2013 F1 Grand Prix Season

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FP3

Lotus Elan
by Joe Saward

Romain Grosjean set the pace in the FP3 session in Budapest for Lotus, a tenth faster than Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. Sergio Perez was third overall, but ended the session going sideways into a tyre barrier. Red BUll's Sebastian Vettel was fourth, ahead of Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Adrian Sutil. Kimi Raikkonen was 11th but he was confident of doing better in the qualifying sessions.

In the midfield Pastor Maldonado was 12th for Williams ahead of Paul di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne and Valtteri Bottas. Giedo Van der Garde was ahead of Charles Pic, Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton, while Esteban Gutierrez brought up the rear because of technical troubles.

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Hungarian GP: Lewis Hamilton beats Sebastian Vettel to pole
By Matt Beer   Saturday, July 27th 2013, 13:05 GMT

Lewis Hamilton takes Hungarian GP pole 2013

Lewis Hamilton denied Sebastian Vettel Hungarian Grand Prix pole in a superb battle at the end of qualifying.

Vettel seemed to have put himself out of reach with an incredible first flying lap in Q3 that was 0.8 seconds clear of the rest of the field.

But Red Bull had the advantage of still having fresh soft tyres for both Q3 runs, whereas its rivals were all saving their rubber for their final lap.

At first, Vettel remained too fast to catch, with final practice pacesetter Romain Grosjean getting closest in his Lotus.

Then Mercedes driver Hamilton produced a 1m19.388s to depose Vettel, and although the world champion was also improving his pace, he fell 0.038 seconds short.

That was far better off than his team-mate Mark Webber. Vettel's closest rival on Friday had a KERS failure early in qualifying.

Webber struggled through to Q3 but did not run in the final segment so will start 10th in the second Red Bull.

Grosjean held on to third, joined on row two by Hamilton's team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Ferrari was not a factor in the pole fight, with Fernando Alonso fifth and Felipe Massa seventh.

Kimi Raikkonen was briefly on the provisional front row as he completed an early final run, but his Lotus ultimately fell to sixth.

Raikkonen's rival for a 2014 Red Bull seat Daniel Ricciardo maintained his strong recent form to put his Toro Rosso eighth, six places ahead of team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne.

Sergio Perez was the other Q3 contender in ninth, sticking to medium tyres rather than going for pole. His McLaren team-mate Jenson Button understeered to 13th.

But Paul di Resta ending up 18th was a shock to both the Scot and Force India, left baffled by the performance of his final set of tyres.

Di Resta's team-mate Adrian Sutil missed out on the top 10 by just 0.042s and joins Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber on row six.

Caterham proved comfortably quicker than Marussia in the tail-end fight, while brief late-Q2 top-10 appearances by both Williams drivers proved deceptive as they were shuffled back to 16th and 17th.


Pos  Driver               Team                  Time      Gap       
 1.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes              1m19.388s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault      1m19.426s  +0.038s
 3.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault         1m19.595s  +0.207s
 4.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              1m19.720s  +0.332s
 5.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari               1m19.791s  +0.403s
 6.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault         1m19.851s  +0.463s
 7.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m19.929s  +0.541s
 8.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m20.641s  +1.253s
 9.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes      1m22.398s  +3.010s
10.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault             no time set
Q2 cut-off time: 1m20.545s                             Gap **
11.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m20.569s  +0.791s
12.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari        1m20.580s  +0.802s
13.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes      1m20.777s  +0.999s
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m21.029s  +1.251s
15.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault      1m21.133s  +1.355s
16.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault      1m21.219s  +1.441s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m21.612s                              Gap *
17.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari        1m21.724s  +1.374s
18.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes  1m22.043s  +1.693s
19.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault      1m23.007s  +2.657s
20.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m23.333s  +2.983s
21.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth     1m23.787s  +3.437s
22.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth     1m23.997s  +3.647s

107% time: 1m25.974s



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Hungarian GP: Lewis Hamilton takes his first Mercedes victory
By Matt Beer   Sunday, July 28th 2013

Lewis Hamilton claimed his first victory for Mercedes with an imperious drive in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Briton pulled himself clear of a fraught race behind, in which Kimi Raikkonen ultimately beat Sebastian Vettel to second, Mark Webber salvaged fourth and Romain Grosjean's chances were spoiled by a penalty.

Hamilton's initial battle was with qualifying rivals Vettel and Grosjean, after a spicy first lap in which slow-starter Vettel had to defend hard from the Lotus as Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg also tried to get involved.

The Red Bull was right on the Mercedes' tail at first, but as the opening stint wore on, Hamilton had some respite with Vettel instead under pressure from Grosjean.

The crucial moment for Hamilton was when he emerged behind Jenson Button after his first pitstop.

Hamilton rapidly overtook and, despite the McLaren's best retaliatory efforts, pulled away.

Vettel could not do the same when he also found himself tailing Button after pitting.

The two made light contact, leaving Vettel concerned about his front wing and allowing Grosjean plenty of chances to attack, as Alonso closed in too.

It took until lap 24 for Vettel to finally pass Button, with Grosjean clashing with the McLaren as he tried to follow.

Both continued, but the incident will be investigated post-race.

Grosjean still got a penalty in the race as well. Following his second pitstop, he boldly passed Felipe Massa's Ferrari around the outside of the fast Turn 4.

But the stewards adjudged that he had exceeded track limits in doing so and bestowed a drive-through, dropping him out of contention.

By the time Vettel was clear of Button, Hamilton had a commanding advantage over the world champion that he would not lose.

The other Red Bull was not defeated yet, though. Webber ran a very long first stint on his medium tyres and spent a while in the lead.

On their slightly different sequences, Hamilton twice emerged right behind Webber after pitstops, and twice passed him on the outside of Turn 3, with Webber ending up taking to the run-off in the second move.

Those passes ensured Webber had no chance of delaying Hamilton's progress as the Briton wrapped Mercedes' third victory of 2013.

Meanwhile Raikkonen worked his way forward on a two-stop strategy, spending the early part of the race trapped behind Massa before bringing himself into contention.

His consistent pace meant that he emerged in second place as the final stops played out, with both Red Bulls behind him.

Vettel tried his utmost to pass Raikkonen in the closing laps and complained that the Finn was over-defensive in what turned out to be a decisive dice with two laps to go.

Webber tried to chase down this pair but had to settle for fourth, while Alonso fell away from the leaders and could only fend off Grosjean for fifth.

McLaren got both its cars in the points on two-stop strategies, with Button seventh and Sergio Perez ninth.

First-lap contact with Rosberg and a later brush with Adrian Sutil hampered Massa's day and he finished eighth.

Rosberg tumbled down to 12th in his incident with the Ferrari. He recovered to ninth before a fiery late-race failure.

The Mercedes' retirement allowed Pastor Maldonado to end Williams's points drought in 10th position.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

Pos     Driver        Team
 1.  Hamilton       Mercedes
 2.  Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault
 3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault
 4.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault
 5.  Alonso         Ferrari
 6.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault
 7.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes
 8.  Massa          Ferrari
 9.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes
10.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault
11.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari
13.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari
14.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault
15.  Pic            Caterham-Renault
16.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth
17.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth
DNF  Di Resta       Force India-Mercedes
DNF  Rosberg        Mercedes
DNF  Bottas         Williams-Renault
DNF  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari
DNF  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes

World Championship standings, round 10:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel        172        1.  Red Bull-Renault          277
 2.  Raikkonen     134        2.  Mercedes                  208
 3.  Alonso        133        3.  Ferrari                   194
 4.  Hamilton      124        4.  Lotus-Renault             183
 5.  Webber        105        5.  Force India-Mercedes       59
 6.  Rosberg        84        6.  McLaren-Mercedes           57
 7.  Massa          61        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         24
 8.  Grosjean       49        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              7
 9.  Button         39        9.  Williams-Renault            1
10.  Di Resta       36
11.  Sutil          23
12.  Perez          18
13.  Vergne         13
14.  Ricciardo      11
15.  Hulkenberg      7
16.  Maldonado       1

All timing unofficial


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The Secret Diary of Adrian Newey Aged 53¾: For The Love Of Luigi

Deary deary me trusty tome, I think I am going to have to cross out the word 'Diary' and insert the far more apposite phrase, 'Occasional Jottings'.

The last time I attended to your crisply white vellum pages was back in April, when I discovered you hidden behind an old copy of F1 Racing magazine with McVulcan on the cover. Since then, you have been thoroughly accessible but unattended thanks to our great fight with the filthy Stuttgarters.

So indeed it is with guilt hanging heavy on my shoulders, like a dense soupe de poisson with excess gruyere, that I attempt to record some of my latest musings for posterity. Events in the office have not been running smoothly of late, or at least ever since the Wild Australian Boy announced he was hanging up his F1 helmet at the end of 2013 (To be honest, I never quite understand why at the end of a career you have to hang something up. Because you don't hang up your gloves or your helmet... unless your car ends up in a tree... though technically speaking Mark's has at Le Mans).

Jana, my truculent PA, has been beside herself with grief at the thought of losing Webbo. I look across to her from my drawing board occasionally and I know she's thinking about him, because she has her head in her hands and is muttering, "Why, why, why, why...?" repeatedly. If it was Sebastian who was leaving we would have bunting all round the office.

I don't know if her hostility towards Sebastian is entirely down to Herr Vettel or a little to do with envy for his admirably efficient press assistant Britte, who she refers to wispily as the "Boots-the-Chemist-blonde". All I know is the needle is still there and the anger she felt when Sebastian "stole a win" in Malaysia has only intensified now she knows that Mark is retiring and that might have been the only win of his final season.

As for the potential contenders for the seat she is equally dismissive, she thinks Daniel "smiles too much, so he might be a simpleton" and from her time at McLaren she knows the lady who was tasked with the job of filling up Kimi's beer vending machine in the McLaren motorhome. Finnish beer is very difficult to get hold of in Brazil, but the burbling I-speak-your-weight one was a tricky customer to deal with and made no exceptions. His mates look like roadies for a Finnish grunge band. Jana thinks he has "all the tattoos of a Premiership footballer but only half the brains."
. Most amusing.

When Fernando's manager came to see us in Hungary to discuss the drive, she perked up considerably and used an inappropriate analogy about "someone who could spank the little boy's bottom". Unfortunately for political reasons the Fernando Alonso drive will come to sweet F.A. (that's Fanny Adam and certainly not anything else). As I think I mentioned before, there is a good channel of communication between Christian and Luca Montezemolo, and he was rumoured to have offered our joint services to Maranello

I later found out this rumour was likely the result of their press weevil, Luca Colajanni, feeding rumours to journos along the lines of 'Vettel to the Scuderia in 2014' story. I'm sure if Luca hadn't got a job with Ferrari he'd have ended up in the Vatican Bank or an episode of The Borgias.

However, they do talk on the phone and I think Christian muchly harbours the ambition to step into Luca's shoes as the big boss of Ferrari one day. His major problem is that he isn't particularly Italian. He would probably have to change his name to something like Cristiano di Horner. Luca Montezemolo once admitted to a magazine that he himself added the 'di' bit to his own name to make it sound grander and one website has gone a stage further and constantly refer to him as Luigi Montezuma.
Most rib-tickling.

So Christian is not going to risk a future job opportunity by signing the talented Mr. A, even though it would be fascinating to have him on the team.

For my part, I have to confess I am spending a lot of the grands prix weekends these days avoiding Niki Lauda and his big brown envelope. Despite having a ridiculous number of technical directors in Brackley, the filthy Stuttgarters don't seem to have enough and the offers get more and more ludicrous. The latest was £2m a year, plus an entry into the 2014 Mille Miglia with a classic, factory-prepared 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR and Carole Vorderman as my co-driver.

I think I have made it quite clear that although I admire Carol's ability with numbers, and that she's a bit of a petrolhead too, that's as far as the admiration goes. But most worrisome that he should make the link. I certainly wouldn't want to leave my technical team, even if they do sometimes get a bit fed up with me taking my drawing board on the plane to fly-away races. As one of them said to me the other day, "Adrian, it's very hard to eat an inflight meal with a set-square wedged up your nose". What's more, my major engineering project to benefit mankind has yet to reach the manufacturing stage.

The prototype ESVM1 has been built but there have been a few teething problems. The idea behind it has been given increased impetus by this new 5:2 diet fad. The good lady, my commander-in-chief at home tried the 5:2 and said it had a lot of benefits; for two days of the week you can only have 600 calories, which amounts to fasting. And one of the easiest ways to avoid calories on fasting days is to have interesting and nutritious low-calorie soups. Which is where I come in. My Elite Soup Vending Machine (ESVM1) can be adapted to dispense a range of soupy delights, both exotic, spicy and low-calorie.

The big problem we have at the moment is not getting the cups out in time. The bespoke, locally- sourced ingredients are nicely dispensed but, deary me, the cup is late in getting into position, thus resulting in an under-delivery of the total soup package.
Most bothersome.

I caught Christian banging the side of the machine the other day. When he saw me and my naturally furrowed brow, he said: "You know what the problem with this machine is Adrian..."
"No, I enquired," slightly puzzled that Christian had come up with an engineering solution of any kind.
He smiled his slow, easy smile.
"Not enough downforce."


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Alonso sets the pace in Spa
by Joe Saward

Fernando Alonso set the pace at a drizzly Spa on Friday morning ahead of the Force Indias of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil. Sergio Perez was fourth for McLaren ahead of Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Esteban Gutierrez in his Sauber. Next up was Nico Hulkenberg in the second Sauber, ahead of Dan Ricciardo's Toro Rosso and the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. Felipe Massa was 11th ahead of Pastor Maldonado, Jean-Eric Vergne, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. At the back Heikki Kovalainen stood in for Charles Pic at Caterham and was the fastest of the smaller team drivers, ahead of Giedo Van der Garde, Max Chilton and Jules Bianchi. The Lotuses of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean brought up the rear, concentrating on others other than lap times.


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Red Bulls run…
by Joe Saward


Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of the second practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix with the Red Bulls looking rather better than the opposition. Vettel suffered a right rear tyre failure while trying out the softer of the two tyre choices. Mark Webber was second, just a fraction behind his team-mate, but the two were eight-tenths clear of the pack, led by Romain Grosjean (Lotus), Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso). Kimi Raikkonen was sixth quickest, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Nico Rosberg and the two Force Indias of Paul di Resta and Adrain Sutil. Lewis Hamilton was next ahead of Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber, Pastor Maldonado's Williams, Jenson Button, Dan Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez.

Giedo Van der Garde was the faster of the Caterham drivers but went off at Stavelot and tapped the front wing of the car. Charles Pic was next ahead of Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton.

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P3 

Vettel stays ahead
by Joe Saward

Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time of the third practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, with a best time that was a tenth ahead of Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. This was in turn a tenth quicker than Mark Webber in the second Red Bull while Jean-ERic Vergne was an unexpected interloper at the top end of the time sheets in fourth in his Toro Rosso, ahead of Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Esteban Gutierrez, Romain Grosjean, Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen.

Dan Ricciardo was 11th with Lewis Hamilton still not showing his pace with 12th place in the Mercedes. Adrian Sutil was next in his Force India ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Paul di Resta, Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado. At the back Charles Pic was ahead of Giedo Van der Garde, Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton.


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Belgian GP: Lewis Hamilton claims pole in breathtaking qualifying
By Matt Beer   Saturday, August 24th 2013,

Lewis Hamilton claimed his fourth consecutive Formula 1 pole position in a breathtaking end to the Belgian Grand Prix qualifying session.

A rain shower at the start of Q3 made it look like Paul di Resta would snatch a sensational pole position for Force India.

But as the track dried up again, the Mercedes and Red Bulls blasted through to demote the Scot to fifth.

Di Resta was the only man to start Q3 on intermediates, and while the other nine drivers slithered helplessly and had to pit again to abandon their slicks, the Force India flew to the top.

It seemed that no one else would have a chance, although Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg hinted at a challenge when he got within half a second of the Force India in much worse weather.

While di Resta pitted with pole apparently in the bag, the rain eased completely, and those able to squeeze in a lap at the end were back in pole contention.

It was Rosberg who first deposed the Force India, but he was quickly beaten by first Red Bull's Mark Webber, then Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel came through 0.2 seconds slower than Hamilton to claim the second front row spot, followed by Webber, Rosberg and di Resta.

Jenson Button put the lead McLaren an encouraging sixth.

Lotus and Ferrari had to settle for rows four and five, with title contenders Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso back in eighth and ninth positions.

The biggest upset of the wet-but-drying first part of qualifying was Marussia duo Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton plus Caterham's Giedo van der Garde all making it through to Q2.

The trio were the only drivers to try slicks at the end of the session and all jumped up the order, all the way to third in van der Garde's case.

As they progressed, both Williams, both Toro Rossos and Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez were left to rue more conservative tactics as they failed to reach Q2.

With Q2 dry, van der Garde, Bianchi and Chilton lined up in 14th to 16th places.

That still means Caterham will share row seven with a McLaren, as Sergio Perez was the highest-profile driver to fall in Q2.

He starts behind the all-German row six pairing of Nico Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil.

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[nookiebear]

Whats the betting on Hamilton getting overtaken from the start!

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First Corner after start normally sees a few incidents, plenty of potential!

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Belgian GP: Sebastian Vettel scores routine win as weather stays dry

By Matt Beer   Sunday, August 25th 2013

Sebastian Vettel F1 2013

Sebastian Vettel took a routine victory for Red Bull in a totally dry Belgian Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso was able to tiger through from ninth on the grid to second ahead of pole sitter Lewis Hamilton, but fellow title contender Kimi Raikkonen's long finishing streak ended with a brake problem.

It took less than half a lap for Vettel to claim control of the race.

Hamilton's Mercedes had stayed ahead through an uneventful start, but Vettel attacked immediately and overtook on the run to Les Combes.

That was the last Vettel's rivals saw of him, as the world champion alternated between cruising to protect his machinery and chucking in crushing fastest laps to prove how much he had in hand.

Alonso's confidence in Ferrari's race pace proved well-founded as a muscular first lap took him straight up to fifth place.

Jenson Button's McLaren and Nico Rosberg's Mercedes were overtaken soon afterwards.

A later first pitstop brought Alonso right up behind Hamilton, who he then passed as the Mercedes slipped a touch wide at La Source.

Hamilton retaliated with DRS on the Kemmel Straight, yet Alonso was able to fend him off despite a vicious twitch under braking.

Button looked like he might have a say in the podium fight as he ran long and hinted at a one-stop strategy.

In the end he had to follow the two-stop trend, dropping him behind Hamilton, Rosberg and the slow-starting Mark Webber.

The Australian's Red Bull showed great late pace having used hard tyres in the middle stint and softs at the end, the opposite strategy to most rivals, but ran out of steam when he came up behind the Mercedes.

Raikkonen looked set to finish adrift of this group even before a front brake issue forced him to retire his Lotus.

Felipe Massa resisted Romain Grosjean, the only successful one-stopper in the points, for seventh place.

Grosjean had an early brush with Sergio Perez in which the stewards judged that the Lotus had been forced off the road at Les Combes.

That earned Perez a drive-through penalty, and that plus late tyre wear on a one-stop left him 11th at the flag.

Qualifying sensation Paul di Resta faded from the start and was in a four-car battle outside the points when he was taken out at the Bus Stop by Pastor Maldonado.

Force India still scored thanks to Adrian Sutil's ninth place.

Daniel Ricciardo overcame Toro Rosso's qualifying miscue to come from 17th to 10th.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Belgian Grand Prix
Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium;
44 laps; 308.052km;
Weather: Dry.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       
 1.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault           
 2.  Alonso         Ferrari                           
 3.  Hamilton       Mercedes                           
 4.  Rosberg        Mercedes                           
 5.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault                   
 6.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes                   
 7.  Massa          Ferrari                           
 8.  Grosjean       Lotus-Renault                     
 9.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes               
10.  Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari                 
11.  Perez          McLaren-Mercedes                   
12.  Vergne         Toro Rosso-Ferrari                 
13.  Hulkenberg     Sauber-Ferrari                     
14.  Gutierrez      Sauber-Ferrari                     
15.  Bottas         Williams-Renault                   
16.  van der Garde  Caterham-Renault                   
17.  Maldonado      Williams-Renault                   
18.  Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth                 
19.  Chilton        Marussia-Cosworth                 

Fastest lap:

Not classified/retirements:               

Driver        Team                         
Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes               
Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault                     
Pic           Caterham-Renault 

World Championship standings, round 11:               

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel        197        1.  Red Bull-Renault          312
 2.  Alonso        151        2.  Mercedes                  235
 3.  Hamilton      139        3.  Ferrari                   218
 4.  Raikkonen     134        4.  Lotus-Renault             187
 5.  Webber        115        5.  McLaren-Mercedes           65
 6.  Rosberg        96        6.  Force India-Mercedes       61
 7.  Massa          67        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         25
 8.  Grosjean       53        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              7
 9.  Button         47        9.  Williams-Renault            1
10.  Di Resta       36       
11.  Sutil          25       
12.  Perez          18       
13.  Vergne         13       
14.  Ricciardo      12       
15.  Hulkenberg      7       
16.  Maldonado       1       
       
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Lewis leads the way
by Joe Saward

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the first practice session at Monza, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez. Jenson Button was seventh, ahead of Mark Webber, Pastor Maldonado, Jean-Eric Vergne and Esteban Gutierrez. Romain Grosjean was next ahead of Dan Ricciardo, Felipe Massa, Paul di Resta, Valtteri Bottas, James Calado (in the second Force India for Adrian Sutil), Nico Hulkenberg (who had gearbox troubles), Charles Pic, Max Chilton, Heikki Kovalainen (in for Giedo Van der Garde) and Rodolfo Gonzalez (in for Jules Bianchi).

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The old 1-2 at Monza
by Joe Saward

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber set the pace in the second practice session in Monza, with a gap of six-tenths between them. Kimi Raikkonen was next up with exactly the same lap time as his Lotus team-mate. Fernando Alonso was next ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, followed by Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Sergio Perez, Paul di Resta, Esteban Gutierrez, Adrian Sutil. They were followed by Pastor Maldonado, Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Hulkenberg, Dan Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas, Max Chilton, Charles Pic, Giedo Van der Garde and Jules Bianchi.

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Vettel still on top in P3
by Joe Saward

Sebastian Vettel continued to set the pace in Monza, ending the FP3 session 0.28secs ahead of Fernando Alonso, with Mark Webber third and Lewis Hamilton fourth. Sergio Perez was next with Dan Ricciardo, Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Pastor Maldonado and Kimi Raikkonen completing the top 10.

Next up was Jean-Eric Vergne, ahead of the Saubers of Nico Hulkenburg and Estaben Gutierrez, Romain Grosjean, Valtteri Bottas, Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta. Charles Pic, Giedo Van der Garde, Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton completed the field, while Nico Rosberg did not set a representative time because of overheating.

The only major incident was Di Resta spinning out. Sutil also had a spin but was able to rejoin.

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Vettel on pole
by Joe Saward

The Q3 session for the Italian GP provided some surprises as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber ended up 1-2 on the grid, but all eyes were on Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber, which qualified third ahead of the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. Nico Rosberg was sixth ahead of Dan Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Jenson Button and Jean-Eric Verge. There were five Ferrari engines in the top 10.


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