Hamilton storms to Italian pole

By Sam Lyon

Lewis Hamilton produced a stunning late lap to snatch pole position for the Italian Grand Prix in his McLaren.

The world champion stormed to a time of one minute 24.066 seconds to wrestle the position from Force India's Adrian Sutil, who was 0.195secs behind.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen followed in third ahead of Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen and the Brawn cars of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button.

Red Bull pair Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber managed only ninth and 10th.

And the title hopefuls, who trail Button by 16 points in the drivers' championship, will not be comforted by the fact their fuel weights - which show the true pace of the cars with the amount of fuel on board taken into account - reveal they were 8th and 10th fastest on the day.However, with the top 10 appearing to be split between one and two-stop strategies and a mere 0.7seconds separating the fuel-corrected pace of the top four cars, a fascinating encounter looks to be in store on Sunday.
Hamilton, who is to make two fuel stops compared to the Brawns' one, made the most of his lighter fuel load as he ran a late flying lap to pip Sutil - who himself had only just posted a lap of 1:24.261 - into second spot.

"That was a very close qualifying session, but the team did a great job this weekend. The car was feeling very good this weekend and I was able to put the lap together," said Hamilton.

"It's such a great feeling when you can put one lap together. We have to wait and see what the strategies are for everyone tomorrow, but we needed to be where we are.

"We're in the best position to start the race, and it's great to have Kers (power-boost) so I can boost off the line, be clear of any incident, and try to control it from there."

As expected, the McLarens and Ferrari's leading driver Raikkonen were boosted by their Kers system, with Monza boasting a full-throttle percentage of up to 70%, and the Finn gave the home fans something to cheer in securing a second-row spot ahead of compatriot Kovalainen.
But the happiest team on the grid could well be Brawn - with Button looking to have found his form again having watched his drivers' championship lead cut from a peak of 26 points in June after five races without a podium finish.

Team boss Ross Brawn said: "We are very happy with our positions, especially because of our strategy. It's a pretty perfect position to be honest."

And Button could barely hide his delight as he revealed: "We are pretty heavy. I don't know how much fuel they can get into the Red Bulls but we will see.

"The car felt good and I am happy. The tyre temperature will not be an issue - we are not having any problems getting heat into them - and all the Kers cars are in front of us as well, so all in all it's been a good session for us."

Barrichello, though, faces an anxious wait to see if his team recommend a gearbox change that would cost him a five-grid penalty.

The Brazilian first encountered the problem in Spa, when he crossed the line with his car emitting smoke, and there are doubts it can last the race on Sunday.

"It felt alright," he said, "but sometimes you are a single person fighting with 50 of them in the factory. If they tell me I cannot race with it then I cannot say no."
Webber, meanwhile, conceded the qualifying result was the best he and Vettel could have hoped for.

"It was probably pretty close to what we expected," said the Australian.

"We can't pass the Kers cars on the grid, we know that, so we will have to try something with the pit stops. That was as good as it could have got."

Elsewhere, Ferrari debutant Giancarlo Fisichella, having crashed out of final practice after locking his front-right tyre round Parabolica, was a high-profile casualty in Q2 as he had to settle for 14th on the grid.

And the contrast with his old team Force India could hardly have been more marked, with India billionaire Vijay Mallya's team getting both drivers into Q3 for the first time in Formula 1.

With Sutil second on the grid, Vitantonio Liuzzi produced an excellent qualifying performance on his Force India debut, beating Renault's Fernando Alonso into eighth with an impressive lap of 1:25.043.

The most surprising casualties of the second qualifying session, though, were the two BMWs, who had been tipped to surprise the front-runners by Red Bull boss Christian Horner on Friday morning.
Nick Heidfeld suffered engine trouble at the start of Q2, his seventh of the season, and shortly after the same problem struck team-mate Robert Kubica.

That leaves both with just one new engine to last them for the rest of the season given the eight-engine limit imposed upon teams in this campaign.

Williams, aware this weekend was most likely all about damage limitation from the outset given their struggles on the low downforce Monza circuit, lost both Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg in Q1 - their worst qualifying result of the season - joining Toyota's Timo Glock and the two Toro Rossos at the back of the grid.

Sutil on top as Force India shine

By Sean Chaney

Force India's Adrian Sutil continued his team's good recent form with the fastest lap in Friday's second practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Sutil was 0.239 seconds faster than Renault's Romain Grosjean as his team look to build on their first podium finish, achieved in Belgium in August.

Brawn's championship leader Jenson Button was 19th while McLaren's morning pace-setter Lewis Hamilton was 11th.

The Red Bull duo of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were 14th and 18th.

Sutil topped the timesheets for much of the second session but Renault rookie Grosjean, competing in only his third grand prix, nipped in with a faster effort in the closing stages to briefly lead the way.




Page last updated at 13:43 GMT, Friday, 11 September 2009 14:43 UK
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Sutil on top as Force India shine
Force India's Adrian Sutil

Highlights - Sutil fastest at Monza

By Sean Chaney

Force India's Adrian Sutil continued his team's good recent form with the fastest lap in Friday's second practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Sutil was 0.239 seconds faster than Renault's Romain Grosjean as his team look to build on their first podium finish, achieved in Belgium in August.

Brawn's championship leader Jenson Button was 19th while McLaren's morning pace-setter Lewis Hamilton was 11th.

The Red Bull duo of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were 14th and 18th.

Sutil topped the timesheets for much of the second session but Renault rookie Grosjean, competing in only his third grand prix, nipped in with a faster effort in the closing stages to briefly lead the way.


606: DEBATE
I think Fisi will do a solid job. He can only improve once he is familiar with the Ferrari and its controls. I would just have expected more in second practise

SimonWright1983

That provoked an immediate response from Sutil who promptly clocked an effort of one minute 23.924 to set the fastest time of the day.

"It was a very, very good time," said Sutil, "it came as a result of some good work, a great set-up and getting the tyres to work well.

"Everything went well today. The car was working perfectly and we can be very happy about the result.

"We didn't try specifically to go fastest but if you are on top of your game and the car is working well there is no reason why you could not be P1 at the end of the session.

"It was a very productive day on a very cool track and it's good to have some fun right now."

Giancarlo Fisichella finished second for Force India in the last race in Belgium, but the 36-year-old Italian has since been drafted in by Ferrari to replace the beleaguered Luca Badoer for the rest of the season.

Fisichella made a promising start in the day's first practice session by out-performing team-mate Kimi Raikkonen but he was bottom of the timesheets after the second session, 1.619 seconds off the pace.

Practice sessions are rarely the most reliable barometer of race pace as teams often use Friday's two 90-minute run-outs to analyse and assess how their cars react to various fuel, aerodynamic and technical scenarios.

Sutil topped the timesheets in third practice for the European Grand Prix in August, but the 26-year-old German finished 10th in Valencia.

The ban on in-season testing this year has meant Friday practice sessions have been even harder to decode as there is no way of knowing what fuel loads or race set-ups the teams are running.

Brawn boss Ross Brawn confirmed that his team had used Friday's sessions to understand how their cars would react to the unique low down force challenge of Monza.

"The fact that we haven't had the opportunity to test here this year, meant Friday's practice sessions were particularly important to work on the set-up of the car," said Brawn.

"It feels very different running with such low downforce, said Button, "but the car has been performing reasonably well.

"We need to work on the fine-tuning of the set-up overnight to ensure that I'm completely happy with the balance before qualifying."

McLaren's Hamilton set the pace in the morning session in Monza but the defending world champion was 11th quickest in the second session.

"This afternoon was spent on heavier fuel-loads, confirmed Hamilton. "So you can't read too much into the times, but I'm encouraged by where we are."

Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen backed up his second-quickest time in the morning session by going fourth quickest in an unpredictable second session and the Finn said afterwards that he thought the Kers power-boost system was a big advantage.

"The Kers advantage here is nearly four 10ths per lap so it's really helpful along the straights and out of the slower corners," said Kovalainen.

"Others have more down force compared with us, but we have this fantastic Kers button.

"It is funny the teams have all adopted different technical solutions but the lap times are still very close together - that's the beauty of Formula 1."

Renault reintroduced their Kers system especially for Monza and that decision seemed to pay dividends as Grosjean and Fernando Alonso set the second and third fastest times on Friday afternoon.

The Kers button makes the car accelerate faster, so it spends longer at a higher speed on the straights than cars without it, which is particularly advantageous on Monza's long high-speed straights.

McLaren, Renault and Ferrari are the only cars running the non-compulsory Kers system in Italy.

Vettel's lowly position of 18th can be partially put down to his need to conserve engines, the German blew two engines at the European Grand Prix in Valencia and has now used seven of his eight engine quota for the season.

While Vettel completed 27 laps on Friday afternoon, his team-mate Webber managed even fewer, just 25, the Australian was kept in his garage as his Red Bull team repaired a chaffed electrical loom.

"It was a mixed day," said Webber. "We had an electrical problem in P2, which probably cost us about a run and a half, so it was a good recovery from the guys to get the car turned back around.

"Mileage is important here, as it's the first time we've driven in Monza this year - normally we test here beforehand.

"We've got a bit of pace to find, but I'm sure we'll be in the running tomorrow."

Button's closest championship challenger, his Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello, was 16th fastest around the low-downforce Monza circuit.

Fisichella makes Ferrari switch

Giancarlo Fisichella will drive for Ferrari for the rest of the season before becoming reserve driver in 2010 after being released by Force India.