Saturday 7 September 2013

Italian Grand Prix qualifying...

Qualifying in Monza started slowly and then by the time Q2 arrived things really took off. There were some shock results at the end of the second session and many of the top players failed to make it through to the final shoot out. The Force India drivers look to be having another one of their difficult weekends, Paul Di Resta having a crash in Free Practice and then both cars failing to make it in to Q3.

Both Lotus cars failed to make it to Q3, which is a huge blow to Kimi Raikonnen's championship challenge. The small consolation for Kimi will be the massive shock of Lewis Hamilton dropping out in Q2. He was back to his unprofessional ways in his post session interview, in which he decided not to be reserved and diplomatic, but instead to call himself an idiot and blame Adrian Sutil for one of his poor laps. However, Lewis will certainly feel that he has thrown away his chance at the Championship.

Red Bull Racing were wonderfully dominant again and showed up the Ferrari drivers who attempted a bit of team strategy, which couldn't have backfired better. Alonso was meant to receive a tow in Massa's slipstream and instead was out qualified by Felipe. Vettel took pole position, with Mark Webber taking the second place on the grid. Hulkenberg was the surprise qualifier, securing the third grid slot, without a Mercedes car in sight. It will be interesting to see what Lewis and Kimi can do from way down the grid, but it is more likely that we will see the Red Bull's flying to yet another victory.