Getting up early & watching the race with my lady & a cup of hot coffee is the way I do it. No tape delays for this old fart. No worries folks I won't spoil it for you.
No I think that was somewhat unusual. It took no time to clear the car & corner workers out of the way. As is often the case you never know what the clerk of the course will do.
I'm pretty sure it's normal to bunch up the full field behind the leader before restarting, in the order they were all in when the safety car was deployed. However, I'm confused to learn one lapped car (won't mention who at this point but as reported on formula1.com, in this race review) "was waved past the safety car to make up that lap before the race was allowed to restart." Don't think I've noticed that before in F1.....
Yes. All lapped cars must pass the safety and move to their race position before the race can restart. That's the rules. Everyone bunches up behind the safety car too, so it's a big advantage to anyone who has a gap they need to close. That's why Hamilton did so well in making up the places he lost in his Silverstone blowout, he had several safety cars to use to close gaps.
Yes bunching up the field is the norm, but holding the safety car so someone can make up a complete lap seemed unusual to me.
We don't usually have someone who's 90 seconds behind. I can't remember which race it was last year where we had four or five cars go by the safety and then go round. When it's a Marussia that can be a long wait
Okay, I checked the 2013 Sporting Regulations and can find words about lapped cars under certain conditions being required to pass the leader, any other cars on the lead lap and the safety car (in rule 40.12) and then drive on until they catch up with the back of the field but I still don't know WHY! Why let lapped drivers un-lap themselves? I don't get it.
Dunno, it's been like that for a couple of years at least, afaik. Might reduce accidents to not have someone who accelerates twice as fast as a back-marker stuck behind one when the race restarts. Otherwise there might be a lot of driving up tailpipes, I imagine.
SPOILERS - My Race Analysis / Opinions That was a good, clean race. By "clean" I mean good weather, standard track, few incidents. We did have a safety car, due to Jules Bianchi forgetting to engage the handbrake and leave the car in first gear. There were few surprises for me. Red Bull had an outstanding start to the race taking the lead from Hamilton very early. Lotus did very well on high track temperatures, and as I expected, Mercedes retreated back the field. Webber's pit lane accident on Lap 9 cost him a good shot at the podium. If it hadn't been for that, I fully expect that he'd have stood along side of Vettel. His lap times were comparable to Vettel's which is telling as he was also running in clean air for much of the race, then had to fight the pack. He drove an outstanding race, imo. Romain Grosjean had the best race he's run in a long time, at one point racking up a 12 second lead over Kimi, which was destroyed by the Safety Car. I'm not sure what to make of the team orders for him to get out of Kimi's way at the end - Lotus has some interesting strategy decisions of late. Regarding Mercedes - Once again they show that they can get the pole but can't keep up the pace. This is exactly the kind of performance we saw before the tests, and on a new tire that in theory was supposed to favor them. If they had gained any significant advantage from those tests, it's hard to see how they benefited from them on Sunday. This race was closest in temperament to Spain, and they performed similarly badly. Hamilton has "nothing positive to say" about tyres - F1 Fanatic Speaking of Lewis, expect a few more disappointing races from him. He's on another downward mood swing, due to his recent break-up with Nicole. He's even saying that there's "no point in thinking about" winning the championship now. I kind of think he might be bipolar. His performance seems to hinge very much on his mood. Good news for me though, as McLaren did better this weekend than they have in a while. I was a little bummed by Jenson losing so much time getting around the backmarkers which I think contributed to his getting passed by Lewis, but still I think they did fairly well Some nice charts follow 2013 German Grand Prix lap charts - F1 Fanatic 2013 German Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps - F1 Fanatic