September 8, 2012

Monza Qualifying: Only as good as your weakest part

Photo: Francesco Crippa


Save for the most rabid of Mclaren fans, nobody believes pole today at Monza would have gone to anyone other than Fernando Alonso,  after all his Q1 time on hard tires would have put him P2 on the final grid.  But, after a run of good luck, Alonso got bit once more when a "one euro part", as Ferrari have described it,  broke leaving the rear anti-sway "bar" useless and the car pushing like crazy.  Alonso in an interview later confirmed the team had not seen a similar failure in fifteen years.

Di Resta's five spot penalty for a broken gearbox destroyed his great qualifying performance and shuffles the order a bit,  Alonso will start  on the "dirty" side with all his championship rivals will be ahead and with a projected one stopper and Raikkonen as the fastest car in a straight line, it will be a tough day at the office for Nando.

Photo: Francesco Crippa/Flickr



Pos Driver Car Time Gap
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.010s
2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m24.133s + 0.123s
3. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m24.247s + 0.237s
4. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m24.304s + 0.294s***
5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m24.540s + 0.530s
6. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m24.802s + 0.792s
7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m24.833s + 0.823s
8. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m24.855s + 0.845s
9. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m25.109s + 1.099s
10. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m25.678s + 1.668s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m24.742s Gap *
11. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m24.809s + 0.567s
12. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m24.820s + 0.578s****
13. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m24.901s + 0.659s
14. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1m25.042s + 0.800s
15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.312s + 1.070s
16. Jerome d'Ambrosio Lotus-Renault 1m25.408s + 1.166s
17. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m25.441s + 1.199s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m25.834s Gap **
18. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m26.382s + 2.207s
19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m26.887s + 2.712s
20. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m27.039s + 2.864s
21. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m27.073s + 2.898s
22. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m27.441s + 3.266s
23. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m27.629s + 3.454s
24. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes

107 per cent time: 1m30.076s

* Gap to fastest in Q2
** Gap to fastest in Q3
*** Will take five-place penalty
**** Will take 10-place penalty

All timing unofficial

5 comments:

  1. Di Resta has a 5 place grid penalty so he'll be starting in 9th and Alonso remains in the same position.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes, my bad. Got confused, I blame Maldonado entirely! :)

      Delete
  2. It's ok to believe that something would happen but all component parts (driver + car) still have to deliver. Nothing is a foregone conclusion!
    Alonso has had a pretty good run of luck so far this season up until last week. Let's hope his good luck comes back for the rest of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. two laps later, during the race it would be worse
    ...good luck?

    Simone

    ReplyDelete
  4. Can anyone explain the gearbox penalty rule to me? Alonso changed his on Friday but didn't get a grid penalty because it was a "non-race" gearbox but Di-Resta gets a penalty for changing his? I'm not critisicing anything I just don't understand the diference between the two cases.

    ReplyDelete

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