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/

 

[Galahad]

I didn't think it was a classic, there were only a couple of big battles, but luckily one of them lasted for half the race.

Fine race pace by Schumacher - obviously with the proviso that we don't know what Nico could have done with that car. He should have been penalised for blocking and I wonder whether either Charlie or Ross told him to yield in the end rather than take a penalty.

A shame that neither Petrov nor Perez had the chance to show what they could do - might have been in the thick of the fight for 7th. Good race for Toro Rosso after a poor qualifying.

Williams despicable yet again. Better not to turn up at all than to fade away every weekend.

 

[F1ang-o]

Don't agree...JB lazy & selfish..if both drivers were the same where would we be ?
Button is sooooo smart yeah & LH is a hard working team player....
Advice to LH ....think of yourself...i Canada you should have put JB out of the race KOBI style not thinking of team results...

 

[ExtremeNinja]

It's just too easy for that Red Bull at the moment. I can't see how anybody can get even close to them. Even the TV cameras and the commentary are ignoring Vettel in the Red Bull so that they can watch the racing. Yes, the racing.

 

[Brogan]

Don't agree...JB lazy & selfish..if both drivers were the same where would we be ?
Button is sooooo smart yeah & LH is a hard working team player....
Advice to LH ....think of yourself...you should have put JB out of the race KOBI style not thinking of team results...

Those sort of posts aren't helpful and will only result in this thread descending into an argument and then being closed.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Entertaining race all in all. Schumacher should have recieved a penalty for his weaving as it was a lot more blatant that Hamilton's weaving in Malaysia and that chop could have ended badly. As for Jenson I don't buy it that he was biding his time, I think he simply only caught after a few laps, the Schumacher-Hamilton chop slowed them both down drastically allowing Button to pass Hamilton and get very close to Schumi.
Also a good result for Alonso who was very lucky his old enemy was so slow and then to have just enough laps to keep Hamilton at bay.
Yet again (7th race in a row) the driver who qualified 18th goes on to score points even at a track where fresh tyres arn't as important as per usual.
Finally Lotus achieved a good result with Hekki in 13th out racing Jarno in 14th. I just wonder what will happen to Liuzzi for his first coner mishap.

 

[F1ang-o]

Let's not turn this into another Hamilton thread.

Well he was the one who was compromised today...,why do you think this is...perhaps because he is the best.
He may not have the team support that Vettel has,,I find this disgusting..

 

[Bullet190]

Lets face it, if that was Lewis weaving in front of Schumi it would have been an instant penalty for Lewis.
The other way results in them just asking Ross to have a word in Shumi's ear. This is getting so obvious it's almost laughable.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Terrible luck for Nico and Vitaly.

Lewis was walking on eggshells out there. He's in a position now where he can't really be firm with anybody.

The McLaren was setup for a simulator race. Unfortunately for them there were other cars on the circuit.

 

[mjo]

What is everyone's fascination with Eddie Jordan?

 

[Boyle]

Very good race again. Overtakes right through the field and a lap 1 crash as I thought.

Hard battle between Schumi and Hamilton but it was close to the line. Button doing as Button does and being very smart. The reason he passed Schumi so easily is that he saved his tyres and his engine so had that advantage over the two in front. If he hadn't had such a poor start it could have been interesting but Vettel probably had too much anyway.

Another impressive drive from PDR, showed a cool head under pressure from Senna at the end. And why do people keep getting on Jaime's back? I know he's been in for a couple of years now but he's still only 21.

 

[Galahad]

To be fair to Jaime, he was up to 9th after the first lap accident and Webber hitting Massa, so he'd have scored points on pretty much any tyre strategy.

 

[FB]

Yee god's and little fishes! Vettel wins, Button drives a stormer, Fernando made the Tifosi happy, Schumie look more like the driver of old and all you lot want to do is bitch about how "unfair" it was for Lewis Hamilton. The car wasn't quick enough, Lewis wasn't on his game (look how easily JB passed Schumie) so get over it, this is getting REALLY dull.

 

[Vortex]

Yee god's and little fishes! Vettel wins, Button drives a stormer, Fernando made the Tifosi happy, Schumie look more like the driver of old and all you lot want to do is bitch about how "unfair" it was for Lewis Hamilton. The car wasn't quick enough, Lewis wasn't on his game (look how easily JB passed Schumie) so get over it, this is getting REALLY dull.

Couldnt agree more!

 

[Quintessentially]

It's looks easy for Redbull at the moment because their closest challengers have been dragged into other fights. I think the race would've had a different complexion if it was the two McLarens chasing down Vettel. Hamilton didn't get a good start but his entry into the corner was risk averse as it get. I think he had Vettel before the corner but yielded too early.

 

[Brogan]

(look how easily JB passed Schumie)

That was due to tyres though, let's be fair - Schumacher came in on that lap as they had hit the cliff. Not to mention Schumacher compromised himself trying to block Hamilton.

Anyway, I posted about it on the Hamilton thread so let's take it there.

 

[F1ang-o]

Those sort of posts aren't helpful and will only result in this thread descending into an argument and then being closed.

So ...like Lewis has .........been..keep your mouth shut & don't say what you feel....
talk a load of
Lewis wants to drive like LEWIS not JB............ who has had access to his telemetery
Quote.....I'd rather die on my feet...than spend the rest of my lifwe on my knees....[/quote]

 

[F1ang-o]

How many laps did it take for Hamilton to not overtake Schumacher? Button overtook him at his first attempt. What was wrong with that?

Schumi had had the warning from Ross...adhere to the rules...but hey what does thart matter when it's LH

 

[Josh]

It was a good race with plenty of action. The battle between Michael and Lewis was great and I think they handled it very well. Perhaps he'll get a reprimand after the race, but in my opinion telling Mercedes to warn Michael was good enough. Although the winner was decided after he passed Alonso (which was a great move!) the battle for the other podium positions, and indeed the other point scoring positions, was good to watch. For me it was one of the most exciting races of the season (apart from the Saubers retiring... What a shame)

But......Let's face it .....it was only Lewis so who cares..well I do! Button once again...hyena...waiting for LH to do all the work...then nipping in...kept back from the dirty air ....what a selfish

Every single racing driver is a selfish. Get used to it. They're only in it for themselves.

Lewis wants to drive like LEWIS not JB............ who has had access to his telemetery

When did you start watching? This is common practice between team-mates. They look at each others' telemetry all the time. It's not a conspiracy.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

. Although the winner was decided after he passed Alonso (which was a great move!)

The winner was decided when Red Bull put a car on the grid with a racing driver in it.

 

[KekeTheKing]

(look how easily JB passed Schumie)

After the (at least) second call from Ross Brawn, Hamilton pulled the exact same move into Ascari.

I agree this wasn't Lewis' best race race though.

edit -

The winner was decided when Red Bull put a car on the grid with a racing driver in it.

As long as that driver is not Mark Webber.