Rate the race: 2012 Italian Grand Prix

2012 Italian Grand Prix

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What did you think of the Italian Grand Prix? Share your verdict on today’s race.

F1 Fanatic holds polls on each race to find out which fans thought were the best and worst races during a season.

Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.

Rate the race out of ten and leave a comment below:

Rate the 2012 Italian Grand Prix out of ten

  • 10 (7%)
  • 9 (20%)
  • 8 (35%)
  • 7 (24%)
  • 6 (8%)
  • 5 (2%)
  • 4 (0%)
  • 3 (0%)
  • 2 (1%)
  • 1 (3%)

Total Voters: 664

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1 = ‘Terrible’, 10 = ‘Perfect’

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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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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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132 comments on “Rate the race: 2012 Italian Grand Prix”

  1. Alonso v Vettel. Talking about equality.

    Perez overtaking Alonso – that’s why Perez won’t drive Ferrari next year.

    1. Too quick for Alonso?

      1. Maybe, and Perez wouldn’t like to be number 2 driver.

        1. But who would like to?

          1. Massa! lol

          2. @osvaldas31 @f1mre There’s been a lot of comments about this so I’ve set up a poll:

            Did Vettel deserve penalty for Alonso move at Curva Grande?

    2. Agreed. Last year Alonso pushed Vettel off track, nobody cared.

      Now Vettel does the same, Vettel get’s a drive through.

      When Ferrari complain, FIA changes the rules for them.

      When another team complains, FIA changes the rules against them.

      But the FIA isn’t biased……

      1. When Alonso ‘pushed’ Vettel off the track last year, the current regulation of having to leave a 1-car width between the edge of the track during an overtaking maneouver was not in place.

        Taking a look at last year’s replay, it is obvious that Alonso in fact left a car width for Vettel last year, only Vettel did not use it. This year Vettel pushed further to the left.

        1. Agreed, replay of 2011 shows this clearly..

        2. Look at the momentum Alonso was carrying, he put him self in that situation. He choose the wrong side and cried out to all the world about it. A cry baby.

          1. If Alonso can get into a gap, he should be able to take it without the guy in front forcing an incident.

      2. FIA.
        Ferrari International Assistants.

        1. Todd (@braketurnaccelerate)
          9th September 2012, 22:22

          I know it won’t get it, but this should be COTD.

          1. No it shouldn’t. It’s an old and tired saying.

      3. And in the time since, the FIA has cracked down on dangerous driving.

    3. The Italians are 110% behind their car (even without a win)!
      Amazing to see… Britons could learn a thing or two from that :D

      1. You’ve obviously never been to Silverstone…

      2. Andy G (@toothpickbandit)
        9th September 2012, 16:06

        You mean booing everyone on the podium who doesn’t drive dor Ferrari? Yeah I’m good, thanks.

      3. I actually thought the Tifosi were behaving atrociously during the podium ceremony. Being not Italian nor British, I think the British fans are actually better ‘fans’ as they appreciate good racing, no matter which team they drive for.

        1. Absolutely right.

          Some (not all, by any means) Tifosi have the same attitude as some of these Beliebers etc… Being overly obnoxious and rude to anyone and anything that threatens their beloved Justin/Ferrari.

          In a way, the sport is worse off having fans that show a lack of consideration, regardless of how passionate they are to their favoured team.

        2. You say that… But then, this argument is going on.

      4. What a stupid thing to say.. At Silverstone this year tens of thousands of us braved unbelievable weather to support the mclaren boys and although they struggled during the race we never lost our appreciation for them.
        What we also did was stand and applaud a great fight between Webber and Alonso for the victory whilst still sporting our mclaren merch and union jacks.
        THIS, is what true F1 fans do!!

    4. Thats right!!!

  2. boring first 10 laps, absolutely awesome 2nd half, my face was 2 inches from the screen since perez pitted

  3. Lots of DRS passes, but lots of legitimate passes as well. Definitely got more thrilling towards the end. 7/10.

  4. really good race. shame about few retirements, without them race would be even more exiting at the end. 9/10

  5. I really liked it ! DRS was fair (good they are nailing those !), and there were some good fights everywhere. 9/10, just the battle for the lead was missing.

    1. DRS was as bad as it gets down here.
      Really just the idea of having DRS at Monza is plain stupid. DRS robbed the scene of many more side-by-side brake at 1st chicane and Roggia.

      1. Really just the idea of having DRS at Monza is plain stupid. DRS robbed the scene of many more side-by-side brake at 1st chicane and Roggia.

        @stefanauss I’m not so sure. It’s very hard to overtake here. I think DRS was good enough. It wasn’t straighfoward…

        1. the low downforce packages makes slipstreaming less effective, if i remember commentary or a tweet i read somewhere, i thought drs was pretty good here all things considered

      2. I didn’t think the DRS was that bad to be honest, it allowed moves to be set up, but it was still down to the drivers to get their braking right into the chicane in order to seal the move.

  6. 6/10 Good race, but we’ve seen much better. Above average, but nothing really special.

  7. A bittersweet 7 for me. Disappointing for Button and Vettel. Promising for Alonso and Perez. Refreshing for Hamilton.

    Race itself was entertaining. Not sure about the Vettel/Alonso incident. Not very fair on the front of it, but the stewards do seem to have developed a more punitive approach recently.

  8. No realistic fight for the win despite the wrong pit strategy, Alonso was very quick off the line, but not that brave tactic wise, they just mimic everyone else, Sauber try the odd thing and get results again.

    1. Agree…

    2. How could Alonso be more brave tactic wise? He had to start on the mediums where Perez had freedom over which tyres to start on. He came in at the right time, any longer he would have lost positions.

      1. He could have tried a two-stopper, though I’m not sure it would have paid off.

      2. Or not crying about choosing the wrong side to overtake Vettel.

  9. Classic italian grand prix. Clean, comprehensible, great battles on track, mechanical issues providing an element of surprise in the championship, a great drive by an outsider driver, crypted messages, penalties, controversy. It had absolutely everything. Quite an oldschool feel about it.

    I won’t take Ferrari’s “think about tyre management, Felipe” into account as Alonso would have passed Massa and pulled away anyway, with or without instructions from the team. Mixed feelings about Vettel’s penalty as well, but I guess that doesn’t matter either now either.

    A good watch. 8/10.

    1. Agreed. In attempting to be cryptic, which in itself was pointless considering team orders are permitted, they just drew more attention to the inevitable.

    2. I still can’t understand how they think that will fool anyone….

  10. 7. Would have been 9 without Vettel’s penalty.

  11. 9. Came to a great climax towards the end with great racing up and down the field. That is all.

    1. Yeah… I would have given it a 10 if there was a battle for the lead. There seemed to be a great amount of action throughout the field for the entire race so I had to rate it a 9

  12. + Sergio Perez
    + Vettel versus Alonso

    – No lead challenge
    – Ferrari antis
    – Crappy stewarding

    Went with 4

    1. Hard to please?

  13. Bad day for my beloved RBR but decent enough race. Knew that Perez wouldn’t catch Hamilton so 7/10 for me.

  14. A Eight! The retirements and Vettel’s penalty ruined a bit for me.

  15. 8 because of Perez

  16. Slightly more exciting than Spa last week, which I rated 7. This deserves an 8. Every time I thought the finishing order was settled, something unpredictable happened, right down to the very last lap, with Senna pipping Ricciardo to the final points position – that makes seven top ten finishes for him compared to Maldonado’s two. Great drive from Pérez, he’ll definitely be my driver of the weekend.

    1. I was very glad to see Senna nab that last point, whatever the reason (looks as though Ricciardo ran into some trouble at that point, not sure what though as we never saw it), given that Williams botched his strategy pretty badly again today.

    2. that makes seven top ten finishes for him compared to Maldonado’s two

      Not taking anything away from Bruno as today, as a whole, he looked a bit better than Maldonado (even though, in the last part of the race Pastor was faster and closed the gap to less than a second) but that doesn’t prove Senna’s quicker / a better driver than Maldonado quite yet.

      Plus, with all the retirements and problems added, I reckon Senna would have finished in 15th, somewhere between Hulkenberg and his team mate, only 20-some seconds in front of the D’Ambrosio who is a replacement driver and had no KERS for the whole race, Caterham, Marussia and HRT. That’s still an insanely poor result for that Williams car, which I’m afraid come from the drivers underperforming rather than any strategy mix-up the team might pull.

      1. It’s hard to view Williams’ strategy with Bruno at Spa and here as anything other than poor though, I think. Today they left him out almost dangerously long on mediums, finally brought him in, and somehow he came back out way back in P17. If you’re going to risk your driver amid the frontrunners on old tires, I wouldn’t recommend following it up with what I’m sure must have been the slowest pit stop of the race…

        1. Agreed. It couldn’t have helped, but even so Senna looked like he was never gonna be able to challenge Koba and Di Resta. And their strategies weren’t mind-twisters either. He did lose ground because of the misjudgement of his strategy but also he lost time being impatient and incident prone at the beginning of the race and due to his general pace, which was decent but (again!) not good enough in order to get the most out of the car. And this goes for Maldonado as well.

          There’s a number of factors that lead to Williams still struggling this season with a race winning car. The strategies are just a small part of the equation, I’m afraid.

          1. To conclude, Maldonado is going through a small mid-season crisis at the moment, trying to refine his behaviour on track after an incredibly bad season and he’s got the team’s support to do so. In my view, this means a lot of the WCC-related responsabilities are now in Senna’s hands as he needs to deliver, up his pace and almost single-handedly place Williams at least in front of Force India at the end of the season.

            It’s 9 points in difference now. My sincere opinion is that if he manages to do so, he’s won his seat in F1 for the next year at least. This would also mean he reached a respectable level or consistency and the capability to deliver competitive race pace, in general. If he doesn’t, I don’t see ANY rational reason for Williams not to replace him with Bottas in 2013.

          2. My main reason for thinking it would be foolish to bring Bottas in to Williams in 2013 (or any other team, for that matter) is the fact that he’s only raced in GP3 so far. Granted yes, every now and then, you get a less developed racer than the rest who has enough natural talent to carry him through the fast track (e.g. Vettel). However, other times you come upon a situation like Grosjean’s in 2009.

            Williams already came under heavy fire this year for having such a green lineup. Replacing it with an even greener one next year doesn’t strike me as the wisest decision in the world, especially if Bottas represents less financial backing and they’d lose money at the same time. I suppose only time will tell, though. For now, Senna still remains a far more consistent race finisher, penalty avoider and point scorer than Maldonado.

          3. Bottas did GP3, Formula Renault 2.0 and F3 Euroseries, and he never finished a single championship lower than 3rd. On Friday he generally looks fairly quick. He’s got a fairly decent financial support package. He comes from the finnish school – which is known to produce valuable drivers. Why wouldn’t they give him a chance? And why would he need to waste time in GP2 for instance, especially now, with that particular championship’s capability of producing talents being questioned. I’d say it’s a good thing he’s skipping that step.

            Raikkonen, Button, Vettel – all did it and they are world champions and some of the best drivers on the grid today. Are you suggesting they were foolish to make this decision as well? :)

            Williams now have the Renault engine and a good aero package which can develop into a great one next year. In my opinion, they don’t need just someone decent and consistent. They need a race winner and, as all the other teams, they want to be the ones who introduce a “new Vettel” to the sport. Bottas apparently has the potential to be just that, but they won’t know unless they put in in a racing seat, preferrably before the 2014 chaos season.

      2. You make eminently sensible points, @tony031r (both in your original reply and in your analysis of the Bottas situation), but just to make it clear, I wasn’t suggesting that Senna is quicker or better than Maldonado. I was just giving the facts. For what it’s worth, I think Maldonado is quicker, but speed alone is not worth much if you can’t couple it with consistency. Senna at least has that.

  17. Another good race. Reminded me of Spa, clear leader and winner but with enough close pack racing amongst the rest to keep it exciting. Good level of drama from Alonso and Vettel with a couple of major retirements that screws up the championship just enough for it to remain healthy. Perez provided a similar level of excitement to Vettel last weekend and once again displayed his superb ability to look after tyres. Hamilton never looked threatened after T1 at the start when Massa was considering having a go.

    All in all a good race and deserved result. Just about deserved punishment for Vettel, it wasn’t intentional but rules are rules. Honourable mention to D’Ambrosio for improving on his qualifying position.

    1. AND D’Ambrosio had broken KERS. Respect. Job well done Jerome.

    2. Safe drive from D’Ambrosio – but he didn’t really improve on his Q with Button and Vettel retirements gifting two places.

      1. You mean Button, Vettel, Webber and Hulkenberg’s retirements. They were all in front of him. And probably so would have been Vergne if he finished the race.

  18. Really great race, with a mix of strategies, overtaking, car failures and underdogs! I don’t think anyone would have expected Perez to storm through the field like that once he had pitted, but it sure spiced the race up towards the end!

    It’s a bit of a shame that Button had a failure, because I think he could have pressured Hamilton a bit more towards the end, and after some really bad luck mid-year, he really deserved it. Plus, with the RB failures, the Championship has been blown wide open, and I don’t think there is any room for error from any driver or team in the remaining races.

    Sauber have a great chance at taking fifth in the Constructors now I think, but I think a lot of focus has to be on Raikkonen. He’s only 38 points behind Alonso now, and one point behind Hamilton, despite not having won a race this season. If he can mix it towards the front more, or at least have some better Saturdays, he could be the dark horse of the Championship.

    We’re in for a hell of an end to the 2012 season!

    1. Lotus seems to have a chronic illness of not having speed in first 5 laps. We can all hope.

  19. 8. Lots of drama, lots of good moves, it’s a shame that there was no battle for the lead.
    The crowd is good only when there is a Ferrari. I don’t really like the booing (did I spell it right?), and as an italian person, I am quite ashamed.

  20. Far from the no-respect-drivers that some wanted to sell us last weekend in Spa, even GP2 races were clean! Well done to them to shut down some media microphones!

  21. Stewards inconsistent yet again.
    Kimi recently made the same move (as Vettel) on Grasjean without any penalty. There’s been a number of such incidents in any event (without punishment).
    How long will Ferrari enjoy the FIA’s favouritism??

    1. You can´t be serious…. RBR got away with a whole lot more 2 years in a row!

    2. Forever, yust for your pleasure.

    3. @jason12 I’m sure if you were pushed off the track at one of the fastest corners, you’d have something to say about it. Not everything that favours a Ferrari driver is due to favouritsm.

  22. 9’s, really? it was a good race, but not approaching the maximum.

  23. A stunning race and quite lived up to the hype created from qualifying! Dominant Lewis upfront, never troubled and just as fast. Perez could have easily bagged a win on any other day if Lewis wasn’t upfront because he had a second a lap faster car than everyone on the grid. Alonso doing what he does best yet again!

  24. 7/10. Decent race, lots of side-by-side action, even into areas where DRS isn’t a factor, and the strategies were very varied and pretty interesting. A wee bit processional nearer the front (Until Perez got involved!), but still a very good afternoon’s entertainment.

  25. 9 for me, lots of close racing, championship is spiced up and a great first Monza win for Hamilton! :)

  26. Great race, too bad for the retirements; I also wished Massa could be on podium for his morale.

    Also, big disappoint for the crowd booing lewis when he salutes them.
    And I’m italian. Shame.

    1. Italians are way too emotional. Their reasons are 90% heart based and 10% logical, so it’s easy to understand…

  27. voted a 7 for this race and there was absolutely nothing wrong with the race. Other than that, the Mercedes doesn’t seem to be a podium material any more and a very far cry away from a second victory. They must hate this tyre so much and yet so coy about it.

    Inspirational drive from Sergio Perez. It is better for him to stay at Sauber F1 and challenge the front runners rather than playing Fernando’s wing man at Ferrari.

  28. the 3 drivers on the podium…. the 3 drivers Grosjean took off in Spa

    1. minus Kamui

    2. Nice observation! There are only 3 podium spots ;-)

    3. Yes, nice observation

  29. I’m not sure how to feel about this race… becasue for me as a Lewis fan it was great to see him win, but not that exciting as he had to do little and Alonso still managed to get a podium. Though that said it was great to see Perez really fighting and doing a fantastic job getting 2nd.

    And with Vettel not finishing and Alonso (only) getting 3rd and not 2nd it has made the championship alot more interesting.
    I really hope McLaren can contiune with this pace for the new few races to make the championship really come alive

  30. A good race to watch. Nothing exceptional yet interesting till the end. Good mix of DRS and non DRS passes. I really think Perez will replace Massa at Ferrari. He has shown skill in that Sauber and made sure he followed the rules to the T. Very heartening to watch.

  31. Alonso DNF coupled with Lewis win, would certainly tighten things at the top.

  32. Awesome race. It’s like Monza and Spa cancelled each other out – the big winners in Spa (Button and Vettel) became the big losers in Monza, and the big losers in Spa (Hamilton, Perez and Alonso) made up for it today.

  33. Nine out of ten; thoroughly enjoyable.

    There was plenty of legitimate; brilliant overtakes, and only a handful of motorway passes; DRS. However, that was mainly confined to the midfield, with little exchanges up at the front and next to no challenge for the lead. Well done, though, Lewis. I’ve been behind you more than ever all season long, and you successfully silenced the critics that insinuated you’d be distracted this weekend. Calm; measured and, most of all, dominant when the oppurtunity to be the victor was clear in front of you. Not a foot put wrong.

    This race also caused a welcome restructuring of the championship (although, Alonso still leads with a healthy margin), with some highly notable retirements. Jenson, Sebastian (another driver who has my support) and Mark; all left the race empty handed and it’s a definite shame for the three of them. While Mark and Seb are still well within shouting distance, I think Jenson’s renewed chance has, once again, evaporated. Deeply disappointing for him; but that’s racing.

    Anyway, yeah, where was I? Really enjoyed the whole race; little bit slow to get going, but full of plenty of action thereafter, especially at the end with Perez; nail-biting stuff, even if it transpires Lewis actually had it fully under control.

  34. a race with clear team order should not more than 5/10

  35. It’s a deserved win but the fanboys are going to exaggerate, too many technical glitches, it’s not ideal for me, and the penalty sure was harsh.

  36. A well deserved 1 for the stewards. Thank you for being so obviously biased.

  37. Non biased pure 10. Absolutely perfect race

  38. Great controlled drive for Hamilton. Shame about Massa being ordered aside for Alonso to pass him, but great drive Perez.

    1. There’s nothing to suggest Alonso wouldn’t have passed Massa, with or without Ferrari’s intervention on the radio. That pretty much renders the whole “team orders” debate pointless in my opinion.

  39. Gave it an 8. First part of the race was entertaining because Alonso started in 10th and had to fight to gain some places, and the last part was alive by Perez with that phenomenal last stint charging from 8th to 2nd. In between lots of overtaking except for the lead where Hamilton controlled the race.
    I criticized Pirelli yesterday because they were becoming too conservative, but the one stop strategy was on the limit which made the race a bit more unpredictable.
    Curiously there was a balance, Alonso and Hamilton in the podium and Button and Vettel retired, the opposite to Spa.

  40. 2011, Monza, Curva Grande, Alonso pushes Vettel off the track (while unsuccessfully defending against being overtaken on the outside). No penalty.
    2012, Monza, Curva Grande, Vettel pushes Alonso off the track (and by doing so successfully defends against being overtaken on the outside). Drive-through penalty.
    Absolutely ridiculously inconsistent stewarding (I wouldn’t mind if both these – really similar – incidents had been awarded the same penalty), even if I don’t like to see that sort of “defending”.
    I stopped watching the race after that, and I think I’ve never done that before in 15 years watching every F1 race.

    1. No ‘car’s width’ rule in 2011 and watch the incident from last year ….. Alonso gave Vettel way more room, don’t believe Vettel did it on purpose, but he should have realised Alonso was there, however, I think there was inconsistency in the stewarding, in that the two incidents with Senna being pushed off the track by Di Resta and more so Rosberg, weren’t even investigated.

  41. Was a decent race seen more over takes, at one point 5 cars DRS ing at the same time so for me 8.

  42. 8/10
    Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez were just on fire today! Great battles and overtakes, I really enjoyed those today. As with every Italian GP, it was a bit short though.

    On the downside: Vettel’s penalty is arguable, especially since Alonso got away with it last year, and Rosberg only received a warning in Bahrain earlier this year. I was disgusted by the team-order, but on the other hand: it makes sense, so why not (surely the Tifosi didn’t mind)?

    Too bad for Button and the Red Bulls:

  43. As a Kimi fan, I thought he lost way too much time trying to defend his position to Perez, who had a far faster car with fresh medium tyres. The team should have told him not to bother and keep focus on Massa. If that was the case, he could have finished forth. I hope Lotus can make use the DDRS next race and that works making the E20 faster on straights. 7 races remaining, I think it is still possible for Kimi to win the championship.

  44. Apart from the lead, the race was packed. Great battles, lots of overtaking manoeuvres and some solid driving from many drivers made this race exciting. Hamilton was faultless while Perez made one of the best driving performances we have seen this year. A couple of negative points were: the retirements of Button and Vettel and the bad desicion by the stewards…

  45. I think the fact how the turn of events kept coming even towards the end makes it an 8/10. Also, there were some beautiful passes throughout the race. Alonso’s battle with Vettel and Perez’s final move on Raikkonen were the highlights, I think.

  46. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    9th September 2012, 18:02

    6 for the race, 10 for Perez. Is the poll of DOTW already open?

  47. 9 for me,the best race next to valencia,many overtakes in nor DRS zone,great drive by Alonso & Perez,some drama as 2 WC contender went for sight seeing.Though I believe it was a bit harsh to give Vettel the penalty.

  48. I’d give it a zero, if there was one, because of the behaviour of the fans. To boo the winner on the podium is despicable. If I were in charge of Formula One I’d give Monza a one-race ban to show that this is unacceptable.

    1. Surely you are kidding right? If you were a fan of a football team, and the lost and you booed the other team or vice versa, that stadium should lose the chance to host more games? Are you serious?
      I do not agree with what they did but that is a ridiculous statement!

      1. I don’t agree,it’s natural for many GP venue as the driver you love don’t win & the driver whom you hate wins you do things like that,that’s ‘fans’ are for in any sports.Yeah it is bad but we can’t do anything.

  49. 7/10. DRS worked nicely.

  50. Interesting to see so many 7-10 scores, I thought this was probably the dullest race of the year. Without Button/Vettel dropping out and the Perez show there simply wasn’t anything to get me excited: no fight for the lead, no real strategy (just the Mercs doing two stops instead of one), etc.

  51. I find it hard to vote on these after only watching the highlights. We miss so much :(

  52. Can’t believe so many have voted 8. It was a boring race with not a lot happening. 5 at the most.

  53. A solid 6, the champion racing was absolute class, and throw in Perez for excitement.

    But Vettel’s penalty and poor reliability kinda spoilt if for me.

  54. I’d give it a 4. It deserves a 4. +1 for Hamilton win = voted 5.

  55. +5 as a starting point

    clean start by every drivers no incident into the first corner +1
    drivers chosing between a one stop and 2 stop strategy to make it interesting +1
    perez charging through the field to claim second place +2
    some great overtaking in places where you dont see overtaking at monza +1

    the vettel penalty was too harsh in my opinion -1
    vettel, button retiring they were title contenders -1

    so i rate the race 8

    1. I agree with you totally

  56. stupid penalty for Vettel , really ridiculous ……
    There was nothing that would need a penalty…

  57. 7/10. Hamilton’s dominance at the front was nicely balanced by Perez’s 2nd-half charge to almost threaten him. There were some thrilling enough duels all the way down the field, too.

  58. I thought it was a solid 8 and gave it an 8 in the poll. Racing and strategy games were great all around, but the race never had any battle for the lead, even when Crofty (By the way, did he toned down a little recently? He doesn’t sound that much artificially excited as he did earlier in the season) and Brundle tried to heat things up, speculating that Perez could trouble Hamilton – he could not, it was clear to see. Lewis had it under control from start to finish. Another wonderful drive by Checo, though, he was magnificent right from the start on the hard tyres. A bit sad that this may move Kobayashi’s career towards twilight, cause i really love the guy, but he again had absolutely no answer to Sergio’s great race pace. Qualifying position doesn’t mean much when you’re outpaced by the same car on the slower tyre during the race. Massa once again showed he is way past his best, unfortunately – i feel sorry for the brazilian but i don’t see any chance for him to remain at Ferrari. Alonso is leading the drivers championship and they are way back in the constructors – the cost of having Massa in the team is quite apparent – loss of hefty sum in prize money. I don’t see anybody in the field performing as good as Fernando at the moment – the man is in his absolute prime and seems invicible, but i see half a dozen of drivers who can perform better than Felipe, in my opinion. The only way i see this to develop is whever Ferrari would want to gamble and bring a possibly safer pair of hands for a short term fix – for a season or two at longest, while Perez and Bianchi are still growing and proving themselves. I’m pretty certain that one of these two will wear red overalls at some point. And would anybody from a stronger bunch of current drivers would wish to walk in a red cage with a racing beast Alonso is at the moment?..

    As for the podium ceremony…well, can’t blame italians for being italians, i guess. Although it is clear that podium interviews are not meant for Monza. I love the idea, actually, but it just hasn’t worked out at all this time. I hope they won’t do it next year, i felt embarassed for Lewis standing there trying to say something when there was a huge crowd booing and asking for Alonso instead. The guy just won the race, a little bit of respect would be nice. Still, we are talking about tifosi at their home grand prix.

    I believe stewards were absolutely spot on this time – Vettel got a punishment because he clearly drove Alonso off the track, there was no car width whatsoever and comparing it to the last year’s incident seems pointless – last year there was space to use, but Vettel straightened car a bit earlier to gain momentum and to leave a small safe margin and therefore putted two wheels on the grass, which in the end hasn’t spoiled his move at all – he passed. This year Alonso had nothing to do but to put his car completely off the track, Vettel leaving him no space at all while cars were interlocked (at that point backing out meant, effectively, to touch wheels at ~300 km\h), the move was rendered impossible and car damage may also have been sustained. Not mentioning time loss. The difference (apart from new racing regulations, mind you) was putting it on the absolute limit in 2011 and exceeding it in 2012 – simple as that. Di Resta hasn’t got a penalty for a moment with Senna for a simple reason – the brazilian was never alongside any part of the Paul’s car before the braking phase, he simply braked later when there was no space to brake later and insert his car alongside, which is why cars touched and Bruno went for the escape road. Di Resta had a right to return to racing line and the only case could be made here is whenever he brake tested Senna – a very poor case, if you ask me. Still, Bruno can not be happy about this whatsoever, which is understandable. Remember what Schumacher got his penalty in Barcelona for? That’s it – he rammed Senna at the back because he was much later on the brakes into the corner and Bruno went back for his normal racing line because Michael was never alongside him on the straight. It’s a two very similar incidents and they were handled by the stewards consistently. I’m pretty sure if Senna rammed Di Resta from the back the one with the penalty would be him.

    Now previous two rounds balanced each other out – with one portion of title contenders retiring in Spa and gaining back what was lost at the expense of other portion of title contenders. If you look at it from Alonso’s viewpoint it couldn’t be much better – he dropped just 3 points from his championship lead during last two rounds and still has certain safety margin for circuits which may expose Ferrari weaknesses to a greater extent. I’m starting to believe that he really can do it – and, furthemore, he is the one who deserves it most this year, the way i see it. Very pleased to see Kimi Raikkonen rise to third in the championship – what a marvelous job he is doing as well. The one who already dropped out of a champioship battle is, unfortunately, Button. Gutted for Jenson. There’s a lot of question marks over Red Bull lately, but most of them will be answered in the next few races. Anyway, i’m not seeing Webber challenging for the title, despite he is only eight points behind his team mate. He’s just not been consintently strong enough this year and Vettel firmly re-established his superiority on track for some time now. Alonso-Hamilton-Vettel with Kimi as a dark horse looks epic enough already. And McLaren string of results since Silverstone looks menacing, to say the least. It looks like they are completely over tyre problems and the rest of the field should be concerned. After Monza i am sure that Mercedes are absolutely done for this year, with win in China being a pure coincidence rather than genuine. Brackley outfit (regardless of their name) had one major flaw for quite a few years now – tyre usage. Remember, they were dangerously close to losing a champioship as Brawn when all mid-season they had apparent tyre warm-up issues. Now there’s excessive wear for the second year in a row. For four years the situation hasn’t been remedied and i’m beginning to worry that this may be the case next year as well, which is, quite frankly, a shame. Keep in mind that this is the area most badly hurt by testing ban – no simulation can provide good tyre data and this pre-season tests showed that tyre figures from winter testing are not as relevant and useful as they might have been. We all remember that Mercedes conducted an extensive test of new rubber with last year’s car – a known quantity, specifically to gather tyre data. As the season went on it hasn’t helped them much, apart from Chinese grand prix.

  59. I decided not to vote, because . . .

    . . . I fell asleep!

  60. Race itself may deserve 8/10 but want to add up 1 more because : at SPA BUT and VET with HUL occupied or benefited and ALO, HAM, PER suffered DNF. Here at Monza it’s quite exactly reversed : VET, BUT, HUL Dnf’ed while the three came back to podium… a very straightforward flip of luck haha!

  61. 9/10 Great race, much better than I was expecting. Firstly Lewis won, would have liked to have seen Jenson get second but sadly not to be, however, fantastic to see Perez showing what he’s capable of, and Alonso on the podium at his home GPafter starting 10th. Sad for Massa who did well, also although really NOT a Vettel 2011 fan, he’s actually grown on me this season, perhaps because in a non-dominant RB he’s had to prove his worth, and what a fantastic driver he is -penalty aside- disappointed that he had yet another alternator failure.

    1. Did anyone else find Rick Perry (Gov of Texas), really irritating and annoying when interviewed by MB? I realise he has to promote the track in Austin, but did he really have to play the stereotypical American and arrogantly announce that the track will be the ‘Best in the World’. Apart from not being completely original (Silverstone corners), Ill take the Ardennes Forest, Nürburg, Silverstone, Montréal, Albert Park,and the Royal Park, Monza for my visuals anyday, thanks.

  62. @KeithCollantine I’m not wanting to discredit your stats, I think they’re fair. However, as an Australian, looking into this site, I can’t help but wonder whether there is a British bias in the polls, from my personal perspective, it seems the races where a British driver wins, rates higher than it otherwise would have.

    Is it easy for you to show the 2012 Average Race Rating grouped by the nationality of the winning driver? If I am correct, I think there would be a higher rating on average where Button or Hamilton win, compared to other drivers.

    1. @dragoll A better way to judge the driver/team preferences of the site’s readers would be to look at who they declare their support for. Here’s the most recent data on that:

      Button first to 1,000 supporters on F1 Fanatic (I’ll probably do an updated one of these before the next race)

      If you’re particularly interested in nationality, here’s a breakdown along those lines too:

      https://www.racefans.net/groups/f1/forum/topic/where-f1-fanatic-readers-are-from/?topic_page=5&num=15#post-72133

      If you look at the links at the foot of this article you should be able to find scores for all the races previously (this season and other seasons) so you can draw your own conclusions.

      I had a quick look at the top-rated races since 2008 and it seems five of the top six races were won by different drivers: Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Massa and Rosberg.

    2. It’s a British site so logically there are going to be more people from the UK who use it, and a large majority of them are going to be supporters of the three British (English and Scottish) drivers. However, if you look around the site, there are also lots of Brits who support Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Raikkonen etc.. Not to mention the other nationalities on here cheering for their own such as Massa, and Maldonado. Everyone has a chance to vote in the polls, and post their opinions in the comments section, but it stands to reason that the majority will rule, and just for the record, I don’t vote a race higher based on a British win
      (I didn’t enjoy Spa), neither do I vote for my fav driver as driver of the weekend simply because he won, if I feel there was a driver who put more effort in.

  63. Hamilton had a great start and pulling away from Massa to a 6.9 sec. lead before Jenson passed Massa. After Perez pits, he was holding an amazing lead of 14 seconds on the ferrari drivers! He eventually went cruising for the final 20 laps, and after hearing that Perez was getting him and had got past the ferrari drivers already, he then started pushing a little to remain the margin betwn him and Perez.

    Great podium finishes for HAM, PER, and ALO after their crash at Spa. It is their revenge for their misfortuned at Belgium caused by GRO. Grosjean should feel remorseful after causing the crash at Spa and getting banned for 1 race after seeing all the victims on the podium!=D

  64. 8/10
    Just for the fact that Monza is a different track from the others it’s always interesting to see the cars race there. The race itself was good and unpredictable, with Alonso recovering 7 places and Massa lying in 2nd for most of the race. I’m not saying I liked the race because Massa was good, but because there was an extra driver battling at the front.

  65. 8 rhymes with great! So it gets an 8 from me.

  66. I gave it an 8.

    Halfway through I was set to give it a lower score but Perez’s charge increased my rating and I also felt that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I normally would because I only saw the highlights, so I increased the rating slightly because of that also.

  67. I gave it a 9 – challenging track and an exciting race. I am biased because I was there and the atmosphere was electric. Shame about the retirements though- particularly Button.

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