Lewis Hamilton takes pole for 2012 Italian Grand Prix – Formula 1 news
McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has secured the pole position for the 2012 Italian Grand Prix at Autodromo di Monza.
Hamilton topped the timesheets in the second and third free practice sessions of the Italian GP and carried on his superb pace in the qualifying as he set the best time and took an incredible pole position for the race ahead.
The British driver was followed by his teammate and compatriot, Jenson Button who also performed really well during the weekend and will begin the race from second grid position.
Felipe Massa of Ferrari showed an inspiring pace and set the third best time during the qualifying. Moreover, the Brazilian driver has responded quite well to his critics who have been speculating his replacement in the next season.
Massa was followed by Paul di Resta who delivered a remarkable performance. However, he will face a five-place grid penalty for his gearbox change.
Michael Schumacher of Mercedes had a quite convincing qualifying in which he came 5th in the charts after struggling with the KERS during the final practice. Furthermore, he will take a start from 4th grid place in the approaching race
as Di Resta has been hit by the penalty.
The seven-time world champion remained ahead of Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing who set the 6th best time in the qualifying. The defending champion was followed by Schumacher’s teammate, Nico Rosberg who stayed ahead of Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus.
The Finnish driver was followed by Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber who stood ahead of Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who struggled during the final session of the qualifying and could only set the tenth best time.
Vettel’s teammate, Mark Webber came 11th in the charts and could not make his way into Q3. Besides, the Aussie was followed by Pastor Maldonado of Williams. Additionally, Sergio Perez of Sauber secured 13th grid position and remained
ahead of Maldonado’s teammate, Bruno Senna.
Daniel Ricciardo of Toro Rosso came 15th and was followed by Jerome d’Ambrosio of Lotus who has replaced Romain Grosjean in this weekend as the Frenchman is facing one-race suspension penalty for his mistake which caused a severe accident in the
Belgian GP.
Ricciardo’s teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne stood at 17th position and stayed ahead of Caterham pair of drivers, Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov.
Marussia drivers, Timo Glock and Charles Pic came 20th and 21st in the timesheets and were followed by Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa of HRT.
Over and above, Nico Hulkenberg of Force India will begin the race from the end of the grid as he didn’t set any laptime because of his gearbox failure.
Let’s see how all the contenders perform on the race day at Monza circuit which demands lower-downforce setup.
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