Overtaking galore at wet Monza (Video)

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Wet weather made the Monza F1 race a feast of overtaking

It doesn’t usually rain on the Italian Grand Prix but the wet surface at Monza – just as at Silverstone and Spa – gave us some excellent racing.

Here’s video of some of the best passes and key incidents involving Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, David Coulthard and others:

Lewis Hamilton passes Giancarlo Fisichella, Kimi Raikkonen and others

Lewis Hamilton passed car after car in the early stages of the race. Here are some of his moves.

Jarno Trulli passes Robert Kubica, Felipe Massa passes Mark Webber

Trulli lunged past Kubica at the Della Roggia chicane – but Kubica’s perfectly timed pit stop meant he ended up back in front of the Toyota in third while Trulli finished out of the points.

Massa changed onto standard wet tyres a lap before Webber and used that to pass him on the approach to Ascari. Webber spun as they came out of the bend.

Italian Grand Prix incidents

Here’s some of the moves that didn’t work. Fisichella crashed after hitting David Coulthard’s Red Bull. Hamilton put Timo Glock wide, Jenson Button and Nelson Piquet banged wheels, and Coulthard collided with Kazuki Nakajima.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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50 comments on “Overtaking galore at wet Monza (Video)”

  1. Hamilton drove great today, but he showed some bad manners. The vs Webber video is one example, but he did two more rude manoeuvres. That’s not wise, given the love FIA has for McLaren…

  2. Ponzonha, at the risk of being polemical, I think with the lack of support from most other drivers for the Spa decision, Hamilton was out to make point. Point made, I thought. And to be honest, if you’re talking about the Glock pass, I really don’t think he expected Glock to be where he was – he was angling for the next curve more than cutting him off. As for Webber, frankly I loved it. Look carefully and you’ll see Hamilton defended by moving across (not weaving), it’s Webber who bounces Hamilton but loses control. 1-0 Hamilton. Tough luck Webber.

  3. Ponzonha is right… I really think some talk about Hamilton as a superstar while overtaking but he’s quite dirty when he does it…

    but it’s better to discuss that on other topic xP

  4. Ponzonha, he may have shown some bad manners today, but it’s nothing worse than Schumacher did over the years, oh but i forgot, Lewis is English & doesnt drive a red car….. I think, however, David is spot on in his analysis, he’s a true racer who owes nothing (especially after Spa) to his ‘fellow’ drivers. I can almost hear Lewis saying, sod ’em all, I’m coming through. It was just a pity they put wets on rather than inters…..

  5. No particular pro-Hamilton axe to grind, but it seemed to me that, in the ‘Webber incident’, Hamilton simply took the same line into the corner that he was normally taking when not trying to overtake another car. I thought this might crop up, given the scrutiny he would be under, so looked at this the next few laps afterwards. He, and most others judging by the drying racing line into the chicane, did move slightly left each time before turning in. I think it’s likely that he simply didn’t expect Webber to go outside there or just didn’t see him, as most drivers seem to miss cars in that particular field of vision these days.

  6. you have to love the energy with which fom chases videos on youtube.. if only they put the same effort into making videos of the races and present on youtube or f1.com instead.. crasches ok, i understand (maybe), but these kind of goodies that only show the greatest moments of the sport? …

  7. I’m not sure I’d call aggressive driving bad manners. It’s about time we saw some ‘get out of the bloody way I’m coming through’ driving, this kid seems to have the Senna/Mansell genes in him, which can only be good for F1.

  8. @Bud

    I agree mate.
    Mansell & others of his generation thought nothing of aggressive overtaking, it was all part of the game.
    And even Schumi wasn’t too proud to nudge some oponents out of the way.

    I think it only stopped a few years ago because the suspension struts had a tendancy to break with even minimal contact, don’t know if they’ve changed the construction or if they’re just making them stronger, but they seem to be a bit tougher these days.

    I didn’t see too much wrong with the Lewis vs Webber move & I’m more a Webber fan than a Lewis fan (like ’em both but niether are my favourite).

    In conditions like we had today and last week at Spa I think there should be a bit more leniency from the stewards unless someone is driving dangerously or taking a blatant/repeated advantage.
    If possible they should be on the radio a.s.a.p. if they think someone has gained an advantage.

  9. Webber criticized Hamilton after SPA for having
    cutting, gaining advantage and not remaining ceded
    at the next corner.

    Webber cut by a hell of lot more than Hamilton, returned
    ahead and did not cede until AFTER the next corner.
    After the Whiting rule clarification this is strictly speaking a violation worth 25s.

  10. Peter – I don’t agree, but regardless I can’t see McLaren protesting because if Webber did get a penalty it would put Raikkonen in the points!

  11. Good call Keith :~)

    Can’t see Ron wanting to give a point to Ferrari.

  12. Hi Keith,

    I don’t think Webber should be penalized – but
    I don’t think Hamilton should have been either.

    I’m simply pointing out what I see as hypocrisy in the castigation of Hamilton – many critical voices themselves struggle with the shades of gray in these conditions.

    Senna was DQ’d for taking a Webber like route
    after collision with Prost….

    Peter

  13. Another grey area worth mentioning was when Hamilton was closing on Massa, Massa outbraked himself and cut the chicane. If he had stayed on track Hamilton would have been a lot closer through the next part of the track and maybe even could have got a run on him to pass. Brundle brought it up in commentary.

    I’m not saying there should have been a penalty or anything – how the hell would you police that?! It’d be impossible to say how much of an advantage he gained. But in these times of scrutinising every piece of chicane cutting I thought it was an interesting moment.

  14. The stewards, apparently found it ok, at Spa, for a driver ahead to defend his position aggressively, So in that light, Lewis’ moves were very okay. In actual fact though, I doubt any of those drivers out there, could see anything through their rear view mirrors with the amount of spray they were generating.

  15. Now, that’s a proper race. Finally we can have some overtaking in the highlights, rather than ramblings about whose pit stop was the fastest and how much fuel they carried. :)
    Is there any way to make rain mandatory for all GPs? ;)

    And btw, I think they said there’s a 60% chance it may rain in Singapore according to the last forecast. I wonder what that would look like. I understand those floodlights would be ok in normal conditions, but will the drivers be able to see anything when it starts to rain ? Given how much visibility degrades when driving a normal car at night in the rain in a city full of different light sources it might be almost impossible to see anything with all that spray left by F1 cars.
    Is there any comparable racing class that held night races with floodlights and rain? There have been NASCAR night races for quite some time afaik, but I think they don’t drive in the wet at all, do they ?

  16. I agree with Ponzonha. This is the way Hamilton drive. He always close the door half way to throw the other drive out of his way. And remember this was not last time, he will do the same again. Habit is habit.

  17. Keith, 3 of the 4 videos have been taken down :( . I think it’s time The Pirate Bay started a video hosting service :)

  18. I loved Vettel’s quip at Hamilton: “we showed we have the balls”. I think Hammy’s car was far better in the rain, which also calls into question Kova’s performance. Hammy’s McLaren looked unbeatable at times, and he found so much more grip and traction. It was almost unfair to the other drivers who weren’t given a chance to fight for their positions. That’s not racing in my mind… not the kind of passing I want to see. I want to see real fights… not someone taking candy from a baby and then bragging about it after the race.

  19. Looking at how the drivers improved from their starting positions, and allowing for the conditions too, Massa actually stayed put by the end of the race, and although he didn’t have to move to get points, I was expecting him to at least get a podium place. Hammy gained 8(?) places, after a lot of serious driving and overtaking – and I thought we all like to see agressive driving? Kovy was disappointing as he didn’t really challenge for the top spot, but again, as long as he was second he did some good. Kimi ought to have followed, and even led Hammy through the field, but didn’t! He could have improved a lot when everyone changed to inters, but seemed to give up.
    I also have to question the weather forecasting, which appeared to be wildly inaccurate for the second part of the race. Was anybody there? Did it rain once the race was over?
    Also, I had watched the Saturday GP2 race beforehand, and in that race most of the cars missed the chicanes at least once during the race, and didn’t appear to wait for the next corner before they challenged again. Does GP2 use the same rules as F1? Does it use the same Stewards? I was impressed by the good manners of the F1 drivers though, presumably since they were under orders from the teams and had a talking to from Old Charlie?

  20. Congrats to Vettel for his maiden win. He drove an excellent race and deserves all the adoration. To all the on-line stewards, Hamilton drove fearlessly and gave us some exciting overtaking, please dont ruin it with speculation on his motives and manners, this is what fans want. Why the heck did Ferrari sign Kimi for another year when clearly there are talent overflowing elsewhere? Very lacklustre performance from him once again. I do not like Massa very much but at least he has the will to win.

  21. I do like aggressive driving. I love how Hamilton managed to climb from 15 to 2. But the point is that he passed flawlessly and without dirty tricks from his rivals. Even Raikkonen let him away without playing rude moves (and I would have expected Raikkonnen to teach him what smashed balls are). But when Hamilton is about to be passed, he plays a different game, that’s what I am pointing out…

  22. Ponzonha – as does Alonso, as does Kimi, as does Massa, as does everybody else you can think of. Its called racing.

  23. Ponzonha, one thing you failed to take into account is what Lewis himself said, the racing line was dry by the time Webber tried the overtaking and Lewis was steering left just to follow that dry line into the chicane, completely within his right as the first car. That makes a huge difference to the overtaking in the wet when there were no clear lines. And just imagine, what would be peoples opinion be if the roles were reversed, Lewis would get so much stick for running into Webbers rear tires, perhaps even a penalty for going straight through the chicane;)

    Anyway McLaren screwed up the tire choice once more, perhaps due to inaccurate forecast. With intermediates Lewis would consolidate a podium finish just like Kubica, perhaps even a memorable win. Takes nothing away from Vettel though, he was outstanding. Somebody mentioned that he is more of a Mercedes guy than Ferrari, that would be sweet but is there any ground for that?

  24. What can you expect, Hamilton is very agressive these days as he needs to prove something and redeem himself to Maclaren and Ron for the failure to win the WDC last year. He’d rather take out other drivers than to loose this WDC again. He’s such a reckless driver and a rude one.

  25. @ #21 : I respect everyone’s opinion, its just that last weekend when Kimi defended his line very aggressively it was all good and I agree, its his right to defend it but when Hamilton does it people are ready to take up arms. It irks me no end. Lets compare all the drivers the same way.

  26. What a desperate move by bloody Hamilton mates!

  27. DG – about the second weather prediction, the forecasts we were looking at on the live blog were saying there wasn’t going to be a second big rain shower.

    Cyanide – What can you do eh? Have added some new ones.

  28. Thanks Kieth, I wonder if the teams now regret using the ‘official’ forecaster and will go back to using their own?

  29. CD,
    I wonder where you were when kimi drove Hamilton off track, I don’t remember you commenting on that. Now Hamilton gave Webber a cars width, but Webber was trying to turn in and you go bashing. We had a great race yesterday, full of marvelous overtaking and close racing, yet all you can come post here is a single driver bashing.
    Why didn’t you talk about Coulthard almost taking Nakajima off the track or Season as a whole.

  30. It’s not only me who’s noticing Hamilton’s driving style. Yeah, lots of overtaking were seen yesterday. a lot of them were good but some of them were bad. why can’t you just accept the fact that hammy’s driving style is dangerous like that of Montoya? hurt? don’t be, it’s just a sport mate.

    oh and by the way, i was maybe at the bathroom when kimi almost took hammy off track. Sorry I wasn’t able to see that. i guess kimi found his balls again.

  31. I hear a lot of these “bad manner” comments about Lewis and they are true even Martin Brundle made the point on one of his manouveres, can’t remember which.

    Would be more fascinating to see how the rest of the drivers will treat Hamilton the next time he is overtaking them or being overtaken himself. Nobody likes a big mouth especially one who shows no class in his post-race interviews. Unfortunately for Lewis while he is busy playing up to the British Press he is managing to **** every other driver off in the paddock so it will make an interesting end to this season to see their reactions.

  32. I totally agree with you Rabi. i am a ferrari fan especially Kimi’s. But because Massa is so conceited/loud mouth or big mouth like Hamilton as you call it, I would rather cheer for Vettel than him. Sorry for the off topic Keith.

    But the race yesterday was really awsome. lots of great overtaking. a really great race to remember.

  33. i would not rather take the season as a whole, coz i might be counting all Hammy’s bad moves.

    Note: i’m not a Hammy hater, just don’t want Big Mouth.

    Lalalala lala, Big Mouth Strikes again! – The Smiths.

  34. After reading the comments…
    am quie sure this guy Hammy is surely going to be one of the most Hatred guy in the world in a few years….

    I do support he showed bad manners, btw…

  35. Shahriar – earlier article on that here: The most hated man in Formula 1

  36. I don’t know if I’d describe Hamilton as driving with “bad manners”, rather he was uncompromising. But then so was Raikkonen just last weekend at Spa. Or has everyone forgotten this?

    After last weekends crazy retrospective penalty I think both Hamilton and Vettel’s driving gave the sport a big boost personally.

  37. mail123456: its not just “some” drivers complaining, its once again Alonso badmouting his former team”mate”. Now I wonder who has no class in his postrace interviews.

  38. OK, Hamilton… “a big boost personally”. Well, we will see when others drivers make the same bad moves against him.

  39. Teles

    Check out the start to Spa 2007:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUe-HHDXkak

    Alonso sends ‘team-mate’ Hamilton off the track as his strategy for ensuring Lewis doesn’t pass him. Look carefully (try!) and you’ll first see Alonso weaving away into Lewis off the grid, but gives up trying to send him off track there as he would have lost the corner at La Rouge to others behind. Who spoke up for Alonso’s driving at the start? Raikkonen. Quote ‘seemed fine to me.’

    I think you’ll find there’s ‘history’ to the way LH treats some (or all) drivers now.

  40. Hamilton is just being forced to be defensive. There is a lot of resentment for him in the paddock because he started winning races and got lots of attention than most other drivers on the grid. So you will never find any driver who will say he did anything right.

  41. oops, La Source.

    Oliver, I agree. I also think a lot of what Lewis says is wind-up banter that falls somewhat flat out of context and gets soaked up and simplified by the media who are constantly after provocative sound-bites. As for the overtakes, just how many did Lewis do? Some of them were bound to be on the limit. But like the Webber incident, the other driver is often just as much or more to ‘blame’, though quite how people fail to see this is what racing is about beats me completely.

  42. I’m sure you don’t make friends in F1 by being young and dramatically talented. Oh, wait, I must have missed everyone’s reaction to Vettel’s win (well, maybe that was just because he had the balls).
    If you added up all the “incidents” with Lewis in the past two seasons, it makes it hard to deny that there is a problem. How to characterize that problem accurately, I dunno…

  43. Judging from most of the comments Hamilton must be the only driver on the grid for the past two seasons who cut chicanes,push people off the track,made mistakes,bad mouthed other drivers etc, blah blah blah. I am left speechless at the dislike for this YOUNG DRIVER! I personally think its just that every single word or move of his is scrutinized because he has become so popular. Its become really sad that personal bias has become so bad that we cannot just enjoy F1 for what it is anymore. Am I making any sense? Can we not see how ridiculous and pathetic this Lewis bashing has become?

  44. I think Hamilton doesn’t care about manners or pleasing the FIA anymore – the way he sees it, it doesn’t matter how careful he is, somebody is gonna whine about him anyway. If i were him i would do the same – he is now driving his race, the haters can whine until they are blue in the face – so long as he doesn’t read the blogs,who cares.

  45. I’ve written a new article that covers some of the moves made in Monza: Four of F1’s ‘unwritten rules’

  46. @ Oliver, I’m going to have to disagree with your point #41 about, resentment = no support.

    Whilst I personally thought that Hamilton did nothing wrong during his race at Monza (in fact he reminded me of Schumacher who is still my favourite driver ever!), I believe there is still enough room for a person whether they be a driver/boss or arm-chair critic to say otherwise.

    I think that making such a hugely sweeping statement that no drivers will ever agree with or stick up for Hamilton due to resentment is very unfair to the 19 other drivers on the grid. That is fairly much labelling them as children as that is what children do. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there is an element of resentment and/or envy in certain drivers regarding Hamilton’s success and attention. But saying that 19 drivers will not ever support Hamilton due to this is effectively saying that they cannot distinguish between what is right/fair and their own pride.

    I respect the drivers too much to agree with that.

  47. @Oliver[41]:
    Personally I don’t think it’s resentment to his youth. It’s his arrogance and lack of dignity and there was such a clear cut example of this in the post-race interview that ITV when he said something like “Oh who won the race?”.

    If you have someone like that on the grid who is always “me, me, me and I don’t give two flying ***** about everyone else” then there will be hatred towards him – no matter what the age. Lewis wants to be like his idol on the track, Senna that is.

  48. Was everyone else watching a different race to me?

    Where were all these ‘rude’ manouvers? Are these comments coming from the same people that drive along the road at 20mph under the limit and then flash anybody ‘rude’ enough to overtake them?

    The only overtake by Lewis I thought was maybe a bit dodgy was on Alonso where I wasn’t convinced he was fully past him when he pulled back in-front of him. But after what Alfonso did last year I couldn’t blame him, much.

    The Glock bit was a non-event – Lewis was well past and driving the corner normally.

    What other LH overtakes were rude? I would be genuinely interested to know!

  49. MarkR

    To answer your question there were no “rude” manouvers from Hamilton. I´m afraid there are certain people out there that will criticise him no matter what he does. They should just enjoy watching the man at work but there you go.

    I´m a Ferrari fan at heart but cant help but be excited by this guy, and being English aswell we (Brits) should be getting behind him, but it seems we´re not like that, we prefer to put ourselves down. I live in Spain and believe me, theres not one Spanish person that would say a bad word about Alonso, and he´s hardly the nice guy of F1 is he?!

    Hamilton has so much talent, he´s one of the few drivers that have really stood out in F1 for his car control and ability to find the limits in all conditions. The same was said about Senna, that he´d go out on his first lap and be on the limit near instantly, well for me Hamilton has that same rare ability. Is it not fare to say that you really find out about a drivers abillty when it rains, well i´m losing count of the times Hamilton has made the rest look average at best. Fuji last year, Silverstone and Monza this, and he´s stillso young.

    The only thing I will say as a negative towards Hamilton is his willingness to let us know how great he is. I know Senna was similar in that respect also and I believe Senna is a big influence on Hamilton, but I´d like to see his fans do the talking to allow him to do his talking behind the wheel. But he´s young and with time i´m sure he´ll see that more and more.

    Anyway, here´s to a great end to the season, cant wait!!!

    Cheers.

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