F1 Monza Saturday Roundup

Tom Wilkinson’s Saturday Roundup

It’s my new Saturday roundup feature and I’ve been analysing all of todays Formula 1 action. What a fantastic and thoroughly interesting day it has been. Yesterday many of the teams tried out new upgrades and were generally trying to find the right setup for Monza. Today however qualifying was the main focus. First up earlier today was the final free practice session.

Free Practice 3

The final practice session proved lively and very interesting. At the start of the Session Red Bull ran with a lot of flow-viz paint, perhaps checking new parts to the car. Ferrari had the arrival of the company president Luca Di Montezemolo and the pressure was on. Fernando Alonso was running a more aggressive setup with lower wing levels to Felipe Massa, the pair were out on track practicing slipstreaming ahead of qualifying later. It’s a tactic they have used before.

Monza is a real power circuit, it demands an enormous amount from the engine and the brakes. Everyone has chosen to take a new engine here with Romain Grosjean being the only exception. The Lotus team ran Kimi Raikkonen in the longer wheelbase E21car yesterday, but have chosen not to run the upgrade for the rest of the weekend. Lotus showed real potential in the first two practice sessions but it wasn’t showing in the final practice session earlier today.

Mercedes were not having a great day either, Nico Rosberg suffered an overheating problem bringing his session to a very premature end. The team worked on the car to try to resolve the problem ahead of qualifying. Force India had a stroke of bad luck when Paul DiResta suffered a brake failure at the final corner sending the Scot into the barriers and out of the session. Moments later teammate Adrian Sutil also suffered from a similar looking problem at the Ascari chicane.

It was a highly interesting final practice session which Red Bull dominated, however things were looking up for Ferrari. This is how the time sheets looked at the end of the hour long session.

1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:24.360
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:24.643
3 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:24.677
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:24.712
5 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:24.864
6 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:24.865
7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:24.995
8 Jenson Button McLaren 1:25.103
9 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1:25.116
10 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus 1:25.120
11 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:25.136
12 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:25.273
13 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:25.324
14 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:25.499
15 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:25.660
16 Adrian Sutil Force India 1:25.702
17 Paul Di Resta Force India 1:26.120
18 Charles Pic Caterham 1:26.607
19 Giedo V.D Garde Caterham 1:27.172
20 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:27.605
21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:27.665
22 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:27.822

After the hour long final practice session the attention turned to Qualifying, it was the final qualifying session in Europe for this season, who would take that coveted Pole Position.

Italian Grand Prix Qualifying – Monza

Q1

After his earlier troubles Nico Rosberg headed out early in the first qualifying session with a good amount of fuel to complete 8 laps. The Mercedes team were keen to get going. McLaren showed good pace from the off, as the 20 minutes faded away a number of teams decided to choose the medium tyre to get them higher up the order. Force India were one of them and after their difficulties earlier in the day they just squeezed into Q2 but it was a close call. It was equally as close for Rosberg too but he put the hammer down and got the job done.

Out in Q1:

17 Gutierrez, 18 Bottas, 19 V.D.Garde, 20 Bianchi, 21 Chilton

Q2

The second qualifying session started in a rather sedate fashion, but this being Monza it soon heated up. Lewis Hamilton had a huge moment at the final turn going wide and deep into the gravel. He was lucky he didn’t hit the wall, it ruined his next lap but he did manage to continue. Towards the end of the session things didn’t improve and he was held up in traffic, having qualified so consistently in recent times, Lewis Hamilton was out of qualifying. It was a major blow for Mercedes and all of the travelling British fans. Adrian Sutil received a 3 place penalty from the stewards for impeding Hamilton on his fast lap. There were a few shocks in store as Lotus also failed to make it into the final qualifying session.

Out in Q2:

11 Raikkonen, 12 Hamilton, 13 Grosjean, 14 Sutil, 15 Maldonado, 16 DiResta

Q3

It was all about Pole Position, Ferrari intended to use their slipstream tactic which they practiced all weekend, but it just didn’t work. Their first attempt failed miserably, the second attempt looked just as unsuccessful and frankly it looked like they were just playing around. The tactics were quickly ditched and they both went for it, but it was too late. The lap was ruined for both drivers and it was in all honesty an embarrassment for Ferrari at their home Grand Prix. Red Bull took full advantage and locked out the front row with ease. The star of qualifying however was Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber. He stayed out of trouble, got on with the job and secured a fantastic third place for the Swiss team. It was a superb lap from the young German, I’m talking about Nico of course, and could we see him in a Ferrari next season? My suspicion is, well possibly, don’t rule it out.

Here is the top 10 qualifying positions:

1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:23.755
2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 1:23.968
3 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber 1:24.065
4 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:24.132
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:24.142
6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:24.192
7 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1:24.209
8 Sergio Perez McLaren 1:24.502
9 Jenson Button McLaren 1:24.515
10 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:28.050

It was a dramatic qualifying session with so many surprises, Vettel takes his 40th Pole Position and Red Bull have a front row lockout. I’ll be commentating Live throughout the Italian Grand Prix tomorrow on Twitter.

Follow me for all the very latest.@TomWilkinsonF1

Stay logged onto Driving For Pleasure and our LiveF1 feature where you’ll fine all the information you need. I’d like to say a big thanks as always to Kevin Bennett for providing his brilliant F1 photos, you can follow him on Twitter @Bennett_Kevin.

That’s it for now from Monza, Join us again tomorrow for all the racing action.