F1 Quals: Italy 2011

Monza.  Where speed is king, and everything else is just rubbish.  Would the Red Bull boys continue their sweep of the pole position?  Or would someone... anyone... knock them off?  Well, let's check!  Here's the provisional grid for the 2011 Grand Prix of Italy:

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	1:24.002	1:22.914	1:22.275
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:23.976	1:23.172	1:22.725
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:24.013	1:23.031	1:22.777
4	HWMNBN	Ferrari	1:24.134	1:23.342	1:22.841
5	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	1:24.148	1:23.387	1:22.972
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:24.523	1:23.681	1:23.188
7	The Red Menace	Renault	1:24.486	1:23.741	1:23.530
8	Slappy Schumacher	Mercedes	1:25.108	1:23.671	1:23.777
9	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:24.550	1:23.335	1:24.477
10	Bruno Senna	Renault	1:24.914	1:24.157
11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:24.574	1:24.163
12	Adrian F'n Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	1:24.595	1:24.209
13	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	1:24.975	1:24.648
14	Hesychast  Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	1:24.798	1:24.726
15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:25.113	1:24.845
16	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	1:25.164	1:24.932
17	Gandalf Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:24.879	1:25.065
18	NKOTT	STR-Ferrari	1:25.334
19	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	1:26.647
20	Heikki Kovalaineninnie	Lotus-Renault	1:27.184
21	Tim O'Glockenspiel	Virgin-Cosworth	1:27.591
22	Custard d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	1:27.609
23	Daniel Ricciardo	HRT-Cosworth	1:28.054
24	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	1:28.231
	Q1 107% Time		1:29.854

Nope.  Red Bull makes it 13-for-13, and Seb Vettel becomes only the second driver in F1 history to have at least 10 poles in a season more than once (he did it last year, too).  The performance was so dominating that both McLarens aborted their final runs at pole position, though to be honest Hamilton backed off because he screwed up a chicane, smoking a tire in the process.

Then just to add insult to injury, Vettel finished his final lap even though he knew both McLarens had given up... and made the final difference an even half-second.  Yeesh.

Even though the best he could do was fourth, HWMNBN and Ferrari have to call this one a win.  They fully expected their best to be the third row of the grid.  There's a lot of pressure on the Red Team; it's their home race, after all, and "Italy expects...".  Last year, HWMNBN brought the tifosi a win.  This year?  I'll be stunned if anybody can catch Vettel, but as they say, "that's why they run the races."

The race is tomorrow... see ya then!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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