Much to the delight of his local fans and the BMW WilliamsF1 team, Nick Heidfeld secured his first ever Formula One pole position on home soil at the Nurburgring today.

However, once the European Grand Prix got under way it began to look a lot like business as usual, or at least this season’s version of it. Kimi Raikkonen, winner of the last two races, dominated but could not make it three wins in a row and, in fact, barely managed to even finish in 11th place after his front suspension collapsed while he was leading the last lap. He had flat-spotted his tyre earlier snd it had literally shaken the car apart as the race wore on. Fernando Alonso, who had won the previous four races, inherited the win and extended his and Renault’s championship points lead even further over Raikkonen and McLaren.

Heidfeld held on for second and Rubens Barrichello finished third in the resurgent Ferrari. Something for the other teams to consider is that Micheal Schumacher finished fifth in the second Ferrari — the team’s best finish this year — and it looks like Bridgestone may have finally figured out their tyre problems.

Complete GP of Europe results.