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Despite a fantastic start that saw him lead
the pack into the first bend, Fernando
Alonso wasn't able to match the pace of
Sebastien Vettel (Red Bull) and Jenson
Button (McLaren) and was forced to settle
for the final podium step at Monza
yesterday. |
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After 53 laps of the
Monza circuit yesterday the loyal Ferrari “tifosi” were
able to charge onto the track in their thousands to
cheer a Prancing Horse driver on the magnificent podium
which hangs over the Monza pit lane. For the second year
in succession, Fernando Alonso was able to savour the
special moment. In 2010 he was there 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.
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. 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.
This takes the Maranello
team’s number of podium finishes in this event to 62.
For Fernando, it is his 23rd third place to go alongside
18 wins and 24 second places. This result moves Fernando
up to second place in the Drivers’ championship,
although a very long way off Vettel, while Felipe
consolidates his sixth place. The Scuderia is third in
the Constructors’ championship.
Stefano
Domenicali: “Honestly,
this result is the best we could have hoped for, given
our current technical situation. 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…”
Fernando
Alonso: “Returning to
this magnificent podium wearing the Scuderia race suit
is always very exciting. 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.”
Felipe
Massa: “I can only be
disappointed with this sixth place, because today I
could definitely have fought for a place on the podium.
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.”
Pat Fry:
“We expected a very close race and that’s what we got
right from the start. These twenty three points are more
or less in line with what we could have expected from
our potential at this track. Over the weekend, we worked
a lot to improve the performance of the car and the
result of that was there to see, considering where we
started from on Friday morning. The drivers were great,
always getting the most out of the car and the guys were
also impeccable during the pit stops. From a strategy
point of view it was a relatively simple race to
interpret and, given how the early stages of the race
evolved, we tried to cover what our main competition was
doing. We knew that on the Medium, the performance gap
would be higher than on the Soft, but we still managed
to maintain this podium place which was our realistic
target going into the race. The European season is over
and the final part begins, which will see us travel the
world for two months: we will look to do our best and
bring home some wins.”
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