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.

While the Turkish Grand Prix has been having problems with low spectator counts and may not live beyond 2011, a report has appeared that Bernie Ecclestone will meet with Bulgarian officials next week in order to discuss a possible Bulgarian Grand Prix in Sofia starting in 2011.

According to a report in Reuters, the Bulgarian Motorcycling Federation president Bogdan Nikolov, told Reuters by telephone from Istanbul on Thursday that Grand Prix organising committee chief Rumen Petkov had been invited by Ecclestone to the German Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring. Nikolov, who announced Bulgaria’s plans to host a Formula One race last December, said he hoped that a contract could be signed.

‘‘We’ve already submitted our plan a few months ago and it was considered by Formula One Management,’’ he said. ‘‘According to the draft, Bulgaria could sign a contract to host a Formula One race between 2011 and 2015 and there’s an option for a contract extension until 2020.’’

The eight dissident Formula 1 teams - well, that is, all F1 teams except Williams and Force India - agreed to agree on the future and saved the series. After a meeting in Paris at the FIA's World Motor Sport Council, Max Mosley also announced that he would not seek re-election for the presidency of the FIA in October, when his current term expires. The day is saved. The teams have signed up for another three years under the Concorde Agreement, and there will be no breakaway series. It was all very ugly, but this is certainly the best resolution and the clearest things have been for years! I'm particularly pleased to think we will not have to change the name of this site to something else - who knows which of the two proposed series would have been the very pinnacle of motor racing that F1 represents? I think neither.

He looks like like Michael Schumacher young, he has many of Schumacher's mannerisms. But Sebastian Vettel is quite a different character. What he's doing on the track when given a chance, however, reminds me of Schumacher, and I can imagine few who could deny a little bit of a comparison. Vettel is only 21 years old, and there he goes again: His third victory in Formula 1, and this time, in dominant manner and NOT in the rain. (His two previous wins were in the rain.)

Still, I don't think Schumacher would ever act apologetically at Silverstone about winning the race rather than the home favorite, and then say, as Vettel did, "I regret a little bit I'm not an Englishman." It will be interesting to see if the season can turn around now after Vettel turns the score into 2 victories by him to 6 for Button....

Let's have Mark Webber reach the top three in the qualifying or the race more often than he does. He's good for a bit of entertaining talk, this Australian driver. Today, it was his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, who scored his second pole position of the year and the third of his career. But Webber finished third fastest - behind Rubens Barrichello - and Webber might have had enough speed to take the pole. But he rightly blamed failure to set a faster lap on Kimi Raikkonen, who, in his Ferrari, interrupted Webber's qualifying lap by apparently inadvertently blocking him. Webber's response during the post-qualifying press conference was the high point of the talk.

Kimi was, I don't know, drinking vodka or dreaming or something," Webber said. "I don't know what the hell he was doing. He should have been on the right and he's on the racing line, dreaming, so that wrecked my rhythm into Stowe."

The FOTA teams late Thursday night announced that they had not been able to find a compromise in their battle with the FIA and that they would start a breakaway series. On Friday, the FIA announced it would launch legal proceedings against the eight teams. It will also delay the announcement of next year's teams - which was supposed to happen tomorrow - until it has a better idea of its legal rights.

"The FIA’s lawyers have now examined the FOTA threat to begin a breakaway series. The actions of FOTA as a whole, and Ferrari in particular, amount to serious violations of law including wilful interference with contractual relations, direct breaches of Ferrari's legal obligations and a grave violation of competition law. The FIA will be issuing legal proceedings without delay."

Preparations for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship continue but publication of the final 2010 entry list will be put on hold while the FIA asserts its legal rights.

I'm wondering which of the sides in this battle might best be saying to the other: "This is another fine mess you've gotten us into."

Needless to say, the atmosphere here at Silverstone before the British Grand Prix is horrendously strained!