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If there were any hopes of other teams catching the Red Bulls, Monza simply wasn’t the best place to do so. While FP1 was tricky, the Red Bulls never really put a foot wrong during the rest of the weekend. Both the Red Bull’s were never far apart with Sebastian Vettel leading the way and Mark Webber a few notches behind.
Qualifying
While Ferrari would have wanted to show off their skills in front of their home fans, the Red-Bulls were in the mood to spoil the Tifosi celebrations. Vettel was fastest in Q1 and never really looked in trouble. Webber though was left behind but qualified within the time to make it to Q2. The second time around Vettel maintained status quo with the fastest lap and the first to go under 1 min 23 seconds. Webber was much faster in Q2 finishing just behind thr 2nd placed Alonso. With Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton out in Q2, Vettel and Webber had some breathing space with quite a few back markers in the top-10.
But the Red Bulls performed as expected in Q3 with both drivers in RBR9 taking the front row with Vettel on pole without much challenge from any other drivers. However, the only thing that surprised everyone (including Webber in the post qualifying conference) was Nico Hulkenberg’s third fastest time to get him a deserving P3 and second row on the grid for Sauber-Ferrari.
Race Day
As it started to rain hours before the start of the race, the teams hustled in the garage, preparing for wet weather strategies. But fortunately, the rain Gods went away and it was a dry track all throughout the race.
Sebastian Vettel
Vettel wasn’t the fastest off the grid but managed to keep competition behind including his team-mate Mark Webber, but locked up his front-right tyre leading into the first chicane. That was probably the only error in an otherwise perfect race for the German. He started to pull away from his rivals (which has become a regular feature now), so much so that TV cameras had to focus on the exciting battles behind him. He drove effortlessly and with a healthy time-cushion on Alonso. There was quite a chatter on the radio from the pit-wall with the Red Bull team detecting a possible flat-right front tyre on lap 10.
But Vettel continued to drive the wheels off his Red Bull before making his first pit-stop on lap 24. The Red Bull team pulling a near perfect time of under 3 seconds. On his way to the chequered flag, the German kept up the pace recording quite a few fastest laps before he was asked to short-shift to avoid a potential gearbox problem. Luckily for Vettel, it didn’t have an impact on the race outcome and Vettel cruised to his third win at Monza and the sixth of the season. While on the podium, he was booed by the Ferrari fans. He looked quite comfortable while ignoring them and was on the lookout for Red Bull fans.
Mark Webber
The Aussie wanted to give his best at the historical track for the final time in his final season at Formula One. The start wasn’t the best as Felipe Massa was fast off the grid and closed out Webber to take the 2nd place moving out of the first corner. Webber managed to keep things tidy but Alonso following him closely. Webber though couldn’t hold the lead for long and eventually moved to fourth after Alonso made his move and caused some damage to the Red Bull’s front wing. While Webber was unfazed by the contact, he kept pushing hard and finally got his reward. Red Bull team made a smart move to call Webber in the pits ahead of Massa that helped him move into third. He was again putting in fast laps and had Alonso in his sight.
But on lap 41, the gearbox problem haunted him like his teammate and was asked to short –shift to avoid any further damage to the car. But that didn’t stop Webber chasing down Alonso. Alonso barely managed to keep Webber just behind him at the finish line by 0.9 seconds. With that, Webber bid goodbye to the Cathedral of Speed and his best performance on the track came as a farewell gift.A ten-on-ten race weekend for the Milton Keyes team at the Magic Track that saw Vettel gain a healthy lead in the Driver’s Championship, Red Bull moving ahead in the Constructor’s with a 100 point lead over next rivals Ferrari and the veteran Mark Webber finishing on the podium in his last race at Monza as a Formula One driver.
