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/

 

[Sarinaide]

I can't seem to get any credible info at the moment, I am at work so can't watch it either, but has there been anything to go from in respect of Ferrari, info on the wings yet.

 

[Galahad]

The onboard lap with Massa was akin to a rowing boat in a hurricane. Plenty of oversteer.

 

[Sarinaide]

The onboard lap with Massa was akin to a rowing boat in a hurricane. Plenty of oversteer.

It will be interesting to see how Nando does and what tweaks he takes, but Pepe fighting hard.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Sure would love to know the fuel loads used today.....

If McLaren and RBR were on even reasonably similar loads then we should see an incredible race with two drastically divergent setup strategies.

Also, wasn't it fantastic to see a practice session run in sunny conditions for seemingly the first time in months.

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

Let’s see if Redbull will adhere to this camber advice or exceed it again. It is clear they were not sincere in their arguments at Spa after blaming it on safety grounds when it was all about performance (confirmed by Pirelli).

According to Ted Kravitz the FIA are looking into regulating camber settings after Red Bull's "safety" concerns at Spa. Red Bull are arguing that any regulation would breach their freedom to be allowed to alter their suspension settings as they wish.
As much as I can't stand Red Bull, I agree with them. There is, however, one simple solution - admit that the 'safety concerns' were a smokescreen and the blistering was their own fault. They ran excessive camber in order to make their car faster, which in turn blistered the tyres. Back off the camber, no blistering, simple. That's like running Monza-spec wings everywhere and then complaining on safety grounds that the car won't go round corners.

 

[tranquility2k9]

Ferrari sound a little worried about McLaren on twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/InsideFerrari

InsideFerrari Scuderia Ferrari
It looks like there is a lot of work to do to try and be competitive with McLaren and Red Bull.

InsideFerrari Scuderia Ferrari
Session finished, dominated by McLaren. Fernando7th and Felipe 8th but with a huge gap.

Practice is practice, but McLaren and Hamilton especially, looked impressive.

 

[Sarinaide]

Oh good, nice to see Ferrari doing so well, I fully expect a "It is over" statement commeth the end of the race.......and I expect resignation letters at the end of the season.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Practice is practice

Which is why I'll curb my enthusiasm. And I would suggest that Ferrari fans hold off on the obituaries as well.

 

[Sarinaide]

I don't normally read into FP or Qualification, but lets just say this season as far as Ferrari are concerned....this ship has sailed.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I don't see Jenson being able to match Lewis this weekend for the same reason that they went on different car setups last year. Jenson is already complaining of "massive oversteer" and that's going to much more to Lewis' liking.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

It's interesting that even though the McLaren's ran a larger rear wing they were still faster than the Red Bulls through the speedtrap, with Vettel actually the slowest.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

It's interesting that even though the McLaren's ran a larger rear wing they were still faster than the Red Bulls through the speedtrap, with Vettel actually the slowest.

There's more to it than size. Angle, for instance.

 

[KekeTheKing]

It's interesting that even though the McLaren's ran a larger rear wing they were still faster than the Red Bulls through the speedtrap, with Vettel actually the slowest.

This makes sense though. The Speed Trap does not give you the terminal speed at the end of the straight. That is where the McLaren will lose out.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

I don't see Jenson being able to match Lewis this weekend for the same reason that they went on different car setups last year. Jenson is already complaining of "massive oversteer" and that's going to much more to Lewis' liking.

Jenson always complains about rear end grip. The'higher downforce than needed' settings are probably to help him

 

[Slyboogy]

I really would love it if Massa won this race.

 

[Sarinaide]

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m24.010s 37
2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.046s + 0.036 21
3. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m24.347s + 0.337 39
4. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m24.366s + 0.356 33
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m24.433s + 0.423 31
6. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m24.468s + 0.458 32
7. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.508s + 0.498 30
8. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.097s + 1.087 39
9. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.182s + 1.172 37
10. Bruno Senna Renault 1m25.325s + 1.315 38
11. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m25.450s + 1.440 31
12. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m25.496s + 1.486 39
13. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m25.683s + 1.673 37
14. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.758s + 1.748 29
15. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m26.202s + 2.192 36
16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m26.353s + 2.343 40
17. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m28.347s + 4.337 5
18. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m28.559s + 4.549 32
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m28.605s + 4.595 32
20. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m28.804s + 4.794 25
21. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m29.162s + 5.152 34
22. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m29.184s + 5.174 29
23. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m29.622s + 5.612 34
24. Daniel Ricciardo HRT-Cosworth 1m29.841s + 5.831 7

I can only assume that Rosberg was running full loads and primes, that time cannot be a reflection of the car.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Lewis sets fastest time of the day. Red Bull very close indeed. Looks
Ike they found some setup this afternoon.

 

[riskitall]

its gunna be interesting to hear what mclaren have to say about their heavy fuel times.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Indeed. Does anyone know why McLaren weren't using DRS in the second half of P2? And also, what was up with Lewis' clutch.

 

[riskitall]

well,im not sure.but maybe what this person said on a different forum makes sense?

"It is safe to say that after the first few runs most teams were focussing on race setup. McLaren look like wanting to have a go at a relatively high downforce setup, I am convinced that is what they were trying out by not using DRS."

and as for the clutch problem,it didnt seem to be anything too serious,but we'll have to wait and see.