Cold Nurburgring

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."