Lewis Hamilton stayed on top in the final practice session at Monza.
But the gap between him and Fernando Alonso was a mere one thousandth of a second.
McLaren led the way to begin with in the session, Hamilton setting a 1’24.687 to eclipse the quickest time seen on Friday – which he also set – by six tenths of a second. Jenson Button backed him up in second, half a second off his team mate’s time.
Following their installation laps the Ferrari drivers stayed in the pits until halfway through the session. Alonso moved up to second-quickest when he joined the track, then edged Hamilton’s time by 0.055s after using the slipstream from his team mate on the run from Lesmo 2 to Ascari.
As was the case yesterday drivers made only small improvements after switching to the medium tyres. Alonso found five-hundredths of a second to increase his margin at the top of the times.
But Hamilton edged the Ferrari by one-thousandth of a second to take the fastest time back.
Paul di Resta put his Force India third on the timing sheets. He was followed by the second Ferrari of Massa, who lost some time with a mistake at Parabolica on his quickest lap.
Several drivers had KERS problems during the session: Michael Schumacher lost his entirely early on, Kimi Raikkonen was told “no KERS” as well and Mark Webber reported a loss of KERS during one of his laps.
The other Red Bull had problems too – Sebastian Vettel came to a stop at the Roggia chicane two minutes before the end of the session, reporting a battery problem.
Combined practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | Fri/Sat diff | Total laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’25.944 | 1’25.290 | 1’24.578 | -0.712 | 18 |
2 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’25.800 | 1’25.348 | 1’24.579 | -0.769 | 15 |
3 | Paul di Resta | Force India-Mercedes | 1’25.548 | 1’24.849 | -0.699 | 20 | |
4 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1’25.881 | 1’25.430 | 1’24.909 | -0.521 | 16 |
5 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’25.723 | 1’25.328 | 1’24.994 | -0.334 | 17 |
6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’25.762 | 1’25.446 | 1’25.036 | -0.41 | 22 |
7 | Sergio Perez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’26.323 | 1’26.068 | 1’25.160 | -0.908 | 23 |
8 | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus-Renault | 1’26.046 | 1’25.504 | 1’25.255 | -0.249 | 19 |
9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’26.518 | 1’25.547 | 1’25.289 | -0.258 | 20 |
10 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams-Renault | 1’26.504 | 1’26.404 | 1’25.383 | -1.021 | 18 |
11 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’26.390 | 1’26.104 | 1’25.389 | -0.715 | 21 |
12 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’26.508 | 1’26.394 | 1’25.406 | -0.988 | 17 |
13 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’25.422 | 1’26.094 | 1’25.563 | +0.141 | 23 |
14 | Bruno Senna | Williams-Renault | 1’26.783 | 1’25.461 | -1.322 | 21 | |
15 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’26.746 | 1’26.730 | 1’25.689 | -1.041 | 22 |
16 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’27.373 | 1’26.724 | 1’25.706 | -1.018 | 16 |
17 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Lotus-Renault | 1’27.180 | 1’26.157 | 1’25.973 | -0.184 | 20 |
18 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’27.789 | 1’26.864 | 1’26.003 | -0.861 | 19 |
19 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Renault | 1’26.641 | 0 | |||
20 | Heikki Kovalainen | Caterham-Renault | 1’27.855 | 1’26.841 | 1’26.657 | -0.184 | 18 |
21 | Jules Bianchi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’27.192 | 0 | |||
22 | Vitaly Petrov | Caterham-Renault | 1’28.578 | 1’27.222 | 1’27.267 | +0.045 | 16 |
23 | Charles Pic | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’28.751 | 1’27.968 | 1’27.454 | -0.514 | 20 |
24 | Timo Glock | Marussia-Cosworth | 1’29.207 | 1’27.944 | 1’27.728 | -0.216 | 19 |
25 | Narain Karthikeyan | HRT-Cosworth | 1’28.779 | 1’28.035 | -0.744 | 23 | |
26 | Pedro de la Rosa | HRT-Cosworth | 1’29.331 | 1’28.575 | 1’28.384 | -0.191 | 17 |
27 | Ma Qing Hua | HRT-Cosworth | 1’31.239 | 0 |
2012 Italian Grand Prix
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Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
8th September 2012, 11:11
I’d say this weekend is going to be crucial to the championship. Both Alonso and the McLarens look strong, while Red Bull is noticeably off the pace. Button and Hamilton absolutely need to finish ahead of Alonso – and they probably need him to have a poor race, as well – if they want to have any chance of reeling him in during the final flyaway races.
Funkyf1 (@funkyf1)
8th September 2012, 11:20
I guess it’s all down to Maldonado then :P
Eggry (@eggry)
8th September 2012, 11:31
He will be able to bulldoze at least 10 cars here which means he can outperform Gorsjean’s shunt.
Tony M (@tango11)
8th September 2012, 11:40
Sadly I think that Maldonado may have already decided the outcome of what will be a close championship.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
8th September 2012, 11:53
I’d say it’s fine if Alonso finishes third behind the two McLarens. The most important thing for him right now is to finish ahead of the Red Bulls, particularly Vettel.
I honestly can’t imagine Hamilton and Button gaining some 50-60 points on Alonso during the remaining races, despite having the best car at the moment. They will take points off each other as they did during the last three races – Button finished 2nd in Germany, Hamilton won in Hungary and once again Button won in Belgium. If they do gain – they will pull of some Raikkonen 2007, Schumacher 2006 or Hakkinen 2000.
Cyclops_PL (@cyclops_pl)
8th September 2012, 11:57
So the only strategy for both Alonso and Hamilton is to lock the front row and run away as far as they can from Maldonado.
zicasso (@zicasso)
8th September 2012, 12:12
Alonso/Ferrari look too strong to let this one go easily. And, as you say JB and LH need to finish ahead of Alonso. Promising race!
Aimal (@aimalkhan)
8th September 2012, 13:10
I am going for Hamilton Button Alonso Raikkonen Rosberg Massa Vettle Perez Di resta Maldonado as my predicted top 10.
zicasso (@zicasso)
8th September 2012, 14:04
looking good so far…
Nikhil
8th September 2012, 11:13
force india seems to be quick here,,,,, i diresta was not on penalty,,,, i beleive he would have scored more points
Umar Majid (@um1234)
8th September 2012, 11:14
lotus and red bull appear to be struggling on single lap pace, wouldnt be suprised if the qualy 3 is full of mercedes powered cars but they are probably better on race pace
tipping hamilton for pole and win
caci99 (@)
8th September 2012, 12:47
I would tip Hamilton for the pole, but for the race I think Ferrari has generally shown better race pace. So it is going to be tight with better chances for Alonso.
Eggry (@eggry)
8th September 2012, 11:17
It’s so tight! I don’t really who would be the pole. Just a tiny mistake will be very crucial.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
8th September 2012, 11:27
And to make it even a bit more difficult to predict … who will do a 2 laps quali or 2 times a single lap ?
xeroxpt (@)
8th September 2012, 11:22
Yesterday, i thought that qualli was going to be great and the race boring, now i think both will be boring, off course at the top end, the choice of tyres for this last 2 rounds may be the crucial factor here, or it’s just the nature of the track, we will know the answer after this weekend, unique track and those harder not so flattering tyres.
Umar Majid (@um1234)
8th September 2012, 11:40
pirelli should have brought the soft and the hard, not medium and hard that would have made it a two stop race!!!
DT (@dt)
8th September 2012, 11:48
Mclaren looks strong and it looks like Hamilton is set for a good grix position and a strong race. If it happens, that might give him an extra edge in the negotiations with Mclaren. we shall see!
electrolite (@electrolite)
8th September 2012, 11:50
I can see Alonso using Massa as a slipstream in qualification, too. Of course, the McLarens won’t be doing that anytime soon!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th September 2012, 12:21
@electrolite He’ll need Massa to get into Q3 first, which hasn’t been a given. But with Ferrari well up there on pace this weekend that shouldn’t be a problem for him.
Master firelee (@master-firelee)
8th September 2012, 11:53
Massa’s looking more on the pace this weekend.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
8th September 2012, 11:55
It really should have been ‘the tiniest margin’. Rarely we see a 0.001 difference between the first and the second.
Actually, Ferrari could pull this ‘tactics’ off during Q3 as well – using Massa at some point of the track to have Alonso slipstream him. The field is so close that this could well make the difference. Neither McLaren, nor Red Bull can afford this.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
8th September 2012, 12:21
@atticus-2 Well we’ve had three drivers set identical pole position times to within a thousandth of a second before, so it wouldn’t actually be true!
In IndyCar they publish times to ten-thousandths of a second. F1 teams are measured that accurately but we only ever see the times to a thousandths.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
8th September 2012, 12:27
Yeah, I remember Villeneuve, Schumacher and Frentzen’s 1:21-something in Jerez. On a season finale. It was frantic. But rare – did we have two drivers setting identical pole or practice times since then?
In any case, I didn’t know times in F1 are measured to ten-thousends of a second, thanks for the info. My obvious next question is does it determine the order now, only we do not get to see the times, or is it still the old rule of who sets it first? I believe it’s the latter, but then why not the former, if we have the technology?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
8th September 2012, 12:00
The top 14 covered by 1s, full Monza mode this weekend for everyone! Karthikeyan finished above De La Rosa, wonder what that is all about, thought De La Rosa had the skinny wing?
Pedro Costa (@pnunocosta)
8th September 2012, 12:42
What´s the matter with Pirelli, are they on the Bridgestone path?! They have to be more agressive, they have to react to the teams better understanding of their tyres. Pretty bad sign when apparently everybody will manage a 1 stop race.
Qualifying will be interesting and a few surprises may arise, concerning to the race it will be dull and with a huge lack of uncertainty.
caci99 (@)
8th September 2012, 13:05
The fastest time of Alonso was set on medium tyres and he didn’t use his team mate slipstream.