2014 Santander German Grand Prix

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David Croft spotted it on the first replay.

Good ol' Crofty :D

Good pole for Rosberg. Ran 0.2 lower on last lap, Bottas crossed the line just before... also 0.2 down. To me that suggests Bottas might be matching Rosberg's pace.

He's certainly close enough to smell the nice shampoo, as Muzza once said (of Berger following Alesi?).
 
Comparing those last laps between Rosberg and Bottas, there was about .007 difference as Rosberg was +0.212 and Bottas was +0.219.

That's if my poor eyes were reading the TV right...
 
What a terrible week for Nico, who'd be a F1 driver.

He's got to get through tomorrow as well. I had a dream the other night about the Williams drivers taking each other out and getting sacked (I drink a lot, what can I say?). It's an omen! :O :)

@GTPorsche, I'd only resolved it to "both 0.2 down on Rosberg's fastest", 0.007 is a much better number, thank you :D
 
He's got to get through tomorrow as well. I had a dream the other night about the Williams drivers taking each other out and getting sacked (I drink a lot, what can I say?). It's an omen! :O :)

@GTPorsche, I'd only resolved it to "both 0.2 down on Rosberg's fastest", 0.007 is a much better number, thank you :D

Oh no, I would like to see a Williams win, Nico can have second place.
 
I always thought Hamilton used Carbon Industries brakes, everywhere I read I see that he was using brembo brakes.
 
Rosberg said he had issues with his brakes and wasn't happy with his, mainly in Q1.

His brakes were also changed before quali according to Paddy but Merc twitter says P3?
 
Reminds me a bit of Mansell at Ferrari, he got all the bad luck and Prost went on fine.
Except not at all. Back then, you needed to be soft on the machinery as the cars were really quite fragile. Do you really think it was a just a coincidence that Prost had far less car failures overall than teammates Senna and Mansell? To win championships, first you must finish races and Prost learned the reality of that the hard way in 1984 (and his Renault days).
 
Except not at all. Back then, you needed to be soft on the machinery as the cars were really quite fragile. Do you really think it was a just a coincidence that Prost had far less car failures overall than teammates Senna and Mansell? To win championships, first you must finish races and Prost learned the reality of that the hard way in 1984 (and his Renault days).
You don't know for sure that their driving style caused all those mechanical failures ;)
Will have been a factor for sure, but still.
 
Hamilton likely to start from pit lane if the decision is made to change his brake discs to Carbon Industries.

http://www.espn.co.uk/germany/motorsport/story/168097.html

I did wonder if Hamilton might find another reason to start from the pit lane if this brake change doesn't go ahead. The first few turns at Hockenheim can be horrible, Hamilton can't afford to be running around in the middle of the lower 10.

Five-place gearbox penalty for Hamilton.

Unsurprising given the impact in the crash, or see previous musing. Do we know if they have changed his brakes?

Nerve-wracking for him, if so, preparing to start a 200 mile road race on the hottest tarmac of the year with a rebuilt car that he's done one lap in, with a new gearbox and with brakes of a different specification that he's only pressed properly about 20 times.

I'd say he could be earning his money today.

EDIT: An interesting snippet from Aunty regarding the legality of a change in brake type (eg Brembo to Carbon Industries).

BBC
F1's parc ferme regulations dictate that teams cannot change the specifications of their cars from qualifying to race unless it is on safety grounds.

But governing body the FIA faces a difficult decision in letting any change go through on that basis as several other teams are using the same brakes as Hamilton without reporting any problems

Source
 
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The impact looked pretty soft because it went in nose first then spun around, they're probably playing it a little safe.

Playing safe, yes, I wouldn't call the impact "pretty soft" though. The rear wheels have significant mass... when the nose of the car dug in they each exerted 30x that mass in all sorts of bizarre directions, that transmits straight through the driveshafts. Add the extra shock of the impact they did have (and a 30g crash is pretty hefty) and you've got a lot of energy being hammered across fragile components in all the wrong directions.
 
C'mon Rosberg!!! You are much better than your teammate and this is your year.

hamilton learn to use the brakes if you want to win with this mercedes... he always overheat them.. what an idio*
 
Wolff said yesterday that Merc might be able to change Lewis' brake manufacturer on safety grounds to avoid a big penalty.

hamilton learn to use the brakes if you want to win with this mercedes... he always overheat them.. what an idio*

2 examples of it happening, here and Canada. In Canada Lewis was running in dirty air and was running a bit more rear bias than Nico which caused his rear brakes to fail but here they failed in Q1 immediately after a cool down lap...
 
I think for Lewis as long as he stays out of trouble, Williams will potentially be hard to beat in the dry, Red Bull in the wet.
 
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