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Thrilling qualifying at Monza

Free practice had promised an interesting qualifying session and so it proved, for this one went down to the wire with – as is often the case – the final timed lap of the session providing the pole position lap.

Starting at the beginning, though, and it was clear from the opening minutes that the McLaren’s were looking good here, as were the Force India’s, surely the most improved car in recent F1 history over one season?

STR, winners here last year from pole, fell at the first hurdle with Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi unable to produce similar form a year on, and they will fill the final row, the Swiss ahead.
Williams are in dire straits here and will make up the entire ninth row, with Nico Rosberg behind Kazuki Nakajima, and the final faller in the first twenty minute session was Timo Glock, the German unable to draw enough pace from the Toyota.

The second session was fast and furious, and also extremely close; at close the top four – Jenson Button’s Brawn, the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, the second Brawn of Rubens Barrichello and the Force India of Adrian Sutil – were covered by less than a tenth, and the rest not far behind.

The rest, that is, bar the two BMW-Sauber runners, for both Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica had suffered engine related failures and stopped out on track, a pity as both were showing potential front running pace. Joining those two on the sidelines for the final ten minutes were Giancarlo Fisichella, the Italian making his debut for Ferrari and getting as far as expected, plus Jarno Trulli in the second Toyota and Romain Grosjean in the Renault.

So to the final session, and the top spot changed time and time again as Webber, Raikkonen, Hamilton and others all sat to the front of the pack, but it was in the last runs that things came to a head for two men were, with the flag already dropped, on faster laps than anyone else.

One – the one in front – was Sutil, the German having already backed off on one very quick lap to make room for a next, better effort, and it was better. The second Lesmo bend provided a little bit of a moment – perhaps costing him a tenth or two – but he still soldiered on, the Force India looking assured and very, very fast around the smooth sweeps of Monza.

A mile behind him and Hamilton was setting purple sectors in the first and second segments of the lap, and when Sutil crossed the line to go first with a time of 1:24.261 – almost three seconds quicker than the next man – it was left to the McLaren driver to keep it clean. He did, coming home in a perfect 1:24.066, leaving us wondering what Sutil could have done without that minor moment.

Hamilton starts on pole, then, and for the second race in succession a Force India starts – deservedly – on the front row. Fuel loads may well come into play, but I cannot recall a season where one team has made such a notable progression through the ranks in such startling fashion, let alone when it has been the team traditionally considered back of the grid material.

A superb performance all round, but one that is likely to be difficult to repeat tomorrow as not only is the McLaren on pole equipped with the advantageous KERS device, but Liuzzi is likely to find himself swamped by the two similarly equipped cars behind him – the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and the second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen.

The third row is all Brawn, with Rubens Barrichello the merest fraction quicker than Jenson Button and team principle Ross Brawn confirming both are on a single stop strategy – interesting if the rivals’ ahead are on a different plan – while row four goes to Tonio Liuzzi, a man who has not raced a Formula One car for some time now and who has not sat in one since late last year, doing s simply superb job in the second Force India, and Fernando Alonso in the Renault. Liuzzi deserves more than just a passing mention, however, for he has raised eyebrows with a performance that has put that of Fisichella, the man he replaced, in the shade.

Row five will be something of a concern to Red Bull, for Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber both set times over a second slower than the front runners, albeit on a par with those set by their closest championship rivals Brawn. However, we do not – at the time of writing – know the fuel loads, and a long opening stint could well be the way to go.

From the times it would appear that the first three at least – Hamilton, Sutil and Raikkonen – may well be on two stop plans, with the remainder of the top ten on single stops; if so, this leaves Heikki Kovalainen in a potentially useful position, and promises an interesting race for us.

Written: Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:29:55