Italian Grand Prix: Fantastic Racing at Legendary Monza

The Italian Grand Prix was much like the 2011 season itself: Sebastian Vettel walked away with the win, but the race behind him had plenty to keep the fans on the edge of their seat.

Monza is of course the home of the tifosi, and under the September sun they created an electric atmosphere as the clock ticked down towards the start, even though it somehow felt inevitable that Vettel would win the race.

As a package, the Red Bull-Vettel combination is just untouchable. The RB6 is the best car in Formula 1. Is Vettel the best driver in Formula 1? It’s oh-so-hard to say, but his form this year has been absolutely sensational—he’s driving brilliantly. It’s never easy to win in Formula 1, even in the best car, but yesterday he did it yet again. The consistency of his driving, lap after lap and race after race, is what is making the difference. Vettel doesn’t make any mistakes; he always gets the maximum from the car.

It wasn’t quite the perfect race for him though. Fernando Alonso, in his Ferrari, got a blinding start and led into the first chicane, as he did in Spain. Vettel and Lewis Hamilton briefly interlocked their wheels as they flew down the start finish straight. Not for the only time yesterday afternoon, we held our breath and gritted our teeth as a huge accident was averted. These drivers are sensational to watch, their ability to race wheel to wheel at 200 mph is just phenomenal, and while Lewis and Sebastian apparently had the situation well under control, it’s moments like this that make us mere mortals realise that we simply couldn’t do what these guys do every other week.

On Lap 4, we had another teeth-gritting moment as Vettel got alongside Alonso on the outside of Curva Grande, the flat out right-hander after the first chicane. Vettel briefly jinked right before moving to the left of the Ferrari, to the edge of the track and then over it, as Fernando moved across on him. After the race we heard Vettel say to Fernando, “I was on the grass,” but Fernando’s reaction was a meagre smile and a gentle shrug of the shoulders. It looked like Fernando had expected Vettel to lift off, but the thought never crossed Vettel’s mind. He kept his foot hard on the throttle and as the cars moved to the right of the circuit, and back on the circuit in Vettel’s case, the Red Bull was able to slip past the Ferrari. And that was it—even through the pit stops Vettel never lost the lead.

Our attention turned to a gripping battle between Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. Schumacher made an excellent start from eighth and completed the first lap in fourth. He had Hamilton behind him and this is where the gear ratio issue became very visible. The McLaren was maxing out its rev-limiter and so Hamilton could draw alongside the Mercedes, but he couldn’t get far enough alongside to pull off an out-braking maneuvre into the chicanes.

Frequently Hamilton would try to pass at Ascari, but Schumacher positioned his car vigorously but precisely to keep his position. For Michael, running at the front of a Grand Prix is always special, and you could see his motivation to keep the position. He hasn’t had a podium since his return to Formula 1, and it seemed inevitable that he would eventually finish behind the McLaren.

Unfortunately for Michael, and Mercedes, he was also passed by Jenson Button, in a ballsy move into Ascari, and so he finished fifth. “We are both known for driving on the limit, and that is what we did,” the German said about his fight with Hamilton. “I had to make my car as wide as a truck, and had to stretch the possible as much as I could, but in the end, as expected, he was still faster.”

The important part is the “stretching of the possible.” Hamilton was monosyllabic afterwards and was quite obviously unhappy with either the driving of Michael or the position the stewards took. When Alonso pushed Vettel onto the grass on the exit of Curva Grande it looked like Alonso wasn’t certain where Vettel was, and also that Alonso was taking the natural racing line. However, when Schumacher chopped across Hamilton on the entry to Curva Grande—at 190 mph, remember—it was a calculated blocking maneuvre and it caused Hamilton to get right out of the throttle and onto the grass.

It was dangerous and yet again a massive accident looked briefly likely. Hamilton summed it up thus: “I had to really fight Schumacher, but the fact that I finished ahead of him meant everything was okay. That’s racing.”

One feels he was biting his tongue very hard.

There were many great drives in this race. Jaime Alguersuari drove another strong race and he finished seventh after starting 18th. It was a truly impressive performance and it leaves the Scuderia Toro Rosso team just seven points behind Force India in the championship. After a difficult opening third of the season, Alguersuari’s results have improved immeasurably, and he has stated that this is nothing to do with his driving, it’s all to do with the improvements in car set-up that he and his engineer have developed. His teammate Sebastien Buemi started 16th and also raced well to finish 10th, but his performance is somewhat forgettable when compared to that of Alguersuari.

Bruno Senna wasn’t quite as impressive as he was in Spa, qualifying a few tenths of a second behind Vitaly Petrov. He pitted at the end of lap two and, like Spa, found himself fighting back. He got up to ninth place, but again we are left wondering what he could have done given an incident free race.

As for Petrov and Rosberg, their races were ended at the first corner by Vitantonio Liuzzi, who lost control of his HRT on the run down to the first corner. Liuzzi’s accident effectively happened at another part of the circuit, where he was traveling almost flat-out, and so it could have been a very dangerous accident as he made contact with the cars in the middle of the first chicane. We were lucky that nobody was injured.

Jenson Button drove another fantastic Grand Prix. After Schumacher’s move on Hamilton at Curva Grande, Button passed his team mate and then pounced on Schumacher under braking for Ascari. It was a bold move—Jenson had to be so precise on his braking and turn-in. The visibility out of these cars is so restricted and the drivers rely a huge amount on their ability to effectively guess where the other car is and what it is doing. Button was rightfully proud of the pass after the race. It was crucial, too, as it enabled him to start closing the gap on Alonso and by the end of the race, the Briton was seven seconds clear of the Ferrari. Jenson drove magnificently and moved into third in the driver’s championship, just five points behind Alonso.

Monza reveals the beauty of these machines as they flash under the shadows of the trees, kicking up the early autumn leaves. In two weeks we go to Singapore for its stunning night race, where the beauty of the modern Formula 1 car is revealed just as clearly, as the dazzling lights flicker over the contoured surfaces and the cars buck around over the bumps.