Lewis Hamilton takes the Chequered Flag in Monza

A satisfied Lewis Hamilton wins comfortably  in Italy
Photo Courtesy of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Monza Results:

1.   L. Hamilton
2.   S. Perez
3.   F. Alonso
4.   F. Massa
5.   K. Raikkonen
6.   M. Schumacher
7.   N. Rosberg
8.   P. Di Resta
9.   K. Kobayashi
10. B. Senna

Another great race at Monza but, for the second time this season, the role of DRS rather than tyres in enabling passing was very apparent.  While tyre wear also played a crucial role in determining the outcome, this was down to pitstop strategies rather than rapidly degrading rubber; for the last three races it would appear that the teams and Pirelli have gotten to grips with how the different tyre options work.

The teams' understanding of the performance of each compound has negated the lottery which was rife in the earlier part of the season and I must give Pirelli credit for facilitating this understanding by their constant work at making the tyres less of an enigma.

The DRS zones, while the system remains a bit of a bugbear for me personally, were not the only parts of the circuit where overtaking took place and hats off to Alonso, Perez, Vettel, et al who were not afraid to have a go - even if it did see Alonso taking to the grass in a scary moment on the Curva Grande.

Monza sparkled on Sunday.  Lewis, starting from Pole Position took control of the race from the start while  Felipe Massa in third caught Button out in the drag race down to the first chicane.  Massa held on well to Hamilton for a little while but the gaps stabilized, as they are wont to do, and Jenson, who had been biding his time and saving his tyres inexorably began to reel in the Ferrari, before overtaking him when he pitted on lap 19 and putting in some stunning laptimes which negated the McLaren 4.1 second pitstop (slow by their standards) to come out ahead.

Button held onto second place until he parked the car up on lap 33 with an engine ("fuel pick-up") problem that left him without drive.

Vettel and Alonso were fighting it out for around 20 laps, with a side by side release in the pits adding to the nervousness and excitement, then Alonso tried around the outside on the Curva Grande and ended up with four wheels on the grass as Vettel applied a drifting squeeze, which many of the commentators saw as revenge for a similar move last season which saw Vettel overtaking Alonso with a similar, if slightly less dangerous, outcome.  Alonso survived the scare and shortly afterwards took third though Vettel received a drive through penalty for his defensive tactics.

I have to say, in Vettel's defence, that I am not 100% convinced that it should be a penalty offence but the rule does require a cars width. This youtube video does show that Sebastian did not leave that and I guess that's the end of that question.  Vettel was instructed to park the car as the Renault engine suffered another Alternator failure.  Renault apologised to Sebastian and Red Bull:
We have to apologise to Red Bull for the two failures on Sebastian’s car, first in FP3 and now in the race. In both cases the alternator failed. We introduced a new spec’ of alternator following the problems in Valencia and believed this would overcome the issues. We are still looking into why the part failed again here but we do know that even though the alternator was being operated entirely within the prescribed range, the part itself overheated and shut off the power supply. This is a priority between ourselves and our suppliers and we have to ensure we are fully on top of the problem before Singapore.

Alonso drove a fine race to third position from tenth, gaining one place when Massa gave way and, once again, (as per Belgium) I have to highlight what I see as the easy "overtake" by which Vettel overtook Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso for position.  Maybe I'm being sensitive to the sister teams but it just seems like the Red Bulls have a favoured status in overtaking the Toro Rosso's for position.

It makes a bit of a mockery of the fact that Ferrari aren't allowed to run a third car.

Perez enjoys a well deserved Second place
Photo courtesy of Sauber F1

Drive of the day is reserved for Sergio Perez who drove a spectacular race for Sauber from 12th position on the grid to finish second, overtaking the two Ferraris along the way.  A very long first stint on the hard tyres saw him overtaking Rosberg, Senna, Di Resta, Kobayashi and Raikkonen (twice) for position, which brought him up to sixth before he took Massa, Alonso, Vettel, Button and Hamilton in the pits to take the lead before his one and only pitstop on lap 29.  That dropped him down to eighth but he benefited from Button's retirement and the second pitstops of Vettel and Schumacher to move to fifth and, in a storming performance on the medium compound tyres, overtook Raikkonen, Massa, and finally Alonso on lap 45 to take a brilliant second place.

If the race had been 5 laps longer Lewis's win would not have been comfortable, though he managed to up his pace for a couple of laps at the end which ensured Victory.

Fernando's third, combined with Vettel's retirement, increases the gap to Lewis in second (in the official driver's championship) to 37 points. 35 points separate the two in my (- Bah) championship.

With 175 points left to play for, and the much improved performance shown by McLaren over the last few races it looks like both championships are wide open as the F1 Circus leaves Europe and heads to Singapore.

Senna has an eventful race in his battle to tenth
Photo Courtesy of Williams F1 team

Mercedes AMG comments re Friday Free Practice Monza

The final race weekend of the European season got underway today at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Italy.

• Michael and Nico completed a total of 131 laps during the two practice sessions

• Following Michael´s gearbox problem in Spa, the ratios were changed before P1 in accordance with the regulations

• The gearbox ran without incident today and will be inspected thoroughly this evening before qualifying and the race

• As ever in Monza, the field was closely matched, with the top ten cars in P2 separated by little more than 0.8s

Nico Rosberg
That was definitely a better start for us than in Spa. We were able to complete a lot of laps today and it seems that we have a good pace on high and low fuel levels. As always, it’s difficult to say where we are compared to the others but I hope we can score some good points this weekend. It was great fun to drive on this amazing track, and I always like the special atmosphere here. Yesterday I went out on the old Monza track with a scooter which is great to see. 

Michael Schumacher
I am quite happy with the practice sessions as we achieved a lot of reasonable work with regards to long runs which was our main focus today. We have a different aero package for Monza which seems to work well so it seems to be looking better than in the last races. During the sessions, we made progress as well so I am curious to have a look at the data we collected and learn the full picture. It´s always nice to be back in Monza as I am still so warmly welcomed by all the tifosi. As I said earlier, I would like to say thank you for that and hope we can put on a good show tomorrow and in the race on Sunday.

Ross Brawn 
We’ve had a pretty good day and both Nico and Michael were reasonably happy with the balance of the car by the end of the second session this afternoon. We completed our planned programme, and have all the information and data that we needed on the different tyres and fuel levels, so now we will have a look and make our plans for tomorrow.

Norbert Haug
A positive start to the weekend on this traditional high-speed track. Nico and Michael posted consistent lap times during their long runs in race trim on both Pirelli tyres. We seem to have a reasonable base to work from tomorrow.

Sauber F1 Team comments on Monza Free Practice sessions

Italian GP – Practice – Friday, 07.09.2012

Image courtesy of Sauber Motorsport AG

Weather: sunny and dry, 23-28°C air, 28-42°C track

The Sauber F1 Team had a straightforward first free practice session ahead of the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, but a rather difficult second session in the afternoon. Both drivers, Sergio Pérez and Kamui Kobayashi, would have preferred to be able to do some more laps today and neither of them is happy with the Sauber C31-Ferrari’s set-up yet.  

Sergio Pérez:

Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari 056)

1^st Practice: 8^th / 1:26.323 min (26 laps) / 2^nd Practice: 9^th / 1:26.068 min (32 laps)

“The first free practice went alright and also in the second session we almost completed our programme, but I had to stop a few minutes early when the team called me in for some checks. Overall so far I have the feeling we are a bit behind expectations here. We lose quite some time on the straights and now have to find a good aero and set-up compromise. We definitely want to fight for the top ten in qualifying tomorrow.”

Kamui Kobayashi:

Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 02/Ferrari 056)

1^st Practice: 14^th / 1:26.746 min (23 laps) / 2^nd Practice:  16^th / 1:26.730 min (17laps)

“It was a bit of a difficult day. I didn’t do enough running to decide on the settings and the downforce level. In the morning it was business as usual and also my first run in the second session was okay. But then, after we had made some changes, the car was bouncing an awful lot. I nearly spun on the straight. However, we identified the problem but could not fix it during the session. I think we have quite a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:

“The morning’s session was okay. We were focusing on aerodynamics as you always do in Monza because of the special low downforce configuration. We did comparisons of rear wings and other parts. In the afternoon Kamui’s session finished early because we had experienced a problem which we could not solve during the session. Actually after this we are not confident to continue with the planned programme and want to have a closer look at everything now. On Sergio’s car we discovered something wrong on the data shortly before the end of the second free practice and decided to call him in as well.

Williams F1 Team Comments on Fridays Free Practice Sessions at Monza

These are the comments in respect of what work was carried out by Williams in the two Free Practice Sessions today at Monza:

ITALIAN GRAND PRIX PRACTICE

07 SEPTEMBER 2012

Objectives
• Aero evaluations
• Tyre runs and set-up work
• Long runs in the afternoon

Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: We have a lot data to dissect and interpret tonight from today's two sessions to ensure that we optimise the car for the race without compromising qualifying. We managed to get through the entire test programme, despite a hydraulic problem on Pastor's car which prematurely stopped his FP1 session. The mechanics reacted very quickly and we managed to get the car ready for the start of FP2.

Pastor Maldonado: It was a productive day as we were trying some different configurations, especially with the aero levels. We completed everything we set out to do in the programme. There is still more speed to come and so tomorrow we will continue working to improve, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do.

Bruno Senna: It was a difficult session. After not running in the morning I had a lot to do this afternoon, but we’ve been trying different things and I think we can find a good path. Hopefully the car will be even better tomorrow and we can iron out some of the technical details to improve for qualifying.

Valtteri Bottas: We got lot of running today with the dry weather so it was great to get that under our belt. The track is brilliant as it’s an old school circuit and very quick. The morning session was productive and we worked through all the tests we had planned.

Ferrari on the pace in Monza Free Practice 2

Picture courtesy of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button set the pace in FP2 at Monza with Hamilton under 4 hundredths of a second ahead of his team-mate.

But, the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso was just two hundredths behind Button and Felipe Massa in fourth just a tenth behind.

So the question is: Have Ferrari brought something new to the party this weekend?

The fact remains that the quickest time this afternoon at 1m 25.290 is still 3 seconds off Vettel's pole lap from last year, but the two Prancing Horses would appear to be restless.  This weekend is vital for Felipe Massa. Having heard last week that Mark Webber held talks with Ferrari about a drive next year he must be feeling some serious pressure to perform. Where better to score a podium than at the home race.

From fifth on the results were: Rosberg, Raikkonen, Di Resta, Hulkenberg, Perez, and Schumacher.

D'Ambrosio was closer to Raikkonen this afternoon, just six tenths down on Kimi's time, as the Belgian got to grips with the track.

Michael Schumacher tops Monza Free Practice 1 Timesheet

Photo courtesy of Mercedes AMG Media Centre

Michael topped the charts this morning in Free Practice 1 at Monza, with his team-mate Nico Rosberg third.  Jenson Button split the two Mercedes, three tenths of a second off Schumacher's pace and Fernando Alonso came in fourth. Massa, Hamilton, Kimi, Perez, Webber and Maldonado rounded out the top ten.  Bottas in the second Williams was only a tenth of s second off Maldonado's time, having driven a similar number of laps, a good run for him.

The next big story was Jerome D'Ambrosio making his Lotus Race Debut in place of Grosjean.  His time was 1.13 seconds off Kimi's pace as he got himself familiarised with the car and track.

The only other noteworthy occurrence was the appearance of Qing Hua Ma in the second HRT.  Delighted that he has made, I believe, his race weekend debut.  His time put him at the bottom of the table 2 seconds off his team-mate De la Rosa's pace.

Schumi's best time was 1m 25.422s, over three seconds off Vettel's 2011 pole position lap of 1m 22.275s.