McLaren headed the practice times on Friday ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.
But Lewis Hamilton, who set the day’s fastest time, was just 0.058s quicker than Fernando Alonso over their best laps.
And on sector times, Ferrari had the edge. Felipe Massa’s three best sector times put him one tenth of a second faster than Hamilton, and he was almost matched by Alonso.
The times show Ferrari have a quick car for their home race – and underline how close the front-runners are at Monza.
Jenson Button said: “Looking at the data, there are quite a few teams out there that look quick too: it’s very close and that’s going to make it an interesting race.”
Here is the data from the first two practice sessions for the Italian Grand Prix.
Sector times and ultimate lap times – second practice
Car | Driver | Car | Sector 1 | Sector 2 | Sector 3 | Ultimate lap | Gap | Deficit to best | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 27.675 (7) | 29.071 (2) | 28.433 (1) | 1’25.179 | 0.251 | |
2 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 27.607 (4) | 29.082 (3) | 28.503 (2) | 1’25.192 | 0.013 | 0.156 |
3 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 27.585 (3) | 29.067 (1) | 28.638 (6) | 1’25.290 | 0.111 | 0.000 |
4 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 27.456 (1) | 29.150 (4) | 28.707 (7) | 1’25.313 | 0.134 | 0.015 |
5 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 27.643 (6) | 29.169 (5) | 28.518 (3) | 1’25.330 | 0.151 | 0.116 |
6 | 9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 27.763 (8) | 29.201 (6) | 28.534 (4) | 1’25.498 | 0.319 | 0.006 |
7 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 27.617 (5) | 29.205 (7) | 28.711 (8) | 1’25.533 | 0.354 | 0.013 |
8 | 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 27.554 (2) | 29.249 (9) | 28.744 (9) | 1’25.547 | 0.368 | 0.000 |
9 | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 27.914 (15) | 29.339 (10) | 28.588 (5) | 1’25.841 | 0.662 | 0.227 |
10 | 10 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Lotus-Renault | 27.988 (17) | 29.232 (8) | 28.746 (10) | 1’25.966 | 0.787 | 0.191 |
11 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 27.801 (12) | 29.387 (11) | 28.808 (13) | 1’25.996 | 0.817 | 0.098 |
12 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 27.798 (11) | 29.437 (12) | 28.843 (15) | 1’26.078 | 0.899 | 0.026 |
13 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 27.851 (13) | 29.677 (14) | 28.772 (11) | 1’26.300 | 1.121 | 0.104 |
14 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 27.780 (9) | 29.567 (13) | 28.956 (17) | 1’26.303 | 1.124 | 0.091 |
15 | 19 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 28.016 (18) | 29.708 (16) | 28.804 (12) | 1’26.528 | 1.349 | 0.255 |
16 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 27.792 (10) | 29.855 (19) | 28.937 (16) | 1’26.584 | 1.405 | 0.140 |
17 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 28.121 (19) | 29.695 (15) | 28.841 (14) | 1’26.657 | 1.478 | 0.073 |
18 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 27.913 (14) | 29.798 (17) | 29.073 (20) | 1’26.784 | 1.605 | 0.057 |
19 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 27.928 (16) | 29.830 (18) | 29.072 (19) | 1’26.830 | 1.651 | 0.034 |
20 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 28.236 (20) | 29.861 (20) | 29.057 (18) | 1’27.154 | 1.975 | 0.068 |
21 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 28.456 (24) | 30.052 (22) | 29.383 (21) | 1’27.891 | 2.712 | 0.053 |
22 | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 28.374 (22) | 30.049 (21) | 29.545 (22) | 1’27.968 | 2.789 | 0.000 |
23 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 28.417 (23) | 30.386 (23) | 29.739 (24) | 1’28.542 | 3.363 | 0.033 |
24 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 28.372 (21) | 30.567 (24) | 29.685 (23) | 1’28.624 | 3.445 | 0.155 |
Ferrari were not as quick as McLaren in the first part of the lap but more than made that up elsewhere, as Alonso explained: “Compared to Spa, here we are on the pace, maybe we have a bit more downforce and make up a bit of time at the two Lesmos and the second chicane, while we are losing out in the first sector with the two long straights.
“We will analyse these details this evening and tomorrow we will try and improve also in terms of top speed, which was probably our weak point today.”
Longest stint comparison – second practice
This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |
Sebastian Vettel | 94.558 | 91.205 | 91.424 | 90.79 | 91.071 | 93.691 | ||||||||||
Mark Webber | 91.672 | 90.717 | 90.466 | 90.317 | 90.644 | 90.356 | 90.177 | 90.144 | 90.374 | 94.741 | 90.18 | 90.908 | 90.3 | 90.652 | ||
Jenson Button | 91.323 | 91.146 | 90.773 | 90.573 | 90.578 | 90.732 | 90.734 | 92.97 | 90.609 | |||||||
Lewis Hamilton | 91.384 | 96.038 | 90.529 | 90.413 | 90.627 | 90.209 | 90.066 | 90.182 | 90.616 | 89.828 | 97.402 | |||||
Fernando Alonso | 85.713 | 92.279 | 85.564 | 91.976 | 85.35 | |||||||||||
Felipe Massa | 90.904 | 90.398 | 90.237 | 90.193 | 90.301 | 90.669 | 90.51 | 93.468 | 90.318 | 90.381 | 93.684 | 90.456 | 90.827 | 90.936 | ||
Michael Schumacher | 90.17 | 89.839 | 90.476 | 90.328 | 91.371 | 90.091 | 89.882 | 89.708 | 90.596 | 89.929 | 90.149 | 90.014 | 89.987 | 90.394 | 90.036 | 89.965 |
Nico Rosberg | 90.396 | 90.146 | 90.575 | 89.888 | 89.903 | 89.815 | 89.689 | 90.306 | 89.776 | 92.751 | 90.073 | 89.115 | ||||
Kimi Raikkonen | 90.644 | 90.67 | 90.513 | 90.493 | 90.307 | 90.672 | 90.183 | 90.012 | 90.366 | 90.63 | 90.343 | 90.105 | 90.139 | 90.683 | 90.185 | 90.205 |
Jerome dAmbrosio | 92.535 | 91.374 | 91.704 | 91.201 | 91.725 | 91.303 | 91.197 | 91.266 | 90.979 | 91.055 | ||||||
Paul di Resta | 91.379 | 91.582 | 91.799 | 90.751 | 91.603 | 90.702 | 90.683 | 90.945 | 90.735 | 90.619 | 90.802 | 91.391 | 91.522 | 96.463 | 90.854 | 90.745 |
Nico Hulkenberg | 91.321 | 91.092 | 95.7 | 91.133 | 91.072 | 90.646 | 90.745 | 90.538 | 90.668 | 90.416 | 90.388 | 90.278 | 90.608 | 90.201 | ||
Kamui Kobayashi | 89.262 | 88.278 | 97.537 | 88.185 | 87.593 | 89.816 | 87.332 | 86.73 | ||||||||
Sergio Perez | 86.669 | 86.321 | 95.388 | 86.072 | 93.417 | 86.795 | 86.068 | |||||||||
Daniel Ricciardo | 91.851 | 91.699 | 91.458 | 91.423 | 91.248 | 91.068 | 91.1 | 90.839 | 91.24 | 91.149 | 91.637 | 91.151 | 91.359 | |||
Jean-Eric Vergne | 92.769 | 91.994 | 91.755 | 91.638 | 91.808 | 91.784 | 91.262 | 91.419 | 91.305 | 91.797 | 91.276 | 91.142 | 91.198 | 91.431 | 91.52 | |
Pastor Maldonado | 92.023 | 91.326 | 93.584 | 91.393 | 90.885 | 90.604 | 92.2 | 90.861 | 91.384 | 91.028 | 90.578 | 90.838 | 91.322 | |||
Bruno Senna | 93.322 | 91.879 | 92.092 | 91.417 | 91.077 | 91.352 | 91.165 | 91.171 | ||||||||
Heikki Kovalainen | 92.379 | 96.229 | 91.493 | 91.5 | 91.806 | 91.46 | 91.648 | 91.632 | 91.278 | 91.339 | 91.053 | |||||
Vitaly Petrov | 91.933 | 91.801 | 91.642 | 91.537 | 91.751 | 93.07 | 91.369 | 91.44 | 92.811 | 93.942 | 91.729 | 92.768 | 95.495 | 92.101 | 92.263 | |
Pedro de la Rosa | 93.141 | 92.524 | 92.514 | 92.212 | 92.094 | 92.404 | 91.912 | 91.985 | 92.296 | 96.526 | 92.879 | |||||
Narain Karthikeyan | 90.305 | 90.12 | 89.825 | 89.527 | 89.481 | 89.477 | ||||||||||
Timo Glock | 92.441 | 91.97 | 92.158 | 91.961 | 91.845 | 91.726 | 91.996 | 91.799 | 91.82 | 94.791 | 91.581 | |||||
Charles Pic | 93.828 | 92.968 | 93.105 | 93.476 | 93.336 | 92.815 | 92.455 | 92.418 |
After four consecutive wet Friday practice sessions the teams finally had the chance to do some long runs and try to suss out tyre performance over a race stint.
They discovered the tyres are holding up well at Monza, where Pirelli has brought the medium and hard compounds. Kimi Raikkonen managed a particularly long stint with very consistent times.
Alonso was unable to do a long run at the end of second practice having been sidelined with a gearbox problem – though fortunately not one that will leave him with a grid penalty.
Having observed the progress of his team mate and rivals Alonso said: “I expect we will see different strategies in qualifying because there seems to be very little difference between the medium and hard tyres. In the race we will have to use both and so in the end it balances out.”
Nico Rosberg was also encouraged by Mercedes’ performance: “It seems that we have a good pace on high and low fuel levels,” he said.
Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said the medium tyre appeared to offer little in the way of a clear performance advantage over the more durable hard tyre: “We might see different approaches tomorrow, and some drivers could even try a one-stop strategy for the race: the winning tactic in Belgium a week ago, which used the same compounds.
“Although there are many places in Monza that put a lot of energy through the tyres, the overall wear rate has been very good today, which allowed a number of the drivers to set their fastest times later on in their runs.”
Complete practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’25.944 | 1’25.290 | |||
2 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’25.723 | 1’25.328 | |||
3 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’25.800 | 1’25.348 | |||
4 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’25.422 | 1’26.094 | |||
5 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’25.881 | 1’25.430 | |||
6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’25.762 | 1’25.446 | |||
7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 1’26.046 | 1’25.504 | |||
8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’26.518 | 1’25.547 | |||
9 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’25.548 | ||||
10 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’26.323 | 1’26.068 | |||
11 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’26.390 | 1’26.104 | |||
12 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Lotus-Renault | 1’27.180 | 1’26.157 | |||
13 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’26.508 | 1’26.394 | |||
14 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1’26.504 | 1’26.404 | |||
15 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1’26.641 | ||||
16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’27.373 | 1’26.724 | |||
17 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’26.746 | 1’26.730 | |||
18 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1’26.783 | ||||
19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1’27.855 | 1’26.841 | |||
20 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’27.789 | 1’26.864 | |||
21 | Jules Bianchi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’27.192 | ||||
22 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1’28.578 | 1’27.222 | |||
23 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’29.207 | 1’27.944 | |||
24 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’28.751 | 1’27.968 | |||
25 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1’29.331 | 1’28.575 | |||
26 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1’28.779 | ||||
27 | Ma Qing Hua | HRT-Cosworth | 1’31.239 |
Neither Red Bull made it into the top ten, raising the possibility of their drivers struggling to make it into Q3 tomorrow, as Sebastian Vettel failed to do at Spa.
Mark Webber said: “We’re working hard, but we’re not there yet. We were a bit more competitive on the longer runs in practice today. We’re not normally the Friday world champions, so we’ll do some work now for tomorrow. We often find a good step ahead of qualifying.”
The first practice session also saw the debut of Ma Qing Hua, the first Chinese driver to participate in an official F1 session. Ma described it as an “extraordinary experience”:
“From the start I felt comfortable in the car and working with the team, and I accomplished all the targets we set ourselves.
“We started with quite a long stint on hard tyres and then we made changes to the set-up as I adapted to the F112. It was an important step for me, but also for motorsport in China since it’s a very young sport there but with a great potential.”
Speed trap – second practice
# | Driver | Car | Engine | Max speed (kph) | Gap | |
1 | 10 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Lotus | Renault | 345.4 | |
2 | 9 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | Renault | 343 | 2.4 |
3 | 3 | Jenson Button | McLaren | Mercedes | 342.3 | 3.1 |
4 | 4 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | Mercedes | 341.9 | 3.5 |
5 | 11 | Paul di Resta | Force India | Mercedes | 341.7 | 3.7 |
6 | 12 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | Mercedes | 341.3 | 4.1 |
7 | 15 | Sergio Perez | Sauber | Ferrari | 339.4 | 6 |
8 | 14 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber | Ferrari | 339.3 | 6.1 |
9 | 7 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | Mercedes | 338.4 | 7 |
10 | 8 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | Mercedes | 338.4 | 7 |
11 | 20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham | Renault | 338 | 7.4 |
12 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT | Cosworth | 338 | 7.4 |
13 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | Ferrari | 337.9 | 7.5 |
14 | 21 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham | Renault | 337.5 | 7.9 |
15 | 6 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | Ferrari | 337.3 | 8.1 |
16 | 16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | Ferrari | 336.7 | 8.7 |
17 | 17 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | Ferrari | 336.5 | 8.9 |
18 | 25 | Charles Pic | Marussia | Cosworth | 336.4 | 9 |
19 | 24 | Timo Glock | Marussia | Cosworth | 335.8 | 9.6 |
20 | 23 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT | Cosworth | 333.7 | 11.7 |
21 | 19 | Bruno Senna | Williams | Renault | 333.4 | 12 |
22 | 18 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | Renault | 333.2 | 12.2 |
23 | 2 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | Renault | 329.1 | 16.3 |
24 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | Renault | 328.7 | 16.7 |
A big part of the reason for Red Bull’s troubles is their poor straight-line speed – over 4kph slower than any other car. Significantly the Lotuses, which use the same Renault engines, were the fastest, indicating the problem is not necessarily a lack of horsepower.
2012 Italian Grand Prix
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Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo
xeroxpt (@)
7th September 2012, 18:44
nice analysis as usual, but I don’t believe in Ferraris pace, they tend to show their true potential in friday practice, they are surely better but i don’t think they have enough for Mclaren-Mercedes.
vishy (@vishy)
7th September 2012, 19:48
Agree. Ferrari might be running a bit lighter on fuel. I expect they will be quite a bit behind.
M30
7th September 2012, 21:06
Forget the Ferrari’s., Narain has MONSTER race pace. He can win from the back!
Eggry (@eggry)
8th September 2012, 6:18
Haha really it is :D
xeroxpt (@)
7th September 2012, 18:50
The speed trap chart is really interesting, we don’t really know for sure if those speed were obtained when slip-streaming anyways those stats reveal how long are teams 7th gears, Williams super quick at SPA seem to be running too much downforce this time? cause Lotus surely won’t make the Belgium mistake this weekend they brought the low drag spec, i can’t understand red bulls speed trap marks, perhaps running low revs for friday, maybe scarbs can shed a light on the mystery.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
7th September 2012, 19:23
They paired nicely per 2 for those speed traps … We are used to see RedBull at the bottom of top speed but not by that margin. It could be a struggle to match Lotus and McLaren in the straight and we saw at Spa the importance of top speed with Sch passing back or defending Kimi just because of his beter speed …
sanjaa
7th September 2012, 18:57
FP times mean squat…I bet the pole times atleast 1.23.000
Ferraris got poor top speed, I guess macca’s extra diffuse DF is getting them out the corners a lot quicker
xeroxpt (@)
7th September 2012, 20:45
Read the article, alonso says that Ferrari were running higher down.
remengo
8th September 2012, 12:39
last year the winner had the slowest top speed…check…
Eggry (@eggry)
7th September 2012, 19:21
Ferrari need to improve top speed unless they will be easily overtaken. They might be OK, if they repeat something like Red Bull did last year but it’s unlikely because F2012 doesn’t have mighty downforce of RB7(RB8 either though!)
Aimal (@aimalkhan)
7th September 2012, 19:39
As long as Fernando is on the podium and ahead of the red bulls, it will be a good day for Ferrari.
Wallbreaker (@wallbreaker)
7th September 2012, 21:08
On the other hand, when they have the edge in sectors 2 and 3, their rivals will find it difficult to be close enough for overtaking, because that’s where they need to be close.
85q
7th September 2012, 22:07
yes in a normal race like 2010. when you could do that. In the DRS age the one moment they get with in a second of you it will be mirror signal maneuver.
Question for you guys. as i didnt see FP. was everyone using DRS all round the lap like they usually do in FP?? i never understand this when they are running race fuel, its totally false data as you dont use drs on every straight in the race. its only useful to set up gearing for qualy.
erix
7th September 2012, 19:29
From lap time chart, it seems like Kimi vs Schumi. Mercedes should have greater torque, whilst Lotus would have better straight line speed configuration just like last year at Monza.
Kimi4WDC
8th September 2012, 4:46
Yeah, looks like Mercs and Lotus are race ready. I would question Mercs tyre wear though, I was amazed how bad it was in Spa.
Roald (@roald)
7th September 2012, 19:47
I can not possibly be the only one that automatically assumed the article was going to be about Alonso when reading the title.
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
7th September 2012, 19:48
That Red Bull is such a drag!
Seriously, though, Webber did put in a good long run, competitive with Hamilton and slightly longer. Button’s long run doesn’t look quite as good, but I think he had a very good run in FP1 on the harder tyre.
Well, I hope so, but with a low of cars of similar speed all trying to do a one-stop strategy, we could be in for a processional race. If tyre wear is higher than expected, though, and teams find that they have to make their first stop around lap 17-18, rather 23-34, then we could be in for an interesting finale.
91jb12 (@91jb12)
7th September 2012, 21:32
just a pity that Vettel and Webber will need their good race pace starting mid pack, will they get clean air to show it
Umar Majid (@um1234)
7th September 2012, 19:59
i think lotus and sauber could make a one stop race work, would be exciting to see raikkonen one stop and the other top drivers having to do a two stop race
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
7th September 2012, 21:29
@um1234
The last two races in Monza have been one-stoppers, so I very much doubt that this will have such increased tyre wear that it will require more, especially on medium and hards.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
7th September 2012, 22:41
@jamiefranklin Remember that in 2010 F1 was still using Bridgestone rubber, so that was always going to be a one stop. That said however, last year was medium and soft so this year, by rights should be a one stopper for those who are kind to their tyres. Hoperfully @um1234 is right about Lotus and they can capitalise.
F1Yankee (@f1yankee)
7th September 2012, 21:34
cmon felipe! if you’re ever going to score podiums again, it’s needed right now.
BasCB (@bascb)
8th September 2012, 9:08
:-) Would be a great time to do it in front of the Tifosi, wouldn’t it!
Adam Tate (@adam-tate)
8th September 2012, 9:56
Felipe on the podium would make my weekend!
Fixy (@)
7th September 2012, 22:09
To have the ultimate fastest lap is of little use if you’re fast in different sectors on different laps. If Massa were consistent, he could have his best weekend in a long time, it’s nice to see him on form.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
7th September 2012, 22:37
I’m not really worried for RBR. They rarely fair up well in the speed trap and they were miles behind Sauber (the top guys) in Spa. If they can stick like glue to the few corners there are I’m sure they will qualify and score well but I don’t envisage a 2011 style victory for them, I just don’t think they have the performance advantage this ear.
electrolite (@electrolite)
7th September 2012, 22:51
Looking at practice earlier on the Mclaren’s times seemed to be up there even when the lap wasn’t that amazing. I’d said they’re the ones to watch – but a podium for Felipe this weekend would be brilliant!
dot_com (@dot_com)
7th September 2012, 23:32
Are we going to have a good old-fashioned Ferrari vs McLaren scrap at Monza?? Can’t wait :)
Novotny (@novotny)
8th September 2012, 0:52
Looks like it. Though it would be beautifully exciting if D’Ambrosio could be up there causing problems. Not in a Grossjean way, mind ;)
@HoHum (@hohum)
8th September 2012, 0:10
So much for analysing max engine power by looking at the speed-trap data, however reading the report of Kimis’ ragged first practice I’m guessing Lotus are running a very low drag configuration, should make for exciting racing.
nerf u (@nerf)
8th September 2012, 3:45
Wow what a great year! Nobody can figure anything out , no rhyme or reason to the races , anybody can win and the experts are made to look like fools.
pantherjag (@pantherjag)
8th September 2012, 8:33
Schumacher looks particualy strong this weekend. His fastest lap in FP2 was actually a net quickest when you consider he did it with no DRS. I have been reading various analysis’s that suggest its worth upto 1.2 seconds around monza considering the 4 long straights. Also encouraged by mercedes long run pace. I think its actually a true reflection that they are in the hunt this weekend.
remengo
8th September 2012, 9:04
It seems that Button and Hamilton made times on medium compound while Alonso was on hards, maybe another little improvement is possible.
BasCB (@bascb)
8th September 2012, 9:12
Hm, looks like we might see a race where the Mercedes cars qualify near the front again and then will have their work cut out to make it work over the distance. Can Schumi do a nice run defending from faster cars again this year?
I would love to have it this tight come qualifying and the race, might bring us a repeat of 2010 with both Alonso and Massa fighting with Button. If we add Hamilton to that mix, and Kimi too (and have it complicated from all of them having to count on the Mercedes being somewhere in ther) it might be a real treat.
Although for the championship an Alonso engine failure during the race would not be bad (giving Massa a win?)