Mark Webber's victory in the German Grand Prix today was not only a wonderful story about a man who had a severely broken leg over the winter coming through to win his first race. He also grabbed a couple of strange records this weekend with his achievements: In scoring his first pole position in his 130th race, he is the driver who has raced in the most races before scoring pole. He also became the driver who raced in the most races before his first victory. These records show the incredible tenacity of the Australian driver through a difficult career. The previous record for the pole position record was Jarno Trulli, with 116 races. The previous record for the victory, was Rubens Barrichello, who raced in 124 races before his first victory.

I don't think I have ever seen Mark Webber with such a big smile on his face as just now at the Nurburgring after he scored the first pole position of his career for the German Grand Prix.

"It's a very special day for me," said Webber. "To get pole, I've close a few times in the past.

“It was just very, very chaotic.”

What do people have against the new races in places like Istanbul, Bahrain, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, etc.? I mean, I prefer the sun in those places to this cold, cold, overcast and slightly wet weather that comes with the races in good old European classic venues like this weekend's Nurburgring race, the German Grand Prix. In short, it's freezing here - well, not quite - and I didn't even bring my winter coat.

Others who do not like the cold are the Brawn drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, whose car does not heat tires as well, say, as the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Even so, they made progress since the last race at Silverstone, they say. And today's practice times would appear to back that up, with Button finishing third fastest. He was behind Vettel, in second, and... Lewis Hamilton with the fastest time.

Hamilton? Where'd he come from? One journalist wag said, "Gee, Hamilton wouldn't happen to be driving a Mercedes, now would he?" Yes, we are at the home race of Mercedes - but let's not forget the Brawns also have Mercedes engines. More to the point, perhaps, was Hamilton's statement that new parts on his car are working well. And the team has definitely been hard at work on that.

"The guys back at the factory have done an incredible job to get these parts to the circuit," Lewis said. "I’ve even heard of one guy working a 36-hour non-stop shift to build these parts, which is incredible."

The Guardian newspaper is reporting that Brawn GP will lose its Virgin sponsor - and I mean that in a couple of senses - to the virgin Manor team next year. Imagine that? Imagine dropping the leading team of the year for a new, unknown, small team? Must be politics behind this.