Formula-1 news

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.

Fernando Alonso gave the tifosi what they came to Monza for on Saturday, as he pipped McLaren’s Jenson Button to pole position for the Italian Grand Prix. The Spaniard took over setting the pace in Q2, and went faster still in Q3, clocking the only sub-1m 22s lap with 1m 21.962s for Ferrari on his first run in the final session.

He failed to improve on that, as a good jump forward by high-downforce Button left the reigning champion second on the grid with 1m 22.084s.

As expected, it rained in Spa on Friday morning. And rained. At one stage nobody was out on the track as a torrential downpour kept all 24 cars and drivers in their garages.

But everyone went out at one time or other as full wet Bridgestones remained the order of the day, and Fernando Alonso set the pace all the way through with Lewis Hamilton hot on his heels…

After all the rain in Belgium on Friday morning and through lunch, it was dry for the second practice session during the afternoon, which was halted for a few minutes with a quarter of an hour to run because spectators were suspected to be in a dangerous area.

Adrian Sutil set the pace throughout for Force India, only to be upstaged right at the end when Fernando Alonso bettered him by 0.125s in the Ferrari. The Spaniard lapped in 1m 49.032s, compared to the German’s 1m 49.157s.

The Hungarian Grand Prix not only put a victorious Mark Webber firmly back in the championship race, it left fans with the tantalising prospect of a genuine five-way fight for the title over the season’s final seven rounds, with just 20 points covering the leading contenders.

Red Bull’s Budapest pace might suggest they’re favourites, but the RB6 is unlikely to be so perfectly suited to the remaining tracks…

With Red Bull more dominant than ever, and Ferrari taking a step forward, McLaren seem to have lost their way at recent rounds. The MP4-25 is certainly in the midst of a dip in form, and driver Jenson Button seems to have borne the brunt of its drop in pace in qualifying. Button hasn’t qualified higher than fourth all season and at the last round in Hungary failed to make it into the top-10 shootout. Speaking to his official website, Button reviews his Budapest race and the season so far

Red Bull’s Friday pace around the Hungaroring looked ominous, even without an F-duct on the RB6 and regardless of tyre compound. Ferrari could have an answer, while McLaren admit they are a long way off an adequate response (and could come under threat from Renault on Saturday). We take a team-by-team look at early progress in Budapest

Red Bull appeared to have enough pace to keep the upgraded McLarens at bay on Friday, with Sebastian Vettel taking the morning’s top spot and team mate Mark Webber the afternoon’s. The leading teams and their rivals reflect on their early progress at Silverstone

Everybody focused on learning the new sections of Silverstone’s very green Arena circuit on Friday, and doing the usual tyre comparisons. It didn’t help that the track temperature rose from 28 degrees Celsius to 43 by the afternoon, as the ambient temperature rose from 21 to 27. McLaren did not show quite the pace many had expected with their newly-upgraded MP4-25, though many rivals suspect the championship leaders are yet to play their hand. We take a team-by-team look at Friday progress

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton may try to play it down, but his second-place finish at the European Grand Prix was unexpected. The British team had arrived in Valencia worried about the pace of rivals who had upgraded their cars in advance of their own.

However, a strong qualifying lap, a great start and the MP4-25′s consistent race pace saw the British driver overcome accident damage, safety-car dramas and his subsequent penalty to add 18 points to his championship tally. It was, as he explained to his official website, an interesting weekend all round