Ferrari Deliver on Monza Expectations
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso took pole position at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix qualifying session to deliver on the expectations of driving in front of the Scuderia home crowd at Monza. The Spaniard’s team mate, Felipe Massa, also had an admirable qualifying run where he managed to finish third at the end of Q3. A strong showing at Monza is crucial to keeping Ferrari’s 2010 championship hopes alive, for the team needs to make up for the opportunities lost during the past couple of Grand’s Prix.
In the post qualifying press conference in Italy, Alonso confessed he was taken by surprise at having seized pole position for Ferrari. The Ferrari F10 had put on a solid show throughout Saturday, and Alonso put on a dazzling display to dominate both Q2 and Q3. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa was also impressive in his endeavors, but the Brazilian was let down somewhat by tyre choice. Massa nevertheless booked him position amongst the top three qualifiers, finishing behind second-placed Jenson Button. On the whole, the Scuderia side looks well geared for the race tomorrow afternoon.
McLaren’s Jenson Button took the second spot at Saturday’s qualifying run. The Englishman was quite pleased with his performance and McLaren have now proven the MP4-25’s strength on the straights. Button will be hoping to make for his highly unfortunate run at the recent Belgian Grand Prix, where the McLaren man’s race was brought to a premature halt by a piece of disastrously flawed driving by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel. The German driver damaged both his and Button’s championship hopes after an overtaking maneuver went horribly wrong and sent his RB6 barging into Button’s McLaren, forcing the Englishman to retire from the race.
Vettel’s subsequent drive-through penalty was scant consolation for Button, who had declared he was at a complete loss to understand what Vettel had been attempting. Regardless of having to endure a fruitless campaign in Belgium, the Englishman was defiant over his title hopes, stating he was still very much in the championship contention. The McLaren driver will be raring to convert his second place on the starting grid into a podium finish tomorrow, knowing very well that Italy could very well be his last chance of maintaining his championship dreams.
Meanwhile, it was a frustrating Saturday for Button’s team mate, Lewis Hamilton, who finished 5th behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber. Hamilton blamed his unsatisfactory qualifying result over the decision to do away with the F-duct for Saturday’s session, lamenting the decision had cost him dearly. The McLaren driver explained the absence of the F-duct had made it difficult for him to control the MP4-25.
Hamilton’s misery may have worked to the advantage of Red Bull’s Mark Webber, produced a remarkably brilliant run during Q3 to notch the 4th place after falling foul of undisclosed technical problems during two of the practice sessions this weekend. The Australian driver went into qualifying on the wrong foot after his RB6 broke down once again during the last Monza practice session only a couple of hours before the qualifying session began. However, Webber managed to bounce back admirably from the nightmarish practice sessions to salvage the fourth position, two spots ahead of his German team mate, Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel had a disappointing afternoon qualifying session and the German could not quite figure why he not been as fast he was during the Friday practice sessions. It was known that the numerous straights of the Monza circuit would not suit the RB6 make very well and team boss Christian Horner was reported saying he was pleased with the squad’s performance during qualifying. It is the MP4-25 that has been touted to be the class of the 2010 field when it comes to speed on the straights and the Ferrari F10 seems to be well suited to the Italian track also. Thus this is the first occasion during the 2010 season that Red Bull have found themselves out side the top three spots in qualifying.
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