Qualifying at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza

It may be unfair that Romain Grosjean was given a one race suspension for causing the first corner collision (and may be too harsh a punishment to some), it is wonderful to see Jerome d’Ambrosio back behind the wheel of a Formula One car. Without having much running time this year, d’Ambrosio appears to be holding up quite well under the pressure. Only the race will see what he can really (hopefully) do.

Q1 and it appeared everything was running smooth. The drivers and cars were making it around track (minus the cut off to avoid ‘catching air’ over the speed bumps). And d’Ambrosio managed to just squeak into the Q2 ahead of Kovalainen. To the delight of many Indian fans, Narain Karthikeyan had out qualified his teammate Pedro de la Rosa for the first time this season.

Q2 and immediately there were cars and drivers on track. With limited running, d’Ambrosio was leading the pack. Needed as much time in the E20 for the race, the team had him out the moment the time started to tick.

Mid way through the session, it seemed that all eyes were training on the Sauber drivers. With their amazing qualifying performances last week, fans and media were looking to see if the pair could do it again. It was looking good for the team, getting at least one of their drivers into the top ten shoot out. The upset for Q2 was that Mark Webber failed to make it into the top ten, but if you look back to last weekend’s race, Webber’s teammate Sebastian Vettel failed to make the top ten and went on to claim 2nd place.

During all three sessions in qualifying, you could see plainly that Autodromo Nazionale Monza is being out grown by Formula One. The cars and drivers are getting to quick and with the fast corners and sharp turns, many drivers have had to miss both the corners and chicanes by running into the run-offs and avoiding and flight time (hitting the kerbs).

Top Ten shoot out and the fans got to see what they paid for. Coming down to the last few seconds in Q3 and it was an all out race. Like Karthikeyan, Felipe Massa was able to out qualify his teammate (and current World Driver’s Champion leader) Fernando Alonso. Di Resta proved that he could be handed a five place grid penalty and still be within the top ten. The last few seconds were just pure adrenalin!

If qualifying was any sort of foreshadow for the race tomorrow, we are in for quite a race!

Lewis Hamilton	P1
Jenson Button	P2
Felipe Massa	P3
Michael Schumacher	P4
Sebastian Vettel	P5 Fan’s Choice To Win
Nico Rosberg	P6
Kimi Räikkönen	P7
Kaumi Kobayashi	P8
Paul di Resta	P9
Fernando Alonso	P10
Mark Webber	P11
Sergio Perez	P12
Bruno Senna	P13
Daniel Ricciardo	P14
Jerome d’Ambrosio	P15
Jean-Éric Vergne	P16
Heikki Kovalainen	P17
Vitaly Petrov	P18
Timo Glock	P19
Charles Pic	P20
Narain Karthikeyan	P21
Pastor Maldonado	P22
Pedro de la Rosa	P23
Nico Hulkenberg	No time set

Q1 107% Time 1:30.067Note – Maldonado drops five grid spots for a jump start and five for causing a collision at the previous round. Di Resta drops five for an unscheduled gearbox change.