Le Seb's F1 career with Toro Rosso came to an end ...

So, it is official now. Sebastien Bourdais’ F1 career with Scuderia Toro Rosso is over. The team has decided to bring new driver for Hungarian GP. Franz Tost:

“In Sébastien’s second year with us, the partnership has not met our expectations and therefore we have decided to replace him as from the next round of the World Championship, the Hungarian Grand Prix.”

And so Sébastien Bourdais becomes the first driver since Scott Speed in 2007 to be dropped by the team during the season (if we do not count Alex Wurz who dropped himself and retired the same year with a race to go). He also joins the privileged company of Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve and others – the drivers whos F1 seasons or careers ended in July …

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For those who missed it, here is the video featuring Mark Webber and his scream following his first F1 win. I disabled the autostart so please click on the play button to start the video. There is 15 seconds Oral B toothpaste ad before the scream comes on.

The jailbirds

There were 3 high ranking Chinese officials greeting the spectators from the 2005 Chinese GP official program (click on the above image). Two of them are now in jail for graft …

The case of Yu Zhifei, general manager of the Shanghai International Circuit Management and Development Co Ltd has been making headlines for a while. The investigation of the man credited with bringing the Formula One to China begun in 2007. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison for embezzlement of funds in the late 1990s when he was head of Shanghai Shenhua Football Club.

The future looks much more gloomy for Chen Tonghai, former president of Sinopec, China’s second-largest oil company and until this year also the main backer and title sponsor of the Chinese Formula One GP. He was convicted today of corruption and taking bribes and received a suspended death sentence. Chen Tonghai was convicted of illegally receiving 190 million yuan (US$27 million). His death sentence came with with a two-year reprieve. Such sentences in China usually are commuted to life in prison.

What a difference can few years make …

Max Mosley

Max Mosley, the FIA president, sent a letter to all the FIA member clubs confirming he will not run for re-election in October. This is the part of the letter that should satisfy also FOTA:

“I began some months ago to rearrange my family life with effect from next October. I also informed senior FIA staff that I would not be a candidate. To continue now would greatly complicate my domestic arrangement and be inconsistent with my obligations to my family, particularly after our recent loss. Also, I have felt for some time that I would like to work less. After all, I will be 70 next year.

Therefore, with these new arrangements in place, extremely grateful though I am for all the letters, emails and messages I have received, I have decided to reconfirm my decision. I will not be a candidate in October.”

Mosley also for the first time made public whom he would like to see to take his place. No surprises here, it is Jean Todt.

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The results of round 9 of our prediction game are here. The best score went to Wil (20 points) and thanks to outscoring everybody around him Wil also took the provisional lead. We had few predictions for Webber’s pole position and win but nobody guessed the fastest lap for Fernando Alonso. Also nobody had Heikki Kovalainen among top 8.

There is now three way tie at the top of the provisional standings.

Round 9 results:

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Sebastien Bourdais, will he return for Hungarian GP ?

Cristiano da Matta, Patrick Friesacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jacques Villeneuve, Christijan Albers and Scott Speed have one thing in common. All of them were sacked by their teams in July (between 2004 and 2007). The 2008 season was a rarity. We haven’t seen a single driver change for the entire season. At the moment there is only one rookie on 2009 grid – Sebastien Buemi – who filled the gap created by Coulthard’s retirement (and Vettel’s move to DC’s place at Red Bull).

But July is here again and it looks more and more likely that the tradition of parting ways with drivers in summer month will continue afte one year break.

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It took him 130 races but he finally did it today at Nurburgring. Mark Webber has become the 102nd Formula 1 Grand Prix winner. Here is the photogallery – the celebrations in pictures. Mark Webber was one happy man today . The pictures are in high resulotion, if the lightbox does not work for you then simply right click on the thumbnails and open the photos in new tab or window.

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Mark Webber celebrates his first F1 win

Mark Webber dominated the field, survived a drive through penalty and went on to win his first ever Formula One race. This was Webber’s 130th race start. Sebastian Vettel completed the 1-2 for Red Bull, Felipe Massa finished 3rd, his first podium of the season. Nico Rosberg finished 4th, Jenson Button 5th, Rubens Barrichello 6th. Final two point scoring places went to Fernando Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen.

2009 German GP result:

1. M. Webber – Red Bull – 1:36:43.310
2. S. Vettel – Red Bull + 9.252
3. F. Massa – Ferrari + 15.906
4. N. Rosberg – Williams + 21.099
5. J. Button – Brawn GP + 23.609
6. R. Barrichello – Brawn GP + 24.468
7. F. Alonso – Renault + 24.888
8. H. Kovalainen – McLaren + 58.692

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Here are some interesting facts and stats following the wet dry wet damp qualifying session for the 2009 German GP:

As everybody is probably aware by now, Mark Webber scored his first ever pole position. He became only 4th driver on pole this season.

The last remaining zeros disappeared from the 2009 head-to-head qualifying statistics.

Mark Webber outqualified his team mate Sebastian Vettel for the first time this season.

Nelson Piquet outqualified Fernando Alonso for the first ever. It took him 18 sessions in 2008 and 9 sessions in 2009 to finally qualify ahead of his team mate.

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FIA released the post qualifying weights short while ago. Both Brawn cars are rather light, the lightest of all. Mark Webber on the other hand is quite heavy – not a bad position to be. Adrian Sutil has the heaviest fuel load among top 10.

However with the weather the way it is this weekend at Nurburgring the fuel loads may not be the only factor determining the pit stops tomorrow… Rain is predicted for the race.

1. Webber – Red Bull – 661.0 – (56 kg)
2. Barrichello – Brawn GP – 647.0 – (42 kg)
3. Button – Brawn GP – 644.0 – (39 kg)
4. Vettel – Red Bull – 661.0 – (56 kg)
5. Hamilton – McLaren – 654.5 – (49.5 kg)
6. Kovalainen – McLaren – 664.0 – (59 kg)
7. Sutil – Force India – 678.5 – (73.5 kg)
8. Massa – Ferrari – 673.5 – (68.5 kg)
9. Raikkonen – Ferrari – 674.0 – (69 kg)
10. Piquet – Renault – 676.0 – (71 kg)
11. Heidfeld – BMW Sauber – 681.0* – (76 kg)
12. Alonso – Renault – 668.2* – (63.2 kg)
13. Nakajima – Williams – 683.6* – (78.6 kg)
14. Trulli – Toyota – 683.7* – (78.7 kg)
15. Rosberg – Williams – 689.6* – (84.6 kg)
16. Kubica – BMW Sauber – 673.5* – (68.5 kg)
17. Buemi – Toro Rosso – 674.5* – (69.5 kg)
18. Fisichella – Force India – 662.5* – (57.5 kg)
19. Glock – Toyota – 662.3* – (57.3 kg)
20. Bourdais – Toro Rosso – 689.5* – (84.5 kg)

* declared weight
(weight of fuel on board in the brackets)

Maiden pole position for Mark Webber

Mark Webber won the tactical Q3 gamble and will start the German GP from pole position, the first one in his F1 career. Rubens Barrichello in on P2, Jenson Button P3, Sebastian Vettel P4. The post qualifying weights (see here) will be published later on today. It would be interesting to know who gambled on wet race set up with rain expected tomorrow …

Q3:

1. M. Webber – 1:32.230
2. R. Barrichello – 1:32.357
3. J. Button – 1:32.473
4. S. Vettel – 1:32.480
5. L. Hamilton – 1:32.616
6. H. Kovalainen – 1:33.859
7. A. Sutil – 1:34.316
8. F. Massa – 1:34.574
9. K. Raikkonen – 1:34.710
10. N. Piquet – 1:34.803

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Interesting last practice session it was with rather unusual order. Lewis Hamilton was fastest again, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa. Obviously some cars were focused more on the low fuel runs while some other went for race fuel simulation. Can’t wait for qualifying …

Saturday practice times:

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