2011 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix Mercedes GP Qualifying Report: Vettel Dominates, Schumi 8th, Rosberg 9th

Looks like Vettel has this thing pretty much wrapped up.

Originally Posted by Sticky

Looks like Vettel has this thing pretty much wrapped up.

Let's just wait what tomorrow brings. This season has noy produced one boring race yet.
Maybe Vettel wins, maybe he $#@!s up.
He is almost 100 point ahead. Only if he crashes himself out of the season within the next 3 races.will anybody else be WC this year. Just enjoy the races.

Yup, all the races have been exciting this year, hopefully the season will end that way. At least we got Mclaren and Ferrari battling for 2nd place.

WOW! Already people are crashing. Luzzi took out Rosberg, Petrov at the first corner. Vettel almost took out Hamilton, while Alonso stormed past them and Schumi is up to 4th place.

Webber crashed out and Michael is fighting Alonso for second.

Another exiting start of a GP!
Hamilton is on the attack.
Let's hope he does not crash again...
Vettel is already gone...

Vettel is just tearing it up he's almost a second faster than Alonso.

Schumi is making it into an interesting battle.
He is holding up the Mc Larens

lol, Hamilton comes out of the pits behind Schumi, this is going to be fun.

He should have had a good look at Buttons overtake.
MS will probably get a drive through for 2 defensive moves...

Probably will, dumb rule though... They need to make a ruling on it quick, The stewards, have 10 laps to make a decision I think.

MS got lucky there...
Let's see if LH can catch Alonso.

He is, LH has been .3sec a lap quicker than Alonso, The question is, can he pass him. The Mclarens finally found thier groove, it might be too late though.

The race was 1 lap too short for LH.
So Vettel wins, Button 2nd, and Alonso 3rd

Yeah it was. So now Vettel has 112 points out of 125 to secure this year's championship. Another race that didn't disappoint, thanks to Schumi and Hamilton.

Vettel won Monza in dominate form and moved closer to securing his second driver's championship. Vettel is now ahead of Alonso by 112 points in the standing, just 13 points shy of securing the championship, which he could theortical win in the next race. The race start at Monza like every year did not disappoint, Alonso who started in 4th place stormed past the front 3 to take the lead before the first chicane, while Schumacher, starting 8th blitzed the pack and climbed to 4th place.

Luzzi put two wheels on the grass heading in the chicane, lost control and slide into the pack, taking out Nico Rosberg and Renault's Petrov. The accident brought out the safety car for a few laps. At the restart Schumacher caught a napping Hamilton and took 3rd place. He managed to hold him off for a number of laps, this allowed Button to catch up and turn it into a three battle. Hamilton attempted to over take Schumacher on lap 16, but only to pushed off on the grass, allowing Button to pass Hamilton and then passing the Mercedes GP car at the final chicane.

As the race went on the Merc car began to lose it's race pace, allowing Hamilton to make the pass, who began chasing Alonso. Hamilton in the end had to settle for forth place after running out of laps.

Schumacher settled for 5th place ahead of Massa, who lost his front wing after a clash with RBR's Webber earlier in the race, and dropping down to 10th place. Torro Rosso's Alguersuari finished 7th, followed by Di Resta, Senna, and Buemi to round up the top 10.


Michael Schumacher:

It was an exciting race today, both for me and I think for all of our fans, and that is why I am happy. The fighting against Lewis was big fun, and my mirrors seemed to be very small at times. We are both known for driving on the limit, and that is what we did. I had to make my car as wide as a truck, and had to stretch the possible as much as I could, but in the end, as expected, he was still faster.
The start was ideal, I held back on purpose at first in order to use the grip perfectly afterwards, and then the left side was all free. To make the most of your possibilities is the maximum possible at times, and that is why I had fun today, especially knowing that there is more to come in the future, with all the support we have from Mercedes.

Nico Rosberg:

It was a disappointing race for me today in Monza. I had a difficult start on my prime tyres but still managed to gain a place at the first corner, so it was quite good. Then Liuzzi flew like a torpedo over the grass and put me out of the race. It's a pity because I had a strong strategy and, as Michael’s good result showed, our car was very strong this afternoon.

After the race, Ross could only describe Michael’s drive as

“fantastic”: I’m sure he really enjoyed his racing out there. The boys have done a great job with our starts this year, and Michael was able to get away well and show his race craft in the first part of the race. Then he settled into a really tough battle with the McLarens, particularly Lewis, which was great racing and vintage Michael. We haven’t quite got a car that’s quick enough yet but we are all pleased with Michael’s fifth place today. For Nico, it was a short and not at all sweet afternoon.


We had an exciting strategy starting him on the prime tyres, and looking at how those tyres performed on other cars at the beginning of the race, it would have been very interesting to see how it developed. It’s doubly frustrating that he was taken out by a car starting in 24th position. If you get tangled up at the first corner because you are vying for position, that’s racing, but to be swiped out by someone that far back is hard to take. However, we have shown as a team that when we do have the right car, we will be able to compete at the front, and that’s our inspiration for next year.

Norbert described the first half of the race as probably one of the best television shows of the year:

I am sure lots of people at home were standing rather than sitting in front of their televisions, which was the case for us on several occasions today. Michael repeated his Spa result today and everybody realised during his drive how committed and hard-fighting he is - it was a joy to watch, and certainly not just for us. It was a shame for Nico to be in the middle of a first-lap shunt at Turn One. With two fresh sets of option tyres available - which none of the top drivers had today - I am sure he would have been in a good position to fight for a strong result. We all are now looking forward to the Singapore night race where we want to consolidate our recent performances from Spa and Monza.

Full Race Results

Drivers	Teams	Points
1	S Vettel (GER)	Red Bull	25
2	J Button (GBR)	McLaren	18
3	F Alonso (ESP)	Ferrari	15
4	LC Hamilton (GBR)	McLaren	12
5	M Schumacher (GER)	Mercedes-Benz	10
6	F Massa (BRA)	Ferrari	8
7	J Alguersuari (ESP)	Toro Rosso	6
8	P di Resta (GBR)	Force India	4
9	B Senna (BRA)	Renault	2
10	S Buemi (SUI)	Toro Rosso	1
11	P Maldonado (VEN)	Williams	-
12	RG Barrichello (BRA)	Williams	-
13	H Kovalainen (FIN)	Lotus	-
14	J Trulli (ITA)	Lotus	-
15	T Glock (GER)	Virgin	-
16	D Ricciardo (AUS)	HRT	-

Originally Posted by Scourge82

Vettel won Monza in dominate form and moved closer to securing his second driver's championship. Vettel is now ahead of Alonso by 112 points in the standing, just 13 points shy of securing the championship, which he could theortical win in the next race. The race start at Monza like every year did not disappoint, Alonso who started in 4th place stormed past the front 3 to take the lead before the first chicane, while Schumacher, starting 8th blitzed the pack and climbed to 4th place.

Luzzi put two wheels on the grass heading in the chicane, lost control and slide into the pack, taking out Nico Rosberg and Renault's Petrov. The accident brought out the safety car for a few laps. At the restart Schumacher caught a napping Hamilton and took 3rd place. He managed to hold him off for a number of laps, this allowed Button to catch up and turn it into a three battle. Hamilton attempted to over take Schumacher on lap 16, but only to pushed off on the grass, allowing Button to pass Hamilton and then passing the Mercedes GP car at the final chicane.

As the race went on the Merc car began to lose it's race pace, allowing Hamilton to make the pass, who began chasing Alonso. Hamilton in the end had to settle for forth place after running out of laps.

Schumacher settled for 5th place ahead of Massa, who lost his front wing after a clash with RBR's Webber earlier in the race, and dropping down to 10th place. Torro Rosso's Alguersuari finished 7th, followed by Di Resta, Senna, and Buemi to round up the top 10.


Michael Schumacher:



Nico Rosberg:




After the race, Ross could only describe Michael’s drive as





Norbert described the first half of the race as probably one of the best television shows of the year:



Full Race Results

Drivers	Teams	Points
1	S Vettel (GER)	Red Bull	25
2	J Button (GBR)	McLaren	18
3	F Alonso (ESP)	Ferrari	15
4	LC Hamilton (GBR)	McLaren	12
5	M Schumacher (GER)	Mercedes-Benz	10
6	F Massa (BRA)	Ferrari	8
7	J Alguersuari (ESP)	Toro Rosso	6
8	P di Resta (GBR)	Force India	4
9	B Senna (BRA)	Renault	2
10	S Buemi (SUI)	Toro Rosso	1
11	P Maldonado (VEN)	Williams	-
12	RG Barrichello (BRA)	Williams	-
13	H Kovalainen (FIN)	Lotus	-
14	J Trulli (ITA)	Lotus	-
15	T Glock (GER)	Virgin	-
16	D Ricciardo (AUS)	HRT	-

http://www.bimmerboost.com/images/2011italiangp.jpg

Great work as always!

Glad to see Schumi challenging like that, maybe he has something left?

Originally Posted by Sticky

Great work as always!

Glad to see Schumi challenging like that, maybe he has something left?

I think he finally found his groove, it took a year and a half, but he did. Mercedes GP has improved alot since the beginning of the season, If they can maintain their race pace through out the race, the can challenge for the podium.

Originally Posted by Scourge82

I think he finally found his groove, it took a year and a half, but he did. Mercedes GP has improved alot since the beginning of the season, If they can maintain their race pace through out the race, the can challenge for the podium.

I think we won't see too much more from them this season but it bodes well for the next.

Just a little bit of a rant.

I'll get this out of the way first: Yes I know of the the one defensive move rule. I think it is dumb and takes away from the competition, but a rule is a rule.

For those of you that watch F1 on BBC or frequent british F1 forums will know what I'm talking about. The british media is the most biased peice of crap, I've ever seen. The are all up in arms about how Schumacher held Hamilton at bay at Monza. Yes there was an instance where he pulled 2 defensive moves on Hamilton. But the stewards, saw that a warning was good enough and I agree he should have been penalized for it(still a dumb rule though). But if you read about it, they make it out to be that Michael was weaving in and out of the race line, forcing Hamilton onto the grass, blah, blah, blah. How come Button was able to pass him in half a lap, when the all mighty Hamilton couldn't do it in 29 laps. To me that was the best battle I have seen this year.

But if you read the article, you'll see Button complaining, Mclaren complaining, the even say a race steward was angry that he wanted an investigation into, but was denied. Last I heard, stewards are the ones that review incidents and make judgments.

I guess, in the end is what the hell happened to F1? It used to be a sport that showcased a driver's and car's abilities. Now it's all about trying to create a false sense of excitement, while Bernie runs laughing all the way to the bank.

I miss the good old days of Senna vs Prost(the 2 greatest drivers), Schumacher vs Hakkinen.../rant