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German Grand Prix
Nurburgring, Germany - 07 July 2009
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Team / Driver
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Position / Time
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1. Red Bull / Mark Webber
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1:36:43.310 (1:34.003)
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2. Red Bull / Sebastian Vettel
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+9.252 (1:34.089)
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3. Ferrari / Felipe Massa
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+15.906 (1:34.458)
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60 laps, 308.863kms / 191.938 miles
Weather: Sun and broken cloud
Temperatures: Air 18 - 19°C Track 25 - 32°C
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Red Bull
G'DAY FOR MARK WEBBER'S FIRST WIN!
MARK WEBBER, Finish Position: WINNER! Start Position: 1st "It's an incredible day. I wanted to win so badly after Silverstone, as I thought I had a good chance there, then
after yesterday's pole I knew I was in a good position to try and win the race today. The only thing that I thought was going to test me was the rain, but even that held off. It
was testing to get the victory today, I lost Rubens completely at the start; I thought he was gone a little bit to the left so I went to the right and banged into him.
That's not normally my style and I got a drive-through penalty for that, so had to recover. My engineer kept me calm and I pushed as hard as I could when I needed to, so
it's a great day. It was a difficult winter, Sebastian showed in winter testing what the car could do, so that kept my motivation very high when I was hurting a lot with all the
rehab. I had great people around me to recover from all the injuries I had and the team have been incredibly patient with me as well. I want to thank Dietrich Mateschitz, Red
Bull and everyone at Red Bull Racing for what they did for me over the winter, everyone in Australia who has supported me on the way through my career – and there
are a few people that doubted me too, so hello to them as well. It's just an incredible day for all the people who have helped me get to where I am today."
SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Finish Position: 2nd. Start Position: 4th "Congratulations to Mark, he was unbeatable today – he was quicker than all of us, so he totally deserved to win.
I'm very happy with the result and in the end it was a good recovery. It was quite a bad start and I had all the KERS cars around me – I got passed by both the McLarens and
even Felipe (Massa). It was quite difficult to start fourth and go into the first corner in eighth or something. I then struggled a lot with the soft tyre in the first stint and was
in a lot of traffic. I could have gone quicker, but there was no way to pass Felipe, as he always used the special button when I was quite close. Therefore I was lucky to
have the right strategy, as that pulled us back to second position but Felipe didn't stop pushing, so it was hard until the end of the race. We had to fight, but it's another
one-two finish for the team and I'm happy. I'd be lying if I said I'm very pleased with second, as of course I wanted to win, but yesterday Mark did a better job and that's why
today he totally deserves the win – it's a good fight between us, so I'm looking forward to the next races."
CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal: "A brilliant team
performance. A fantastic drive from Mark – he's been on it all weekend and, after all the difficulties that he's been through over the winter, I'm absolutely delighted that's he's
managed to get his first win. He thoroughly deserves it. Sebastian recovered from a difficult first lap and put in an excellent performance to back up Mark's win with a second
place. A one-two is a brilliant team result and puts us back in the hunt in both championships. It was an important result for the team, but today belongs to Mark Webber, who is a deserved victor."
FABRICE LOM, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support: "I'm so, so, so happy. What a race! It was a difficult beginning with a drive-through penalty and starts that were
not great, but our car and engine package is so good that we recovered from there to finish first and second – for the second time in a row – it's just magic. I'm so happy for
Mark, he deserves his first win. We cannot stop thinking about Pierre-Emeric and I want to dedicate Mark's first victory to him - I'm sure he is watching us from above and
he would be very happy about what happened today. I'm happy for the team and now let's push for the title."
AT&T Williams
A season-best race result for the AT&T Williams team came courtesy of a strong drive from Nico Rosberg today, driving
from 15th on the grid to a valuable fourth placed finish and in turn consolidating the team's position in the championship. His race was launched from a great opening
lap, on which he climbed six places. His achievement was all the more impressive considering that he was managing a technical problem from the first round of stops to the flag.
Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima showed some equally quick turns of speed and recorded the fifth fastest lap of the race, but a tangle on the opening lap dropped him to the
back of the field in the first stint, from which point it was difficult to recover his race. He finished in 12th position. All the team congratulates Mark Webber on a very popular race win today.
Nico Rosberg: It was a fantastic result for us today. As I started 15th, I honestly wasn't expecting too much but I took a few chances on the opening lap and finished it in 9th
place! Although I had more fuel than anyone else, I kept pushing hard and that, together with a little luck that Heikki Kovalanien had created a bit of traffic jam behind him,
helped for sure. I was also carrying a problem with the fuel system, so it was quite eventful and makes the race outcome even better. We are continually progressing with
our car, our development is looking good and because of this our pace is right up there. I am looking forward to Hungary now, because I think it will be another race where we can have a good result.
Sam Michael, Technical Director: It was a good day for the team today, the best result so far this year. Nico had a great first lap and did what he needed to do to make his
race work. We had a fuel system problem on his car which meant that he had to come in early for both stops and carry 15 kilos of extra fuel from the first stop to the end of
the race, which is worth half a second a lap. However, fourth is a great result and what we deserved for our efforts today. Kazuki was quick today too, but just wasn't
in the right place at the right time with the traffic. Having started in 13th and 15th, it is good to have finished fourth and consolidate our place in the championship. Well done to
Mark and it was great to hear the Australian national anthem in the paddock.
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Scuderia Ferrari
Second podium of the season for
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, with a third place in the German Grand Prix for Felipe Massa. Kimi Raikkonen had to retire after 34 laps because a radiator was damaged by debris and this led to
a loss of engine cooling fluid from the system. Thanks to this result, Felipe moves up to fifth place in the Drivers' classification while the team has consolidated its fourth place in the
Constructors', reducing the gap to third.
Stefano Domenicali: "It's a nice feeling to be back on the podium and this result for Felipe is a good reward for all the effort put in by him in producing a
perfect race and by all the team, at the track and in Maranello. A shame for Kimi who could have secured a good finish: it was really unlucky. Our aim, as we've already said is to finish
third in the Constructors' championship and today's result has helped us make up some ground on the squad ahead of us. However, we have to work very hard to succeed, because this season
is still very hard to interpret: once again this weekend we have seen an incredible see-sawing in performance between some of the teams compared to the previous race and within this Grand Prix itself. There are many
variables, especially those linked to the behaviour of the tyres which does not seem to be completely under control: getting to grips with this could be very important for the rest of the championship."
Felipe Massa: "It's been such a long time since I made it to the podium! I really wanted it after a very difficult first half of the season. Little bit little, we are improving and we will do all we
can to get back to winning ways this season: I want to start hearing the Italian and Brazilian national anthems as soon as possible! A great start and the strategy were the keys to this
result. In the first fifteen laps I was struggling to keep Vettel behind me, but than I think he too was also struggling a bit with the tyres. Maybe I could have managed to get one
place higher, if we had brought the pit stop forward a bit, because I too was struggling with my tyres, but it's easy to say these things with hindsight. Before the race however, I didn't think
I'd end up on the podium as a place in the top five already seemed a lot to ask. But then we saw that cars that in theory are quicker than us ended up behind us and so we realized we had a
good chance. We have to continue in this direction."
Chris Dyer: "This podium from Felipe is a really great reward for the whole team, who did a great job this weekend and in preparing for this race.
However, we are also very disappointed about what happened to Kimi, who could have brought home some important points. This result is a great motivation for the rest of the season. We must continue to work
with the same intensity to get back to where we want to be. The choice to stick with the softer tyre for the second stint of the race was based on what we had seen in the first stint,
where it's true that Felipe had suffered a bit, while Kimi had no problems. We were also concerned about how the harder compound would work in these temperatures."
BMW Sauber
The BMW Sauber F1 Team didn't score any points at its home grand prix after Nick Heidfeld came tenth at the Nürburgring and Robert Kubica finished 14th
Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director): "The race result reflects our performance throughout the whole weekend. For us it was a race without anything special happening apart from
Nick´s second pit stop. This was because after taking on fuel and fitting new tyres he had to let Nelsinho Piquet pass. Because of this he lost valuable time, and his chance for P8 and a point. However, we had no
technical problems."
Willy Rampf (Head of Engineering): "We started the race from 11th and 16th so, as nothing extraordinary happened, we could not expect more. Robert was able to move up a couple
of positions on the first lap. We could not take advantage of this as Robert's prime tyres lacked of grip during his second stint. Nick lost a couple of positions at the start, but fought back
during the second half of the race. One point would have been possible for Nick, but during his second pit stop he had to wait for Nelsinho Piquet who was coming in. Subsequently because
of this we lost decisive time on Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock."
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