2010 Monza Grand Prix (Now)

No thread, so..

Quali:

[QUOTE=F1.com]Fernando Alonso gave the tifosi what they came to Monza for on Saturday, as he pipped McLaren's Jenson Button to pole position for the Italian Grand Prix. The Spaniard took over setting the pace in Q2, and went faster still in Q3, clocking the only sub-1m 22s lap with 1m 21.962s for Ferrari on his first run in the final session. He failed to improve on that, as a good jump forward by Button, who unlike his team mate opted to run his MP4-25 in high-dowforce trim, left the reigning champion second on the grid with 1m 22.084s.

Felipe Massa backed his team mate with 1m 22.293s in the second Ferrari, with Mark Webber jumping ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton on their second runs when Hamilton had a slide in the first chicane and failed to improve. Webber lapped his Red Bull in 1m 22.433s to Hamilton’s 1m 22.623s, while Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel couldn’t better 1m 22.675s for sixth.

Seventh was very closely fought as Nico Rosberg lapped his Mercedes in 1m 23.027s to Nico Hulkenberg’s 1m 23.037s for Williams and Robert Kubica’s 1m 23.039s for Renault. Rubens Barrichello completed the top 10 with 1m 23.328s in the second Williams.

As Alonso set the pace with 1m 22.297s to pip Button and Hamilton in Q2, Adrian Sutil found himself bumped when Nico Rosberg improved, leaving the Force India driver 11th on 1m 23.199s. Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher’s efforts to improve came up short with 1m 23.388s, leaving him 12th ahead of Kamui Kobayashi’s BMW Sauber on 1m 23.659s, Sebastien Buemi’s 1m 23.681s for Toro Rosso, Vitaly Petrov’s 1m 23.819s for Renault, Jaime Alguersuari’s 1m 23.919s for Toro Rosso and Pedro de la Rosa on 1m 24.044s in the second BMW Sauber.

The only real surprise in Q1, when Massa set the pace with 1m 22.421s from Alonso, was that Vitantonio Liuzzi’s litany of trouble at Force India continued. As he did only one run of three laps for 1m 25.774s that left him behind the Lotuses in 20th place. He’d told the team in the morning that a fresh engine felt odd, and it seized its bottom end soon after Q1 began.

Jarno Trulli was 18th on 1m 25.540s with Lotus team mate Heikki Kovalainen shadowing him on 1m 25.742s. After Liuzzi, Timo Glock was Virgin’s lead runner with 1m 25.934s ahead of team mate Lucas di Grassi on 1m 25.974s. Glock, however, will get a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox replacement. Petrov also received a five-place grid penalty for impeding him in the first chicane early in Q1.

Bruno Senna recorded 1m 26.847s for HRT in 23rd, with team mate Sakon Yamamoto much closer than previously on 1m 27.020s for 24th.[/QUOTE]

I'd say it's Alonso's race, barring any errors/first corner shenanigans.

On related note, it's just right that the fastest nation on earth has the [I]Temple of Speed[/I].

Hmm.. another crap start from Webber, made worse with Hulkenburg cutting the chicane three times to hold his position in front of him later on. A poor mistake from Hamilton make his life harder, but otherwise few surprises. Not so interesting a race, really. Good result for Ferrari, with a 1-3, with Button being the meat in their sandwich.

Impressive Vettel after all the "problems".

Vettel lucked in with the strategy there, he was the last of the top three teams that finished/wasn't held up. Obviously pitting for the last lap was the best idea in that situation.

The 'soft' tires in F1 last far too long with little or no performance loss.

Formula One has almost become dumbed down to the level of a Shamwow infomercial.

ALMS is far superiror to watch for excitement and good racing.

If they still had refuelling, the drivers would push them hard enough to wear them out faster. I really wish refuelling was still allowed. I liked the extra strategy that afforded the teams.

Pretty much an annoying race, gMonza seems to be the only track which manages to defeat Hamilton's luck. Good strategy for Vettel, good pace for the top three finishers, even if I was expecting Button to last much longer than the dynamic duo on soft tires (which indeed were oh so soft after all).

Not sure if I'm interested in refueling (wouldn't hurt though), but I definitely hate that cars have to use the race same set-up in qualifying. I can see specs engines being banned for qualifying, but if drivers qualify in a certain order and with the same cars they are going to use the next day during the race, no wonders races are boring. Surely there are some setups which are better suited for fast laps rather than a whole race, but that doesn't seem to be enough.

[quote=Dino Scuderia;947744]The 'soft' tires in F1 last far too long with little or no performance loss.

Formula One has almost become dumbed down to the level of a Shamwow infomercial.

ALMS is far superiror to watch for excitement and good racing.[/quote]

Because the tires don't last as long?

Plus:

[quote=pimento;947745]If they still had refuelling, the drivers would push them hard enough to wear them out faster. I really wish refuelling was still allowed. I liked the extra strategy that afforded the teams.[/quote]

The only thing that really bothers me tires wise is that the teams are forced to use both sets, that has annoyed be in every series that has that rule. Why not let them run 2 sets of softs or try for 1 set of harder tires?

I was amazed that Hulkenberg wasn't given a drive through penalty, am I completely alone in this?

Also I found the race to be quite exciting until button conceded 1st place, and I liked the fast lap swapping all the way to the very last lap.

[quote=wwgkd;947818]I was amazed that Hulkenberg wasn't given a drive through penalty, am I completely alone in this?[/quote]

No. It was blatantly holding a position by cutting the chicane.. three times in a row. I think Webber maybe backed off expecting the penalty and just should have kept at him to really make the point though.

The Hulkenberg thing was stupid, something that blatant and didn't get called....who is the driver steward this race anyway?

The tires definitely are way to durable, its something of a trend really. Look at Canada when their tire strategy fell apart and how that affected the on track stuff....I hope the Pirelli will be relatively "bad" tires next year...

I hate the SPEED broadcast, the whole time they are saying Button was running F-Duct and Ferrari are running low DF package. Ferrari was using the F-duct(as were many other teams, one front runner lack it of note was Hamilton). Ferrari probably was running "lower" DF, but they were still not running the traditional Monza trim...

[quote=RacingManiac;947837]The Hulkenberg thing was stupid, something that blatant and didn't get called....who is the driver steward this race anyway[/quote]

Emerson Fittipaldi was. He was also a steward in Canada, where, as I've heard (I haven't watched the race) some violent acts from Schumacher's side have also had a let go. Seems that Fittipaldi is just more liberal than, say, Mansell (was it Mansell?) in Spa. This may be explained, as from what I've seen, I think the battles in South American championships are by far more angry than in European ones.

I guess that was the Schumacher/Liuzzi bout near the end....

[url="http://picasaweb.google.com/racingmaniac/MontrealGP2010Sunday#5483157597761966594"]Picasa Web Albums - Andrew - Montreal GP 2...[/url]
[url="http://picasaweb.google.com/racingmaniac/MontrealGP2010Sunday#5483157611178311282"]Picasa Web Albums - Andrew - Montreal GP 2...[/url]
[url="http://picasaweb.google.com/racingmaniac/MontrealGP2010Sunday#5483157615770332882"]Picasa Web Albums - Andrew - Montreal GP 2...[/url]

[quote=RacingManiac;947850]I guess that was the Schumacher/Liuzzi bout near the end....

[url="http://picasaweb.google.com/racingmaniac/MontrealGP2010Sunday#5483157597761966594"]Picasa Web Albums - Andrew - Montreal GP 2...[/url]
[url="http://picasaweb.google.com/racingmaniac/MontrealGP2010Sunday#5483157611178311282"]Picasa Web Albums - Andrew - Montreal GP 2...[/url]
[url="http://picasaweb.google.com/racingmaniac/MontrealGP2010Sunday#5483157615770332882"]Picasa Web Albums - Andrew - Montreal GP 2...[/url][/quote]

This is most probably what was meant, thanks.