Late scare with de la Rosa can’t keep Alonso from victory (Ferrari race review)

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Fernando Alonso enjoyed every Ferrari driver’s dream debut at Monza by winning from pole position – and capping it with the fastest lap of the race.

He only made one mistake worthy of the name all race but had enough of a lead over Jenson Button to stay ahead and leap up to third in the drivers’ championship.

Felipe MassaFernando Alonso
Qualifying position31
Qualifying time comparison (Q3)1’22.293 (+0.331)1’21.962
Race position31
Average race lap1’26.581 (+0.08)1’26.501
Laps53/5353/53
Pit stops11

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Felipe Massa

Massa had a couple of off-track moments in practice. The first, at Parabolica in the second session, was the most dramatic, the Ferrari driver narrowly missing the barriers.

He took third on the grid and started well, exiting the Rettifilio side-by-side with Alonso. He might have had a chance of taking his team mate at the Roggia but he hit the rev limiter on the way out of the first chicane.

Massa kept pace with Alonso to begin with but fell two-and-a-half second behind by the time of the pit stops, consigning him to third.

Compare Felipe Massa’s form against his team mate in 2010

Fernando Alonso

A lap of 1’21.962 in qualifying sealed Alonso’s first pole position since Hungary last year.

He lost the lead to Button at the start but stayed within range of the McLaren all race. A rapid 3.4 second stop by his pit crew allowed him to run side-by-side with Button into the first corner and take the lead.

Afterwards he said the pit stop was so fast he almost hadn’t got ready to set off again:

I think there was one race where if the number was 3.4s today, I don’t remember if we did 3.2s one time. I don’t know if that was in a race situation. Obviously there is more stress etc…

Fighting for the race, knowing that our main opponent came into the pits one lap early and you have to deliver in these three seconds here in Italy with all the pressure that they have as well?óÔé¼?ª As I said, I felt the pit stop was the quickest I have ever done.

As I said just now, when I saw the green light, I just put the first gear in at that moment, so physically there was no time to do all the buttons and they changed four tyres, so it was something very good and very impressive, and a big thanks to the team.
Fernando Alonso

But there was a scare a few laps from home when he ran over the bumps at the first chicane:

I had Pedro [de la Rosa] in front of me for one lap and a half and then in the first chicane I thought he was letting me by and I brake a little bit late to overtake him.

Then he closed, so to avoid any risk or anything like that I said I go straight but then there were these big bumps, so I had to slow down as much as I could not to damage the car. It was a moment that maybe is better to avoid but he was there and we were lucky enough to keep the car in one piece.
Fernando Alonso

Compare Fernando Alonso’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 Italian Grand Prix

    Browse all 2010 Italian Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    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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    33 comments on “Late scare with de la Rosa can’t keep Alonso from victory (Ferrari race review)”

    1. I was wondering, why are some of these Articles in Brief and some Articles in Full? The only real difference I can see is that the Full ones have team quotes in them. Personally I would prefer if they were all removed together into a separate “Race Analysis” section!

      Hats off to the Ferrari pit crew for winning the race, Button almost got the better of Alonso, mind you would he have kept him at bay when having to save fuel?

      1. I think Keith does that so that the list of Articles In Brief doesn’t get so long that you can’t readily link to all the teams. Each list of articles only shows the 10 most recent, so twelve teams wouldn’t fit.

        1. That’s a good way of looking at it.

    2. I wondered about that chicane cutting and why he took so long for PDL to let Alonso pass. Nobody hurt,that’s the main thing

      1. I also wonder why people think Alonso is so whinny…he seems so diplomatic in the press conferences on moments like this…

        1. Erm, he won the race. Why would he be whining now?

          1. erm, I’m not talk about now, I said press conference(s) and I mean all the time…

    3. What a race by ferrari drivers and their pit crew too.
      Wasn´t expecting that from them, maybe 3º for Alonso and 4º for Massa, which wouldn´t have been bad given the Mclaren´s superiority in Monza.
      Fortunately for them, with that big help from Hamilton, Alonso is on the game again which is good for the championship ( both ).
      Looks also that Massa is getting more and more pace, that can be a good help for Alonso´s and Ferrari´s hopes

      1. Well, I think Alonso wants Massa further. Remember the start. I thought they would be out on first laps.

    4. Would be great to see that.. considering that Pedro is ridiculously unexciting to watch

    5. I saw the Ferrari front wing jack position is already at a 45 degree angle when the car is raised, so the jack man can quickly get out of the way and pull the jack at the same time. I think that nice jack design gave Alonso the victory.

      1. But if Lewis or Jenson had a nice jack design it would not give them the victory??

        1. eh? The guy appears to be complementing the Ferrari designers. Give him a break.

    6. I think it would be a pity if they sacked Pedro mid-season. I think he’s done a great job with development (Sauber were the 2nd team with the F-Duct for example), and has been very unlucky this year with failures and other people crashing into him.

      1. Maybe, in reality we still have no idea about the speed of the sauber though. Pedro is a driver we’ve not seen race for quite a while (and never really impressed that much when he did) and Kobayashi is basically an unknown quantity. Might be interesting to see a driver we know a bit better.

      2. While you may be right, I really don’t see how you can know how influential Pedro has been in the design of their F-Duct?

        It’s nice he got a little swan song, but he’s been out-driven by a rookie this season so perhaps it won’t be much of a loss when looking towards 2011.

        1. (This was a reply to Ed).

      3. I agree. PDLR is never going to be a world champion but he has vast knowledge from his McLaren days and is probably one of the best developers on the grid. I speculated at the start of the season that Sauber had a good mix of experience and raw talent and that finances were the only obstacle; if Peter Sauber is to be believed about securing finances for next year than dropping PDLR would be a mistake in my opinion.

        1. That was a reply to Ed, for some reason (at least on my computer) it seems to have made it an original comment.

    7. Obviously a fantastic race for Ferrari.

      Its good to see that Massa has turned his season around from the bad luck he had in the middle. He’s the only driver to finish in the top 4 at all the last four rounds now.

      He still lacks the absolute consistency of Alonso, particularly on the harder tyres, but there are some encouraging signs for next year.

    8. I heard the comentators on BBC saying that Ferrari were on their 8th engine and this needed to last to the end of the season. What does this rule actually mean, as I can’t imagine there being a grid without 2 Ferraris for the rest of the season if their engine blows!

      1. If they use more than they’re allotted, they get a grid penalty.

        1. I have a feeling that the grid penalty will end Fernando’s title hopes. Probably in Suzuka or Korea.

        2. Remember, they can re-use a race engine. But they will not want to reuse the ones from Spa and Monza, obviously, which probably go straight to scrap afterward. And earlier in the year, they had some kind of trouble with pneumatic system leak, so those engines are probably out too. They are likely to be tight on engines.

          1. 10 place grid penalty per engine after 8.

            1. 5 races on one engine is this possible?
              8 into 20 is 2 1/2 races per motor.

              or maybe 5 races on rebuilt engines if they are parts only that can be replaced.

              really cant see them making it without penalty’s.

            2. I was thinking that too. 20 races next year, and still only 8 engines.

              I wonder if they can reassemble an engine from the parts of previous engines? i.e. take the best bits from all 8, or are there parts that can be replaced, and parts that can’t?

          2. Last year too Vettel had the same issue. He blew 2 of his Renault engines at Valencia. But he managed to complete the year without any penalty and won in Aabudhabi too.
            I think Ferrari are experienced enough to bail Alonso out of this situation.
            All they got to do is keep his practice running to less kms. Let Massa collect the data required.

      2. This whole issue is overblown. You can use 8 engines in your first 8 races and never use a 9th, because you can always swap back to an older one.

      3. It means that they have no fresh (new) engines left so they will have to use previously run engines for the rest of the season and if they have to use a new engine then they get penalised.

    9. I do wonder why they seem to go for FLAPS at the end of the race and put the win at risk (albeit just a little).

      Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, and Schumacher all do it. I think they just get bored out front and perhaps it keeps the concentration levels up.

      1. That, and I think that maybe for Alonso having his first Monza win with Ferrari, the fact he also has pole, and got the FLAP, makes it extra good for the team and fans.

    10. Alonso , Ham , Vet , Web , Butt , Ros , Kub should all be disqualified for cheating

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