Grand Prix 2011 Italian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The fat bloke lady is starting to sing

Sebastian Vettel took a major stride towards a second world championship after a crushing win in Belgium, he extended his lead over Mark Webber who made a good recovery from a bad start to finish second after a fantastic overtake on Fernando Alonso into Eau Rouge.

Lewis Hamiltons indifferent season continued after a crash with Kamui Kobayashi into Les Combes, while he won't admit it, he will be close to giving up on closing down Vettel as he is over 100 points behind, but while he can't win the championship, that won't stop him going to win every race remaining and with Monza being a strong McLaren track, he will be up there in the running.

Monza is one of the most historic tracks on the F1 calendar and will be full of Ferrari fans as it is the teams home race and the tifosi are known for their support of the prancing horse and after a Ferrari win in 2010 they willl be expecting more of the same from Fernando who needs a win to keep alive his fading championship hopes but an average showing in Spa including losing third place late on will be a killer blow to the Spaniard. Massa is sliding further into obscurity after a good start, but faded quickly into the minor points.

The track isn't one of Red Bulls strongest circuits due to the low downforce and long straights but we have said that a few circuits aren't Red Bull friendly circuits and Vettel has gone on to get pole and win and Monza might not be an exception with Vettel in imperious form and the car seemingly bulletproof there is no-one who can stop the bull racing to the title in emphatic fashion.

After a turbluent weekend, Pastor Maldanado picked up his first point in F1 with a strong drive to tenth (and a lot of luck) to give his beleagured Williams outfit a small reason to be happy but it represents how far they have fallen in that a point is an achievement for them. Barrichello finished a dissapointing 16th finishing behind both Lotus cars.

Bruno Senna will be aiming to improve on a promising first weekend back in F1, he qualified a brilliant 7th, but rusty racecraft caused a bad collision at turn 1 and he eventually finished 13th, the last of the unlapped cars, Petrov managed to pick up a handful of points to go level with his former team mate Nick Heidfeld who is seeking legal advice after losing his seat last week to the young Brazilian.

Adrian Sutil continues his upturn in form after outpacing Di Resta who had a poor weekend with the German taking home 7 points and Di Resta just finishing outside the points in 11th, with Nico Hulkenberg challenging for a set at Force India next season, both these two drivers have improved lately with both taking home points from the last few races
At the back of the field, Jarno Trulli finished ahead of his team-mate showing that maybe he still has some pace in the Lotus now that they have fixed the power steering issues, with Chandhok just over his shoulder he will need to beat his team-mate to ensure that he still has a seat at the team next year and extend his long career.

For Galahads supreme circuit write up see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/autodromo-nazionale-monza/

 

[riskitall]

Go to the official site and click on interviews and go to the section where the guy asking the question asks Jenson why he came in on his final flyer.

ok,but some ppl will just say button was told to say that.
anyway apparently in the gp2 race today the driver who started second won the race.
and last year button did well from second.so ppl saying button is in a better position(including lewis himself)because he's starting in 3rd place,seem to be exaggerating the importance of starting in third place?

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Aha ha.

Either you/people believe what Button says about why he aborted his last lap...or you can choose to think he's a liar.

It doesn't matter to me whether you think he's telling the truth or whether he's lying.

I was only answering the question and telling you where his official words can be found.

 

[riskitall]

i dont think he's a liar,but some are claiming mclaren told button to abort so he wouldnt outquali lewis,which i personally dont believe.

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Who are these "some"?

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Alright people let's not turn this into another incident needing the mods. I think most agree that the timing showed Button up on his time. However in the interview he thought he was down, can't we just put this to a miscommunication or something of the sort, not everything has to be controversy.

 

[Quintessentially]

From the feed, it looked like he was 0.1s up in S1 and 0.15s up in S2 (up on P1 that is).

However, as McLaren were faster than Vettel, perhaps he was up on Vettel at this time but not far up on his own lap. Calculating his ultimate laptime suggests 1:22.738; not much, but slightly faster, and worth completing S3 to see if a slight improvement could be made to gain P2.

Agreed. The timing screens were misleading and gave the impression that Jenson was up on pole when in fact his S1 time of 27.150 was slower that his best S1 time of 27.055. Sector two was also slower. In fact If his previous sector times are anything to go by, he aborted the lap because he was going slower. As you say his ultimate lap time was 1:22:738 (slower than P2) but seeing as his two recorded sector times did not match these, aborting the lap was the sensible thing to do. He was never going to find an extra tenth the time in S3.

Interesting...
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/94453

 

[Il_leone]

Last year Jenson got the start and jumped ALonso on the run down to the chicane

If Hamilton can do the same then we are in for a race otherwise Vettel will do his usual disappearance with a clear track

 

[Brogan]

Vettel will win.

 

[Quintessentially]

No. He said he was a tenth-and-a-half down in Sector 1 from his best and he carried that deficit through into Parabolica so aborted.

Cheers.

Yup.

 

[Jos the Boss]

Late night weather from me:
Sunday
0700-Partly cloudy skies(0.1mm) 1000-Partly cloudy skies(0.1mm) 1300-Patchy rain possible(0.2mm) 1600-Patchy rain possible(0.7mm)
More than likely going to be sunny but alot more websites predict rain

 

[Abnash24]

anyone got a certain weather report? F1 website says it will be sunny but bbc say thunderstorms? what on earth is going on

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Interesting...

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/94453

You know what this means, right?

It means that the McLaren and Ferrari drivers will want to "get the jump" on Vettel either into the first corner or very soon thereafter to prevent him from "breaking away". In this case "breaking away" means "building enough of a DRS cushion." At least that's what the link is making it sound like.

And you know what that means, right?

It means that - rightly or wrongly - someone like Hamilton will think the race needs to be "won" at the first corner...and that's not a good thing to believe.

Is it?

That link makes it sound like Vettel will win or lose the race in the first two laps...and I say that's complete bu11$h!ttt!!!

If I were Hamilton, I'd still take the longer view instead of believing I "must" win the first corner. The last thing Lewis needs is a tangle on Lap 1.

[I'm sure Button and Alonso will be hoping that Vettel and Hamilton tangle on Lap 1 believing what that Autosport link is suggesting.]

It's going to be a long race and I don't think it's going to be won (or lost) before the first DRS detection point on Lap 3.

 

[Vortex]

Vettels got a championship to think off, the rest virtually have nothing to lose as he’s so far ahead, I say, go for it!

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Vettels got a championship to think off, the rest virtually have nothing to lose...

Yes I think the others may think Vettel will "settle for points" and if they do think that, they may go aggressive on an over-take thinking Vettel won't fight too hard.

Hamilton might actually not be one of them because the last thing he needs is another DNF. I think Button and Alonso and Webber might be the 3 out of the 4 that may take the greater risk.

Vettel wants points, Hamilton doesn't want to DNF and the other three may take the bigger over-taking gambles.

Lewis has himself said he just wants to finish the race. I think all the criticism in the press is filtering into his psyche for this meeting.

I think if Lewis just stays out of trouble and takes the longer term view, he has a very strong chance of lifting the victory trophy on that amazing Monza podium.

Lewis...Be patient, man!

 

[Brogan]

Just now in GP3, P2 was ahead after the 1st chicane.

The same in GP2 yesterday....

 

[Chasz]

Button’s comment about being a tenth down refers to his own lap delta times. He was comparing his final flying lap with his previous best, NOT those of his rivals.
Mclaren are strong in sectors one and two when compared to Red Bull but weak in sector three where they are losing upwards of half a second.
This explains why Button chose to pit rather than finish the lap despite being faster than Vettel heading into the final sector.
No conspiracy here.

EDIT: Sorry I realise this has already been resolved! ooops

 

[Jos the Boss]

anyone got a certain weather report? F1 website says it will be sunny but bbc say thunderstorms? what on earth is going on

to answer your first question no we dont apart from someone at monza now and the second question it could be either! and lastly i have no idea whats going on i presume a race!

 

[Brogan]

All reports from the circuit say it's hot and sunny.

 

[Jos the Boss]

and lee mckenzie says it dont look like thered going to be rain hot and sunny like the past 3 days

 

[Galahad]

Vettel's shorter ratios should help him with his getaway from the lights too.

If he gets away in the lead I think he'll get out of DRS range in time. Interesting then to see if the McLarens work together - slipstream and DRS each other lap by lap to see if they can make a 'train' to catch him?