Sharky's (Totally Unbiased, er, yeah) Nurburgring Race Wrapup
Podium Rundown:
1st: Horton (McLaren)
2nd: Rees (BMW Sauber)
3rd: Trendell (McLaren)
Race Statistics:
Fastest Lap: Taylor (Renault), Lap 60; 1min 30.215 sec
Retirements: Kawasie (Spyker, lap 28), accident; Charkaoui (Super Aguri, lap 41), accident
Leaders: Trendell (led 38 laps), Horton (led 22 laps)
Fastest Scheduled Pitstop: Mason (Toro Rosso, 5.76 sec)
Slowest Scheduled Pitstop: Machiels (Red Bull, 23.55 sec)
Most Pitstops: Haswell (Toro Rosso, 5)
Race Report:
Lap 1 of 60:
P4 man AlMomen (Toyota) loses 10 spots on the green light. Ouch.
Top three remain in their initial qualifying order (Trendell, Taylor, Horton), however immediately behind them the Red Bulls of Skywalker and Machiels jump from 7th to 4th and 8th to 6th respectively.
Other big movers: Charkaoui (up 4), Shepherd (Williams, up 5), Kawasie (up 5)
Lap 2 of 60:
Second-placed Taylor slips a wheel off at Ford Corner, making her spin and costing her 18 seconds (and 14 places)!
Lap 7 of 60:
Skywalker passes Horton for second, Trendell having made a "it's a bit like Malaysia today McLaren 1-2" comment the lap before. Skywalker begins closing rapidly on Trendell.
Laps 11, 12 of 60:
Trendell-Skywalker gap remains dead constant at 1.866 seconds.
Lap 16 of 60:
Kawasie goes commando at Dunlop Kurve, and must pit to clear his radiators of foliage.
Lap 17 of 60:
Skywalker now only half a second behind Trendell....
Lap 18 of 60:
...only for Trendell to be let off the hook when Skywalker makes his first pit, and drops to fifth.
Lap 19 of 60:
Machiels pits from third place. However he drops well down the order to tenth after the left rear wheel guy loses the wheelnut under the car. Oh dear.
Lap 25 of 60:
Renault showdown. Well, in engines, anyway. Graham (Renault) takes Skywalker for fourth.
Lap 28 of 60:
"Kamikaze Kawasie" goes commando one time too many. First retirement of the race.
Lap 36 of 60:
Skywalker closes to within 0.073 of the second placed McLaren of Horton.
Lap 39 of 60:
Can you smell lap 19 here? Skywalker pits from third place, however his pit crew have other ideas - prematurely dropping the car off the jacks before the right front tyre was put on properly. Only drops two places to fifth, however, such was his first-half race pace.
Lap 40 of 60:
Oh cack. The worst Red Bull pitstop yet. Machiels really is having a rotten time of it in the pits today. Drops three places to seventh.
Lap 41 of 60:
Charkaoui follows Kawasie's lead and goes commando at the same corner. Second retirement of the race.
Race leader Trendell pits, stalls. Reamins safe from the clutches of fourth-placed Skywalker, however.
Lap 42 of 60:
New leader Horton pits from the lead, and stays there.
Rees pits from second, rejoins in third.
Lap 51 of 60:
Rees passes Trendell for second. Trendell vents his frustration at wanting a McLaren 1-2, but other people have other ideas.
Laps 51, 52, 53, 54 of 60:
Overtaking manuevers at Coca-Cola Kurve on laps 51 and 52 by Rees (see above) and Butler.
Driver errors at Coca-Cola Kurve on laps 53 and 54 by Dunstan and Chang. Both come out the other side of the corner in one piece.
Lap 57 of 60:
Machiels takes Shepherd for two points.
Lap 58 of 60:
Machiels takes Graham for three points, much to the disdain of the Renault driver.
Lap 60 of 60:
Horton takes the flag. Rees second, Trendell third, Skywalker fourth after a brilliant drive.
Crunching The Numbers:
Best Performing Teams Overall: McLaren (1st and 3rd), Red Bull (4th and 6th)
Worst Performing Teams Overall: Toro Rosso, Ferrari
Fastest Team (is an average of both driver's fastest lap): Honda, 1min 30.690
Best Overtakers: Super Aguri (21 passes)
Biggest Moving Team (average of both drivers' qual change): Williams, up 6.5
