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Mark Webber has score his first pole position in qualifying for Sunday’s German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.

Webber had looked strong in the free practice sessions and in an exciting qualifying session affected by intermittent rain he set a time of 1:32.230, beating Rubens Barrichello to the front of the grid by a bit over a tenth of a second.

Jenson Button will start third alongside local boy Sebastian Vettel on the second row.

After 132 Grands Prix this will be Mark Webber’s first time starting from the front of the grid and he  is clearly fired up to continue the charge and win his first race:

This is a very special day for me. I’ve been close to getting pole a few times in the past, and now we’re here.  The team has done a very good job; I’ve been quick all weekend, but we got really tested today. All the teams and drivers did in that second session – it was very chaotic.

But I’m now in a fantastic position to get my first win. Obviously the Brawns have had a strong season and will push us but we’re up for the fight – I certainly am – and I’m up for trying to win my first race.

McLaren didn’t quite produce the top three finish predicted by Eddie Jordan but a strong fifth and sixth place is a good result for the Woking based team.  The German Grand Prix will be the last big push at developing the MP4-24 with the factory concentrating on next year’s car for the rest of the season.

While his team mate Heikki Kovalainen only had a new front wing, Lewis’s car also had a new diffuser which helped him to the top of the timesheets in free practice.  From fifth on the grid Hamilton is eying a podium:

If it stays dry tomorrow then we’ll definitely be in a good position and we can shoot for the podium for sure.  We could fight the Red Bulls even. I think it will probably be wet though.

Adrian Sutil will be one to watch if it rains.  He produced Force India’s best ever qualifying result of seventh.

2009 Formula One German Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Update: Timo Glock drops to 20th after a 3 place penalty for blocking Alonso.

Image: Red Bull/Getty

As we posted last week, Nick Heidfeld is wearing a special helmet design for his home Grand Prix this weekend but he is not the only German on the grid and he is not the only one who brought a new helmet to the Nürburgring.

There are five German drivers and three of them will be wearing new lids.

Sebastian Vettel, who seems to like changing his helmet design, is wearing a new silver version while Heidfeld’s helmet was designed by a fan who won a competition on his website.

Timo Glock’s design came from a rather younger fan, though.  Panasonic ran a ‘Kids School’ competition to design a helmet for Timo to wear at the German Grand Prix and at the British Grand Prix, Glock studied the entries and selected a winner; six-year-old Tom Luca Hoffmann from Bad Lippspringe, around 400km north east of the Nürburgring.

Tom’s design features Glock driving his Toyota past cheering fans.  Glock said:

I was very impressed with Tom’s drawing because it is quite detailed even though he is only a young kid; that’s why I chose it. I’m looking forward to racing with it in front of my home fans and hopefully it will be a lucky charm!

Both Heidfeld and Glock will be auctioning their helmets for charity after the race.

After a long three week break the season continues with the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.  It is the home Grand Prix for fully one quarter of the drivers on the grid but realistically there is only one German with a chance of standing on the top step on Sunday.

Sebastian Vettel comes to the Nürburgring fresh from his victory at Silverstone and he will be hoping to maintain that momentum in front of his home crowd and further narrow the gap to Championship leader Jenson Button.  It will be Vettel’s first time around the Ring in an F1 car but he has raced (and won) there before in everything from karts to F3 and Renault World Series.

Timo Glock is another German yet to experience the Nürburgring in Formula One but, like Vettel, he has won there before in other classes.  After making it through to Q3 in Britain Glock just missed out on points in the race but he is hopeful of a strong finish in Germany:

I’ve had some good races so far and it has been nice to be battling at the front quite often. This weekend is another chance to do that and I can’t wait.

Despite having a famous Finnish father, Nico Rosberg is actually a German citizen.  He set the third fastest lap at Silverstone and ended the race in fifth which boosted him to seventh in the Drivers’ Championship and Williams to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship – ahead of McLaren.

Rosberg is obviously at home on the circuit.  In this video he talks us through a lap of the Ring – blindfolded.

Nick Heidfeld will be sporting a special helmet design for his home race but it will take more than a fresh coat of paint to turn the BMW Sauber F1.09 into a race winning machine.  Two years ago Heidfeld became the first driver in 30 years to pilot an F1 car around the old Nordschleife circuit, christened The Green Hell by Jackie Stewart.

Heidfeld is in real danger of being beaten by compatriot Adrian Sutil on Sunday.  Force India have been steadily improving all season and if Sutil hadn’t gone off in a big way in qualifying he may have finished in the points in the British Grand Prix.  There is a chance of rain on Sunday and if that happens then it is quite possible Adrian Sutil could score Force India’s first points.

To make your predictions in round 9 of the F1 Buzz prediction game (and be in with a chance to win some nice prizes), just leave a comment on this post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:

Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:

Remember, the deadline for entries is start of qualifying on Saturday, that’s 12:00 GMT.

Good luck!

Image & video: Williams

The German Grand Prix, to be held at the Nürburgring on Sunday, will be the home Grand Prix for five drivers.

There are more Germans on the Formula One grid than any other nationality and this got me wondering how successful different countries have been in Formula One.  Which country has produced the most World Champions and which nationality has won the most races?

If we look at the number of Drivers’ Championships won then Britain tops the list with thirteen Championships won by nine different drivers.  Brazil comes a distant second with eight Championships split between Nelson Piquet (3), Ayrton Senna (3) and Emerson Fittipaldi (2).

Third and fourth places are each the result of a single driver that dominated their time in the sport.  Juan Manel Fangio won the Drivers’ Championship five times between 1951 and 1957, a record that stood until Michael Schumacher broke it on the way to his seven World Championships.

Drivers’ Championships won by nationality

Looking at the total number of races won, the Brits are even more dominant with almost twice the number of Grand Prix wins than the Germans in second place.

France moves up into fourth place and many more countries make the list, including Mexico.

Races won by nationality

This Mexican racing car driver was Pedro Rodríguez. His brother, Ricardo, also raced motorbikes and cars and the two of them were known as “The Little Mexicans”.

Pedro’s first F1 victory came in only his ninth race, in South Africa in 1967 and he went on to win again in Belgium in 1970.  He was a great all-round driver, competing in CanAm, NASCAR, rallies and even ice racing.  He won at Le Mans in 1968 in a Wyer-Gulf Ford GT40.

In 1971, when he was just 31 years old he was killed in a Ferrari 512M at the Norisring in Nuremberg, Germany.

The first hairpin at Daytona International Speedway is named the Pedro Rodriguez curve, and the Mexico City autodrome is named after him and his brother, who was also killed while practicing for the 1962 Mexican Grand Prix.