Italian Grand Prix 2011 – Qualifying Report

Sebastian Vettel defied expectations by claiming yet another pole position at the fabled Monza circuit for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix. Commonly referred to as his Red Bull team's 'bogey' circuit, conventional logic would dictate that the high-speed nature of the Italian circuit would render the Anglo-Austrian cars less competitive than usual. However, the DRS permitted Vettel to get the maximum downforce through the slow corners without compromising the all-important straight-line speed of his Renault-powered machine. Lewis Hamilton lines up alongside the German after making a costly error in the final reckoning, ahead of McLaren teammate Jenson Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

Q1

As is usually the case, the top teams all opted for the harder of the two Pirelli compounds in the first part of qualifying in the form of the medium compound. Button was the first of the potential pole-sitters to set a time, kicking off with a 1'24.9, enough to keep Vettel at bay by a tenth of a second. Hamilton then proceeded to up the ante by half a second to take the top spot, before Vettel shaved his best time by a whole second to take P1 away from the Brit. The McLaren drivers both persevered however, as Button came within two tenths of the championship leader, while Hamilton promptly returned himself to first place with a time a couple of hundredths of a second faster than Vettel. The best Alonso could manage was fourth place in Q1, albeit just a tenth slower than third-placed Button, whilst Mark Webber in the second Red Bull just couldn't extract as much pace from the car as Vettel, evidenced by setting only the fifth-fastest time of the session. Further down the order, it looked likely that Pastor Maldonado would be the man to join the six usual Q1 scapegoats after his Williams pirouetted into the barriers on the exit of Parabolica. As it turned out though, only the nose of the car was damaged, allowing the Venezuelan to return to the track and secure his place in Q2. Renault driver Bruno Senna looked vulnerable thereon, but the Brazilian managed to pull a substantial amount of time out of the bag when the chips were down. Late improvements from Kamui Kobayashi, Sebastien Buemi and Rubens Barrichello meant that it was Jaime Alguersauri for Toro Rosso who would begin the race in 18^th place, ahead of the usual motley selection of Lotuses, Virgins and Hispanias, although it should be noted that Daniel Ricciardo out-qualifed teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi for the first time, despite it being the home grand prix of the latter driver.

Eliminated – Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), Jarno Trulli (Lotus), Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus), Timo Glock (Virgin), Jerome D'Ambrosio (Virgin), Daniel Ricciardo (Hispania), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Hispania)

Q2

Button was once again the first of the big players to make his way on the track, only this time on the soft tyres. He started the bidding with a 1'23.4, which was soon bested by three tenths by Vettel. Hamilton made the unusual decision of using the medium tyres in Q2, though he was a very respectable six tenths shy of Vettel's first effort on softs, and only one tenth slower than that of Alonso. Predictably, Vettel found further room for improvement, raising the bar by an extra two tenths, which again made him quicker than teammate Webber to the tune of a full half a second. Nico Rosberg's Mercedes propelled him to an unlikely second place before improvements from the McLaren duo of Button and Hamilton, the latter equipping the soft tyres near the end of the session to assure himself of a place in Q2. With none of the Williams or Sauber drivers looking to have the required pace for Q3, it boiled down to a battle between Senna and the Force India pairing of Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil for the final place in Q3. Di Resta looked to have the edge for the majority of the session, but ultimately Senna pipped the Scot by a mere six thousandths of a second to join teammate Vitaly Petrov in the final qualifying session of the day.

Eliminated – Paul Di Resta (Force India), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Pastor Maldonado (Williams), Sergio Perez (Sauber), Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso), Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)

Q3

Q3 got underway as the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso left the pits in formation; being towed along by his Brazilian teammate was enough to improve Alonso's Q2 time by three tenths. To the despair of the ever-loyal tifosi however, this still made the Spaniard slower than Button, Hamilton and Vettel, whose 1'22.6 was the early benchmark. The championship leader was set to improve his time on the following tour, but pushing too hard led to a heap of oversteer through the Ascari chicane, ruining the lap. Still, his earlier time was still four tenths faster than teammate Webber's second attempt, which was only good enough for fifth place. Alonso continued to benefit from his teammate's slipstream, squeezing an extra two tenths out of the Ferrari to line up fourth, behind Hamilton and Button, whose final laps were both hampered by errors. Meanwhile, there were no such problems for Vettel, who found yet more time to take his twenty-fifth career pole position with an outstanding time of 1'22.3. Massa will line up sixth ahead of an impressive Petrov, the two Mercedes of Schumacher and Rosberg, who curiously only used the hard tyres in the final session, and Senna, who set no time at all.

Top Ten – Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Jenson Button (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Mark Webber (Red Bull), Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Vitaly Petrov (Renault), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes), Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), Bruno Senna (Renault)

My Prediction

With two independent DRS zones in place in tomorrow's race, it will be harder than ever for Vettel to make his trademark getaway from pole position. Barring any Spa-esque mistakes on the part of Hamilton, he is the man with whom my money lies for race-day honours:

1. Hamilton, 2. Vettel, 3. Alonso, 4. Button, 5. Rosberg, 6. Massa, 7. Schumacher, 8. Di Resta, 9. Sutil, 10. Senna


Alonso should be able to make use of the DRS zones to surpass Button in order to provide a scrap of consolation for the tifosi, whilst Webber is long overdue a retirement – his comeuppance will arrive in the form of an over-exuberant Petrov as the field approaches the first chicane. Both Mercedes will make up sufficient ground to make Massa the unfortunate filling in a Mercedes sandwich, the similarly powered Force Indias will also break into the points, and Senna will put the mistakes of Spa behind him to hang on to tenth and claim his first ever point.

With the combination of KERS, DRS and slipstreaming looking to make passing a relatively easy task however, a surprise result is never out of the question at a place like Monza. Don't forget to check back tomorrow evening to read about all the action.