Graphic: Martin Brundle's guide to the Nurburgring

GERMAN drivers populate 25% of the grid in Nurburgring for their home grand prix, which is indicative of the Michael Schumacher effect as the youngsters he inspired emerge. They will have competed many times at the Nurburgring in their junior careers and will know all about the changeable weather, being 500 metres up in the Eifel mountain region.

However, none of them made the front three in an entertainingly chaotic qualifying session. Mark Webber finally seized pole position from Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Calm heads and good tyre choice were imperative.

The forecast for today’s race is also mixed showers. It will be interesting to see if 22-year-old Sebastian Vettel feels the pressure of competing in front of his home fans. At Silverstone last month, Button seemed to wilt under that home expectation. His Brawn was less competitive there than Vettel’s Red Bull but he was also beaten by his own teammate for the first time this year. Only in his final stint at Silverstone did the all-new “2009 spec” Button re-emerge. This was partly because the track temperatures were hovering around the critical point to “switch on” the slick tyres, just as they will be here in Germany today.

So far in his short career Vettel has seemed impervious to pressure, although he starts only fourth on the grid. All three of his grand prix victories have been won from the front. Two years ago he smashed into the Red Bull car of Webber, his current teammate, under safety car conditions when he was driving for the sister Torro Rosso team, probably costing them their first victory. He somehow survived the inevitable team reaction and kept his personal belief intact.

The boy has a strong head and is fast in any conditions. That will not be lost on championship leader Button, who starts beside him on the grid.

This is a big weekend for both of them. Jenson has to show that Silverstone was just a blip. He needs a highly competitive podium finish today to re-assert his champion- ship charge. If not, Vettel, Webber and Barrichello are more than capable of joining the title fight.

Many people have asked, given the reversal in fortunes of Lewis Hamilton and Button this year, “Isn’t Formula One just about the car?” True, the car plays a key role — but only because the drivers are so uniformly good. It’s a valid question, though: how can Hamilton’s sensational performances on his way to the championship last year morph into so many lacklustre performances and mistakes this season? And how can Button, written off by most, suddenly look like a world-beater?

For all his huge skill and commitment, Hamilton has had a magic carpet ride to the top. He is finding out for the first time what it is like to drive a difficult, underperforming car. And he has not been handling it well. In the previous three races his teammate, Heikki Kovalainen — a driver he eclipsed comfortably last year — has outqualified him. It’s as if Hamilton cannot accept that the car will not stick to the track. It doesn’t compute in his mind and he has not been making allowances.

We’ll see if he has the Prost/ Senna/Schumacher level of dedication to hold meetings with engineers until midnight, saying, “That is what I’ve got, this is what I need, how do we get there?” The impressive upgrades on the McLaren for this race suggest that he’s giving them the right information. It is also likely that they are finally understanding the 2009 rule package.

Conversely, Button finally has a truly competitive car, and it has enabled him to step up and prove himself an extraordinary driver. I had not realised how good he was. He’s had the benefit of the best car, but so has Barrichello. Good as the Brawn is, it’s not one of those truly dominant machines with which any reasonable driver could win (such as a 1998 McLaren or 2004 Ferrari). It needs to be coaxed into its operating window. Even then, there have been races when it has been no quicker than the Red Bull. Yet Button has made the difference.

The big question, then, is: could Hamilton have achieved what Button has in the Brawn? It doesn’t look like a car that would lend itself to his aggressive driving style, and I question whether Hamilton would have been able to deliver with Button’s error-free regularity. Would Button be doing a better job in the McLaren than Hamilton? Quite possibly, yes. He’s more used to dealing with difficult cars.