Practice got underway in Monza with the teams facing difficult decisions over how to set their cars up to get the most out of the Drag Reduction System.
By running with more downforce they can find more time in the corners and still be quick down the straights in qualifying thanks to DRS. But that could leave them vulnerable in the race, when the use of DRS is restricted.
Some cars had noticeably different rear wing angles, particularly the McLarens, who seemed to be running more rear wing than the likes of Red Bull.
Despite that, McLaren were slightly quicker through the speed trap than Red Bull.
Longest stint comparison
- All the teams ran medium tyres in first practice
- Monza is not an especially punishing track for tyres and tyre life seems good, with several drivers setting their best laps at the end of stints.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
Sebastian Vettel | 89.793 | 87.666 | 86.381 | 86.494 | 85.914 | 92.165 | 85.849 | |||
Mark Webber | 87.1 | 89.085 | 86.493 | 85.757 | 85.907 | 85.459 | ||||
Lewis Hamilton | 85.646 | 85.085 | 92.424 | 87.582 | 84.127 | 90.361 | 88.496 | 83.865 | ||
Jenson Button | 87.731 | 84.963 | 94.331 | 84.786 | 88.973 | 86.04 | ||||
Fernando Alonso | 92.265 | 89.257 | 89.187 | 89.473 | 86.933 | 86.647 | 87.819 | |||
Felipe Massa | 90.775 | 88.293 | 87.179 | 87.704 | 86.882 | 89.452 | ||||
Michael Schumacher | 87.794 | 90.267 | 87.662 | 87.446 | 87.116 | 93.02 | ||||
Nico Rosberg | 89.682 | 88.965 | 88.961 | 89.396 | 95.102 | 95.861 | 94.236 | 88.257 | 87.939 | 87.492 |
Bruno Senna | 88.96 | 88.072 | 87.749 | 87.556 | 87.602 | 87.385 | ||||
Vitaly Petrov | 94.511 | 88.727 | 87.685 | 90.967 | 87.04 | |||||
Rubens Barrichello | 91.274 | 87.716 | 92.276 | 89.458 | 88.303 | 89.647 | 86.836 | 87.7 | ||
Pastor Maldonado | 91.687 | 90.268 | 93.782 | 90.147 | 91.701 | 92.033 | 94.44 | 91.525 | ||
Adrian Sutil | 90.556 | 87.204 | 86.799 | 96.35 | 86.66 | 86.55 | ||||
Nico Hulkenberg | 90.501 | 87.799 | 87.366 | 93.14 | 91.92 | 86.826 | ||||
Kamui Kobayashi | 88.885 | 88.621 | 95.654 | 87.247 | 87.151 | 87.022 | 100.449 | 88.681 | ||
Sergio Perez | 93.772 | 91.922 | 90.844 | 89.859 | 88.831 | 88.696 | 88.533 | 92.697 | 87.625 | |
Sebastien Buemi | 88.156 | 87.66 | 88.188 | 89.113 | 87.601 | 94.292 | 88.352 | |||
Jaime Alguersuari | 87.867 | 87.286 | 88.445 | 86.696 | 87.039 | |||||
Heikki Kovalainen | 91.563 | 90.496 | 98.918 | 90.201 | 97.262 | 89.539 | ||||
Karun Chandhok | 93.234 | 91.405 | 94.617 | 93.967 | 90.489 | 91.218 | 90.731 | 90.148 | ||
Daniel Ricciardo | 91.839 | 91.044 | 91.119 | 92.931 | 90.609 | 92.312 | 91.149 | |||
Vitantonio Liuzzi | 93.644 | 95.709 | 92.335 | 91.484 | 92.244 | 91.208 | ||||
Timo Glock | 130.488 | 97.158 | 91.502 | 91.052 | 92.719 | |||||
Jerome dAmbrosio | 95.253 | 94.347 | 93.956 | 92.632 | 92.123 | 95.768 |
Ultimate lap times
An ultimate lap is a driver’s fastest three sector times combined.
- As usual, the HRTs and Virgins are hovering around the 107% mark. However Virgin had problems with both cars in this session.
Complete practice times
- Ferrari may be 2.7s off the pace but Fernando Alonso missed the last ten minutes of the session after a cut was found on his left-rear tyre.
- The fastest time, set by Lewis Hamilton, was almost two-tenths of a second of the best time seen in first practice last year. The track has been partly resurfaced.
Speed trap
- Despite their steeper rear wing angles, the McLarens were quicker than the Red Bulls in a straight line.
- Sebastian Vettel was the slowest through the speed trap, 19.5kph off the fastest. That’s far further behind than he was in the same session last year. Team mate Mark Webber’s speed looks more representative but is still in the bottom half.
- Both Ferraris are also well down the list.
- These could indicate a lack of straight-line speed but, this being first practice, it’s also possible they were running old engines and/or not using DRS.
- The highest speed, set by Vitaly Petrov, was 1.6kph slower than the highest seen last year, by Jaime Algeursuari in qualifying.
2011 Italian Grand Prix
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
BasCB (@bascb)
9th September 2011, 12:40
I think Red Bull is having the wings flat because their car body gets them enough downforce (and drag) all by itself. The upside of that is, that they will not be able to improve that much in Qualifying, so we might really have a chance of seeing a car different then Red Bull on pole!
It would be really nice to see a McLaren first row with Alonso and Webber right behind, although I expect Vettel to be there when it counts.
Zecks
9th September 2011, 12:48
it is no surprise that the ‘slower’ teams are running less wing as there races will depend on making places at the start.
It is interesting that despite a ‘big’ upgrade for monza, virgin are over 0.5s behind HRT.
Dan Selby
9th September 2011, 13:21
Good point on the Virgin front, Zecks. Doesn’t seem like the step forward they were anticipating.
Also, rather strange that a Renault powered car is the fastest through the speed trap, yet Red Bull are nowhere..!
Mike
9th September 2011, 14:36
Nice to see Lotus with a bit of straight line speed. Guess that puts out the Cosworth doubters.
Mclaren really look to be aiming at qually trim.
Merc was slow, but given the comments I’ve read I assume they’ll just be trying to make the tyres last.
Dan Selby
9th September 2011, 14:42
Neither Lotus (Loti?) use Cosworth.
Fixy (@)
9th September 2011, 14:50
Four Ferrari engines in the top five maximum speeds! Great!
Eggry (@eggry)
9th September 2011, 16:15
Except Ferrari!!
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
10th September 2011, 1:57
The Mclaren’s are trying to get in more corning speed which will help them ti exit parabolica more neatly then others & help the car in front to attack in the DRS zone.