Vettel takes pole for the Italian Grand Prix

Wikinews
September 10, 2011

Formula 1 racer, Sebastian Vettel, placed first in an important qualifying race on Friday. The qualifying session started at 2:00pm local time at the historic Monza race track.

The newest teams to Formula 1, (Lotus, Virgin and Hispania) failed to place a fast enough time in the first part of qualifying along with Torro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari and thus form the back 7 on the Grid. Timo Glock's performance was effected by equipment malfuntion.

In second qualifying British Driver Paul di Resta was knocked out after Bruno Senna posted a faster time on his final lap. Hamilton tried to save tyres by using the slower set but ultimately decided to set a time on the faster set of soft tyres.

On Q3 the two Ferrari drivers posted times first but lacked the pace to beat Vettel and the two McLaren drivers of Hamilton and Button.

Hamilton looked promising during Friday Practice to beat vettel after setting strong lap times in Practice 1, but Vettel replied in practice 2 with a 0.036s lead. This is a smaller lead than Red Bull would like and this circuit is expected to be one of their weakest of the season. Hamilton's team mate Jenson Button set equally strong times, however during the Friday Driver Interviews admitted that he was not completely happy with his car. "Some of the things we tried on my car throughout the day worked better than others, so we’re not really where I feel we ought to be yet...I don’t yet feel totally at one with the car, but we’re working on it".

Ferrari decided to hold back on Practice 1 and opted to place a new engine into two time world champion Fernando Alonso's car for Practice 2. The F1 rules state that after Friday practice sessions you cannot change major components on the cars without incurring a penalty.

Mercedes continue their form from Belgium, with Michael Schumacher setting the 3rd fastest time in Practice 2, however Nico Rosberg had issues in Practice 2. "I didn't have an ideal session this afternoon as we had some issues, particularly with the KERS problem at the start of the session"

Qualifying Results:

1. Vettel - Red Bull Racing
2. Hamilton - McLaren
3. Button - McLaren
4. Alonso - Ferrari
5. Webber - Red Bull Racing
6. Massa - Ferrari
7. Petrov - Renault
8. Schumacher - Mercedes
9. Rosberg - Mercedes
10. Senna - Renault
11. di Resta - Force India
12. Sutil - Force India
13. Barrichello - Williams
14. Maldonado - Williams
15. Perez - Sauber
16. Buemi - Torro Rosso
17. Kobayashi - Sauber
18. Alguersuari - Torro Rosso
19. Trulli - Lotus
20. Kovalainen - Lotus
21. Glock - Virgin
22. d'Ambrosio - Virgin
23. Ricciardo - Hispania Racing
24. Liuzzi - Hispania Racing

The Italian Grand Prix starts at 14:00 local time

unpublished

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.