Round 12 of the Formula 1 World championship was held at the
fastest track of them all; Monza, Italy. It had to be the race where Sebastian
Vettel’s title rivals finally pushed the Red Bull driver down the order and
took a sizeable chunk out of his points lead. At the very least, it had to be a
race he didn’t win. Perhaps the forecast of rain could help mix it up too.
In the end rain stayed away, Vettel took pole position and ran
away into the distance for a relatively easy win, despite a few tyre issues
early on and late race worries about his gearbox (which might be a concern for
Singapore as it still has to last that race). Vettel now holds a 53 point
advantage over his nearest challenger Fernando Alonso with only 175 points up
for grabs. Unless a disastrous streak of form afflicts the German, this is
surely the championship over.
Away from the line Vettel squeezed his team mate and fellow
front row starter Mark Webber and as the Ferrari’s began to swarm around them
into the first corner he locked up hurting his right front tyre. This hardly
hurt him at all. Felipe Massa had out qualified Alonso and made a fantastic
start from fourth to second but could not hold onto the Red Bull.
As is almost always the case when he’s leading, Vettel
pushed to open up a gap and void the DRS zones, and from then on he wasn’t in
any real trouble. He kept the pace up, set the odd fastest lap, and more than
anything controlled the race to the finish. It is at a stage now where if
Vettel gets in the lead on the opening lap you’re almost resigned to him being
guaranteed the win.
And so it proved, he reeled off the laps with the television
camera’s barely noticing him, and surprisingly took his first back to back wins
of the season. Next race is in Singapore where he started a roll of four wins
on the bounce last year that set him on his way to the 2012 title. It’ll have
to be the complete opposite if this championship is going to stay alive any
longer.
Title challengers
It’s wrong to call them title challengers anymore, especially
in the cases of Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. Lewis did not have a good
weekend. He failed to get out of Q2 after running wide at the final turn Parabolica,
then at the same corner he was rudely blocked by his former friend Adrian Sutil
which ensured his pole streak was ended and he lined up 12th.
He certainly had great speed on the medium tyre, but first
he started off on the hard compound on which he made limited early progress,
but was looking to go longer than his medium shod rivals. Unfortunately for
Lewis, a slow puncture forced him on to a two stop strategy, so despite
tremendous pace and some lovely moves he still could only end up ninth with
just two points for his efforts.
Admittedly he ran shorter stints than most on his tyres but
yet again one of Vettel’s rivals didn’t have it all come together despite
looking to have the pace to challenge and now finds himself over three race
wins of points behind, which is still a better position than Kimi
The perennial story of Kimi’s season is one of qualifying
off the pace but racing with the speed to challenge for victory if only he’d
started further up. Another championship challenger to fall in Q2, he started
in 11th and made a charging start, right into the back of Sergio
Perez’s McLaren forcing the Finn to pit for a new nose at the end of the first
lap.
From there he set regular fastest laps, but couldn’t quite
manage to force himself back into the points, finishing only 11th.
Another wasted weekend, his second with no gift of points, and now we can confirm
definitively that he and Lewis are no longer championship rivals.
Vettel need fear no one but he still at least needs to offer
a glance over at Alonso. Despite his calm outward appearance in media
interviews, the lack of success or a car that consistently challenges really
looks to be getting to the Spaniard.
In qualifying when Ferrari’s slip streaming team tactics
failed to deliver the desired effect, Alonso was radioed to sarcastically say
in Italian ‘geniuses’ although Italian journalists have interpreted it as a more
scornful ‘idiots’. Something that is sure not to go down too well with the
teams hierarchy.
But then what can they do? On race day Alonso demonstrated
once more just how much Ferrari need him. A superbly executed move on Webber
into the second chicane, as he held on round the outside to then claim the
inside line was a joy and he soon made his way past Massa to line up second.
They tried to run longer than Vettel at the first stops although
it just left him further back, but despite this it was still second place at
the finish. Whatever he did today there wasn’t much hope, and it was enough for
him to manage to hold off a fighting Webber to the line.
I’m sure we’ll hear more about the radio traffic Alonso
directed towards his team but it increasingly looks like his mind is returning
to destructive ways that occasionally affected his time at Renault and
certainly did so at McLaren. I hope he can hold it all together as if Ferrari
can continue in this form at the higher down force tracks that are coming he is
the last hope in keeping this title race alive.
A stand out
performance and other noteworthy drives
Nico Hulkenberg’s position in Formula 1 is remarkably under
threat. He is highly rated but as top line seats look to be locked up and
Sauber try to keep themselves in business he could well find himself without a
drive next year.
Hopefully this is an unlikely scenario as this weekend he
was superb. He qualified an amazing third and managed to not fall away in the
race. He kept pace with the front runners and was actually only 10 seconds
behind the race winner at the end as he secured a fine fifth.
Perhaps this is the start of a rise in performance from the
Sauber team and this can only be a good thing as Hulkenberg looks to secure a
drive higher up the grid. Ferrari is the most likely destination if they don’t
retain Massa, although Kimi is still rumoured for the Italian job. Whatever
happens, in a world where pay drivers are increasing again, there still needs
to be room for driver talent to shine more than money and Hulkenberg certainly
has that to offer.
Mark Webber and Felipe Massa had decent drives today. Webber
got his first podium at Monza, perhaps he should have had second but he didn’t
quite have the straight line speed to get himself back ahead of Alonso who had
earlier damaged the Aussie’s front wing which won’t have helped his cause.
Massa ran strongly in the early stages, only losing out to
Webber in the pit stops. A strong fourth not far behind his team mate is about
as good a job application as he’ll be able to manage with the equipment at his
disposal.
Mercedes didn’t have the best of weekends, what with Lewis’
struggles Nico Rosberg’s quiet run to sixth place is a little bit of
consolation. He qualified in sixth, he raced there and he finished there. He
didn’t much look like going forward, nor did he look like he’d go backwards. It
was a fairly solitary drive.
Daniel Ricciardo looked to justify his promotion to Red Bull
for next year with a strong drive from seventh to seventh. As his team mate
Jean-Eric Vergne’s engine decided to die, Ricciardo held off attacks from both
McLaren’s and Romain Grosjean’s Lotus which followed him home in eighth.
Jenson Button clung onto the final point and later admitted
the gearing just wasn’t long enough in top gear for them to threaten to pass.
He held off Kimi, but his team mate Perez dropped out of the points to finish
up 12th. Not quite the 50th anniversary they'd have liked for a team of their standard.
The other Sauber of Esteban Gutierrez set some quick laps
and climbed up the field to 13th from 16th, if only he
could put an entire weekends performance together then he could end up with a
point.
Force India continue to struggle in the second half of the
season, Adrian Sutil was nowhere while Paul di Resta left his braking too late
on the opening lap to clatter into the back of Grosjean, but only take himself
out of the race. Not happy days at the Silverstone based team.
Leaving Europe to the
Far East
As I mentioned earlier Singapore was the trigger to fire
Vettel towards his
third world crown, could it be his downfall this time?
Doubtful, Vettel is too good of a driver in too good of a car to let this go
now. Alonso may play at keeping it alive but it’s going to take a miracle to
come back from this now.
I have no problem with a driver consistently winning the
title, it would just be nice if the other teams and drivers would perhaps raise
their game enough to make it a closer contest. As it is, we can only sit and
marvel at just what a great job Vettel and Red Bull are and have been doing.
Anyway the night race at Singapore is only two weeks away.
Perhaps best not to look at is a part of the championship, but as a title in
its own right now. Who can win the Singapore title? It’ll be down to who’s got
it on the day.
Final Result
1. Sebastian
Vettel – Red Bull
2. Fernando
Alonso – Ferrari
3. Mark Webber –
Red Bull
4. Felipe Massa
– Ferrari
5. Nico
Hulkenberg – Sauber
6. Nico Rosberg
– Mercedes
7. Daniel
Ricciardo – Toro Rosso
8. Romain
Grosjean – Lotus
9. Lewis
Hamilton – Mercedes
10. Jenson
Button – McLaren
11. Kimi
Raikkonen – Lotus
12. Sergio Perez
– McLaren
13. Esteban
Gutierrez – Sauber
14. Pastor
Maldonado – Williams
15. Valtteri
Bottas – Williams
16. Adrian Sutil
– Force India
17. Charles Pic –
Caterham
18. Giedo van
der Garde – Caterham
19. Jules
Bianchi – Marussia
20. Max Chilton –
Marussia
R. Jean-Eric
Vergne – Toro Rosso – Transmission
R. Paul di
Resta – Force India - Accident
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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