary that could be it for his title hopes.



• Relax guys you finished 1-2!
  TV cameras caught Alonso and Massa having a heated exchange of words just before going onto the podium. When Alonso got out of his car he pointed to the tire mark on the side of the Mclaren unhappy that he and Massa had banged wheels. Alonso annoyed and felt the Brazilian had tried to take him out of the race. Alonso apologised later saying he was "stressed when I finished the race because we nearly didn’t finish the race" Massa accepted the apology but insisted he did not drive unfairly. “I don't have anything against anybody, I just do my race and I follow the rules of the sport, that’s all,”



• Joy at RBR but bad times at STR.
  While Red Bull Racing were over the moon with there best ever result in f1 3rd and 5th there b team Torro Rosso things were less rosy. Both drivers over recent weeks have spoken out against the team with Liuzzi calling for better reliability and Speed saying the team wanted both he and Liuzzi sacked, It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read the press and know that Franz and Gerhard are pushing like hell to get rid of me and Tonio." Both drivers went off in the race on lap 3 at the first turn. The teams post race statement read "Nothing to say"



• The Dream takes a beating.
  The run of 9 podiums came to an end for Lewis Hamilton with 9th place and his Championship lead cut to 2 points but the brit wasn't to down hearted, "With seven races left there's still a long way to go... I'm still leading the world championship, which I find quite amusing considering it was such a bad weekend." He went on to say "It just shows how hard everyone else is having to push to catch me up."



• A Spyker led a race!
  Markus Winkelhock replaced Christijan Albers this weekend probably couldn't believe he lead his first and home race a good pit call to switch to wet tires as the rest stayed on slicks saw him move up 22 places in 1 lap! Sadly it was not to be as no more rain came when he stuck with the wets on the restart his engine failing on lap 15. But he was happy with the day "To lead a Formula One race is something nobody can take away from you - you have it for your whole life. I am really happy about it - I was leading my home Grand Prix."

Champ of the race: Webber for getting 3rd in his Red Bull. Would of been Alonso but his little bit of a mood swing after the race swung it the red bull drivers way.

Chump of the race: Turn 1. Whilst entertaining it was bad to see the amount of standing water at such a heavy braking point. The Bmw drivers also get a mention for smashing into each other.