The general shift of the forecast over the past 48 hours has moved to a slightly less wet scenario across the three days, but still there is enough in the charts to keep weather watchers on their toes as the battle on-track between Brawn and Red Bull moves up a gear.
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The last of Thursday's rain should die away in the midnight hour, leaving the Nurburgring dry by dawn on Friday, with the first practice session expected to take place in dry, but increasingly cloudy conditions.
Following the day via the rainfall prediction charts, we see that conditions are set to deteriorate as a band of rain sweeps south-east across the North Sea and into the low countries. Rain is expected at the circuit in the afternoon as this band continues its push south across the country. The temperature will be cool thanks to a north-westerly airflow, peaking at 16 degrees Celsius.
A wet evening is on the cards on Friday. But, as this area of rain hits land, it will break up into showers. On Saturday, the showers are expected to hang on for a time during early morning, before pushing away to the east. The final practice session could see some dampness around, but the weather should gradually improve throughout the day, leaving a dry but green racetrack for the qualifying session. The top temperature will be 17 degrees.
Once the showers move eastwards, the circuit should see a solid period of dry weather through Saturday evening, overnight and into Sunday morning.
Race day will dawn dry, but the next band of rain is due to move east, across the UK and into France, the low countries and northern Germany. However, the ridge of high pressure is likely to be enough to ensure that the rain is initially slowed down, and then pushed slightly to the north-east. The latest forecast this morning is for a slight chance of showers during the race period. Temperatures will rise slightly, but at just 19 Celsius, Jenson Button and his Brawn team could face another difficult tyre temperature-related weekend. --
