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FERRARI ON THE PODIUM IN ITALY
The Italian round of the Formula One Championship at the weekend (11 September 2011) provided a double for the Ferrari home crowd fans, the Tifosi, with 53 of the most thrilling laps seen in a Grand Prix for many years and a Ferrari on the Podium.
For the second year in succession, Fernando Alonso was able to savour the special moment of a Ferrari win at Monza.
“Returning to this magnificent podium wearing the Scuderia race suit is always very exciting,” said Alonso. I said it yesterday: a podium place is within our grasp. We knew we needed to get a great start and we managed it, partly down to a great preparation job done with the engineers over the past two days. The start was really a magical moment, like in Barcelona, although we knew this was not our true position and that sooner or later we would have been passed. However, it was still very nice to see our fans cheering during those laps at reduced speed behind the Safety Car. There was nothing we could about Vettel, he was much quicker than us and passed me easily. The situation was better up against the McLarens: with the Softs, we could defend well, but on the Mediums they still have a significant advantage and I think that if the race had gone on a few more laps, I would have been off the podium. Having said that, I am happy with this result: we were better in the race than in qualifying, but that has been a constant factor since the start of the season. Sure, it would have been fantastic to do the double after 2010, but we must stay cool and concentrate and try to reach targets that are within our reach: today we did just that. It’s true the title has gone now, but there is still great motivation: we want to win races and try to defend the position I have just reached in the Drivers’ championship.”
In 2010 Alonso was on the podium as the winner and this year, the Spaniard was third, which was absolutely the best result available to Ferrari in its home race. On the top step was Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull driver now only needs one podium finish at the next race to clinch his second consecutive title. In second place was McLaren’s Jenson Button. The result sees Fernando go second in the classification on 172 points, a slim 5 points in front of Button and Mark Webber, who crashed out of today’s race.
Felipe Massa finished in his grid position, sixth, but he too would have been fighting at the front, but for a spin in the very early stages when the blameless Brazilian was nudged by Webber.
“I can only be disappointed with this sixth place, because today I could definitely have fought for a place on the podium,” said Massa. “Unfortunately, the incident caused by Webber cost me too much time and I dropped to tenth place. That meant I had to pass so many drivers to try and catch up to the leaders again, but by then it was anyway too late. The collision with Webber did not do any damage: he hit my wheels and that pushed me into a spin when we were at the second corner. I braked slightly late, taking the inside line and, going round the outside, he would never have got past. I am really disappointed, because the car was not bad today in terms of pace and even when we were running the Medium tyres in the final stint of the race, we were reasonably quick and degradation was pretty low. Now we hope to have a bit more luck in the final six races of the season.”
Monza looked at its best with the sun shining and a packed crowd, in mainly red grandstands, many of them flying giant Prancing Horse banners and with these flags waving him on as the lights went out, Fernando made a fantastic start, heading off three abreast along with pole man Vettel and Hamilton, with the Ferrari diving into the lead going into the first corner. Behind the McLaren came Schumacher who had made a great start from eighth to fourth, one place ahead of Felipe who moved up one position. However, a collision towards the back of the field which knocked out Dambrosia, Petrov, Rosberg and Liuzzi meant the Safety Car came out immediately. The Safety Car came in at the end of lap 3, and Button passed Webber to go sixth, while at the front Fernando had Vettel glued to his rear wing. Lap 4 saw Schumacher move ahead of Hamilton and thus started a fantastic duel. On lap 5, Vettel went into the lead and further back, Webber drove into the back of Felipe, knocking the front wing off the Red Bull and sending the Brazilian into a spin which dropped him to tenth. A bit further on, the Australian crashed off the track. By lap 6, Vettel led Fernando by 2.8 seconds, with Schumacher and Hamilton locked in battle for third, a second down and one lap later, Felipe was recovering from his spin and was seventh and by lap 10 he was sixth, but a long way behind Button. Vettel was gradually pulling away from Fernando but all eyes were on the thrilling battle between Schumacher and Hamilton for third, with the Englishman finally getting past on the way into the first chicane on lap 13, but Schumacher got past again, as Button now closed right up to his team-mate. Button then made the most of the train to nip past Hamilton and pull away, as the German Mercedes driver pitted for fresh rubber at the end of lap 16 with Button coming in on 17 and Hamilton on 18. At the front, Vettel led Fernando by over ten seconds, until the Ferrari man changed tyres at the end of 19.
Vettel relinquished the lead on lap 20 as he changed tyres and out on track, Schumacher and Hamilton were still locked together, now battling for fifth. Yet to pit, Felipe changed rubber on lap 21. With all the front runners having changed tyres, the order on lap 22 was Vettel, 11.7 ahead of Fernando, with Button third followed by the Schumacher – Hamilton duo who appeared to be tied together, so close were they for lap after lap. Perez had not yet pitted the Sauber and was sixth ahead of Felipe, but on lap 24 the Brazilian passed the Mexican for sixth. Button was now closing on Alonso’s 150º Italia and on lap 27, Hamilton finally took fourth place off Schumacher. Round lap 30, Button’s challenge appeared to fade as he was over a second behind Fernando, but that would change. Felipe meanwhile was now having a solitary race in sixth, 13 seconds behind Schumacher and 12 ahead of Perez.
On lap 33, Button was the first of the leaders to make a second tyre change, as Perez retired the Sauber at the side of the track. Alonso and Hamilton both pitted on lap 34. The leader in the Red Bull came in next time round. Lap 36 and now it was Button and Fernando racing wheel to wheel, with the McLaren coming out on top and the Englishman then pulled out an instant lead as the Spaniard was slightly delayed behind a Lotus backmarker. Schumacher pitted from second on lap 37. The top four order was Vettel, 15.7 ahead of Button, with Fernando 0.7 behind the McLaren, with Felipe yet to stop in fourth. Felipe changed tyres on lap 41 dropping to sixth behind Schumacher. From then on the positions remained unchanged at the front, except that with a few laps to go, Hamilton started to close on Fernando, even pulling alongside the Ferrari at one point. But the Ferrari man kept cool as the crowd had its collective heart in its mouth on the last lap.
The race, which will go down in history as a classic, saw Michael Schumacher come home fifth ahead of Felipe, with Alguersuari seventh for Toro Rosso, then came Di Resta in the Force India, Bruno Senna in the Renault, with the final point going to Sebastien Buemi in the second Toro Rosso.
“Honestly, this result is the best we could have hoped for, given our current technical situation,” said Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari Team Director. “The fact Fernando is second in the Drivers’ championship is amazing and I think it highlights the stuff our driver is made of. Once again today, he delivered a majestic performance, either attacking, as he did at the start, or defending as in the closing stages. Felipe also did well and I am sure he could have been right up there in the fight behind Vettel, if he had not been pushed into a spin by Webber: all the same he delivered a good race. Clearly Ferrari must always aim for victory and a third place is not and should not be something to get excited about, but the team worked well, keeping its cool and concentrating and, step by step, the situation is improving. Our aim for the final part of the season remains the same: we will try and win races and always do our best. We owe that to ourselves and to our fans who once again today, were magnificent. I am sure Fernando felt goose bumps up on the podium: standing there in a red suit is something special…”
The F1 circus now says farewell to Europe and heads off for the first round of the final sextet of races, the night time Grand Prix around the streets of Singapore, in a fortnight’s time.
2011 Italian Grand Prix
1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 53 laps 1hr 20m 46.172s
2. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes +00m 09.5s
3. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 16.9s
4. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes +00m 17.4s
5. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +00m 32.6s
6. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 42.9s
7. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
8. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
9. Bruno Senna Brazil Renault-Renault +1 lap
10. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
11. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
12. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
13. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Renault +2 laps
14. Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Renault +2 laps
15. Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth +2 laps
16. Daniel Ricciardo Australia HRT-Cosworth +14 laps
Rtd. Sergio Perez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari 32 laps completed
Rtd. Kamui Kobayashi Japan Sauber-Ferrari 21 laps completed
Rtd. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 9 laps completed
Rtd. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 4 laps completed
Rtd. Jerome d'Ambrosio Belgium Virgin-Cosworth 1 lap completed
Rtd. Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault-Renault 0 laps completed
Rtd. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes 0 laps completed
Rtd. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy HRT-Cosworth 0 laps completed
F1 Drivers' Championship 2011 (after race 13 of 19)
POSITION / DRIVER / TEAM / POINTS1 / Sebastian Vettel / Red Bull Racing / 284
2 / Fernando Alonso / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 172
3 / Mark Webber / Red Bull Racing / 167
= / Jenson Button / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 167
5 / Lewis Hamilton / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 158
6 / Felipe Massa / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 82
7 / Nico Rosberg / Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team / 56
8 / Michael Schumacher / Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team / 52
9 / Nick Heidfeld / Lotus Renault GP / 34
= / Vitaly Petrov / Lotus Renault GP / 34
11 / Kamui Kobayashi / Sauber F1 Team / 27
12 / Adrian Sutil / Force India F1 Team / 24
13 / Jaime Alguersuari / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 16
14 / Sebastien Buemi / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 13
15 / Paul di Resta / Force India F1 Team / 12
16 / Sergio Perez / Sauber F1 Team / 8
17 / Rubens Barrichello / AT&T Williams / 4
18 / Bruno Senna / Lotus Renault GP / 2
19 / Pastor Maldonado / AT&T Williams / 1
20 / Jarno Trulli / Team Lotus / 0
= / Heikki Kovalainen / Team Lotus / 0
= / Narain Karthikeyan / Hispania Racing F1 Team / 0
= / Vitantonio Liuzzi / Hispania Racing F1 Team / 0
= / Timo Glock / Marussia Virgin Racing / 0
= / Jerome d'Ambrosio / Marussia Virgin Racing / 0
= / Daniel Ricciardo / Hispania Racing F1 Team / 0
= / Karun Chandhok / Team Lotus / 0
F1 Constructors' Championship 2011 (after race 13 of 19)
POSITION / TEAM / POINTS1 / Red Bull Racing / 451
2 / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 325
3 / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 254
4 / Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team / 108
5 / Lotus Renault GP / 70
6 / Force India F1 Team / 36
7 / Sauber F1 Team / 35
8 / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 29
9 / AT&T Williams / 5
10 / Team Lotus / 0
= / Hispania Racing F1 Team / 0
= / Marussia Virgin Racing / 0
(ends)
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Release Number: Ferrari_569
Date of Issue: 26 October 2018. Time of Issue: 14:00:24