Felipe Massa hopes his first podium of the season can act as a springboard and inspire Ferrari to accelerate its resurgence in the coming races.

Last year's world championship runner-up had struggled at the start of 2009 as Ferrari found itself in the midfield, but he has moved back into contention recently, with a strong fourth place from 11th on the grid at Silverstone three weeks ago.

He followed that result up with a breakthrough podium today, benefiting from a fantastic start to take third place behind the Red Bulls.

"I missed being here, I missed being in the top three," said Massa.

"So I'm very happy, everybody in the team did a great job with the strategy and the pit stops.

"Having a good result like this, a podium, will definitely motivate them to keep working and keep pushing hard, and preparing a good car for the end of the championship - and another great car for next year."

Massa said the key to his result had been his improved pace when he switched tyre compounds at his first stop.

In the opening stint he had lacked speed on the soft tyres, and had bottled up a train of cars after leaping up the order off the line.

"I did a fantastic start, passed many cars," Massa said.

"I was struggling a lot with the soft tyres at the beginning, like most people, but fortunately I managed to stay in front of Sebastian (Vettel).

Stefano Domenicali: “It’s a nice feeling to be back on the podium and this result for Felipe is a good reward for all the effort put in by him in producing a perfect race and by all the team, at the track and in Maranello. A shame for Kimi who could have secured a good finish: it was really unlucky. Our aim, as we’ve already said is to finish third in the Constructors’ championship and today’s result has helped us make up some ground on the squad ahead of us. However, we have to work very hard to succeed, because this season is still very hard to interpret: once again this weekend we have seen an incredible see-sawing in performance between some of the teams compared to the previous race and within this Grand Prix itself. There are many variables, especially those linked to the behaviour of the tyres which does not seem to be completely under control: getting to grips with this could be very important for the rest of the championship.”

Felipe Massa: “It’s been such a long time since I made it to the podium! I really wanted it after a very difficult first half of the season. Little bit little, we are improving and we will do all we can to get back to winning ways this season: I want to start hearing the Italian and Brazilian national anthems as soon as possible! A great start and the strategy were the keys to this result. In the first fifteen laps I was struggling to keep Vettel behind me, but than I think he too was also struggling a bit with the tyres. Maybe I could have managed to get one place higher, if we had brought the pit stop forward a bit, because I too was struggling with my tyres, but it's easy to say these things with hindsight. Before the race however, I didn’t think I’d end up on the podium as a place in the top five already seemed a lot to ask. But then we saw that cars that in theory are quicker than us ended up behind us and so we realized we had a good chance. We have to continue in this direction.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “Germany definitely doesn’t seem to bring me luck. I don’t know how many times a problem beyond my control has forced me to retire and this time it was down to debris. A shame, as I think I could have got a good result. The car was a bit difficult to drive at the start, but I think it was the same for everyone. Around lap 14, we began to see that something wasn’t right and we tried to manage the situation. Then I started to lose a lot of power and the team asked me to pit because there was nothing that could be done anymore. The incident with Sutil? These things happen in racing, we spoke to one another and I think that he also sees it that way, as indeed did the Stewards.”

Chris Dyer: “This podium from Felipe is a really great reward for the whole team, who did a great job this weekend and in preparing for this race. However, we are also very disappointed about what happened to Kimi, who could have brought home some important points. This result is a great motivation for the rest of the season. We must continue to work with the same intensity to get back to where we want to be. The choice to stick with the softer tyre for the second stint of the race was based on what we had seen in the first stint, where it’s true that Felipe had suffered a bit, while Kimi had no problems. We were also concerned about how the harder compound would work in these temperatures.”

The pair went into the first corner together and Sutil stuck to the racing line. Raikkonen on the outside was, if anything, fractionally ahead, and the pair made contact, stripping off part of Sutil’s front wing.

That forced him to make an immediate return to the pits, wrecking his race.

Had Sutil not tried to force the issue with Raikkonen, where would he have finished? He was probably on course to lose a position to Nico Rosberg, who pitted after him, and finished fourth. The two Brawns were on Rosberg’s tail at the end of the race.

At worst, therefore, it looks like seventh place or better was on the cars for Sutil. That would have been Force India’s first point and Sutil’s second points finish, adding to the point he scored at Fuji in 2007.

Mark Webber lands his first Grand Prix win in Formula 1 whilst Red Bull team mate S. Vettel lands another Red Bull 1-2 Victory. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa takes a rare podium in 3rd place after a solid drive from the brazilian. Kimi Raikkonen had a some what subdued race yet again, not really doing anything driving around in 7th/8th place until retiring with an engine related problem.

Kimi and Sutil also will face the stewards after the race from a slight coming together after a pit stop, where Sutil damaged his front wing.

Full report, photos and quotes will be online shortly.

German Grand Prix result
1.  WEBBER       Red Bull       

2.  VETTEL       Red Bull      +9.2s
3.  MASSA        Ferrari       +15.9s
4.  ROSBERG      Williams      +21.0s

5.  BUTTON       Brawn         +23.6s

6.  BARRICHELLO  Brawn         +24.4s

7.  ALONSO       Renault       +24.8s

8.  KOVALAINEN   McLaren       +58.6s

9.  GLOCK        Toyota        +61.4s

10. HEIDFELD     BMW           +61.9s

11. FISICHELLA   Force India   +62.3s

12. NAKAJIMA     Williams      +62.8s

13. PIQUET       Renault       +68.3s

14. KUBICA       BMW           +69.5s

15. SUTIL        Force India   +71.9s

16. BUEMI        Toro Rosso    +90.2s

17. TRULLI       Toyota        +90.9s

18. HAMILTON     McLaren       +1 lap

R.  RAIKKONEN    Ferrari       +25 laps

R.  BOURDAIS     Toro Rosso    +41 laps

Here are the fuel weights and pit stop predictions for the German Grand Prix.

Ahead of Friday practice in Germany, Ferrari revised the F60's rear diffuser. Felipe Massa ran it in the morning session, both drivers in the afternoon's. The previous version, shown in the left half of this drawing (1), had just one vertical fence. The new version, shown on the right (2), now has three fences in order to improve the air extraction from the side channels.



Source: Formula1.com

Whilst the likes of the Red Bulls and Brawns battled at the front it was obvious Ferrari's strategy is a long one (we hope anyway). Some 2 odd seconds off the pace shows us that Ferrari are much heavier on the fuel loads and perhaps this is because they are expecting rain tomorrow at the unpredictable german grand prix.

German GP starting grid

1.  WEBBER         Red Bull

2.  BARRICHELLO    Brawn

3.  BUTTON         Brawn

4.  VETTEL         Red Bull

5.  HAMILTON       McLaren

6.  KOVALAINEN     McLaren

7.  SUTIL          Force India

8.  MASSA          Ferrari

9.  RAIKKONEN      Ferrari

10. PIQUET         Renault

11. HEIDFELD       BMW

12. ALONSO         Renault

13. NAKAJIMA       Williams

14. TRULLI         Toyota

15. ROSBERG        Williams

16. KUBICA         BMW

17. BUEMI          Toro Rosso

18. FISICHELLA     Force India

19. GLOCK          Toyota

The weather followed a similar pattern to the first session: overcast and chilly throughout, with an early shower to keep everyone on their toes.

Kimi Raikkonen spent the first 35 minutes in the garage while the Ferrari mechanics attended to a hydraulics leak, and could only manage the 16th fastest time.

Team-mate Felipe Massa who reverted to Ferrari’s old nose cone after trying a new design to good effect in the morning provided some spectacular viewing as he opposite-locked his way around on cold tyres, but the results were less impressive as he wound up 12th.

Mistakes were not uncommon in the low-grip conditions.

As well as Fisichella and Hamilton, Trulli looped his Toyota in turn four and had another off later on, Vettel had a couple of ragged moments, and both Nakajima and Heikki Kovalainen took to the grass at the top chicane.


German Grand Prix free practice session two times
1.  HAMILTON      McLaren       1m32.149s
2.  VETTEL        Red Bull      1m32.331s
3.  BUTTON        Brawn         1m32.369s
4.  WEBBER        Red Bull      1m32.480s
5.  TRULLI        Toyota        1m32.511s
6.  SUTIL         Force India   1m32.585s
7.  BARRICHELLO   Brawn         1m32.664s
8.  ALONSO        Renault       1m32.774s
9.  NAKAJIMA      Williams      1m32.872s
10. PIQUET        Renault       1m32.992s
11. HEIDFELD      BMW           1m33.012s
12. MASSA         Ferrari       1m33.052s
13. ROSBERG       Williams      1m33.128s
14. KUBICA        BMW           1m33.161s
15. GLOCK         Toyota        1m33.172s
16. RAIKKONEN     Ferrari       1m33.182s
17. KOVALAINEN    McLaren       1m33.724s
18. BUEMI         Toro Rosso    1m33.903s
19. BOURDAIS      Toro Rosso    1m34.025s
20. FISICHELLA    Force India   1m38.877s

Red Bull's Mark Webber clocked the quickest lap time of the first practice session for the German Grand Prix at a cold Nurburgring on Friday morning.

Searching for his first GP win after 129 race starts, Webber was ahead of Brawn's championship leader Jenson Button with one minute 33.082 seconds.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa was third fastest as some drivers experienced trouble testing newly-updated cars.

World champion Lewis Hamilton was 13th in his vastly modified McLaren.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella came in fourth and fifth respectively but rarely, if ever, is practice a true indicator of potential race or qualifying form.
    
Nurburgring's got its own little microclimate, because the altitude's quite high, so anything can happen at any time
Red Bull boss Christian Horner

Webber's team-mate Sebastian Vettel - who won the last Formula 1 race at Silverstone and is 25 points behind Button in the championship - was eighth as his Red Bull suffered electrical problems.

Brawn and Red Bull, who have largely dominated 2009 so far, have brought minor changes to Germany at the season's half-way point - Brawn have revised front wing endplates - but some other teams have made significant adjustments as they bid to reign them in.

The aerodynamic tweaks Ferrari have made to their car looked to be working smoothly with Kimi Raikkonen sixth, just one tenth of a second behind Massa, who also has a new nose cone and chassis.

Yet Fernando Alonso was 10th as his Renault, which has a revised front wing, spent a lot of time in the garage having the front suspension looked at.

McLaren have a new front wing, diffuser and top bodywork - but Heikki Kovalainnen finished down in 18th while Hamilton's Kers (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) failed early on.

With occasional rain and a track temperature of just 15 degrees, drivers struggled to get any heat in their tyres.

But Australia's Webber, second at the British GP and fourth in the drivers' championship, posted the quickest lap fairly early to top a practice session for the first time this season.

"There's similar conditions [to Silverstone], maybe even cooler here, so hopefully we can give Brawn a good run again," said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

"It's got its own little microclimate here, because the altitude's quite high, so anything can happen at any time.

"Both drivers are pretty pumped up and all those Schumacher fans seem to be turning into Sebastian Vettel fans, so here's got a lot of local fans.

"But Mark for me is a real dark horse here. It would be great to see him win a race. He needs to get that monkey off his back."

Representatives of all FOTA teams attended a meeting of the Sporting Working Group at the Nürburgring today.

During the course of this meeting, the team managers were informed by Mr Charlie Whiting of the FIA that, contrary to previous agreements, the eight FOTA teams are not currently entered into the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship and have no voting rights in relation to the technical and sporting regulations thereof.

It will be remembered that all eight active FOTA members were included on the “accepted” entry list as endorsed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) and communicated by FIA press statement on June 24.

In light of these claims, the FOTA representatives requested a postponement of today’s meetings. This was rejected on the grounds that no new Concorde Agreement would be permitted before a unanimous approval of the 2010 regulations was achieved.

However, It is clear to the FOTA teams that the basis of the 2010 technical and sporting regulations was already established in Paris.

As endorsed by the WMSC and clearly stated in the FIA press statement of 24 June “the rules for 2010 onwards will be the 2009 regulations as well as further regulations agreed prior to 29 April 2009”. At no point in the Paris discussions was any requirement for unanimous agreement on regulations change expressed. To subsequently go against the will of the WMSC and the detail of the Paris agreement puts the future of Formula 1 in jeopardy.

As a result of these statements, the FOTA representatives at the subsequent Technical Working Group were not able to exercise their rights and therefore had no option other than to terminate their participation.

The FOTA members undertook the Paris agreement and the subsequent discussions in good faith and with a desire to engage with all new and existing teams on the future of Formula One.