F1 Fanatic

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Nurburgring, 2011

Front row starters Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton were separated by less than a tenth of a second at the Nurburgring.

But their cars are strong in different parts of the lap: Hamilton was quickest in the first and last sectors, but only fourth-fastest in the middle.

Here’s all the data from qualifying for the German Grand Prix.

Qualifying times in full

• Webber said he’d not had a clean lap in Q2 which partly explains why he found more time than the other drivers in Q3.
• Unusually, three drivers weren’t able to improve on their best times in Q3.

Team mate comparisons

Compare the best times of each team’s drivers in the last part of qualifying in which they both set a time.

• Hamilton was much quicker than Jenson Button – he had over a second in hand over his team mate.
• Michael Schumacher was even further behind Nico Rosberg. He said: “In qualifying I was still nearly a second away and couldn’t have matched his time, so we have to analyse deeply what could be the reason for it. Obviously then, I tried to push even harder to compensate which lead to a mistake in the last chicane on my last lap, probably costing me P8.”
• Adrian Sutil out-qualified Paul di Resta for the third time in ten attempts, with a comfortable margin of three-quarters of a second. Interestingly, di Resta described his set-up as “race-orientated”.
• In his second race, Daniel Ricciardo all-but matched team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi’s qualifying time.

Sector times

Here are the drivers’ best times in each sector.

• Hamilton was fastest in two out of three sectors but admitted afterwards he was surprised by his performance: “I don’t really know where I found the time, and to be honest I’m going to get a recording of the onboard footage and watch it back because I’d love to see it.”
• However he gave a clue to what’s behind McLaren’s improved pace, referring to changes made to the cars “engine modes”.
• Red Bull’s performance advantage in sector two – predominantly mid-to-high speed corners – is exactly what we’ve come to expect of the RB7 and, indeed, its recent predecessors.

Speed trap

Here are the drivers’ maximum speeds.

• No surprises here – Schumacher’s Mercedes is the fastest car in a straight line again.

2011 German Grand Prix

• Rate the race result: 2011 German Grand Prix
• 2011 German Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
• Vote for your German GP driver of the weekend
• McLaren: Surprise win in Germany for Hamilton
• Red Bull: McLaren and Ferrari ahead in Germany
• Ferrari: Alonso beats Red Bulls despite cool weather
• Mercedes: Three-stopper costs Rosberg a place
• Force India: Sutil helps team overtake Toro Rosso
• Renault: Petrov dissatisfied with strategy
• Sauber: Kobayashi out in Q1 but claims points