The start: For the fifth time this year, Lewis and Fernando had qualified second and fourth respectively. At the start, Lewis dropped to third behind the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen whilst Fernando was sixth at the end of the opening lap.

The race: Fernando got stuck behind Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber). When Heidfeld’s team mate Robert Kubica pitted on lap 12 Fernando improved to fifth. On lap 17, also Heidfeld came in and Fernando was fourth.

Fernando made his first routine stop on lap 18 (9.1sec) together with Räikkönen, whilst Massa came in on lap 19 and Lewis on lap 20 (9.4sec). After that, Massa went back into the lead ahead of Räikkönen and Lewis; Fernando passed both BMW Saubers during his pitstop and was fourth.

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On lap 43, Lewis suffered from a damaged right front tyre and drove slowly back to the pits for half a lap. Meanwhile, Fernando came in for his second routine stop (6.6sec). Lewis pitted just a few moments later (10.2sec) and resumed in fifth place behind Massa, Räikkönen, Fernando and Heidfeld.
After 58 laps, Fernando crossed the finish line third whilst Lewis ended up fifth.

Fernando Alonso
“It was not the plan to lose two places at the start, and so my race was pretty much over when I came into the first corner in sixth place. I was following Nick Heidfeld for 17 laps at the start, and it was very difficult to overtake him. Fortunately, we were able to do this in the first round of pitstops and that was when my race could really start. Unfortunately, I was 30 seconds down at that point, so third was a good result considering. I was told by the team to take it easy after Lewis’s puncture to avoid the same thing happening to me, but as I was already quite far back it did not make too much of a difference to my race.”

Lewis Hamilton
“A little bit unfortunate but still we did a good job, and the team was fantastic all weekend. We had the pace of the Ferraris, but when you are behind you lose a little bit of downforce; we were just matching them for most of the race. I saw some bits fly off the tyre and then it just blew on braking into Turn Nine. It was lucky that I didn’t put the car in the gravel and managed to control it back to the pits, as this meant that in the end I only lost two places. We still got some good points and I remain in the lead of the championship by five points, so it is not all bad.”

Ron Dennis
“This was always a race we expected to be challenging, so all in all we are not too upset with today’s result. Our pace was good and Fernando and Lewis both put in strong performances. Lewis’s tyre failure came at an unfortunate time as he had enough fuel to go a few laps longer than the Ferraris, so we may have challenged them at the end. Anyway we now look forward to the next race at Monza where we expect to be stronger than we have been this weekend.”

Norbert Haug
“It’s a shame -.the puncture on Lewis’s car prevented him from finishing on the podium, but Fernando did it with a very good drive. However, Lewis saved four important points under very difficult conditions following the failure of his right front tyre 15 laps from the finish. These points could be decisive in the end. Important is that with Fernando and Lewis, who finished third and fifth today, we retain the one-two lead in the Drivers’ World Championship and stay ahead as well in the Constructors’ rankings.”

In Red Bull-Toro Rosso style, McLaren and F1’s twelfth team Prodrive next year could use essentially the same Formula One chassis.
Although news about David Richards’ incoming team has been sparing in recent times, it is reported this week that Prodrive is still on track to debut in Melbourne next March.
Specialist German magazine Auto Motor und Sport claims that with three substantial Prodrive sponsors now on board, McLaren is now working closely with Richards’ outfit to put together effectively a ‘B’ Mercedes-powered team.
To simplify the cross-over between the two teams, and because of time constraints, Prodrive is likely to run the 2008-specification MP4-23 single seater, probably with an identical Mercedes-Benz V8 power plant to its works sister, as the new privateer-friendly rules will probably allow.
Alongside McLaren test drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett as possible Prodrive racers, meanwhile, is Paffett’s French-Canadian DTM colleague Bruno Spengler, the magazine added.

Source:http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com.

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LEWIS Hamilton will drive in today’s European Grand Prix in Germany.
The 22-year-old Tewin talent has been given the all clear by doctors to race after his 150mph (241km/h) crash at the Nürburgring yesterday afternoon during the final session of qualifying.
In a statement released this morning, McLaren confirmed that the world championship leader from Herts would get behind the wheel.
It said: “Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are pleased to confirm that Lewis Hamilton has been cleared to race in today’s European Grand Prix by the FIA medical delegate Dr Gary Hartstein and the chief medical officer of the event, Dr Klaus U Zerbian. “The entire team looks forward to enjoying a competitive race this afternoon for both Fernando (Alonso) and Lewis.”
The front right tyre on Hamilton’s McLaren burst as he exited turn eight yesterday and he careered off the track at high speed with just five minutes of the qualifying session left. Hamilton was on a hot lap at the time and was challenging for pole position. He will now start from 10th on the gird with the same fuel load as he started qualifying with. The qualifying session was red flagged after Hamilton’s accident and continued after half an hour delay.

I believe, he can finish on the podium today.

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Hamilton was attended to by medical staff at the scene and waved to the crowd as he was stretchered into an ambulance. He was taken to the track’s medical centre and later to hospital for a precautionary CT scan, but suffered no broken bones or serious injury.
McLaren issued a statement last night that said: “Following a thorough examination at the on-track medical centre, he was flown to the Koblenz Bundeswehr Hospital where he underwent a full precautionary CT scan, which proved to be entirely normal. “Lewis has no bruises and is highly motivated to race.”
Following the resumption of the qualifying session, Spaniard Fernando Alonso secured a front row start alongside Ferrari pole-sitter Kimi Räikkönen. Alonso was more concerned at the post-qualifying press conference for his McLaren team-mate’s condition. “The most important news is obviously that Lewis is OK,” said the reigning world champion. Speaking not long after crashing into the tyre wall, Hamilton said: “I’m absolutely fine and we will see later if I am able to race tomorrow.
“Everybody has been looking after me really well. We know what caused the accident and I’m just pleased that everything is OK and I really hope I can race.”

McLaren team chief Ron Dennis admitted that it was a technical fault that caused the crash, not driver error.
Speaking straight after the accident he said: “The main thing is that Lewis is absolutely fine with no injuries and no broken bones.”
Detailing the cause of the tyre exploding, Dennis revealed: “The accident was due to either a faulty air regulator or wheelgun causing the wheel nut on his right front wheel not to be tightened properly.
“The team is undertaking a full investigation to understand how this could have happened.”
Norbert Haug, vice president of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, also absolved Hamilton of any blame. Speaking after the crash, he said: “The most important news of today is that Lewis is OK. “The accident was not his fault.”
Hamilton currently leads the world standings by 12 points from Alonso.

TheComet.Net

“For most people, six-fifty is probably enough” says RENNtech’s Hartmut Feyhl “but you see that ‘722’ on the car and you start to want seven-hundred and twenty-two horsepower.”

Such comments might be easily dismissed – but not when they come from Feyhl. No stranger to high-performance, Feyhl followed up his 12 year run at AMG by forming RENNtech – a tuning house generally regarded as the nation’s foremost authority on Mercedes-Benz performance.

The RENNtech crew began with a comprehensive review of the SLR’s stock components, when attention quickly focused on the car’s intercooler. “The stock intercooler wasn’t doing the job,” Feyhl explains, “it needed an upgrade”.

That “upgrade” took the form of a virtual redesign of the SLR’s intercoolers. The stock intercooler pump was replaced with a RENNtech-specific pump with almost double the capacity of outgoing unit. A dedicated radiator was installed, and the new pieces were integrated into the engine bay almost invisibly. As Feyhl points out, “It looks like it’s supposed to be there.”

The new intercooler dropped intake temperatures an average of 10 degrees Celsius across the operating range, and the time it took to get the engine’s temperatures back to “normal” after a dyno run was greatly reduced. “We used to have to wait almost 2 minutes between dyno runs to the get the temperatures back down, even with big fans blowing,” says Feyhl. “Now it takes about 20 seconds.”

The improved cooling meant that RENNtech could shift their attention to the supercharger and pulley – a RENNtech pulley kit, enhanced by RENNtech’s own SLR specific software tuning, increased boost to the SLR’s 5.5 liter V8 and produced an astonishing (albeit coincidental) result: 722hp – which might mean a lot more to McLaren customers than 7:22am.

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Check out the complete SLR gallery containing 53 images.
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The new SLR 722 Edition model variant from Mercedes-Benz evokes memories of a particularly special victory achieved in 1955 by the British motor-racing legend Stirling Moss and his co-pilot Dennis Jenkinson at Mille Miglia – the classic Italian endurance race – behind the wheel of a Mercedes Benz 300 SLR with start number 722 (denoting the car’s start time of 7.22 a.m.). Boasting an impressive output of 478 kW/650 hp, the new SLR McLaren 722 Edition super sports car not only outperforms its historic forefather, it even outstrips the scintillating peak performance of the current SLR model. The new limited-edition series – only 150 models are being produced, for the most part handcrafted, at the McLaren Formula 1 works in Woking – is the brand’s response to calls from highly discerning SLR customers for even more sportiness combined with the same high level of everyday practicality.

At the heart of the SLR 722 Edition is a 5.5-litre supercharged V8 assembled by hand at the Mercedes-AMG engine workshops in Affalterbach, Germany, based on the “One man, one engine” principle. Among the high-performance powerplant’s major strengths are its exceptionally spontaneous response to accelerator pedal movements, high torque and that unmistakable V8 sound.

Engine

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