Formula One: Italian Grand Prix at the Monza racetrack Highlights (Part 5)
The pressure was building up as Red Bull and Renault were motionless in the pit.
A determined Mark Webber, looking to make the best of Lewis Hamilton’s retirement, appeared to score as many points as he could. The Aussie’s hard work eventually paid off as he was able to get past Hulkenberg to take P6 on lap 50. It was a textbook overtaking maneuver as the Red Bull lined itself in the Williams’ slipstream and finally got its nose in front at the end of the straight. The move was judged to perfection – were you looking Sebastian Vettel?
Lap 51 and the Renault blinked first. Petrov finally ended his little ‘pit drought’ while Vettel was still out on track. Meanwhile, it appeared that the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso could do no wrong. That was until his 51st lap. The Spaniard had a scare as he missed the braking into one of the chicanes. The driver, the Ferrari team and the Italian fans were able to breathe a sigh of relief as the race leader recovered comfortably in the end. His earlier hard work able to help him out as Alonso rejoined still in the lead.
2 laps to go… Vettel was yet to stop as the top 3 positions looked set. It appeared that the Red Bull would indeed be looking to end the race without a glimpse of the pits. However, with one lap to go, the Red Bull turned right for the pits. What was going on? Who pits on the last lap of a race? Did it mean an undoing of all the work the German had put in earlier? Was it all for nothing? It seemed a major miscalculation on part of the Red Bull Racing team with a possible heartbreak for Vettel’s title hopes.
The final lap and Vettel rejoined the race in 4th! A strategy that looked nothing short of a miscalculation seemed to be a tactical masterstroke! A rather unorthodox yet effective approach, credit to the Red Bull Racing think tank and the young driver for virtually driving flat out for nearly the entire length of the race.
Alonso took the chequered flag for his second win of the season. Button took second and Massa the final step of the podium!
Summary:
Alonso took his third victory of the season throwing the championship wide open again. Although he lost position to Button on the first lap, it turned out to be a comfortable win after he jumped Button during the first round of pit stops. Massa had a strong race to take the final podium position.
The big story was Hamilton's incident on Lap 1 which ended his race. The championship is now closer than ever before, as the Red Bulls too had a rather poor race. Webber lost plenty of positions off the start yet again, and Vettel faced car issues in the mid of his race. However, Vettel raced really well on the softer tyre and did not pit until the penultimate lap. Vettel finished a hard fought 4th while Webber finished a disappointing 6th.
Rosberg and Hulkenberg both got off to great starts and consolidated their positions during the race to finish a strong 5th and 7th respectively. Kubica, Schumacher and Barrichello rounded off the top 10.
The remaining classification is as follows: Buemi (Toro Rosso), Liuzzi (Force India), Petrov (Renault), Pedro de la Rosa (BMW Sauber F1), Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), Sutil (Force India), Glock (Virgin), Kovalainen (Lotus F1), Yamamoto (HRT F1) and Lucas di Grassi (Virgin). Trulli (Lotus F1) was classified 16th after a gearbox failure, Senna (HRT F1) had a hydraulics problem, and Kobayashi (BMW Sauber) with a gearbox malfunction and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) was positioned last after his accident in lap 1.
The championship position is as follows: Webber on 187, Hamilton on 182, Alonso on 166, and Button on 165 and Vettel on 163. Just 24 points separate 1st from 5th.
The championship has entered into an exciting stage than ever before. Join us at bettor.com for the next race from Singapore in two weeks' time.
Tags: