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Soggy day for Super Aguri as Alonso wins
By SA07 July 22 2007
Fernando Alonso claimed victory today at the biblical conditioned European Grand prix. The track saw 1 red flag, 1 safety car and lots of aquaplaning with 6 drivers out of 22 retiring from the monstrous conditions. The other three retirements were down to technical failures. Felipe Massa limped home in 2nd place and had dominated most of the race until it rained again and Alonso took advantage.

All data including driver quotes is from super aguri f1 

 Sato in garage next to japanese writing

TAKUMA SATO Car 22 (SA07-02)
Position DNF No: of Laps 19 Fastest Lap Time 1:37.401

Super Aguri Anthony Davidson puts on helmet

ANTHONY DAVIDSON Car 23 (SA07-03)
Position 12 No: of Laps 59 Fastest Lap Time 1:35.282

T-Car SA07-04

Weather Warm and sunny with heavy rain at race start and end (47.9% - 85.2% humidity)
Air Temperature 15.7°C minimum, 20.7°C maximum
Track Temperature 15.9°C minimum, 30.6°C maximum

  Fernando Alonso took an incredible win in the remaining laps of the race as he managed to overtake the tip toeing Massa. Mark Webber took his 2nd podium of his career in 3rd which im sure will be his most memorable. He was coming under intense pressure from Alex Wurz in  4th in the last laps of the race and it looked to be over when he went wide in the 2nd but last corner but he managed to keep it together. David Coulthard had a strong drive for Red Bull also taking a well deserved 5th place.

Nick Heidfeld looked like a rookie out on the field today in 6th after many errors one of which was to spin his team mate round in the first lap drama. Kubica managed to hang on to 7th place with poor old Kovalainen in 8th place who was running as high as 5th place until a weather gamble failed.  The team put the intermediate tyres onto Hekkis car on a dry track hoping there weather source was right that it was to rain in the next few minutes but sadly it came little too late as his tyres would have already lost grip.

 Lewis Hamilton had a horrible weekend after crashing in qualifying, picking up a puncture at the start of the race and being trapped in the gravel at turn 1 but lucky he kept his engine going and the marshalls lifted him out. The Briton managed to claw back through the field after ending up 1 lap down at the restart but the challenge proved too much and ended the race in 9th Giancarlo Fisichella had a disappointing weekend in 10th place a little off the pace. Rubens Barrichello blames contact with Nico Rosberg at the start of the race for his uncompetativness in 11th and rues a missed opportunity to take a points hall for Honda.  

Anthony Davidson finished the dramatic race in 12th place and blames a wrong tyre  strategy for his position. Jarno Trulli was the backmarker of the race losing around 3 seconds a lap to the leaders in 13th place and incredibly rounds off the race finishers.  Kimi Raikkonen completed 36 laps before his car gave up with an electrical problem and started to cut out. Takuma Sato completed 36 laps before a hydraulic related failure stopped his race in its tracks. Ralf Schumacher retired due to a racing incident between Heidfeld and himself which beached his Toyota and he couldn't drive away.  

Winkelhock had an incredible race debut at his home race and led the European Grand Prix until a red flag dropped his 33 second lead. At the restart he got mugged on the first lap and after only 15 laps a  hydraulic  failure ended the dream for him and Spyker. Poor Button completed just 3 laps before aquaplaning out of the race from the turn 1 which was a down hill lake. Sutil, Rosberg and Speed were to follow in his footsteps. The most dramatic retirement was Tonio Liuzzi who almost bashed into the safety car at 160mph and came to rest tapping the crane which clears stricken f1 cars off the circuit. 
Takuma Sato race report:

"It was great fun at the start of the race having to run in the rain on the dry tyre. I made up a lot of positions and was P10 by the end of Lap 1. But then the rain was too strong to keep on the dry tyre and I came back to the pit on the next lap, before the Red Flag. At the re-start we looked as though we had reasonable race pace, but unfortunately I had a hydraulic failure and had to retire from the race, which is a big shame."

Anthony Davidson race report:

"It was a tough day with the weather causing havoc for all of the teams out there. It was difficult to know what tyre to be on at what time, but in the dry running our car seemed to have the pace over the Honda and I had a nice fight with Rubens for P12/ P11 at the time. That was good fun and the best part of the race for me and I just had to wait to see how it would unfold from there for the last stint. We then got caught out in the rain at the end and probably made the wrong tyre choice at the time, and that was key to the race really. It was a good sign that we had the speed, but overall it was a disappointing day as we could not capitalise on the mixed fortunes of the other runners."

Aguri Suzuki, Team Principal race report:

"It was a difficult race because the weather was very unstable at the beginning. Our two cars were running with good performance and pace, but in the end we had to ask Takuma to retire with a hydraulic problem. Anthony continued to run in uncertain conditions which made the decision of tyre choice for the rest of the race a difficult one. However, Anthony and the team did a very good job today and we shall learn from our experience here at the Nurburgring."

Pos.DriverTeam
1F. AlonsoMcLaren
2F.MassaFerrari
3M.WebberRed Bull
4A.WurzWilliams
5D.CoulthardRed Bull
6N.HeidfeldBMW
7R.KubicaBMW
8H.KovalienenRenault
9L.HamiltonMcLaren
10G.FisichellaRenault
11R.BarrichelloHonda
12A.DavidsonSuper Aguri
13J. TrulliToyota
 RK.RaikkonenFerrari
 RT.SatoSuper Aguri
 RR.SchumacherToyota
 RM.WinkelhockSpyker
 RJ.ButtonHonda
 RA.SutilSpyker
 RN.RosbergWilliams
 RS. SpeedToro Rosso
 RT.LiuzziToro Rosso

Key

R= Retired

D=Disqualified

 

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