Germany, like Britain was all about tyres. It was colder than normal at the Nürburgring and the Red Bull worked its tyres better than the Brawn. Mark Webber overcame his previously perennial bad luck to win his first GP at his 130th attempt. He, like Button, is another driver I have never rated, but this time he outshone his team mate, whom I do.

Webber was fast all weekend, but still lucky to win, he started from pole (his first) and, in his understandable desperation to convert it to the win, gave Barrichello a hefty side-swipe on the run down to the first corner. There he was hit by Lewis Hamilton, whose revised McLaren had enabled him to qualify in fifth and whose KERS system had propelled him to the front like a booster rocket, until it came to the minor detail of re-entry for the first corner. Before Lewis went off the road, he had tagged Webber's front wing and punctured his right rear tyre. After stopping he trundled round at the back, and we even heard him (effectively) asking to retire at one point. He finished 18th and dead last. Am I alone in thinking we might see him leave McLaren, now his mentor is gone?

Webber's car was undamaged. The Stewards quite correctly gave him a drive-through penalty and  I think he was lucky to avoid exclusion for such a wantonly aggressive manoeuvre. The penalty dropped him to eighth from where he began his climb back through the field, which he achieved without overtaking a car on the road.  Indeed, there was a general lack of overtaking at the front of the race.

As before, the cars seem to be able to close to within 1½ seconds of the one in front and that was it; apart from the Brawn, which is notably better in dirty air, Button passing Massa on the opening lap. Could this be a characteristic of the GP 01's unique low nose? Having said all this, there was a fair bit of dicing at the back of the field, though not much passing.

However, one thing that is certain is that the more variety there is, technically and strategically, the better the action. We saw this in the early races where there were different interpretations to the regulations and KERS and non-KERS cars. As the season has gone on the cars are being developed along similar lines; KERS made a difference in Germany, but FOTA are voluntarily dropping it next year when there will also be no re-fuelling.

The moveable front wings don't seem to have made any difference at all and from the next race Bridgestone will reduce the difference in the hardness of the tyres taken to each GP from two grades to one, so it looks like we’ll soon be back to processions.   Apparently Bridgestone think that drivers moaning about unsuitable tyres are bad for their image. Mind you, you can imagine a headline like "No Grip Bridgestones lose Button Brit GP" would be less than ideal on a number of levels, not least if anyone is contemplating buying a new set of boots.

Webber's next piece of luck was that KERS had propelled Massa's F60 up from eight on the grid into third. He ran fourth when Button bounced him, but then a long fuel load took him into the lead as the others pitted. He held Rubens and the others up. Webber closed and made his way inexorably through the field as others stopped, re-taking the lead on lap 32 when Rubens made his second stop. Both Brawns had started on a three-stop strategy, and the length of his second stop led us, and Rubes, to believe that his team had switched him to two, but no, it was a problem with the fuel rig and he would have to stop again.

Both Brawns ran the soft tyre for much of the race. As the temperature came up and the track rubbered in the harder tyre was the one to have for most, but not the Brawns. In their fourth stint, we saw the astonishing spectacle of them weaving down the straights, whilst racing, to get some tyre temperature! Rubens led Jenson for this stint, but the Briton was fuelled a lap longer than the Brazilian, and overtook him during their final stops. Rubens was sent out again on the harder tyre, Jenson on the soft, but those were shot before long. So Brawn GP was in the unhappy position of the soft tyres being too soft and the hard too hard for their car.

After the race Rubens chucked his toys out of the pram again, claiming that "It [not switching to two stops] was a very good show of how to lose a race". Ross later calmly downplayed this as just frustration, but it shows Rubens has brought a lot of baggage with him from Ferrari where he was obliged to play second fiddle to Michael for so many years.

After regaining the lead Webber had an untroubled run to the flag. Sebastian Vettel fell from fourth on the grid to sixth at the opening lap, but worked his way up to finish second. Felipe was third, scoring the Scuderia’s best result and first podium of the year.  Adrian Sutil ran well in his Force India. He had qualified in an excellent seventh place and looked, as at Monaco last year, to be heading for the points, until, as at Monaco last year, he was hit by Kimi Raikkonen. Sutil was emerging from the pits and Raikkonen clipped his front wing, necessitating another pit stop for a new nose.

Raikkonen dismissed this as a racing incident and was not penalized but I think this was due to his retiring a few laps later with engine failure brought about by a radiator being punctured by on-track debris. This was a real shame for Sutil and he and team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella showed some real speed, passing the Bimmer of Heidfeld at one point. He came home 11th and it was nice to see the little team doing well. Despite scoring their best result of the year, Ferrari has announced that it will soon stop work on the F60 to concentrate on next year's car and also that Chief Aerodynamicist John Illey is leaving.

With Kimi off to play rally drivers again soon, rumours are rife that the deal for next year between Ferrari and Alonso is done, despite the latter's strenuous denials. He had a strange race, starting with a spin on the warm-up lap. He started 12th, dropped to 13th, but ended up pressing the Brawns hard for sixth. He could close, but not pass, finishing seventh and setting the fastest race lap on lap 49. When in-car with a Renault, it seems odd to hear a high-tech engine screaming away,  a Chevy-type rumbling seems more appropriate for the bulky R29.  Nico Rosberg was fourth for Williams, his seventh point scoring finish this year and fifth in a row, and Kovalainen grabbed the last point for McLaren.

Now, just when you thought you were going to get away with no off-track stuff.... You will remember that after the British GP peace had broken out between FOTA and the FIA, with Max agreeing not to stand for re-election, but then maybe changing his mind? The week before the German GP FOTA were told they could not finalise the 2010 regulations without the unanimous agreement of all the teams, the eight FOTA teams, plus Williams and Force India (who are currently suspended from FOTA for unilaterally signing up with the FIA) plus the three newbies. On 8th July, the FOTA teams walked out of a meeting with the FIA to discuss the rules when they were told they were not entered for the 2010 F1 Championship and therefore could only have observer status!

Suddenly, the breakaway series was back on, and then we heard that FOTA was talking to F1 commercial rights holder CVC and the breakaway series would be a joint effort between them, cutting out the FIA. With no cards left, Max announced that he would stand down, so it looks like peace is back on again. As always in motor racing, it ultimately comes down to the money, which is probably why Bernie has kept his job following some ill-advised remarks on the benefits of dictatorship and dictators.

Former World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen announced that he would stand for FIA President in opposition to Mosley who, when the latter announced that he would not stand, strongly endorsed the candidature of former Ferrari boss Jean Todt. Whereas Vatanen is generally regarded as representing a fresh start, Todt is seen as more of the same.

Finally, you will also remember there was some puzzlement amongst enthusiasts over the selection of the three new entries for the Championship next year, with Campos GP, Manor GP and USF1 in and others like Prodrive and Lola out? It has emerged that the promise to use  a Cosworth engine was a necessary pre-requisite to gaining entry. FOTA expressed its disquiet at the selection process and one F1 website has reported that one of the teams rejected is considering making a formal complaint to the European Commission on the grounds of commercial bias and in breach of competition rules.

The Guardian reported on a possible conflict of interest in the selection process, in that FIA Chief Steward Alan Donnelly's company was understood to be running the PR strategy of Manor GP, one of the new entrants. The Guardian also reported that Virgin would buy a stake in Manor GP next season and dump Brawn as their success has made them too expensive. The same report says that a leaked email sent by Donnelly suggests that the deal was agreed in principle in the month before Manor won a place in the 2010 championship ahead of Lola and Prodrive....

We definitely haven't heard the last of this one but it does look like Sir Richard Branston, having resisted for so long, may be on the verge of having his wallet emptied by F1. You can just imagine the talk in the little teams next year "But if we had just a bit more money". The budget cap has been dropped for next year but FOTA are supposed to be coming up with a cunning plan to reduce costs. I had to smile when in the coverage from Germany I saw a room full of Red Bull personnel watching computer screens.

Speaking of which, I had another smile when I read that the new Chief Executive of Honda said that his company did not have any desire to return to F1 as there is little technical challenge involved. Initially I thought, "Well he would say that wouldn't he?”  But with engine specification tightly set and development frozen, the challenge is largely down to bright idea (think of or copy) / CFD / wind tunnel / car / repeat, and that mostly the minutiae of aero bits; so maybe you can see his point. Mind you, I don’t know what the Japanese for "B****r!” is, but I bet there's been a bit of that in Hondaland!

Click here for FIA lap chart.

Stefano Domenicali:

“It’s a nice feeling to be back on the podium and this result for Felipe is a good reward for all the effort put in by him in producing a perfect race and by all the team, at the track and in Maranello. A shame for Kimi who could have secured a good finish: it was really unlucky. Our aim, as we’ve already said is to finish third in the Constructors’ championship and today’s result has helped us make up some ground on the squad ahead of us. However, we have to work very hard to succeed, because this season is still very hard to interpret: once again this weekend we have seen an incredible see-sawing in performance between some of the teams compared to the previous race and within this Grand Prix itself. There are many variables, especially those linked to the behaviour of the tyres which does not seem to be completely under control: getting to grips with this could be very important for the rest of the championship.”

Felipe Massa:

“It’s been such a long time since I made it to the podium! I really wanted it after a very difficult first half of the season. Little bit little, we are improving and we will do all we can to get back to winning ways this season: I want to start hearing the Italian and Brazilian national anthems as soon as possible! A great start and the strategy were the keys to this result. In the first fifteen laps I was struggling to keep Vettel behind me, but than I think he too was also struggling a bit with the tyres. Maybe I could have managed to get one place higher, if we had brought the pit stop forward a bit, because I too was struggling with my tyres, but it's easy to say these things with hindsight. Before the race however, I didn’t think I’d end up on the podium as a place in the top five already seemed a lot to ask. But then we saw that cars that in theory are quicker than us ended up behind us and so we realized we had a good chance. We have to continue in this direction.”

Kimi Raikkonen:

“Germany definitely doesn’t seem to bring me luck. I don’t know how many times a problem beyond my control has forced me to retire and this time it was down to debris. A shame, as I think I could have got a good result. The car was a bit difficult to drive at the start, but I think it was the same for everyone. Around lap 14, we began to see that something wasn’t right and we tried to manage the situation. Then I started to lose a lot of power and the team asked me to pit because there was nothing that could be done anymore. The incident with Sutil? These things happen in racing, we spoke to one another and I think that he also sees it that way, as indeed did the Stewards.”