James Blames Quick Nick.

[Chiefy]

I refer you all once again to the Turkish GP. Ninth to fifth, people. Ninth to fifth.

[Ralf's Girl]

I think the problem there was that he qualified in ninth in the first place.

[Mr V]

Exactly right RG. qualifying behind a Red Bull, Renault and Toyota isn't much to shout about. What with Heikki having his puncture problem's, 5th is the least that Nick should have achieved.

[BootsOntheSide]

Turkey sums up his season - he's usually been trying to recover from surprisingly low grid positions. Often he's been running too heavy, perhaps to minimise the loss from not being so good on a single qualifying lap.

[EERO]

Several things quickly forgotten regarding Nick's performance this season might put things in a slightly different light.

First, he finished second in Australia after a solid and competitive drive-on a day Kubica looked lost.

Second, Nick was poised to qualify as high as third in Malaysia given his sector times when he was blocked by the crawling MaCaroons. That has to have been an unnerving moment and I do wonder if it hasn't affected his confidence a bit.

Nick had worked himself up to second in Spain when Kovalainen crashed and Nick was forced to pit and was penalized. He came out directly behind Robert before the penalty and was dropped back.

His qualifying has been weaker than Robbert's and is attributed to his smoother driving style not building heat in the front tires as quickly as the Pole's early turn-in style. Nick has been faster in about 40% of the practice sessions and in the races.

He remains one of the best overtakers on the grid, often making up several places on starts and was driving brilliantly at Monaco until punted by St. Fernando.

I do suspect a loss of nerve or confidence and I hope he turns it around soon.. However, the differnce between hero and goat is often the slimmest of measurements.