2008 German GP Qualifying
Qualifying for Round 10 of the 2008 F1 season at Hockenheim.
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00:00:0010 of the 2008 season
00:00:02Hello, everybody. I'm Bob Varsha with David Hobbs Steve match it at Peter Windsor
00:00:06It looks nice now at the Hockenheim ring, but just moments ago the world feed cameramen were wiping raindrops from their lenses
00:00:12So buckle in and get set for what should be a pretty exciting qualifying day now through nine rounds of the championship thus far
00:00:19We've talked about how we don't always see the fastest lap of the weekend winning pole position
00:00:25How close has qualifying been well if you apply the formula one point system 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1
00:00:31To the 8 quickest laps in qualifying which typically come when the cars are light on fuel in q2
00:00:37This is what you get Felipe Massa has basically
00:00:41Dominated the fast lap ari in formula one qualifying this year and you see those points gaps
00:00:45Massa has been fastest on five of the nine qualifying days to this point
00:00:50But he has only three poles to show for it Lewis Hamilton quickest on three occasions
00:00:54But only two poles and Kimi Raikkonen had the other fastest lap in formula one qualifying
00:00:59But he has two pole positions this year the other two pole sitters Robert Kubica and Hanky Kovalainen two weeks ago at the British Grand Prix
00:01:07Never posted the fastest lap in a session except when it counted with race fuel in q3
00:01:14Peter Windsor cruised the pit lane to talk to some of the quick men and asked them to rate their qualifying performance this year
00:01:23Generally I think I think my performance in qualifying has been pretty poor this year
00:01:27And so I've generally never really extracted the most from the car and I think
00:01:31They seem to have had a car which is much easier to do so and I think for the race
00:01:35I think I've always put in pretty strong performances, but
00:01:39Having a car that's quick in qualifying and quick in the race at the same time is very very difficult
00:01:45But you see Hanky has a quick qualifying car, but he's never near me in the race
00:01:51That's just because we have that fast setup
00:01:55I'm happy that I can do a good lap in qualifying
00:02:00You never know. Maybe when it counts you just make a small mistake
00:02:04You can be first but you can be fourth so it happens as well with me this season
00:02:08I think Felipe has been very very strong as you can see their car when you watch their on-board laps
00:02:12They look like they're on a Sunday drive
00:02:14You know the car never moves as where I'm fighting my car the whole way around trying to get the thing around and there they're
00:02:20Almost like they're on rails. So I think if there was points for work done, I think we'll be way ahead
00:02:27It's important to be quick in qualifying because that can help you a lot in the race
00:02:33But we know the others are quick as well
00:02:34So if you if you have a driver like Kimi or Lewis that they find the right lap
00:02:39They can be pulled for sure and I am in the same position
00:02:45Last qualifying in Silverstone we were more competitive than I think
00:02:50we were expecting Ferrari was struggling more than
00:02:55then I think
00:02:56they were slower than we thought and so
00:03:01everything is changing and
00:03:03It's very difficult to judge
00:03:08Well, that leads me to believe that maybe in addition to a bonus championship point for pole position
00:03:13They ought to award one for the ultimate fast lap in qualifying since that's all a part of the show of a Grand Prix weekend
00:03:20David, what do you think?
00:03:20Well, I think I don't know about that because the way the qualifying system set up now
00:03:24I suppose Paul really is Paul, but you should get a point for it
00:03:27And I think you should get a point for the fastest lap in a race to quite honestly
00:03:31Adds a little bit of excitement. Everybody wants to go for it
00:03:34But it was it was a good point that Lewis had there about the difference in qualifying setup and race setup
00:03:39Obviously, which is something now I've got coal iron thinking it's all about the fuel on board there
00:03:44You see it's also a very breezy day at the Hockenheim ring
00:03:47Let's take a look at the track now with our BMW track analysis David. Well, it is breezy
00:03:52And it's 17 corners ever see no elevation change at all
00:03:55You go off the start line there that Nord curve is turn one a very quick down one gear almost flat out down into the
00:04:02Iron part of the parabolic up which is a tight right-hander leading to that sweeping left-hander, which
00:04:08Obviously unwinds as you go through it
00:04:10They could they count that parabolic as a Kurt turn up to about a hundred ninety-five
00:04:14This year down to the spitz curve as you can see a very very tight hairpin
00:04:17But tons of run-up area so they make lots of mistakes and experiment there the Mercedes complex that left-hander
00:04:24Tricky you've sometimes see some overtaking there and then you get a lot of a directional change through that s as you come after that
00:04:30Pass the t2 signs the mobile curve which leads you into a stadium section lots of grandstands there and lots of directional change
00:04:37So you got to get the car really well set up and it's got to be good on the brakes and it's got to be
00:04:41Able to put the power down tricky circuit
00:04:44That it is. There's Jensen button in his Honda this morning's final 60 minutes where the teams do their race fuel qualifying
00:04:52Heikki Kovalainen quickest by seven hundredths of a second over the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. This will be good. Stay with us
00:05:02Speeds coverage of the FIA Formula One World Championship is brought to you by Bridgestone
00:05:07Passion for excellence by Priceline save up to half off on hotels only at Priceline and by Valvoline max life
00:05:15Drive it forever
00:05:18You
00:05:20Want this is today's first test against the clock the big guns usually take their time getting on the track
00:05:27They set an effortless flying lap while the bottom of the grid tried to claw their way out of the last five spots
00:05:33Now we see who advances to fight another round q1 starts now
00:05:38The
00:05:43Track is green for 20 minutes of knockout qualifying. Welcome back to the Hockenheim ring Bob Varsha, David Hobbs, Steve
00:05:50Matchett and Peter Windsor with you
00:05:5220 minutes the first session at the end of which the slowest five drivers are eliminated
00:05:56They take position 16 through 20 on the grid based on lap time
00:06:00Then all the lap times are thrown out and the remaining 15 men will go for 15 minutes
00:06:05We'll then eliminate five more drivers to fill spots 11 through 15
00:06:09And then the 10 men remaining will load up on their race fuel plus the fuel they need to complete their qualifying runs
00:06:17And bid for pole there's two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in the Renault
00:06:21He had a very good morning practice fourth quick behind Heikki Kovalainen
00:06:26Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton and behind Alonso was Sebastian Vettel
00:06:32One of five German drivers in this weekend's race along with Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock, Nick Heidfeld and Adrian Sutil
00:06:41There's Kimi Räikkönen twice a pole sitter this year
00:06:47And as usual the first car on track, let's listen to the radio
00:06:50I just did a tailwind into turn 6 at kind of like a higher level lower level
00:06:56I mean
00:06:57It's a tailwind into turn one at the moment on the pit straight and it'll be a bit differing around the circuit
00:07:02But it's going to be pretty similar to how it was this morning. Just a little bit more
00:07:08Turn six is right where we are there that tight hairpin
00:07:14Have to be careful that tailwind as well because it'll push the car
00:07:17That's what they're afraid of under braking. You have to be careful down there not to lose it
00:07:22Very tight corner indeed and you get too much wind blown on the back of the car and you'll overshoot
00:07:27Well, of course too when you turn into the corner suddenly becomes a side wind and you have your problems and yeah
00:07:33The aerodynamics change quite a lot. So
00:07:35Windy days are not good for Formula One cars
00:07:39There's Felipe Massa as we mentioned
00:07:42Pretty much the fastest man in Formula One these days when it comes to ultimate lap time
00:07:46But again, it's not the ultimate lap time that determines who sits on pole
00:07:52Now, let's welcome peter windsor peter. How are things?
00:07:56Thanks, bob
00:07:57Well, we've been saying most of yesterday that this is a very technical circuit
00:08:00but the logical second of that is that it poses very technical questions particularly in this swirling wind and with the likelihood of rain and
00:08:07Changing grip levels. I spoke to pat simmons director of engineering at reno just before the pit lane opened. This is what he had to say
00:08:14Well pat as ever glad it's you doing the job and not us very unpredictable conditions here particularly this morning
00:08:20It looks as if the grip level changed yet again
00:08:23Yeah, uh, it is hard to predict at the moment. There there there are returns on the radar
00:08:30Um, but as we saw a couple of minutes ago, you can get this very very light rain. That's not even wetting the surface
00:08:37um
00:08:38It's difficult to tell what we've got that's like that and what might be a bit heavier
00:08:42So it's going to be a hard one
00:08:45Speaking of hard which tire is the is the quicker tire for q2 q3?
00:08:50Uh for qualifying for the single lap is a softer one. Um, not sure that's a better race tie
00:08:56You always get a bit of graining here
00:08:58Um, you always have to be aware of it. So maybe it's a you know, a classic sort of soft qualifying hard race type circuit
00:09:06Best of luck. Thanks for talking to us
00:09:09Pat simmons sounded a little
00:09:12Exasperated maybe needs a little sleep i'm sure he and his renault technicians were up
00:09:16Crunching the numbers most of the night trying to find
00:09:19The setup they want for this race and take into account that it may rain today, but a dry race
00:09:26Appears to be in store on sunday. That's the kind of thing that drives technical directors in formula one crazy
00:09:32Yeah, and pat's comments really reflected by the other technical directors
00:09:36Up and down the pit lane as well
00:09:39Most of the guys red bull and ferrari saying exactly the same thing
00:09:43It is a very difficult choice on long runs between the tires
00:09:48This is really going to play into tomorrow in the race
00:09:50The performance difference is very little but as pat was saying
00:09:54There at renault really the soft tire is good for qualifying because as we'll be talking about yesterday in the practice show good for that
00:10:00one golden lap
00:10:02But beware of it graining after that and graining just those little
00:10:07Tiny balls of rubber rolling up on the surface of the rubber
00:10:12A little bit wide there. Well sebastian bettel
00:10:15and losing grip
00:10:18Kimi reichen and out fairly early in the ferrari so ferrari may be thinking it's going to rain later on
00:10:24But the ferrari on the hard goodyear compound. Let's have a look at vettel's off
00:10:32I'm surprised they don't clean that exit of that corner up a bit. You know, I mean, I don't
00:10:37driving over it, but
00:10:39Just make the surface a bit clean
00:10:44On board with mark weber's red bull renault
00:10:47Mark weber on the front row at silverson two weeks ago and spun on the opening lap. So
00:10:54Nico rosberg goes to p1. The williams toyota is on the harder compound as well
00:10:59And that just shows all that work you put into qualifying last weekend with a great performance and
00:11:03Spun in that rain on the opening lap how easily it grew you can lose it. Oh, yeah
00:11:08weber at the top
00:11:1016 three interesting that some of the lower teams in terms of performance are out early as we would expect but they're on the harder
00:11:16compound tire
00:11:19Well, they mostly seem to do this cube one on hard time. Well, there's the answer to the rain bob
00:11:23It's now the sun's shining because you can see quite a big, uh,
00:11:26Nalico has changed the temperature of the track very quickly here
00:11:30Perfect line through there for reikin and and there's the result
00:11:33He resets p1 reikin and never out qualified by a teammate on this track since it was reconfigured
00:11:39In 2002 to take away those long stretch
00:11:43Runs into the wood, but he's going to have his hands full with this guy felipe. Massa has been terrific in qualifying this year
00:11:50That's that long straight down to spitz curvy look how tight this corner is I mean it is really tight
00:11:56And hard to spot because of that vast runoff area behind it it's really hard to pick out where you need to brake
00:12:07Brutal weekend for the brazilian two weeks ago at the british grand prix the only time this year he's qualified
00:12:13Is he going to be able to do it?
00:12:15For the brazilian two weeks ago at the british grand prix the only time this year he's qualified out of the top six
00:12:25Oh, wow, look at that second sector time
00:12:30It should be one and done for massa he'll easily move into q2
00:12:34So
00:12:43Web has done another good job. Yeah, but not including 15 8
00:12:49Two tenths
00:12:53Reikinin goes full
00:12:55There's massa's brother
00:12:57You look down and the timing and scoring changes again. David coulthard hops into fifth place in the red bull renault
00:13:04We've got the mclarens out there as well. Everybody obviously thinks you need to get your time in early in q1
00:13:10Well, these guys have only just gone out. I'm surprised that uh the two for uh
00:13:14bmws and the two uh mclarens just waited so long to go out and view the
00:13:20Frightening weather probably expected traffic early on. Well, that's true
00:13:24Of course, they always all go at the end and then there's complaining about the traffic
00:13:28So
00:13:33You know david that could be a good call though from bmw and mclaren because as I speak in the garage area
00:13:37There is a sun now and we've seen this track pick up grip as the sun comes out in the course of the last three
00:13:43sessions
00:13:44Also trying to go quicker yet. He's doing it
00:13:57So
00:13:59Good line through the final corner and another almost four tenths
00:14:03And I think that might be the quickest lap of the weekend hamilton did a 15 a low 15 yesterday
00:14:10But i'm not sure it's quite that low 15 twos getting on the program
00:14:13You can see how stable the ferrari was in the hands of massa
00:14:17Thinking back to lewis hamilton's words the guy we're driving on board with now in the mclaren how stable the ferrari was in the in
00:14:24the stadium section
00:14:26Now if we can stay on board with lewis
00:14:28Stable his car has overdone it
00:14:30And that's where the drivers say you need it stability under braking is critical at hockenheim
00:14:37Hamilton didn't have it there
00:14:47Car looked pretty good for those changes right in there. It does wasn't a lot of input
00:14:50What about here to go into the stadium?
00:14:53This is where massa looks so stable
00:14:56So
00:15:05This last two corners they look like two corners on the map, but really it's one long double apex job
00:15:13Still p1 for hamilton by 37
00:15:16Thousands even going wider that happened
00:15:20Also on the hard tires interesting enough
00:15:22Well, no matter what hamilton says about the instability of mclaren relative to the ferrari mclaren
00:15:26Mercedes drivers have been quickest in all three practice sessions thus far
00:15:30There was the mistake that cost lewis hamilton some time, but he is still at the top of the time charts
00:15:37As we have 10 minutes to go halfway through q1 at hockenheim. We'll be back with more in a moment here on speed
00:15:44Speed
00:15:48Welcome back to hockenheim in extreme southwestern germany not far from heidelberg stuttgart and frankfurt
00:15:54Home in 2008 to the german grand prix a race that it shares year in and year out now with the nurburgring
00:16:02I'm, bob barshe with david hoffstein matching and peter windsor lewis hamilton remains atop the time charts as we get into the second half
00:16:09of the opening qualifying session
00:16:12There he is trying to squeeze a little more out of his mclaren mercedes on the harder bridgestone tire
00:16:19And he's not able to no
00:16:22Here comes one of the bmw saubers. They had a brutal morning session
00:16:25That's robert kubica who was dead last with mechanical problems in this morning's final and critical 60 minutes of practice
00:16:33Alonso again getting the best out of that. Uh right now they're up in the sixth spot
00:16:38Just a few tenths well, there's a second off for hamilton's time
00:16:43Robert kubica and uh, heidfeld not on a great weekend in their hometown
00:16:48for kind of their home crowd
00:16:50Two weeks ago in britain was a much better kubica skidded off in the wet after being outqualified by his teammate for the first time
00:16:57This year see the weight transfer on the front of the bmw there as kubica started to turn right and the inner wheel
00:17:04Blocking up but kubica of course had a little run into no running in p3 this morning without drive shaft problem
00:17:11So he's on a steep learning curve now with a grip level this morning this afternoon
00:17:20Well, it's gonna be a pretty good time
00:17:22But they've got two gears very close together in the ratio. They're entering the stadium
00:17:26Hardly any change in the engine note as he downshifted
00:17:34So
00:17:36It's a very coy about his future with his team
00:17:39The mw sauber definitely want him back because he slots into fifth
00:17:43Upper left of your screen are the five drivers currently in the relegation zone barrichello
00:17:48Bordet fizzy kella sutil and nick heidfeld who has yet to turn a hot lap, but he is on track
00:17:54Now there it is again. Oh
00:17:57Nelson pk
00:18:00You see that lock up again from that inside wheel going down into that tight hairpin when you get the weight transfer
00:18:05And I think the reason for that on the reno is just a little bit too stiffly sprung
00:18:10And david we were talking about this earlier on to try and get that stability under braking
00:18:14You have to have the front of the car relatively stiff
00:18:17So when you hit the brakes and you get the weight transfer front to rear
00:18:21The car needs to be stable
00:18:23Not like that
00:18:26That's what happens if you have it too stiffly strong, he's still got 11th out of it did sutil well 12th now he got bumped
00:18:33suits
00:18:34Sutil, of course another one of the german drivers as is sebastian bettel
00:18:38Pedal up to fifth that'll be that boy. He is very very quick
00:18:43barrichello 13th
00:18:46Ruben's barrichello, of course an amazing third place in the rain two weeks ago. That's nakajima
00:18:5111th one spot quicker than his teammate rosberg
00:18:55I know we're having another look at sutil
00:18:57And remember on the soft tires we're seeing these guys now that typically struggle in q1 to get up into q2
00:19:03These are the fellas now we're seeing on the soft compound tires
00:19:07Yeah, sutil is a pretty good shoe. He makes a lot of mistakes, but
00:19:11You know the trouble with people don't tend to give credit for he's
00:19:14Over driving has to overdrive that car to get anywhere and somebody's driving a pariah on the clown
00:19:20They say yeah, but look at hamilton how smooth he is. Well, yeah, he can be smooth in the mclaren, but not that
00:19:25Not that easy to be smooth in the force india car when you're trying to force it around the track. Yeah, but to 10
00:19:32Heidfeld to fifth
00:19:34So it appears the bmw sauber has some speed
00:19:37There's nick fry
00:19:39The honda bosses
00:19:41It's his man. Ruben's barrichello
00:19:44Neither rubens barrichello nor jensen button has a contract for next year with the factory team, but this weekend
00:19:51Ross braun nick fry and the other honda bosses said they're inclined to keep both of their drivers
00:19:57For next year, that'll be good news for barrichello as he continues to extend
00:20:02His record for career appearances in formula one. There's christian clean test driver for honda
00:20:07and former formula one pilot, excuse me bmw
00:20:10And a former racer
00:20:15He didn't like that, uh add on there bob former racer
00:20:19Clean still only about that's why I tried to correct it. He raced at le mans this year
00:20:23You'll see christian clean again. I'm sure just highlighted those two new little winglets and sprouted on the bmw chassis
00:20:29after the three-day test four-day test here at
00:20:32Hockenheim leading into the race they
00:20:35Copy two or three teams have put those little air trim modifiers across the car
00:20:41Is pk born in heidelberg just about 12 miles from this racetrack
00:20:48Right now he is last
00:20:51Not a good spot. I think they're struggling again with this setup
00:20:54You know
00:20:54It's as peter was saying it is such a technical track and it's a contradiction because you want to have good traction
00:21:01Grip at the rear end and coming out of those low speed corners when the driver floors the throttle
00:21:06To hook the tires up to the track
00:21:08But conversely you have to have the front relatively stiff to keep it stable under braking or those things just counteract one another
00:21:16well, of course the other thing, you know, it's
00:21:18Quite a lot of straight line stuff here
00:21:20Uh, and you kind of want to carry
00:21:23A little bit less wing than you might want to yeah
00:21:25But of course when you come bollocking into that corner that spitz curve at 190 mile an hour you clamp on clamp on the old brakes
00:21:32Uh, you you then you suddenly could do with a bit of rear wing to stabilize the rear end. You're right. Absolutely
00:21:37So it's it's a great car. Well, all these racetracks are great compromise
00:21:40Which is what makes these engineers it's a challenging job for them and the drivers
00:21:47Major players like truly cool tub on the bubble
00:21:50Well, not even on the bubble below the bubble everybody in the pit lane three minutes to go
00:21:54Imagine what the traffic's going to be like guys
00:21:57And then it'll complain about now surprise i'll fill mass is having another go because he must be he's well and truly in
00:22:03I think he's playing with settings for later on
00:22:16Up there on hamilton's time
00:22:19Is
00:22:21Masa holds the record in the speed track there. You see 318 clicks that matches his best thus far this weekend
00:22:28Right around 197 miles an hour on what is not a terribly long straightaway
00:22:34And you're sitting about two inches off the ground
00:22:37Massa just goes fastest in sector one of 16 to compare that to hamilton's last time through 16 4
00:22:43And look hamilton, excuse me massa
00:22:46clearly on the hard compound tires, so
00:22:49All he's doing is working on. Yeah, he's working on it for q2
00:23:00It's a little bit of elevation change and what's called the photo drone
00:23:04It's horseshoe of grandstands and we'll see tens of thousands of fans
00:23:08For sunday's grand prix, which you will see on fox beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern time
00:23:14following
00:23:15Our accurate free race show on speed at 12 30 eastern
00:23:18Well massa clearly very happy with his car. He the only guy now down into the 14th 14 9 2 1 hamilton
00:23:26115 2
00:23:27And reichlin's on a very quick lap now, too. He was quick in that first sector
00:23:33Two minutes to go two minutes in the session and the men in danger of being knocked out are sutil truly
00:23:39Yarno truly 17th. He was sixth in this morning's final practice
00:23:44David coulthard. Giancarlo. Fisichella and nelson piquet
00:23:52Wobble from the ferrari
00:24:04Up to second goes kimi raikkonen the reigning world champion
00:24:08But that's all he really needs
00:24:10Because all of these times will be thrown out at the end of the session and we'll start from zero for the 15-minute q2
00:24:17Sutil now on the white stripe softer bridgestone compound
00:24:22He's gonna just just mess this lap of kubica up a little bit
00:24:27Robert kubica now is down in seventh spot
00:24:33Yeah
00:24:34That's a shame for kubica looks like sutil's just about to begin his hot lap
00:24:39As the bmw driver finishes his now improving for robert kielsen
00:24:52Fisichella remains 19. He crashed
00:24:55In testing here at this track just as he did in testing before the british grand prix
00:24:59Looks like he's gapping the field to make another run at it here. He's about done. He's gonna be done. Here's
00:25:06kubica overtaking sutil
00:25:10Well, not overtaking but catching
00:25:15Here's nelson piquet you can't fault sutil in that situation
00:25:22Bk jumps up to 11th in the renault
00:25:25Saving his bacon while sebastian bordet is now in the knockout zone along with barrichello sutil truly in fisichella
00:25:32And the checkers wave over the session hot laps will still count if they're under way
00:25:39Way to go seabass truly up to fifth showing the speed he had this morning in the final practice
00:25:46Rosberg to seventh bumping fernando alonso. Wow. Wow team has blocked six
00:25:53Now, where is alonso is this is this alonso no nakajima here comes nakajima
00:25:59Who has been the man on the bubble at the end of q1 in most of the recent?
00:26:03races
00:26:0414th that's his customary position. Yeah, so now pk on alonso both out both
00:26:11last chance for
00:26:13Yep, he moves in and he moves nakajima to 15th. Here's alonso. He's out at the moment
00:26:21Up to 10th then nakajima is eliminated the buttons on the bubble now
00:26:28Fedel continues his hot running
00:26:33Pk is out in 17
00:26:37Oh boy, they see the
00:26:40Well, he made a big jump. I mean, it was absolute dead last pk down in 20th
00:26:45Managed to get a lap in that was good for 11th, but not for long
00:26:49Wow the dreaded red number
00:26:53So we lose five drivers go back to zero and get ready for 15 minutes
00:26:58Do it all again standby
00:26:59We'll be back to do the numbers show who's in and who is out as qualifying continues for the german grand prix here on speed
00:27:11Speed's coverage of the fia formula one world championship is brought to you by mazda on any given weekend
00:27:17There are more masters road race than any other brand
00:27:23Welcome back. There's rubens barrichello in the honda garage. He will climb out for the third straight race
00:27:29He has been eliminated in the first qualifying session
00:27:32There's nelson pk who was very upset moments after finishing his lap
00:27:37He called on his radio to say we should protest vedal who blocked me. We'll see here are the numbers
00:27:43Well felipe massa again
00:27:45Adding to his world championship standings on our form. Keep me right in the second variety right there
00:27:50Picking up speed as the weekend goes on hamilton kovalainen to mclaren's sebastian vettel again
00:27:55Surprising everybody in fifth spot. Jano truly coming from 19th to 6th there on the last lap
00:27:59Glock and the highest belt in the first of the bmws
00:28:03And then nico rosberg mark weber for red bull fernando alonso gets his car through into q2 and sebastian borde
00:28:09Coulthard who beats and jensen button
00:28:12These fellas however, they go no further. Their qualifying session is run. Kaz nakajima 16th nelson pk jr
00:28:20There 17th rubens barrichello third time unable to get out of q1
00:28:25Sutil and giancarlo fizzy keller down there in the 20th
00:28:30There's adrian sutil his father jorge is on hand this weekend first time. We've seen him in the formula one garages
00:28:36distinguished concert musician and in fact adrian there also plays a
00:28:41Pretty mean piano. We'll take a break and return
00:28:47Q2 we continue to set the grid while some disappointed new spectators look on this is a session of contrast
00:28:54Those who are surprised q1 survivors are happy to make it this far
00:28:58While the big names construct their ideal lap for q3
00:29:02However, just because you have a top ride doesn't make you immune to failures mistakes or poor timing which can leave you trapped in positions
00:29:0911 through 15
00:29:11Q2 the final knockout begins now
00:29:18And welcome back to the hockenheim ring which is once again green this time for just 15 minutes
00:29:24To eliminate five more drivers on the march to pole position for sunday's german grand prix
00:29:30Is jarno truly?
00:29:32With a fine last lap his last effort in q1 launched him well up
00:29:37Into the survivors for group two
00:29:40Once again felipe massa fastest man thus far first man to dip into the 1 minute 14 second bracket
00:29:47This weekend at hockenheim as you look at mark weber in his red bull renault
00:29:52He'll be back with the team next year with a new teammate as david coulthard moves into retirement
00:29:57Sebastian vettel has been named to partner mark weber next year at red bull
00:30:02There's fernando alonso his teammate nelson pk is out and moments after he was knocked out he had this conversation with his crew
00:30:12P17 nelson, we're out
00:30:27Now we need to protest battle
00:30:31Doubt that it'll happen, but we'll see how all that plays out
00:30:35recall that
00:30:37A couple of weeks ago actually four weeks ago in france
00:30:40Heikki kovalainen's mclaren was penalized for blocking mark weber in qualifying or I should say allegedly blocking
00:30:47Because mark weber said, huh? I don't somebody blocked me. I don't remember that
00:30:53Obviously a bit fickle the fia rule makers. Yes, but
00:30:59That topic has been bubbling in the internet chat rooms for a while
00:31:03Wave to nico rossberg. Don't forget tomorrow afternoon
00:31:06David steve peter and I will bring you complete coverage of the german grand prix starting at 12 30 p.m
00:31:12Eastern with a special acura pre-race show before we switch over at one o'clock straight up eastern time
00:31:18For your local fox affiliate for coverage of the race
00:31:23Nick fry gave me a cute little wave there
00:31:26He's got nothing better to do because absolutely zero cars are on track right now
00:31:32Everybody seems to think it'll stay dry and of course, they'll all go piling out together in the last five minutes
00:31:41There you are four minutes and 50 seconds in or 10 seconds into our
00:31:46Q2 session here at the hockenheim ring. We finally have a car on track
00:31:50In fact, we have two and they are good ones the ferraris raikkonen and massa are out now timo glock's toyota pulls into the bit lane
00:31:57We're on board with felipe. Massa. There's michael schumacher making an appearance this weekend
00:32:05Try to keep your motorcycles
00:32:07On their wheels michael. All right hadn't had much luck at that recently. Oh boy
00:32:11I you gotta give him points I suppose for wanting to do it, but good on him. I can't imagine what mrs
00:32:16Schumacher could do it. I'm still predicting. We're going to see michael back not in a formula one car but in a car
00:32:22Maybe at le mans. Wow
00:32:24I'd bet money on that
00:32:26a lot of ferrari red there in the grandstand as we see
00:32:29All over the world of formula one and i'm sure there's a lot of it this weekend at pittsburgh where the pittsburgh vintage grand prix
00:32:35Is featuring italian marks?
00:32:41Racing through a public park in pittsburgh. Great show. Well, kimi raikkonen now out in the fryer there
00:32:46They have definitely picked up the pace. They were looking a bit, uh sad on on friday both of them
00:32:51but they certainly uh worked away chiseled away at it steve with their engineers and
00:32:56Looking pretty good now when it counts very coy. I think ferrari are playing it again. Yeah, the uh, the engineer saying yesterday
00:33:03They never refer to mclaren. It's a rather childish. I think of both mclaren and ferrari
00:33:08They always refer to their main rivals. I mean just you know
00:33:12Get real, yeah, frankly, however reading through those press releases and the words from the engineers ferrari was saying
00:33:21We're okay. I think you know what we were working on yesterday relative
00:33:25To our main rivals. We think our pace is okay, which makes me think they were working more towards race pace yesterday
00:33:31More fuel on board mclaren probably running a little bit lighter, but you're right now in this session
00:33:37Typically this should be
00:33:39As we're saying through this show the fastest time the fastest section of the grand prix weekend this middle sector
00:33:46in q2 of qualify and so
00:33:49Let's see what the pace of the ferrari is
00:33:54Steve I couldn't agree with you more about all that main rivals business
00:33:57But thanks for clearing that up because whenever that appears in a mclaren press statement
00:34:00I'm always assuming they're referring to themselves and the way they always trip themselves up as they did last year
00:34:05So, yeah, obviously they are referring to ferrari. Yeah, thanks
00:34:09Good metaphysical point. They're not referring to force india
00:34:13Well, you know about 14.7
00:34:15That's gonna be a tough time to beat
00:34:17Well, you mentioned force india the three fastest cars in a straight line thus far this weekend
00:34:23Are the two factory ferraris and adrian sutil's force india ferrari?
00:34:27He has been wicked quick in a straight line. Well, that would show that the aerodynamic package on that car
00:34:33Is good in a straight line and maybe poor down forces lewis hamilton gonna snatch that time away from phil
00:34:41Yes, I would 14.6
00:34:44man
00:34:45now you're talking turkey now because
00:34:48the fastest the fastest laps, um
00:34:51set here, uh
00:34:53michael schumacher at a uh
00:34:56113
00:34:58And chain 113.7 I think that was a lot more horsepower the other year on that david was the other year for that
00:35:04Schumacher 2000
00:35:062004 so that was prior to that big aero change that happened in 2005
00:35:12Yeah, the tire wars with bridgestone and michelin and v10 engines by about 2005. They raised the front wings, which is now they look so
00:35:20Unusual kind of got used to now, but how high the front wing is off the ground
00:35:24That was a 2005 change as was moving the rear wing forward
00:35:28Cutting away around the tire seal all of that to try and change it down for your massive changes
00:35:33And when they first did that they lost something like 25
00:35:36Of downforce on the car. So it was a colossal change
00:35:39And now look at the I mean, you know, 14.6 and the lap record is a 13.7
00:35:44Which just again highlights what we say pretty much every race and certainly we're sending yesterday's practice session
00:35:50How always the engineers refine refine and hone the cars and that's the reason that every year they look so different
00:35:57You know, they just advance at such incredible rates
00:36:02I bet the downforce levels on these cars now are not that different to what they were back in 2004
00:36:08but it's taken them a long while to get there, but you know when you think about the
00:36:11The awful changes they've had to deal with there's a daunting task
00:36:16But I mean they just chisel away all the time thousands of hours of testing thousands of hours in the wind tunnel
00:36:21And that's why we see now all these little flick ups and winglets flow modifiers
00:36:25We're just talking about that on the bmw. They're always working just to find anything
00:36:29Moreover now to take drag off the car than find downforce. You've got to make it as sleepy as possible
00:36:36And on board now is bob gubitzer
00:36:46Soft options going on hinky kovalainen's mclaren mercedes and the sun beginning to peak back out again
00:36:53Just highlight that little fuel tank that we're using. They don't use the big fuel rigs in this q2
00:36:58session
00:36:59Just precise amounts delivered from small tanks
00:37:02See what robert kubica's got
00:37:05Meanwhile, peter windsor caught up with one of the drivers already knocked out. Kaz nakajima
00:37:11Kazuki unbelievably close from 15.5 down to 16.0. What was that last run like for you?
00:37:15Yeah, it was coming very good until the third sector and in the last sector
00:37:20I just didn't manage to get everything out from the car and I could feel that
00:37:25Yeah, I was a little bit too conservative in that sector. Then that's really cost me to go through to q2
00:37:31Always very difficult a very very small amount of time and it is so competitive. What was the traffic like out there?
00:37:36And it is so competitive what was the traffic like out there actually for me the traffic was not a big problem
00:37:41So, uh, it was good and I think in all engineer did a great job
00:37:46but uh
00:37:47yeah, just uh
00:37:48That time was not quick enough. So but the feeling of the car is getting much better compared to the france and uh,
00:37:55Yeah, the last race. So, uh, I think yeah, we are going to the right direction. Best of luck for a good race tomorrow
00:38:01Thank you
00:38:03Kaz nakajima doing a great job in his rookie year in formula
00:38:06Well, he is of course, you know man enough there to say just beat her
00:38:09you know, I just didn't get the best out of the car and q3 in the sector three, which uh,
00:38:14Is refreshing for the drivers and takes on the blame. Yeah, I do I suppose they're usually giving it to the mechanics
00:38:18But this is where it belongs but
00:38:22Robert kubica up to seven
00:38:24He only missed elimination in q1 by 98
00:38:29thousands of a second
00:38:31It's funny how the bmw i've been suddenly, you know, his world has gone slightly backwards had that wonderful results in canada
00:38:39And then britain last year he slid off last week, you know
00:38:42Slid off into the barrier for the first time and put himself out and heidfeld beat him for the first time this year
00:38:47crashed friday here at
00:38:49here and uh, just
00:38:51The cars, you know, just when they want to really perform well in front of their home crowd
00:38:55Having a bit of a miserable day
00:38:57Let's ride along with heikki kovalainen
00:39:00Thank you, mr. Director, okay, may I have another i'm worn out i'll draw that
00:39:06I'm, sure conspiracy theorists getting back to robert kubica are going to suggest well
00:39:10Notice how the performers of his car has fallen off while he's making indifferent noises about his future with the team
00:39:17No, no, no, don't start that
00:39:20Total rubbish, it's what I do
00:39:23There's no way a team would ever compromise its performance on track because the drivers I agree
00:39:29In all seriousness, they would not especially not mario tyson and the bmw boys, I think
00:39:35A little more than he wanted there heikki
00:39:38but p3
00:39:41Peter windsor
00:39:46Bob i've got another conspiracy theory
00:39:50I thought that was coming peter with the pause
00:39:53Now here we go
00:39:54Now that they've won their first grand prix, maybe they've had to take something off the car that was on the car before
00:39:59Oh
00:40:01How about that one or bolt something on that wasn't on there before let's put it that way
00:40:08They always say no in light-heartedness, they always say the ballast is the last thing to be designed
00:40:16There's heikki and super slo-mo, yeah that super slo-mo really shows you what
00:40:22What these cars go through don't you, you know, you just see a flash of it going through the grass and you see that
00:40:27Torture that shut the tires the chassis everything's going through and he goes those rough patches
00:40:33Here we go. Less than two minutes left. Nick heidfeld takes to the track and the white stripe option bridgestone compound
00:40:39What are we looking at this? Well, I just noticed that when we get another shot to see the mclaren
00:40:42They're running asymmetrical cooling ducts on the car around here
00:40:45It's something they were running at silverstone as well when it was a little bit cooler
00:40:49Again this idea of getting the car as slippy as possible reducing the drag
00:40:53The radiator duct on the right hand side has now become an oval
00:40:57I mean they've tucked and reprofiled those ducts over the last few years to that strange shape we have now
00:41:03But we have a very different duct arrangement on the mclaren over the last couple of races
00:41:07We have a still shot of earlier on this is what i'm talking about
00:41:09Look, look how small they've made this duct on the right hand side comparison for this one here
00:41:13That's because it's cooler temperatures. So you don't need as much air traveling on this side from here
00:41:18So they use that area there for aero flow around the car
00:41:23That's right air into the ducts means drag absolutely
00:41:26Yeah, and again as you were saying david it all boils down to compromise just one other thing
00:41:31It's the aero guys versus the mechanical guys. The aerodynamics is saying well, let's close it up. Whoa
00:41:37Sebastian talk about overshooting it
00:41:40Well, that's sebastian. Where is he?
00:41:44That's bourdain not bettel
00:41:47Yeah, the aero guys want the car as smooth as possible but here we go if you do that you'll burn the engine up
00:41:54Uh galapagos a front brake and
00:41:57Yeah, he just gave up on that didn't he when he realized what happened in the claggard mitt the slippery tyrant
00:42:03uh, he's
00:42:04That's him out. That's borde career best qualifier last two races
00:42:0814 in france 13 in britain
00:42:11And he's
00:42:13Sebastian bettel too
00:42:15Suddenly slightly off the pace so right up there all weekend
00:42:19Nice last shot eight seconds left. He's not going to get around on time to have another go
00:42:25The men in the red zone the dreaded red digit coutard rossberg vettel bourdain and button
00:42:34Well done bumping nick heidfeld his fellow german
00:42:39Is that water on the camera lens
00:42:42I don't think so. Here's cuban sir trying to improve his time. He's already in seven. So he's pretty solidly in he should be
00:42:50Wow
00:42:52Here comes nico rossberg another german who wants to hoist himself up into the top 10 for his home grand prix
00:42:58No
00:42:59Who's that behind?
00:43:02Here comes david coulthard his final german grand prix appearance
00:43:07Up to eight bucks timo glock
00:43:12So we now have three of the five german drivers in the red zone in danger of relegation
00:43:18They won't find a spot in the top 10 for sunday's race as jensen button does not improve
00:43:2514th and done
00:43:28This is the last chance for nick heidfeld
00:43:32Hold it in 12th and done. Yeah
00:43:36Oh, wow, I wonder if they decided let's preserve our fuel strategy
00:43:42Oh
00:43:44What he did earlier on the lap so he had no chance
00:43:47Yeah, I have to remember bob. This is a low fuel run. They don't really need to worry about fuel at this stage
00:43:51Well, that's I thought maybe they wanted to preserve that right instead of maybe scraping into the top. Well, it's true
00:43:57They don't have race fuel on right now
00:44:00Good point my mistake
00:44:03So we have our final 10 they'll load up with race fuel plus
00:44:08And bid for pole we'll be back in a moment getting ready for q3 at hockenheim
00:44:15Welcome back to hockenheim two sessions done one to go
00:44:19There's a lot of drama and heartbreak in formula one and then you have moments like this one with sebastian vettel
00:44:29We are
00:44:31We are in q3
00:44:38And don't forget it's not finished yet you're ready to push more
00:44:45You must push more what do you mean I need to push i'm in the top 10
00:44:49There they are. Yeah, yeah
00:44:51Lewis hamilton with that terrific lap felipe massa kovalainen who had that bit of off but still came in third alonzo
00:44:56Keith alonzo in the renault kimi raikkonen no doubt hiding his uh,
00:45:01Ace up his sleeve robert kubica finally going for sixth there truly in the toyota cooltard
00:45:05Vettel there in ninth and mark weber. So a lot of red bull stuff at the end there these chaps
00:45:10They go no further timo glock. I felt bmw nico rossberg and williams toyota
00:45:16Jensen button stopped on track there in 14th and sebastian bordet down there in 15th
00:45:21Those fellas all finished after q2. These chaps did not make it out of q1. Kaz nakajima
00:45:26Nelson pk jr. Rubens barrichello adrian sutil and giancarlo fisichella
00:45:32There's a look
00:45:33At the old circuit a bit of green out there in the woods
00:45:36You can imagine what those blasts were like. Yeah kinds of speeds. That's what we're talking about yesterday
00:45:42Bob those long straights and what a demand it was on engines
00:45:46Just about where you saw that patch of bare earth is where jim clark had his accident back in 1968
00:45:51That took the life of one of formula one's greatest ever. Yarna truly is getting ready for the run for pole. And so are we?
00:46:01Green flag green flag green flag caution. These trucks don't play nice
00:46:08And the fender crumpling points clash sets its sights on kentucky where an epic battle will wage between the sport's baddest and boldest
00:46:16Oh, there's a problem right there sparks will fly as nascar's toughest. Holla in the bluegrass
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00:47:20Drain out the old pour in the new with pens oil conventional motor oil. It's 898 a gallon
00:47:25It's less than 225 a quart. So whatever you're working on advance to help you keep the wheels turning
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00:47:43It's more than just oil. It's liquid engineering
00:47:53If no one else will push us we will
00:48:01Queue three with half the grid knocked out the top half fights for pole position
00:48:07This session isn't a straightforward test of velocity
00:48:10The teams must find the razor's edge balance between speed for today and an optimal fuel strategy for tomorrow's race
00:48:17The underdogs making it here are a great subplot
00:48:20But our focus is the front runners who know that one slip can be the difference between the front row and the fifth row
00:48:27They know that today could determine their race and they know it might shape their championship q3 this is the run for pole
00:48:39Welcome back to the hockenheim ring we have gone green on track for 10 minutes
00:48:44to set the top 10 positions on the grid for sunday's german grand prix and as you see
00:48:49Pit lane is as empty as that street in the movie high noon before the top guns come out
00:48:57to find their destinies
00:48:58Well hamilton and massa were the two quickest guys in q2 and they they did it both on one flying lap
00:49:05Whereas alonso and kovalainen needed two runs to get there
00:49:09So, uh, I tell you what this is going to be a real
00:49:12Knuckle chewer right down to the last seconds of qualifying. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what this guy's strategy is mark weber
00:49:20And he set the time weber's time was a 15 4 8 so slowest
00:49:24In q2 but advances him to q3 and bob earlier on you were talking about fuel saving. Well, this will be
00:49:31Interested to see what weber does now because in q3, of course
00:49:35The guys have their race fuel on for this first stint
00:49:38Now if weber doesn't think he's got anything to offer back up to vettel
00:49:42And there really is no point in fighting to try and remove himself from p10 and get further up the grid
00:49:47He may opt to save that fuel. Yeah and do very little running
00:49:51So it'll be interesting to see and conversely the same with vettel vettel and weber are the two guys to watch see how many laps
00:49:56They put in
00:49:58There's a guy who knows how to manage a qualifying session michael schumacher on hand this weekend
00:50:02Of course sebastian vettel, you know, he may just settle for like 10th
00:50:07Because you know, there's no way he's going to jump into something really meaningful like third
00:50:11I wouldn't think i'd say that but I mean you never know in this deal. Don't speak too soon
00:50:15But uh that uh talking about weber and coulthard, that's the first time that weber has been uh slower than coulter
00:50:22since australia
00:50:24So if you're looking for an underdog look for the red bulls coulthard weber and vettel
00:50:32Really weber michael schumacher's manager who set the press alight earlier this week by suggesting that
00:50:39fernando alonso
00:50:41Or excuse me that uh, nico rossberg
00:50:44Would move to the mclaren team and bump hickey kovalainen back to renault
00:50:48There's been an awful lot of denials this weekend over that one
00:50:51And I think you were close to the heart of it david when you said that was willie weber looking to get willie weber's name
00:50:56in the newspaper
00:50:59Jarno truly out first. Let's hear from a driver who is out of the running sebastian bordet with peter windsor
00:51:06Sebastian four tenths is what you needed. We saw a big lock up at the end of the straightaway there talk us through q2
00:51:12yeah, I mean, uh, obviously it would have been good to go and get four tenths, but
00:51:17I had done a much better turn one than the previous attempts. It was a tenth a tenth and a half
00:51:22so I said, you know, let's let's go for it and
00:51:25Lost the rear on entry of turn two. So I lost pretty much everything I had gained
00:51:28So then from there on I needed to to do a bit more
00:51:32I tried to break a bit later
00:51:33And like you saw I looked at the right front which I don't really have an explanation for I didn't touch the brake bias
00:51:38So that was a bit surprising
00:51:40Everybody's been saying all weekend how important stability under braking is here at hockenheim
00:51:44How much has that been an issue for you in terms of brake balance and and the rear of the car?
00:51:48Well, we've been playing a lot since this morning with the the braking system
00:51:51The the conditions are so different from the test that it's really hard. I mean
00:51:56With with 50 kilos, we're doing pretty much the same lap times than we're doing
00:52:00Here empty so obviously the track is very different and it makes on a big
00:52:04Big change on setups and as you've seen we couldn't test anything yesterday. So we didn't really help ourselves
00:52:10I was gonna say the track did change this morning as well from yesterday
00:52:13But from your point of view it didn't make much difference based on your lack of running
00:52:16Yeah, we just we just started from a bit too far and we didn't finish that far off
00:52:20I wasn't unhappy with the car at all
00:52:22but to go and get the last little bit we would have needed to have a little bit of a different stuff on the mechanical
00:52:28side and since since you can't change anything once the qualifying has started as you know, it's
00:52:33It's a bit hard, but we'll do the best of it. Very best of luck tomorrow. Thank you
00:52:38As you could tell that interview was recorded a few moments ago
00:52:41You saw c bass and his wife claire standing in the red bull garage
00:52:45I had spent some time with him last week at
00:52:47The festival speed the goodwood festival speed and he is a really nice guy. He is
00:52:51Extremely nice. He's very concerned that the car when they made that big change to the car, you know, two or three races back
00:52:57He just he just can't seem to get to grips with the new chassis
00:53:01Unlike his teammate sebastian bettel who does seem to be able to handle it very very well
00:53:05But bordet is saying that none of the car suits his driving style and it's difficult to change it
00:53:15As we ride with kimi reichmann
00:53:18With less than five and a half minutes to go on the session before it all hits the fan. Let's go to peter windsor
00:53:23Well bob only just to add what you were saying about willie weber and the comments to do with nico rosberg and everybody else under
00:53:28the sun
00:53:29Williams the feeling is that actually what he's trying to do is to get nico hulkenberg into the car
00:53:33So he doesn't really care where anybody goes so long as there's a free seat at williams next year for his man hulkenberg
00:53:38That's right. Nico hulkenberg star the a1 gp series during the winter is now managed by willie weber
00:53:46He's now a test driver for the williams toyota team
00:53:48But
00:53:51We're dealing with the here and now
00:53:53Less than five minutes to go now to set the grid for the german grand prix sunday on fox
00:53:58There's reichmann
00:53:59To p1 with a 1 17
00:54:02Now keep in mind. He did a 14 9
00:54:05In q2 so that tells you something about how much fuel he has on board felipe. Massa takes away with a 16 3
00:54:11So, uh still nearly two seconds slower than they were in q2 obviously showing the fuel they've got on board for the race tomorrow
00:54:22Boy boy, he got a ragged lap in q2 and that'll mess that one up big time
00:54:30Might might do some damage too to the car this underneath
00:54:34Yeah
00:54:36A lot of damage potential damage caused by that gravel again
00:54:39The clearances are so tight as we've talked about before
00:54:42Between the brake disc the inside of the rim and of course around the cooling system
00:54:48We don't get that car back and at least get the rims off the car and have a look around the brakes
00:54:53Kovalainen with his teammate coming up behind
00:54:57The fernando valanzo meanwhile goes to p2 in the renault lewis hamilton now third ron dennis looks on ron kubica coming up behind
00:55:05Hamilton there. There we go. Boys 3 30. It's about yeah, we go back into the pit lane. I was thinking 3 30
00:55:11It's about time to see that final change of tires
00:55:15That's where felipe massa had problems two weeks ago at the british grand prix a problem with the right rear wheel
00:55:20It only took a few seconds and it completely ruined his session
00:55:24He was not able to get around and start his hot lap in time to beat the checkered flag
00:55:29There's reichen and excuse me, uh, hamilton coming to kovalainen's dust cloud. Yeah
00:55:35one mclaren to another
00:55:37So, oh no, although technically there is no fuel burn period any longer
00:55:41Of course, these guys are burning fuel off with every lap they're covering
00:55:45And now we're on about as low as they're going to get on fuel
00:55:48A new set of tires 249 to play. This is the shootout for pole right now
00:56:00Noticing those photographers in the background reminds me that formula one lost one of its
00:56:05Great photographers the last couple of weeks with the passing of bernard cayet
00:56:08Okay
00:56:14Hamilton good to go boy that was timed out double double pitting the cars. Yeah
00:56:20Getting everybody out to wait just a little bit for everyone to leave. Yeah
00:56:25That's walking a high wire in q3. Okay, here we go. Now coming up on two minutes to go
00:56:30Who will be the last man standing?
00:56:34Yes, the kim's last lap was a little bit ragged so
00:56:37Uh, he needs to smooth that out just a little bit
00:56:40Uh to get that, uh pole position
00:56:43He did a 17 one on his first run in q3
00:56:47Now he's really busy here at about a 16 8 or 16 6
00:56:51He's got to be very careful bringing these softer bridgestone compounds up to temperature
00:56:57But he doesn't want them to be too cool when he hits way too cool
00:57:00But if you rush it you're gonna get that grain that steve was talking about earlier. It's gonna come on too soon
00:57:05Exactly you want the grainy to start just as you exit the last corner. Kimi raikkonen has a long history of first corner problems here
00:57:12Okay, hey key. Hey key you were doing really well up to that. Uh last corner you were doing really well
00:57:18So just repeat everything you were doing you're going to be in good shape
00:57:22Yeah, everything apart from repeat everything apart from going on
00:57:28Well, you know, I think that was a terrific transmission that's exactly what kovalainen needed to hear you were fine little mistake
00:57:34No problem good psychology guy on that. Absolutely. Yeah
00:57:41I can slightly off the pace
00:57:46He has never been out qualified by a teammate here keep in mind masa also
00:57:52Perhaps a little heavy slightly off the pace
00:57:56And he's racing himself at this point he is provisional pole sitter
00:58:02Coming up on half a minute to go
00:58:05So
00:58:08You better be in the motodrome section if you're going to start a hot lap before the checkers fly
00:58:12All right, they're looking pretty smooth so far
00:58:1820 seconds to go
00:58:21Raikkonen was the pole sitter for the last two visits by formula one tockenheim in 2005 and 2006
00:58:29Hasn't had a lot to show for it final 10 seconds. Go on. Can you get over it?
00:58:33Well done five seconds to go. He's got another lap if he needs it and right now he does if he wants ball
00:58:39He's p2 right now backed up there bob. I think I I don't think he's gonna try
00:58:43Here comes masa masa to the line. Wow
00:58:48Almost a half second
00:58:55But he goes to second what might that lap have been here's hamilton
00:58:59Yeah
00:59:01Final corner. Oh a bit of a lift for hamilton. Is it enough?
00:59:07It is it is enough it is enough they made it up in that third sector
00:59:13Alonso
00:59:17Row two for the two-time world champion bumping raikkonen into row three
00:59:22Poor old, uh, nelson pica. You gotta feel sorry for him down there in 17th spot and there's alonso in fourth
00:59:29The life gets truly to fourth bumping alonso, how did he ever start that lap in time?
00:59:38So kimi raikkonen slipping down to the field now
00:59:42Is anybody else going to be is it weber and cool todd out there?
00:59:45I don't know. We're we're going around with our provisional pole sitter
00:59:49We want to know who else is on track, but there it is. It's over
00:59:53and hamilton has
00:59:55His what 13th career pole, I believe
01:00:00All of them won since
01:00:02His first in montreal the canadian grand prix just a year ago
01:00:08That's a pretty impressive stat
01:00:12So mercedes on the pole again, yeah in the german grand prix
01:00:18That is very good
01:00:20Come on, come and see here my friend lewis. I have something to give you
01:00:25Ooh the views expressed by my colleague are not necessarily those of his corporation
01:00:30Pretty good. Yeah, very good. Call david hobson wisconsin. Not us. We'll be back
01:00:44Back at hockenheim, I need to correct my lewis hamilton qualifying stat in the last 22 grand prix
01:00:49He has not been on pole 13 times today is his ninth. Here's peter windsor
01:00:55Congratulations to the fastest three qualifiers for the saint-andre
01:00:58German grand prix third for vodafone mclaren mercedes hecky kovalainen
01:01:02Second for scuderia ferrari marlboro felipe. Massa and scoring his third pole of the season also for vodafone mclaren mercedes
01:01:08lewis hamilton
01:01:10Well lewis as we saw at silverstone, it can be so easy to have small mistakes
01:01:14Color q3 what happens in final qualifying? It was very very close here to the last second talk us through that final lap
01:01:22Yeah, my final lap was I was quite happy with it to be honest it was um
01:01:28Went very smoothly. I think the first q3 lap I had
01:01:31uh again was
01:01:32Looking out to be a good lap, but then they put the flags out in turn 12
01:01:35I think he ran a bit wide when he exits turn 12, so I
01:01:39Be careful. I don't get any point any penalties. So I made a big lift and uh, the time wasn't great
01:01:44But I knew I had it in me. I knew that we had the uh the pace
01:01:48And my lap was pretty smooth, you know, it was pretty easy going I was
01:01:52I'm quite comfortable. You could have gone a little bit quicker if you needed to so I mean
01:01:56I'm quite cool
01:01:57Well, you've been fast all weekend very quick yesterday and the fastest lap of qualifying as well in q2
01:02:03But everybody is talking about the swirling wind and the changing track conditions. Tell us what it's been like
01:02:08yeah, it's been very windy here and uh when you notice the
01:02:12Down the back straight the you know
01:02:13You're trying to hold the steering wheel straight as possible
01:02:15but the wind hits you from the left and then from the right and you
01:02:18You can feel it each time it's moving the car and um, and then when you get to the stadium
01:02:22It's obviously when you come in it's blocked a bit blocked out by the the wind
01:02:26By the stadium and uh as you come in there
01:02:29You have reasonably decent downforce and around the last corner all of a sudden you get a big gust of wind that hits the car
01:02:34and so you you have to be
01:02:35Uh ready for that every lap, but um, it didn't cause me any problems
01:02:39So I didn't have didn't run wide or anything. It was just as I said, it was
01:02:43A great job done by the team, especially, you know, the cars
01:02:46Really made some great steps forward over the last few weeks. And um, you know
01:02:51I'm, just so grateful for them for the hard work they do over the weekend
01:02:54Well continuing that as you say that great momentum from the silverstone win here
01:02:58How do you see how do you quantify the performance of your car against ferrari now?
01:03:03Well, it's very close as you can see and I was actually surprised to see how close it is between all the guys
01:03:07Actually all the teams
01:03:09Um, I mean I think I saw um vettel was up there quite far
01:03:13fernando's obviously very quick in the reno and uh
01:03:17And weber as well. So it's it's very very tight, but I think between us
01:03:20uh between vettel mcclaren mercedes and ferrari, I think
01:03:25It's a tenth here and there maybe but I feel that we
01:03:28We obviously have the pace so we're going to keep on pushing keep moving forward and hopefully we can win tomorrow
01:03:33Congratulations to you. Thank you. Felipe. Congratulations
01:03:37To you obviously we don't know how much fuel everybody has in their cars at this point
01:03:40But how do you see qualifying from your point of view?
01:03:44Tough for sure very tight
01:03:46um for sure the big question was the
01:03:49The first one you just made we don't know how much fuel everybody has but I think if you look the
01:03:54The session even last week. It was very tight in terms of lap times. Um
01:03:59um
01:04:01This morning as well. So I think um, I think it's pretty competitive between ferrari mclaren the race tomorrow will be
01:04:08very very big competition between
01:04:11all
01:04:12four cars
01:04:13maybe and um
01:04:15And for sure, that's very exciting, but we need to do everything right. So hopefully
01:04:20We do everything right tomorrow in the race
01:04:23A big recovery from you personally from a bad weekend at silverson talk us through that a little bit
01:04:28And what it means for you now to be on the front row here at hockenheim and quickest in the wet on friday
01:04:33Well, I think that's not really a recovery. I mean, I know i'm quick. I know I I always will
01:04:39All my career was quick in the wet. So even in the
01:04:43In the go-karts always when it rains, I won't so
01:04:46um
01:04:47To be honest, I don't believe
01:04:49Uh what people say that I i'm not good in the wet. I mean I was always good in the wet. I don't
01:04:54Forget how to drive in the wet now in formula one, so
01:04:57I just have a very bad weekend in
01:04:59Silverstone, uh, not just in the race, but the whole weekend was was very bad for me and
01:05:05and what we chose today here is not a recovery is just uh, what we we are able to do and uh, that's our
01:05:12target to
01:05:13to be competitive and we are so
01:05:16Just normal
01:05:18Thank you very much
01:05:20And hecking congratulations to you too a bit of a moment on your first, uh first qualifying lap in q3 there talk us through there
01:05:28Yeah, well, first of all, I think it's a it's a good effort from everybody from the team
01:05:32Like louis said I think our car's been performing really really well the last
01:05:36Four or five weeks. I think we've made some significant steps forward and and we we are going to carry on like this
01:05:41and then for myself the qualifying, um
01:05:44the car felt the best it's felt all all week so far and um
01:05:48And going into q3 I was very confident that i'll I can you know be challenging for pole position
01:05:53um, but then arriving in turn 12 on my first
01:05:56first lap of q3
01:05:58I just lost the rear end and and went wide and the I don't know what happened there
01:06:02It just suddenly turned in better than before
01:06:05But I think maybe just trying to go too too deep into the corner
01:06:09And I think I damaged a little bit on the right hand side of the bottom of the car
01:06:13But uh, just looking after after I jump out of the car I saw there's a little damage but I didn't feel anything in the car
01:06:19and the second run, um
01:06:21Little bit of rallycross also on the last exit the last turn. So I think a third place i'm very happy with that. Uh, if you
01:06:29if you uh, take in take into account all those rallycross moments today
01:06:34And underlining as you say the performance of the team
01:06:38The mclaren mercedes now appears to have closed any gap that there might have existed between you and ferrari particularly on slow corners
01:06:45Yeah, perhaps I think it's still very close and like like philip and louis said it's one day
01:06:50They are a little bit ahead the next day. Maybe we are ahead. It just depends how we all nail it at the very moment
01:06:57And today I think you know louis nailed it
01:07:00perfect and uh
01:07:02And everybody else was struggling with with various moments
01:07:06You know more or less and I think
01:07:09The important thing for us is just to keep the focus
01:07:11You know 100 keep pushing forward
01:07:14and trying to develop the car and the package and the driving and everything more than the others and that would be the key to
01:07:20To become a champions at the end of the year
01:07:23A little bit of rallycross jokes keiki kovalainen
01:07:27Why not? He is p3 when they go to the grid for the german grand prix. We'll be back
01:07:35Welcome back another look down in the hockenheim ring where the rain stayed away and qualifying is now complete for sunday's 10th round of the
01:07:422008 formula one season the german grand prix from hockenheim. Here's a look at the results of qualifying david
01:07:49Well louis hamilton on pole for the third time this year that won 15 666 felipe. Massa just behind him 15 8
01:07:56Then kovalainen the second mclaren. Jarno truly did an outstanding job in the toyota fernando
01:08:00Alonso another outstanding job in the renault. Kimi reiklund down in six. That's not good
01:08:05He's never won from six on the grid robert kubica getting the one bmw going pretty good
01:08:10Mark, weber also doing a good job in the red bull sebastian bettel doing an outstanding job in the tour
01:08:15Also, and david coulthard intense spot there in the second of the red bulls
01:08:19These chaps are good positions were set after the end of q2 timo glock toyota nick
01:08:25Heidfeld there deca rossberg jensen button for honda sebastian bordet for str down there in 15th
01:08:31And these fellas all set after q1 kaz nakajima pk jr
01:08:35Rubens barrichello when you're the honda sutil and giancarlo fizzy keller for the force india team
01:08:41Not a lot of germans up front for what should be a standing room crowd tomorrow at the hockenheim ring. Don't miss it
01:08:47Join david steve peter and myself or me beginning at 12 30 p.m
01:08:52Eastern time on speed for the acura pre-race show from germany
01:08:55Then at one flip over to fox for coverage of the formula one german grand prix. Check your listings find your local affiliate
01:09:01And if they're not airing it
01:09:03Raise cane for david. Hobbs steve matching to peter windsor. I'm bob. Barshes. See you tomorrow from hockenheim until then
01:09:09Auf wiedersehen everyone