Sebastian Vettel dominated qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix and went on to claim a strong victory at the fastest race of the season at Monza.
After the Red Bulls and the Ferraris got off to a clean start, there was quite some drama at the first corner behind the leading pack. A sharp braking maneuver from Sergio Perez saw Kimi Raikkonen bump into the rear of the McLaren and drop to the back of the pack. Just a few corners later, Paul DiResta misjudged his braking point and ended up crashing and losing his left front wheel; his very first ‘first lap’ retirement in his career.
Lap 6, and Alonso went past Massa in what was a smooth move as the action continued elsewhere on the track, with speeds of well over 330 km/h regularly being clocked by almost every driver. On lap 12, Hamilton was informed of a puncture and slowly dropped back. Five laps later, Vergne crashed into retirement, with his smoking Toro Rosso taken off the track. Meanwhile, his team mate, Daniel Ricciardo, hit a noteworthy 336 km/h.
Lap 24 saw the Red Bulls pit with Vettel dropping to fifth from the lead and Webber losing six places to come back out in eighth. Four laps later, Alonso came in from the lead, but managed to exit in second. Lewis Hamilton was then a man on the move, charging up the order and up into fifth.
With the pit stops done and dusted, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton found themselves in P12 and 13, respectively; both going past Adrian Sutil’s Force India. A couple of laps later, Raikkonen had a KERS failure and lost his extra juice, allowing Hamilton to get past after a couple of failed attempts, at the Curva Grande, which provided many a good overtaking move.
In the end, Vettel claimed a strong win, with the crowd favourite Fernando Alonso coming in second for Ferrari. Red Bull’s Webber, in his final Italian F1 GP, finished third, giving the team a sizeable points advantage in the constructor’s championship. Felipe Massa finished fourth and Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg got his best result yet with fifth place.
Vettel leads the driver’s championship with 222 points, ahead of Alonso who’s on 169 points with Hamilton in third with 141. In the constructor’s championship, Red Bull are far ahead on 352 while it’s Ferrari now in second, just, with 248 points, three points ahead of Mercedes who are on 245. Formula 1’s glamourous night race, the Singapore Grand Prix is up next, later this month.
