F1 2011: Italian GP.

[Ferry_vO]

Time for the high speed track of Monza!

Q1 results:

18: Alguersuari
19: Trulli
20: Kovalainen
21: Glock
22: D'Ambrosio
23: Ricciardo
24: Liuzzi

No surprises here..

 

[Ferry_vO]

Q2 Results:

11: Di Resta
12: Sutil
13: Barrichello
14: Maldonado
15: Perez
16: Buemi
17: Kobayashi

 

[Ferry_vO]

Q3 Results:

1: Vettel
2: Hamilton
3: Button
4: Alonso
5: Webber
6: Massa
7: Petrov
8: Schumacher
9: Rosberg
10: Senna

 

[Wing_Z]

I suspect "amazing" is not really a strong enough word to describe Vettel's pole.
He gave away 0.1s in the first sector which is all about straight-line speed, and took back 0.6 on the back part.
Mind you it's not often you see an F1 go balls-out opposite lock at speed, either, he really was trying.

I'm hoping for an interesting race, there are plenty of cars faster than the Red Bull in a straight line, which means they can be overtaken...

 

[Panther_99FS]

there are plenty of cars faster than the Red Bull in a straight line, which means they can be overtaken...

Straight line speed IMHO can be overrated...(I refer back to Ferrari "back in the day" for this...)

 

[Wing_Z]

Well... the big difference now is the cars have KERS and DRS.
These two aids massively increase the chances of passing on this circuit.

Ultimately the cars are limited by their gearing at Monza.
I watched the Red Bulls top out at 326km/h.
Alonso is geared for 342 (his trap speed in tow behind Massa)
If he cruised up behind a Red Bull, he could apply an 80kW KERS boost, open the DRS flap, and drive by. (There are two DRS zones at Monza)
Overtaking him on the slower bits would be nigh on impossible.
Even a Sauber could do this, Perez was clocked at 349km/h!

Getting Vettel away from the traffic will be the key to his race.
Webber has a much more difficult job from his lowly grid slot.

 

[Wing_Z]

Pos	Driver	Team	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	53
2	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	53
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	53
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	53
5	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	53
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	53
7	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	52
8	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	52
9	Bruno Senna	Renault	52
10	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	52
11	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	52
12	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	52
13	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	51
14	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	51
15	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	51
NC	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	39
Ret	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	32
Ret	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	21
Ret	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	9
Ret	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	4
Ret	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1
Ret	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	0
Ret	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	0
Ret	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	0

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I'm not alone in wondering what it is that Red Bull does... Vettel can't put a foot wrong it seems.
Despite Alonso's epic dash into first spot, he overtook the Ferrari - with two wheels on the grass.
Mortal drivers can't do that.

Poor Lewis hit the gearing wall, bouncing on the rev limiter behind Schumacher, who simply had the straight line speed.
Half the TV coverage was spent on those two, and apart from a quick flash of Button vs Alonso, that's all the racing we saw!

EDIT: Liuzzi handed five-place grid penalty for Singapore, for arriving sideways at the scene of Rosberg and Petrov's accident at the start.

 

[Panther_99FS]

It's a combination of Vettel & Newey. Put Alonso in the other car alonside Vettel and the season points would look much different now...

 

[demorier]

I see Schumacher is back to his bad old ways....pushing penalties with illegal blocking moves again. Nothing changes that much.