I was supposed to be at a friend´s wedding today. I was kind of worried how I would behave if I was sitting at the church and following nervously the qualifying results on my cell phone... I knew there would be a slight chance of me shouting out loud if certain Sebastian Vettel made it on pole...! However, a sudden change of plans came up unfortunately due to a personal issue so no worries of me embarrassing myself publicly!
Dark clouds loomed just outside the Hockenheim circuit when Q1 got started. The most staggering detail in Q1 was definitely the fact that Kimi Räikkönen in his Lotus was the fastest man on track! The Iceman showed that in the dry he was the man everyone should be afraid of! But unfortunately the track didn´t stay dry very long...
The heavens opened right when the light turned green and Q2 got underway. There are always surprises in mixed conditions and today´s qualifying was no exception. Schumacher at the wheel of Mercedes was among the fastest drivers on track in front of his home crowd despite the fact that he was very close to be knocked out of Q2 and made it there just by 55 thousandths of a second! Grosjean in his Lotus as well as Massa in his Ferrari were among the unlucky ones who didn´t make it in to the final section. Rosberg was also very much in trouble on the slippery track and qualified 17th today!
There were different kind of opinions about whether the conditions were driveable or not when Q3 got underway. Alonso for example told on the team radio that he considered the conditions too dangerous. Nevertheless, the conditions were same for everybody. Even driving on the full wets couldn´t help the drivers aquaplaning... I have to admit that I hugely admire all the drivers for their courage and skills to drive in such conditions! When it´s raining heavily I´m absolutely terrified to drive even 80 km/h but these guys go as fast as 290 km/h... Wow, that´s absolutely not something that everyone can do!
Alonso managed to do a clean lap and conquered pole today. He pitted at the end of Q3 and made his last run on the fresh set of tyres which turned out to be the right call today. Vettel put up a good fight but he ended up second as his last attempt wasn´t clean. His team-mate Webber qualified 3rd today but he will be dropped in P8 due to a gear-box change. The Australian isn´t the only driver to suffer from a five-place grid penalty as also Rosberg and Grosjean have got similar penalties. Also Perez in P12 got a 5-place grid penalty due to blocking both Kimi and Alonso during Q2.
The McLarens seemed to lose performance in wet conditions. Button qualified in P6 followed by his team-mate Hamilton in P7. Lotus´s performance in Q3 was also a huge disappointment as Kimi qualified in P10 being 5 seconds slower than Alonso! Can´t help wondering what happened after the outstanding Q1! Just hoping it´s going to be a dry race tomorrow so that we´ll all see what the Iceman is really capable of...! I´m sure Kimi will show us some brilliant overtaking :)
The German home crowd must be thrilled as after all the penalties there are three Germans in top 4: Vettel on the front row, Schumi in P3 and Hulkenberg in P4. I know I´m going to be thrilled when the lights go off. Vettel can´t afford giving Alonso any bigger lead in the championship standings so I hope the young German manages to beat the Spaniard tomorrow! Once again... all the very best for Sebastian and the Iceman!
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