Vettel quickest as practice finishes in Monza

2011 Italian Grand Prix FP3

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Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Monza, 2011

Sebastian Vettel was fastest in the final practice session ahead of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver was half a second fastest than his closest rival in a different car.

Vettel led the early running with a lap of exactly one minute 24 seconds, putting him almost half a second clear of his team mate. Behind them were the two McLarens.

Luca di Montezemolo made his traditional Saturday morning appearance in the garage at Monza. But the red cars weren’t seen for much of the first half of the session.

Once they did out, Felipe Massa was the quicker of the two but more than a second off Vettel’s mark.

Nico Rosberg was the first driver to run on soft tyres having been unable to on Friday. He aborted his first run but his second effort put him fastest with a 1’23.875.

Fernando Alonso’s first effort on soft tyres left him behind both Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel, who at that time had only run on medium tyres.

A flurry of improvements late in the session saw first Felipe Massa and then Webber take the fastest times.

But Vettel crossed the line as the session drew to a close with a lap of 1’23.170, four-tenths quicker than Webber, to head the times.

Lewis Hamilton improved his time from yesterday by a tenth of a second to go fourth ahead of Button.

The two Mercedes of Rosberg and Schumacher were next, followed by Alonso.

The Force Indias completed the top ten, Adrian Sutil four-hundredths of a second quicker than Paul di Resta.

For the second session in a row Daniel Ricciardo lost a considerable amount of time as the team dismantled and repaired his car.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’23.17018
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’23.5340.36419
36Felipe MassaFerrari1’23.6680.49814
43Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’23.7410.57117
54Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’23.7870.61716
68Nico RosbergMercedes1’23.8750.70522
77Michael SchumacherMercedes1’24.1140.94420
85Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’24.1330.96314
914Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’24.5431.37321
1015Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’24.5811.41122
119Bruno SennaRenault1’24.8531.68320
1210Vitaly PetrovRenault1’24.8891.71919
1317Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’24.9481.77822
1416Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’25.2612.09121
1511Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’25.3192.14919
1619Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’25.4262.25619
1718Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’25.4392.26922
1812Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’25.5392.36919
1921Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’27.3284.15819
2020Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’27.4914.32121
2125Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’28.1865.01623
2223Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’28.4415.27122
2324Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’28.9625.79217
2422Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’30.3167.14616

Complete practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Sat/FriLaps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’25.2311’24.0101’23.170-0.8480
2Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’25.4591’24.4681’23.534-0.93475
3Felipe MassaFerrari1’26.6761’24.3661’23.668-0.69871
4Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’23.8651’24.0461’23.741-0.12456
5Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’24.7861’24.5081’23.787-0.72165
6Nico RosbergMercedes1’27.4921’29.1841’23.875-3.61775
7Michael SchumacherMercedes1’26.6991’24.3471’24.114-0.23380
8Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’26.6471’24.4331’24.133-0.365
9Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’26.5501’25.4961’24.543-0.95383
10Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’25.6831’24.581-1.10259
11Bruno SennaRenault1’27.3851’25.3251’24.853-0.47281
12Vitaly PetrovRenault1’26.6251’25.4501’24.889-0.56170
13Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’26.6941’25.0971’24.948-0.14989
14Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’26.9961’25.1821’25.261+0.07987
15Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’26.8361’26.2021’25.319-0.88380
16Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’26.6961’25.7581’25.426-0.33263
17Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’27.4331’28.3471’25.439-1.99452
18Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’27.3651’26.3531’25.539-0.81484
19Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’26.82621
20Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’28.5591’27.328-1.23151
21Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’29.5391’28.6051’27.491-1.11463
22Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’31.8991’29.6221’28.186-1.43679
23Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’30.6191’29.1621’28.441-0.72180
24Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’31.0521’28.8041’28.962+0.15854
25Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’30.6091’29.8411’30.316+0.47550
26Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’30.14819

2011 Italian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    28 comments on “Vettel quickest as practice finishes in Monza”

    1. Lucas "Mr. Veloce"
      10th September 2011, 11:10

      DAMN! -.-

    2. Ferrari looks better than before but Vettel is also strong. It would be piercing battle. I still believe it would be Vettel pole againg…just hope the race is quite different.

    3. I really hope Merc can take advantage of their Performance on this track. But I am worried about there rear tyres.

      Monza seems fairly hard on the rears and the Mercedes seem to struggle with preserving them at the best of times.

    4. We might hear again the ring-ding-ding-ding :P

    5. This Season is well and truly Over

      1. Even if RBR suffered at this track, they’d win the next races and the title would be over anyhow.

      2. That’s not exactly news. Plus, it was only practise.

    6. I’ve lost interest in this season already. The Red Bulls managed a 1-2 at Spa, and look likely to dominate at Monza as well. These were the only two circuits where I thought we would see a non-Red Bull car as favourites.

      1. I can’t imagine why, each race is getting more and more exciting than the last. Ok, Vettel’s obviously won it. But it’s still easy to enjoy the races.

        1. +1. I was just about to comment exactly the same.

          The races this year have been super regardless of who has won.

        2. Personally, I think we have had some great races this season. But instead of seeing a Mclaren and Ferrari revival in the 2nd half of the season, we have seen them falter, and that has just killed the season for me.

      2. I lost interest in the title battle about 4 races ago, good thing the races themselves are well worth watching though :-D

    7. Hamilton win, Vettel blown engine, Alonso 2nd Button 3rd Webber 4th ;-)

      1. I hope for a Vettel DNF as well, but I would much rather see Alonso take the win, after overtaking Hamilton of course :)

    8. McLaren are losing 3-4 tenths in the last sector consistently every lap so i don’t see them anywhere near pole. Looks like a Red Bull win again, just hope it isn’t Vettel.

    9. It seems very strange! A Renault engine equipped car is on top in Monza circuit? Hmm….

      1. It appears that Red Bull are running a high-downforce confiuration for speed in the corners, taking advantage of the unlimited DRS in qualifying – but the race will be another story.

    10. The FP3 speed trap shows Vettel is still almost 20kph down on the quickest car in a straight line:

      1. Bruno Senna 347.0kph
      6. Felipe Massa 340.9kph
      10. Fernando Alonso 339.9kph
      11. Michael Schumacher 339.4kph
      12. Nico Rosberg 339.3kph
      17. Mark Webber 336.3kph
      20. Jenson Button 333.1kph
      21. Lewis Hamilton 332.5kph
      24. Sebastian Vettel 327.8kph

      Interestingly, he’s 8.5kph slower than his own team mate, which suggests a different approach on set-up. The McLaren drivers have also sacrificed some speed overnight.

      Looks like Vettel may be gambling on getting on pole position and using a bit more wing to run far enough ahead of the chasing cars that they can’t get within range to use DRS.

      1. I would think its a safe bet to say he might pull that one off again, now if maybe Alonso or Rosberg can get to second at the start behind him and hold back the McLarens and maybe Webber he will be safe again.

        1. I thought the Mclaren was running a higher downforce spec as shows in sector 2, weird that they are losing so much time in the last sector and redbull seem to be gaining.

      2. The FP3 speed trap shows Vettel is still 20kph down on the quickest car in a straight line

        Ironically enough, Vettel and Petrov and Senna are all using the same engine.

        Looks like Vettel may be gambling on getting on pole position and using a bit more wing to run far enough ahead of the chasing cars that they can’t get within range to use DRS.

        Based on what we saw last year, Vettel will have to run more wing than Button did if he wants to stand a chance – but even then, he’ll suffer over long runs. There’s no doubt a sweet spot where he gets the best of both worlds, but I’m willing to bet someone else will run a middle-of-the-road setup to remain competitive in qualifying but to stay in range in the race, which will make Vettel’s job harder – a lot of the ideal balance between straight-line speed and downforce is going to ride on what the other drivers do, and those who go for the riskier high-downforce setup are going to feel the effects much more.

        Who says DRS dumbs things down? This could be one of the most strategically-diverse races we’ve ever seen.

      3. Another conservative setup for Mark Webber, more downforce than the Ferraris but less than the McLarens. If Vettels strategy doesn’t work Mark should be able to add some solid points for the team and deny 1or 2 of the main rivals a couple points.

    11. Isn`t it just weird that Hamilton is only a tenth quicker than he was in Practice 1, when he was on the prime tyre and presumably on more fuel. Something doesnt add up looking at the time they are losing in the last sector there seems to be more to it. hmmm????

      1. Suggests they’ve either gone the wrong way on set up or Hamilton didn’t get a lap together.

        1. Or is holding back on purpose. It would be interesting to see the “Best combined sector” times you did for P2.

    12. Mercedes showed good sign in all the three practice session,a podium may be on the corner for them.

      1. I’d like to think so.

    13. Surely, Vettel’s peformance this year is not in line with what you normally expect of a driver. Good qualifying positions, no DNF yet.. That is statistically not normal of an F1 driver’s performance of a season. Maybe his DNF will happen later one when he’s actually been crowned the winner :-)

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