The complete 2010 German GP review

PRACTICE

Practice 1 - Friday AM

The first session was blighted by heavy rain at Hockenheim, and as usual two things happen when this is the case; Adrian Sutil goes quickly and one of the established runners has a 'moment'.

Well that was true once again this time as the Force India driver went fastest of all as the circuit evolved from a wet one to merely damp through its 90-minute duration.

Lewis Hamilton was the star name in shame, having pushed the left-rear of his McLaren MP4-25 into the centre after losing it at Turn 3 and clouting the barrier heavily. This would cost the 2008 world champion dear as the team would not complete repairs until 75 minutes into FP2.

To be fair on Hamilton though, most if not all the field had at least one moment during the session - and in the case of Felipe Massa make that five. This was blamed in part by some of the drivers on the switch from 'grippy' old asphalt, to the slippery 'green' newly resurfaced parts of the track around the hairpin and the Mercedes section.

Practice 2 - Friday PM

The first patterns of form emerged in the second session, despite the track never fully drying, it was significantly better than FP1, allowing the teams to work down to an almost-dry time.

The clearest message that came from the timesheets was that Ferrari intended to make itself a player through the weekend and Fernando Alonso duly set the pace with a 1m16.265s. Felipe Massa backed that statement up with third fastest, splitting the Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Hamilton meanwhile, on a remarkable recovery track, completed 10 laps at the end of the session to go seventh fastest - 0.7s quicker than team-mate Jenson Button, who ran through Friday's practice without physical drama. Though it would be fair to report that he was far from happy with his set-up.

Saturday Practice

More rain in the morning rendered the first 30 minutes of the session useless. But it was hotter on Saturday morning and a combination of cars-on-track and the sun, burned away the moisture and provided half-an-hour of genuine set-up time. Eureka!

Most of the drivers spent 20 minutes of that tuning their cars on the hard prime tyres, and during this phase Button was fastest of all in the low 1m18s range.

That all changed when Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso emerged from the pits on super-soft Bridgestones and immediately shot to the top of the times. A frenzy of activity followed, as everyone did the same things. But in the end it was Vettel who set the standard with a 1m15.103s lap - some 0.284s faster than Alonso and more than half a second clear of his team-mate Mark Webber.

QUALIFYING

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-5

Vettel's delight at securing his second consecutive pole was a good reflection of how deep he had to dig to beat Alonso by the tiniest of margins - just 0.002s. Nonetheless, Ferrari's form was bad news for Red Bull, which saw how the Italian team deleted its qualifying advantage.

2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-3

Ferrari calculations suggested Alonso missed pole by 15 centimetres, that's how close it was. The Spaniard and Vettel were in a league apart, and it was no surprise to see Alonso delighted with his effort despite missing out on Ferrari's first pole since 2008.

3. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-8

Massa was pleased with his best qualifying performance since the Bahrain Grand Prix, although there was no denying that he could not match the speed of Alonso. Nonetheless, the Brazilian was optimistic of putting an end to his streak of poor results.

4. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-6

This time Webber was unable to match the pace of his team-mate and suggested third would have been his best possible result. He lost that too, though, after a driving mistake on his final run and had to settle for the bottom position on the second row.

5. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-7

Although worried about the large gap to the leaders, Button admitted he was happy to turn his qualifying form around to manage to outpace team-mate Hamilton. The bad news was that he felt his lap had been good and that there was no more to extract from the car.

6. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-4

Hamilton was not a happy man on Saturday afternoon, insisting that McLaren was the third quickest team at the moment, despite the introduction of the blown diffuser. He conceded he had not driven his best qualifying, as he struggled with a lack of downforce around the track.

7. Robert Kubica, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-0

Again, Kubica seemed to extract the maximum from his Renault package, which, unlike most of his direct rivals, still does not include an F-duct. The Pole felt he could have been a bit quicker had he not been held up by a Red Bull, but admitted that his position would not have changed anyway.

8. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-2

Barrichello continued to show his and Williams's good form with another solid effort. He was happy with his performance, although sorry that some understeer in Q3 meant he was unable to repeat his Q2 lap, something he felt had cost him a position.

9. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-2

Despite a promising start on Friday, the Mercedes team simply sank on Saturday and the pace was not there anymore. Rosberg was even left hoping to find a problem with his car, because he was mystified as to why the updates were not working as they should.

10. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-8

Hulkenberg had the 'honour' of being the man who knocked compatriot and local hero Schumacher out of Q3 with a last-gasp effort. The German felt he could have done better in the final qualifying segment, but had to settle for the slowest time.

11. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-9

Having claimed he was aiming for a top five after Friday's practice, Schumacher could not hide his disappointment at being knocked out of Q3 in his first home race since 2006. Looking at Rosberg's times, however, it was clear that the performance of the car was simply not there.

12. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-6

The Japanese driver was adamant that he should have gone into Q3, his Sauber having taken a step forward in performance. As it was, however, Kobayashi was left disappointed after finishing in 12th, having found traffic while trying to warm up his tyres before his final run.

13. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-11

Being Kubica's team-mate would not be an easy job for any driver this year, so things continued to be hard for the Russian rookie, who conceded he was unable to get all things right to be able to move into Q3.

14. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-2

Not an easy day for Force India, with Liuzzi crashing and Sutil knowing before qualifying that he would drop five places because of a gearbox-change penalty. Fourteenth was nothing to write home about either, but the German admitted there was simply no grip in his car.

15. Pedro de la Rosa, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-5

Although Sauber looked to be closer to the top cars, de la Rosa conceded making it into Q3 would have been very difficult. The Spaniard could not be too happy, though, having finished over half a second behind team-mate Kobayashi.

16. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-8

The Spaniard admitted he was not expecting to be able to outperform team-mate Buemi, having finished over half a second off him in the first qualifying segment. But as conditions improved, Alguersuari did too and went more than a second faster than in Q1.

17. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-3

The Swiss was at a loss to explain his lack of pace in Q2 after a good effort in Q1. While team-mate Alguersuari found an improvement of a whole second compared to Q1, Buemi improved by less than a tenth and was understandably disappointed.

18. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-5

The Italian was delighted with his performance, which left him clear of the chasing pack, but still 1.5 seconds off the pace of his closest rival. Trulli felt comfortable with his car all weekend and the result was a solid effort, even if Q2 was still tall order.

19. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-6

Kovalainen had a tough weekend from the start of practice, struggling with the handling of his Lotus, and that reflected in his qualifying pace. The Finn finished nearly a full second behind Trulli, and baffled by the poor levels of grip during the session.

20. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-1

Things were looking in practice for the German and his Virgin team, but things took a turn for the worse on Saturday. In final practice, Glock lost time due to a damage radiator, and then could not complete all his runs in qualifying because of a brake problem.

21. Bruno Senna, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-4

Back after missing the British Grand Prix, Senna was happy with his effort after one of his strongest qualifying sessions of the year. Despite no performance updates, the Brazilian finished just three tenths behind the Lotus of Kovalainen.

22. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-9

Liuzzi was caught out by the AstroTurf at the start of the straight, which was still damp despite the track having dried up. He lost control of his car and crashed against the pit wall, finishing over 1.5 seconds away from the time needed to go into Q2.

23. Sakon Yamamoto, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-2

Yamamoto was hoping to improve on his performance from Silverstone, but as it turned out, the Japanese showing was more disappointing than in Britain. He finished nearly 1.4 seconds behind Senna after finding he had problems with his car.

24. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-10

Team-mate Glock had problems, but di Grassi was even worse off, the Brazilian unable to even complete a lap during the qualifying session. A gearbox problem meant he had to watch Q1 from the pits.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver         Team                    Q1         Q2        Q3       
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault        1:15.152   1:14.249  1:13.791
 2.  Alonso         Ferrari                 1:14.808   1:14.081  1:13.793
 3.  Massa          Ferrari                 1:15.216   1:14.478  1:14.290
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault        1:15.334   1:14.340  1:14.347
 5.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1:15.823   1:14.716  1:14.427
 6.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes        1:15.505   1:14.488  1:14.566
 7.  Kubica         Renault                 1:15.736   1:14.835  1:15.079
 8.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1:16.398   1:14.698  1:15.109
 9.  Rosberg        Mercedes                1:16.178   1:15.018  1:15.179
10.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth       1:16.387   1:14.943  1:15.339
11.  Schumacher     Mercedes                1:16.084   1:15.026
12.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari          1:15.951   1:15.084
13.  Petrov         Renault                 1:16.521   1:15.307
14.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1:16.220   1:15.467
15.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari          1:16.450   1:15.550
16.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:16.664   1:15.588
17.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1:16.029   1:15.974
18.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth          1:17.583
19.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth          1:18.300
20.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth         1:18.343
21.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth            1:18.592
22.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes    1:18.952
23.  Yamamoto       HRT-Cosworth            1:19.844
24.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth

All Timing Unofficial

THE RACE

"Okay, so... Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?"

We didn't hear Felipe Massa's reply to Rob Smedley's radio message. He might not have made one over the radio. But he certainly responded on track.

One lap after that team order/coded message/simple statement of fact for Massa to consider (choose whichever description feels most appropriate), the #7 Ferrari eased out of the hairpin much slower than usual and the #8 Ferrari accelerated past and into the lead. And Fernando Alonso won the German Grand Prix, and Massa finished second.

An hour and a half earlier, it had been Massa sweeping around Alonso, which is where things started to get complicated for Ferrari.

Both its cars had got away quicker than polesitter Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull, but Alonso's run to the Nordkurve was compromised by Vettel clumsily squeezing him towards the pit wall.

Rather than successfully defending against Alonso (who muscled past anyway), Vettel's move instead left the racing line on the outside wide open for Massa, who breezed past and into the lead.

In the opening stint on soft tyres, 1.5-second gaps soon opened between the top three cars. Vettel tried to get an advantage by pitting earliest, on lap 12, but with Ferrari bringing Alonso in next time around, he had no time to achieve anything. Massa's side of the garage then responded and pitted the Brazilian on lap 14, which meant no elegant reversal of the Ferrari order in the pitstops - particularly with Vettel still close enough to prevent any choreography that delayed Massa.

So the order remained Massa-Alonso-Vettel. And now there was more urgency in the Ferrari battle. Massa's comfortable cushion had gone, his car seemed more twitchy and his driving less at ease once on the hard tyre. Alonso was now right there with him.

On lap 20 they came up to lap Timo Glock's Virgin and Bruno Senna's Hispania. Massa nipped inside the Virgin into Turn 2, but Alonso dived into the gap as well, which both avoided him being boxed in and put him right in his team-mate's slipstream. Senna kept to the outside on the backstraight, Massa hugged the inside and Alonso went through the middle and edged ahead, but his team-mate had the apex of the hairpin covered. Alonso had half a look down the inside at the quick entry to the Mercedes Arena, but thought better of it. Trying to take advantage of all this, Vettel did well not to plough into Senna and Glock at the hairpin.

Then suddenly it was Massa pulling away from Alonso. He set a string of new fastest laps and got his lead up to 3.4s.

His engineer Rob Smedley came onto the radio: "Gap is three seconds. We need everything, Felipe. Come on. Concentrate. Keep this going and you can win."

With hindsight, that message seems more significant - if you're leaving Alonso standing, no one is going to expect you to pull over for him...

But before long, Alonso was raising his pace too, and then setting fastest laps of his own. And down came the gap again, to less than a second. Massa sometimes inched a little further away, then got reeled in. Then they would match each other tenth for tenth. Had Massa got Alonso covered? Or had Alonso hit the dirty air buffer?

The radio call from Smedley made it clear that the team felt Alonso was being held up. Soon afterwards, Massa was backing off and relinquishing the lead.

Ferrari would later argue that with Vettel still close behind - although that gap had gone up to 6s as the Red Bull failed to keep pace with the Ferraris on hard tyres - and sometimes gaining, the situation risked backing both cars towards Vettel and jeopardising the one-two.

"Okay mate, good lad," said a rather resigned sounding Smedley as the place exchange was completed. "Just stick with him now.

"Sorry."

Vettel had a quick look at catching Massa, and then eased back for his usual amusement of setting a late fastest lap (which he duly achieved). Third perhaps wasn't ideal having started on pole for his home race, and Ferrari's sudden appearance as a car quick enough to pull away from a Red Bull had to be a worry, but it could've been a lot worse.

For one thing, Vettel was comfortably clear of the McLarens, which did not have the pace to fight for the lead even in race trim. Lewis Hamilton managed to outbrake Mark Webber into the hairpin on lap one, and Jenson Button then jumped the Red Bull by staying out till lap 22 before pitting - which gave him eight laps in the lead and brought him right up behind his team-mate.

The McLarens went on to finish fourth and fifth, any threat from Webber ending when the Australian had to back off and modify his driving to keep his engine intact amid alarming oil consumption.

Perhaps because of the intensity of the Ferrari fight (and the short circuit), everyone else was at least one lap down. Robert Kubica almost got his Renault among the McLarens at the start but ran out of space at Turn 2 and fell back to seventh, where he would finish, ahead of the two Mercedes. Michael Schumacher had made a good start but Nico Rosberg ran further before his stop and emerged ahead of his team-mate, where he would stay, leaving the seven-time champion to have a bit of a battle with Vitaly Petrov. The Russian rookie thought this was for 11th rather than 10th, so was pleasantly surprised to learn he had scored a point in the end.

Schumacher and Petrov's progress into the points came at the expense of Sauber and Williams. Both the latter team's cars made poor starts and never recovered, leaving Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg 12th and 13th despite the latter staying out until lap 34 before pitting.

Kamui Kobayashi had a few feisty battles as ever but didn't have the pace to get any higher than 11th, while his team-mate Pedro de la Rosa rolled the dice and ran 51 laps on his first set of tyres - then had to return to the pits after losing his front wing in a tangle with Heikki Kovalainen, for which the Lotus driver accepted the blame, having not realised de la Rosa was right behind Barrichello as both lapped him. That left de la Rosa back in 14th.

No one had quite as bad a day as Force India and Toro Rosso, as both teams saw their cars collide with each other on lap one. Jaime Alguersuari felt he had done everything normally and that everyone ahead had slowed excessively at the hairpin. Sebastien Buemi reckoned he'd been minding his own business and suddenly saw his team-mate on top of him, ending his race.

The Force Indias came together a little earlier in the lap, leaving Tonio Liuzzi in need of a new wing. But Adrian Sutil was also bound for the pits - his strategy being that he should immediately make his tyre change unless he made an amazing start, and then hope for a safety car. Amid some miscommunication and confusion, the two cars ended up with each other's tyres, which meant another stop to get their own. Sutil later took yet another set of tyres after a quick excursion, and briefly held fastest lap honours, but it all left him only 17th, behind Alguersuari and Liuzzi.

Kovalainen's tangle with de la Rosa ended what had been brewing into an intriguing new teams' scrap. The Finn had led the group early on, but Timo Glock ran to lap 52 before changing to soft tyres, and was set to charge onto the Lotus's tail. With Kovalainen out, that left Glock clear to finish 'first in class' ahead of Senna, who was delayed by a slow puncture. Jarno Trulli and Sakon Yamamoto both had gearbox failures, and Lucas di Grassi broke his suspension on a kerb and spun out.

None of that will live particularly long in the memory, for all the events below second place were pretty irrelevant to the main story at Hockenheim: the Ferrari row.

Alonso's celebrations were muted, and Massa looked pretty downcast. Both stuck to the party line - that Massa had chosen of his own volition to let Alonso through as he accepted that his pace on hard tyres was inferior. The team hadn't been telling him to let Alonso through, Ferrari insisted, it had just been pointing out the situation and letting Massa decide to do whatever he felt was appropriate.

There was definite inarguable logic to Alonso finishing ahead being the better option for Ferrari. He had started the weekend 47 points off the championship lead, so two wins adrift, effectively - still a tall order but achievable with nine races left and the car improving. Massa came to Germany 78 behind leader Hamilton, just over three victories' worth of points. And for the vast majority of the year, Alonso had been Ferrari's pacesetter - including at Hockenheim, where he qualified half a second ahead. Alonso had both a smaller gap to close and strong likelihood of doing it.

Austria 2002 caused a furore because there was absolutely no need for it - Schumacher already had one hand on the title and by playing around with the result Ferrari seemed to be treating F1's audience with contempt. Unlike then, Alonso is in a fierce dogfight in 2010, and needs every point he can get.

Red Bull and McLaren could say their drivers were neck and neck in the points race and could not dream of favouring one over the other. Barring a miracle, Ferrari only has one true title contender - and he was becoming a long-shot. The team could have been accused of shooting itself in the foot by letting Massa deny Alonso. And if pushed, you could even stretch the point to saying that Alonso would've been leading anyway but for Vettel impeding him off the line...

The converse argument was that Massa had earned his place in front by doing the better job in the race. The emotional angle was that losing a certain victory exactly a year to the day after the Hungaroring crash that left him fighting for his life and career was very cruel on Massa.

However the most relevant line was that team orders - even those that might appear necessary for a title fight - are now banned outright in F1. And Ferrari also hadn't done itself any favours by allowing the move to be so blatant. Plenty of intra-team position exchanges have happened since the team orders ban, whether through canny shuffles in pitstops or outbraking moves meeting little resistance. That meant the stewards had no doubt that the rules had been broken, and referred the matter to the FIA World Motor Sport Council for a final judgement at an unspecified date in the future.

There was nothing subtle about Massa's gesture... though on the other hand, why should he go through the embarrassment of pretending to be outraced? And as the ever perceptive Smedley pointed out in another memorable radio message, amid the furore, one important point should not be overlooked: Massa had just delivered his best drive since returning from injury.

"Good lad, mate. Felipe Massa is back, eh? Back in business. Good boy. Great result.

"And very, very, very magnanimous. You won't have any idea what that word means, so I'll explain it to you later..."

RACE RESULTS

The German Grand Prix
Hockenheim, Germany;
67 laps; 306.458km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h28:38.866
 2.  Massa         Ferrari                    +     4.196
 3.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     5.121
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    26.896
 5.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    29.482
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    43.606
 7.  Kubica        Renault                    +     1 lap
 8.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +     1 lap
 9.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +     1 lap
10.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap
11.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
12.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
13.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
14.  De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
15.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
16.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +    2 laps
17.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +    2 laps
18.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    3 laps
19.  Senna         HRT-Cosworth               +    4 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:15.824

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth               58
Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth              51
Yamamoto      HRT-Cosworth                 20
Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               4
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari           2


World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton     157        1.  McLaren-Mercedes          300
 2.  Button       143        2.  Red Bull-Renault          272
 3.  Webber       136        3.  Ferrari                   208
 4.  Vettel       136        4.  Mercedes                  132
 5.  Alonso       123        5.  Renault                    96
 6.  Rosberg       94        6.  Force India-Mercedes       47
 7.  Kubica        89        7.  Williams-Cosworth          31
 8.  Massa         85        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             15
 9.  Schumacher    38        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10
10.  Sutil         35       
11.  Barrichello   29       
12.  Kobayashi     15       
13.  Liuzzi        12       
14.  Petrov         7       
15.  Buemi          7       
16.  Alguersuari    3       
17.  Hulkenberg     2   

All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

McLaren

McLaren kept its blown diffuser on all weekend this time, but was off Red Bull and Ferrari's pace. Hamilton didn't help his preparations by crashing in the wet on Friday morning and missing much of the afternoon while repairs were completed. He was outqualified by Button as the McLarens shared row three.

Button dropped to sixth at the start, while Hamilton passed Webber to take fourth. Button got the Red Bull too later on, by virtue of not changing tyres until lap 22 and pushing hard in clear air up front. They duly settled into close formation in fourth and fifth and stayed there to the flag.

Mercedes

Not for the first time in recent rounds, Mercedes thought things were looking pretty promising in practice then had an unpleasant surprise in qualifying, which this time saw Rosberg and Schumacher only ninth and 11th despite another big upgrade package.

Schumacher made a good start and ran eighth at first, but lost that position to Rosberg as the younger German ran longer before his stop. They ran between the Renaults to the flag in eighth and ninth thereafter.

Red Bull

Vettel narrowly beat Alonso to pole on home ground, but just as at Silverstone, he made a slow getaway from the front of the grid. Fixated on trying to hold off Alonso on the inside, he let Massa past around the outside too and fell to third. That was where he finished, as he was never quite quick enough to really challenge the red cars.

Webber made a slight error in Q3 and ended up fourth. Hamilton passed him on lap one, Button did likewise during the pit sequence as Webber emerged in the thick of a queue of traffic. Substantial oil consumption then meant he had to drive gingerly to his eventual sixth place.

Ferrari

Ferrari had its best weekend pace-wise since Bahrain, but it ended in controversy as well as a one-two. Alonso only narrowly missed out on pole to Vettel, while Massa qualified third.

Both got past Vettel at the start, but it was Massa who emerged in the line around the outside while Alonso was being squeezed by the Red Bull.

They then ran one-two, with Massa pulling away for a while before being reeled in. The team radioed him to inform him that Alonso was faster, and shortly afterwards he pulled aside to let his team-mate through to take the win, leading to a team orders controversy, a large fine and potentially an FIA hearing into the matter.

Williams' recent form seemed set to continue as Barrichello and Hulkenberg both made it to Q3 and claimed eighth and 10th positions - though both felt the car had a little more speed in it still.

But poor starts put them both in the midfield and they were unable to regain the lost ground, eventually finishing 12th and 13th. Even running until half-distance before changing tyres made no difference for Hulkenberg.

Until its next big upgrade comes along, Renault seems resigned to being the fourth-fastest team. So it was relatively content that Kubica managed to qualify seventh and finish there, beating main rival Mercedes.

Petrov underperformed in qualifying again and started 13th, but made up for it with a good run to 10th in the race.

Sutil was fastest in opening practice in the wet, but then had a gearbox failure on Saturday morning and had to take a penalty in qualifying as a result. Worse still, his car was only quick enough for 14th even before the penalty. Liuzzi couldn't provide any cheer - he crashed heavily in Q1 and was only 22nd in the times.

They then made contact on the first lap, before further disaster when they both pitted simultaneously (Liuzzi for a new one, Sutil because his strategy called for a lap one change to hards) and ended up with each other's tyres by mistake, forcing another stop and later earning the team a reprimand. They finished 16th and 17th, Sutil behind Liuzzi after a quick gravel trip and a further pitstop.

Huge frustration as Alguersuari and Buemi qualified only 16th and 17th, then collided on lap one, when Alguersuari ploughed into the back of his team-mate. Buemi was out, Alguersuari survived to finish 15th.

Virgin looked like it was fast enough to worry Lotus, but with both the red and black cars breaking in qualifying, it was another one-two on the 'class' grid for Lotus, with Trulli ahead and Kovalainen puzzled by his lack of pace.

Trulli's miserable luck continued with a very early gearbox failure on race day, while Kovalainen was battling with Glock and looking set for a late showdown on the Virgin charged up on fresh tyres - until a tangle with de la Rosa ended the Finn's race and earned him a reprimand from the stewards.

More musical chairs at Hispania, where Senna returned and Yamamoto switched over to Chandhok's car in place of the sidelined Indian. With Liuzzi crashing and di Grassi not running in qualifying, Senna found himself a career-best 21st on the grid, a second faster than Yamamoto. Senna managed to battle with Glock in the race too until a slow puncture intervened and left him 19th. Yamamoto dropped out with gearbox problems.

Glock was an excellent 12th in the wet on Friday then clear of Lotus and close to Toro Rosso even in the dry. But gearbox failure in final practice earned him a five place penalty (which became an academic 10-place when he changed ratios too), and a brake problem in Q1 meant he was slower than Lotus anyway. Di Grassi didn't even run in qualifying, as a gearbox problem followed a practice alternator issue.

In the race Glock ran to lap 52 on hard tyres then changed to softs and attempted to hunt down Kovalainen. He didn't need to, as the Lotus turned in on de la Rosa and ended its race, handing 18th to the Virgin. Di Grassi's race ended when he broke his suspension running over a kerb and then spun.

A disappointing qualifying saw Kobayashi 12th and de la Rosa 15th, and the race didn't get much better.

Sauber wasn't far off the pace, but it didn't have quite enough speed to score, with Kobayashi battling in vain with Petrov and finishing 11th. De la Rosa opted to run 52 laps on hard tyres then try a late charge on softs. It meant he ran as high as seventh and an exciting last few laps was in prospect until he collided with Kovalainen - who accepted the blame - and needed a new front wing.