Drivers: Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), Rubens Barrichello (Williams), Jenson Button (McLaren), Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India), Jarno Trulli (Lotus).
Q: Jarno, your home race. Tell us what it means to you. New team and all that.
Jarno Trulli: Yeah, it is always great to be back in a sunny Monza. We know Monza can also be very rainy and wet and no-one really enjoys that kind of circumstance. I enjoy Monza as it is a special atmosphere…
Fernando Alonso comes to Monza under the greatest pressure to deliver a strong result to keep Ferrari in the hunt for the world championship. And yesterday he admitted here that this race, and the next in Singapore, will have a crucial effect on his and the Scuderia’s chances…
McLaren’s Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton sandwiched Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel at the top of the times after Friday morning’s first free practice session at Monza.
The reigning world champion lapped in 1m 23.693s, just 0.097s faster than the German’s 1m 23.790s, with the 2008 title winner on 1m 23.967s in the second MP4-25. Nobody else breached 1m 24s, but Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg got closest…
One of only two Italian drivers on this year’s grid, Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi is certainly better placed to take advantage of a quick car at his home Grand Prix this weekend than fellow countryman, Lotus’s Jarno Trulli. It has been 44 long years since an Italian – Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966 – won the Monza race and five since a local hero – Giancarlo Fisichella – even claimed a podium.
The question is can Liuzzi convert the VJM03′s latent pace into a real result? Sadly, recent form is not on his side. Although the car has certainly shown strong performance at recent rounds, and should do well at low-downforce Monza, the 2010 season hasn’t gone to plan for the man from Locorotondo. There have been some flashes of brilliance, but overall the Italian has struggled for results and, more importantly, struggled to match his team mate Adrian Sutil.
Sebastian Vettel turned the tables on McLaren at Monza on Friday afternoon by setting the fastest time so far of 1m 22.839s, but the Red Bull driver was only 0.076s faster than Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and 0.222s ahead of Felipe Massa in the second F10. Soon after Massa had gone fastest with 1m 23.061s he was deposed by Alonso with 1m 22.915s, before Vettel displaced both.
Technical directors: Aldo Costa (Ferrari), James Key (BMW Sauber), Paddy Lowe (McLaren), Sam Michael (Williams), Adrian Newey (Red Bull).
Q: A question to you all. Can you tell us about your Monza specifications? What have you changed? Are you running the F-duct if you have an F-duct?
Sam Michael: Our Monza spec is just for Monza really. We didn’t actually put a lot of work into it as it is only one race, so we put a lot of our effort into the next race as it pays off for five Grands Prix rather than one…
McLaren’s MP4-25 was tipped to be the fastest car around Monza, and it may yet prove so. However, as the British team experimented with F-duct versus non F-duct configurations on Friday afternoon, Hamilton and Button found themselves outpaced by arch rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. We take a team-by-team look at early progress in Italy
After crashing out of the last round in spectacular fashion (taking a title rival with him), you might expect a more circumspect approach from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel in this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix – a race on which his championship hopes could hinge. True to form, however, Vettel is playing it cool, insisting nothing will change in his quest for victory
Lewis Hamilton slipped in the fastest lap so far this weekend right at the end of Saturday morning’s final practice session.
The 2008 world champion opted for a low-downforce set-up on his McLaren, and beat Fernando Alonso’s late rush for Ferrari with a lap of 1m 22.498s. Sebastian Vettel also improved to 1m 22.545s to trail the Englishman by only 0.047s as he edged out Alonso’s 1m 22.644s…
Luxury Swiss watch brand Hublot, the Official Watchmaker of Formula 1™, has chosen the historical venue of Monza to unveil the latest in its series of official Formula 1 watches.
The King Power Formula 1™ Monza, inspired by the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar and limited to 200 pieces, combines distinguished design with pioneering use of hi-tech materials…
