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Saturday, September 7, 2013

Qualifying At The Italian Grand Prix

As the skies have cleared and the track temperature began to rise, qualifying at Monza had begun.

Q1 and cars came on track as soon and the lights turned green. With Monza holding the final European race, and being the home race to Ferrari, there was so much to gain. Esteban Gutiérrez was the first man out in his Sauber but many other driver's had the world attention. First the pair of Ferrari's had the majority of the grandstand audience's eyes. Many people were watching as Mark Webber was qualifying for his final European race and then many other's were keeping an eye on the the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo (to see if Red Bull had made the right decision in hiring him on as Webber's replacement).

Eleven minutes left in Q1 and still no movement from the world champions garage. Sebastian Vettet was still yet to be seen on track. Finally at nine minutes left Vettel made his way to track. And nearly immediately. he took quickest lap.

But with 3:30 left on the clock, the race was on for Q2. Nearly all the driver's were back on track and no one was feeling safe. Monza in notorious for being one of the fastest tracks and with less than a second between P1 and P18.

A good session with great runs by all the driver's but it seemed that just when eyes were else where, Jean-Éric Vergne was the man that was to be watched on track, ending the session with the third fastest time, behind Ricciardo and die Resta.

After an entertaining first segment at the royal park and here is the list of those who didn't make it after Q1:

17) Esteban Gutiérrez 1:25.226s
18) Valtteri Bottas 1:25.291s
19) Giedo van der Garde 1:26.406s
20) Charels Pic 1:26.563s
21) Julies Bianchi 1:27.085s
22) Max Chilton 1:27.480s
Lights go green for Q2 and Daniel Ricciardo was the first man out. Possibly keen to see his car was still in good shape after that mistake at the second Lesmo. It seems that Ricciardo's car was fine as he set a 1:24.746 on his first lap.

Though the driver's are indicating that the tyres are heating up too much, it is only in the corners. The problem with Monza is that the tyres really cool down on the straight and that's why you often see the drivers weaving to gaining temperature on their laps.

As the time ticked down for Q2, the driver's were starting to push a little hard. Both Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton both ran wide off the track. 

Over three minutes left in the second session in qualifying and the pair of Red Bulls finally made it to track. The pair were both on track earlier in the session but decided to ditch the run they were doing on used mediums and going straight for a fresh tyre.

With less than a minutes left, Vettel set the fastest lap (and by some margin) 1:23.977. Hoping that no one would beat it. And with no surprise, no one did.

Q2 ended with massive disappointments all around! Raikkonen got bumped back to 11th with a late improvement from Felipe Massa. Disaster for Lotus though as both drivers miss out and Hamilton was out qualified by ten other drivers.

An amazing second segment and the elimination list of those who will not make the shootout are:

11) Kimi Räikkönen 1:24.610s
12) Lewis Hamilton 1:24.803s
13) Romain Grosjean 1:24.848s
14) Adrian Sutil 1:24.932s
15) Pastor Maldonado 1:25.011s
16) Paul di Resta 1:25.077s

Top Ten Shootout and Nico Rosberg was the first man out on track. Followed Closely by the pair of Red Bull's and Ferrari's. 

With qualifying being what it is, as more cars came to track, the one's out pitted. But with just over a minute left in the third session, the track came back to life as the rest of the cars join Ricciardo. All ten were on track, ready to give the fans exactly what they came for, a show.

And that is exactly what happened! Felipe Massa out qualified his teammate, Fernando Alonso, for P4. Nico Rosberg ended in P6 (much better than his teammate Hamilton) but it was Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg that made the biggest impression. Ending his qualifying in P3.

All in all, the grid is set for a fantastic race tomorrow in Italy!

rbr Sebastian Vettel P1  
rbr Mark Webber P2 
sauber Nico Hülkenberg P3  
Ferrari Felipe Massa P4
Ferrari Fernando Alonso P5 
MCP Nico Rosberg P6
rosso Daniel Ricciardo  P7
vmm Sergio Perez P8
vmm Jenson Button P9
rosso Jean-Éric Vergne P10
LRGP Kimi Räikkönen P11
MCP Lewis Hamilton P12
LRGP Romain Grosjean P13
Force Adrian Sutil    P14
Will Pastor Maldonado   P15
Force Paul di Resta P16
sauber  Esteban Gutiérrez P17
Will Valtteri Bottas P18
lotus Giedo van der Garde  P19
lotus Charles Pic P20
MVR Jules Bianchi   P21
MVR Max Chilton  P22




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