Monza may not have brought about the rain fuelled extraordinary events of Spa, but that turned out to be a very intense session indeed, and there have been some very displeased remarks at the sharpest end of the field. You'd think that qualifying at Monza, whilst being a little tighter on times than other circuits, should be a very routine sequence of events, well apparently not. This weekend also brought some rather disconcerting news from Sauber, claiming they will do their damnest to get Sirotkin in the car, who has only recently turned 18. This plan only works out if Hulkenberg finds somewhere else to go in 2014 which in turn has a lot to do with what happens over at Ferrari. After the goings on today things on home turf for the Italian outfit may be even more unsettled than usual, where no-one is particularly safe.
Onto qualifying today, and all that mentioning of predicted form can be thoroughly thrown out of the window a world where Mercedes should be fighting for pole position and Lotus should be doing battle with Ferrari didn't make it in the shipment over from Belgium. It can also be assumed that any reservations and restraints drivers had about their comments was left behind with them - open the door for some brutal honesty and transparency, which frankly is a good thing. We live an age where every interview and comment appears to be constricted a generic template - the jury is still out on Alonso's comments about the team, but Hamilton was more than clear on his opinions, no templates involved there. But the only template that remained was at the very front of the grid, another display of domination and if there are no rain interventions in the race I can foresee yet another disappearing act from a certain German Bloke
Q1
As a very mafia-esque array of personalities lined up at the back of the Ferrari garage, Gutierrez and Rosberg took to the track - Nico looking to make up for lost time after missing most of FP3 with technical difficulties. Of the pair, oddly it was Gutierrez who set the fastest time, while Ferrari left the garage in formation using Massa to tow Alonso round in the slipstream. Something that Ferrari always get up to here at Monza, and it was a strategy that seemed to work as Fernando went fastest. But this is where the form guide starts to fall apart, because of all the teams to mount the first challenge Toro Rosso aren't usually mentioned, but Vergne was able to put the car at the top of the timings - that team performance was followed up by Ricciardo putting the car third.
With half of the session gone, we still hadn't seen anything of Vettel as those on track where sharing the responbility of sitting in third place, first Hamilton took it away from Ricciardo and then Button took it from his former team-mate. Jenson was only 0.15s away from Vernges time but was enough of a gap for Vettel to fit his Red Bull in, to claim his turn in third place. Down in the relegation zone it was very competitve between the Force Indias, Williams and Gutierrez because Toro Rosso were plying their trade a little further up the grid. One by one the Force India team pulled themselves out of the relegation zone, demoting Gutierrez and Bottas neither of which could recover and make it into Q2. It seemed like the battle for pole was going to be measured in the tiniest fractions of tenths and hundredths... until Vettel rocked up and found over a quarter of a second to end the session a long way out front...again.
Q2
Toro Rosso were the first to leave the garage this time around, but Ferrari once more in the drafting formation were not too far behind - again using Massa as Fernando's little helper for the afternoon. If Kimi takes that place I doubt he will conform to the role of helping the Spaniard out quite so well. Thing were starting to get a little ragged, Vergne powersliding out of the Della Roggia chicane putting a wheel in the gravel, while Grosjean took to the air jumping across the speed bumps in the middle of the Rettifillio chicane. But to top things off Hamilton had a more dramatic excursion running off wide on the exit of the Parabolica but Lewis was able to keep the Mercedes from bouncing off the barrier. However the car must have taken some damage from bouncing across the gravel as he was in pit-lane for a while.
At the front Alonso benefiting from the draft was fastest just ahead of Ricciardo but Webber was still able to split the pair - only thousandths from taking the top spot, the only thing this recepie was missing was a increasingly blonde German in a really fast car. True to form that German Bloke inevitably went fastest... rapidly turning into an exercise of even more domination, give the chap a wheelie bin to compete in and he'd still go fastest. No wonder the team came on the radio to say he was quick enough.
When the chequered flag came out the order got weird, firstly the two Lotus cars had no pace and fell down the standings, while the Toro Rosso's remained competitive inside the top five, making it four Red Bull backed cars in that top five...Then there was Hamilton trying to recover from his earlier incident, but everyone was trying to make it through meaning traffic was quite the problem... most significantly Adrian Sutil his most bestest of friends, but even on the lap before Lewis wasn't fast enough and dropped out of Q2 allowing Nico Hulkenberg so sneak into the top ten.
Q3
In the first series of runs only half of those remaining elected to set a time, of the group it was Webber who took the initial lead. Ferrari circulated around in the same formation flying approach they'd been throwing at qualifying all day. It is odd that no other team were up for drafting their cars off one another, but of all the teams on the grid it would Ferrari the most likely to sacrifice one drivers pace to support the other. But the plan was not working out as neither car could come close to the Red Bull, unless it was another Red Bull driven by that German again - and Vettel virtually sauntered his way to the front.
One stop for some new tyres later and everyone was taking to the track for that last challenge to find out who was going to be second on the grid. Once again Ferrari were in formation but Fernando was not happy - complaining initially on the radio that Felipe was too fast to be helpful. A statement steeped in irony after the infamous 'Fernando is faster than you' comment in Hockkenheim a while back, but Alonso was not done with ranting at the team. Depending on what the exact translation is Alonso either called his team 'idiots' or sarcastically called their strategy 'genius'. Either way Massa out-qualified a very angry team-mate and neither of them made it onto the front row which has an all Red Bull affair. Then something magical happened, as the drivers were completing their final runs, and Webber closed fractionally on an all dominant Vettel crossing the line through a cloud of dust from Vergne's powerslide through the gravel in the final turn, the Ferrari second row lockout was ruined. It wasn't a McLaren or Rosberg's remaining Mercedes but Nico Hulkenberg in a Sauber putting the car third... not a Q1 or Q2 3rd but out and out overall top end of the grid 3rd...
The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners
On a day where Hamilton described his own driving as idiotic, Alonso might have claimed that his team were idiotic and some of the driving in the GP3 was idiotic, but less so than it has been in other events, the points have to go somewhere. These are the results of the first part of the Italian GP weekend.
- 10pts - Nico Hulkenberg - Where on earth did that come from, outstanding
- 8pts - Felipe Massa - For being too fast, it made Alonso unhappy
- 6pts - Jean-Eric Vergne - For being so fast in Q1, and somehow not planting that in the wall at the end of Q3
- 5pts - Daniel Ricciardo - Emulating what Vergne did in Q1 in Q2 mixing with th top teams
- 4pts - Lewis Hamilton - Also for not putting it in the wall in the Parabolica, but for coming forward in the interview and not blaming everyone in sight. See Di Resta it is possible
- 3pts - Van Der Garde - Once more leading the bottom division
- 2pts - Romain Grosjean - Two style points for the micro flight in turn one
- 1pt - Fernando Alonso - Couldn't have timed his rant better, with every influential person in the Ferrari team sitting in the garage including Mr Montezemelo himself waiting on the pitwall
The Penalty Points Championship
Only one penalty was added to the records following today's session:
- Adrian Sutil - three place grid penalty - For holding up Hamilton in the Parabolica
Looking to Tomorrow
We've been enticed by the prospect of rain before, it was only last race where potential showers were the projected highlight of the race, and then they never materialised, so I will not be getting my hopes up for some rain induced mayhem and carnage. But Monza is a track where overtaking and racing is possible in the dry, even if the DRS system will make some of those passes a complete formality - why on earth DRS is needed on the fastest straight in the whole season is beyond me.
In either condition it is entirely forseable that Vettel will vanish a long way into the distance and will never be seen of again - if Webber gets off the line he'll probably go along with him. The intrigue lies with everyone else, with Hulkenberg leading a potentially angry Ferrari team into the first corner could be very interesting. On top of that outside the top ten we have cars a long way out of position including an also quite displeased Hamilton and both of the Lotus cars. Competition for the last place on the podium on downwards is going to be very intense and makes for a potentially very entertaining afternoon. So until then this is farewell from Blog HQ
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