Hamilton leads final Monza practice

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Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, Monza, 2010

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the final practice session for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

But Red Bull and Ferrari showed strong pace with Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa all lapping within two tenths of a second of Hamilton.

Hamilton’s quickest lap came at the end of the session on soft tyres – and was aided by a slipstream from the Force India of Adrian Sutil.

Alonso wasn’t so fortunate – he caught Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber heading into the Parabolica on his last run and was held up, waving his arm at the Japanese driver.

Sebastian Vettel improved to second after the chequered flag came out, crossing the line just five hundredths of a second slower than Hamilton.

But team mate Mark Webber suffered a second car failure of the weekend, his RB6 coming to a halt at the Rettifilio halfway through the session.

Massa survived another lurid moment in a gravel trap, this time at Lesmo where Jaime Alguersuari also went off during the session.

Nico H?â??lkenberg ended the session eighth ahead of Robert Kubica and Sutil.

At McLaren and Red Bull the drivers have gone in different directions in set-up.

Button is sticking with the deep rear wing and F-duct, while Hamilton is using a shallow rear wing and no F-duct. As was the case yesterday, Hamilton was 13kph quicker through the speed trap than his team mate.

Webber is using a different rear wing to Vettel and the pair were seen with flow-vis paint on their rear wings again at the beginning of the session as their team compared the different solutions.

Pos. Car Driver Car Best lap Gap Laps
1 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1’22.498 19
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1’22.545 0.047 21
3 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1’22.644 0.146 15
4 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1’22.648 0.150 16
5 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1’22.724 0.226 19
6 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1’22.946 0.448 17
7 6 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1’23.082 0.584 9
8 10 Nico H?â??lkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1’23.129 0.631 18
9 11 Robert Kubica Renault 1’23.209 0.711 20
10 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1’23.303 0.805 19
11 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1’23.450 0.952 19
12 16 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’23.673 1.175 20
13 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1’23.896 1.398 21
14 23 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1’23.908 1.410 24
15 17 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1’23.909 1.411 17
16 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 1’23.967 1.469 19
17 22 Pedro de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1’24.191 1.693 19
18 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1’24.439 1.941 15
19 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1’25.788 3.290 14
20 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1’25.925 3.427 16
21 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1’26.434 3.936 19
22 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1’26.682 4.184 19
23 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 1’27.471 4.973 18
24 20 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1’28.730 6.232 14

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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42 comments on “Hamilton leads final Monza practice”

  1. maestrointhesky
    11th September 2010, 11:06

    Superb! Looking forward to a tight quali session!

  2. Alex
    11th September 2010, 11:09

    same here i tip hamilton for pole with vettel behind him

  3. Tiomkin
    11th September 2010, 11:10

    Looks like Hammy’s choice worked out.

    1. MacademiaNut
      11th September 2010, 12:24

      Thanks to Sutil’s slipstream.

  4. Profile Photo

    Sound_Of_Madness (@)
    11th September 2010, 11:12

    The last 5-10 minutes were epic, they could easily be the final Q3 shotdown.

    Poor Webbo though… broke down once at Friday, once at Saturday… you know what comes next, don’t you? :(

    1. BBT
      11th September 2010, 11:15

      Yes, Webber pole and wins the race

    2. JSC
      11th September 2010, 11:36

      Yeah, they take Vettel’s engine and hydraulics and give it to his WDC points leading team mate.. :)

  5. adam mason
    11th September 2010, 11:14

    this is probably a stupid question..but look @ the person asking it, does petrov know these tracks,why is he so slow compared 2 kubica, but oddly enough ms was a similar amount down on rosberg.

    1. Jack Peekoc
      11th September 2010, 11:39

      Dont judge them by their practice times. Judge him after qualifying.

      1. W154
        11th September 2010, 11:57

        No, judge them after the race!

    2. Kremer
      11th September 2010, 11:39

      I think Petrov has talent enough to make it in F1, but he’s still got a bit of adapting to get used to (power, handling, setup change impacts).
      If the team ownership continues to have enough confidence in his abilities, and he brings enough sponsorship money in to make it worth their while to do so (*very* important), then I think he’ll be a better challenge to Kubica’s driving talents. (and Kubica is a talented driver, I think)

  6. Oliver
    11th September 2010, 11:20

    It is possible Jenson has the faster car.

    1. Oliver
      11th September 2010, 11:36

      Although at the end of the day its hard to say who was running what.

    2. Kremer
      11th September 2010, 11:44

      When lap times are within a couple tenths of a second, it’s more dependent on overall driver skill, conditions, and real-time circumstances over each lap… rather than trying to say one car is absolutely better than another.

  7. Logitech
    11th September 2010, 11:26

    I think, Jenson will take pole. :)

  8. VA
    11th September 2010, 11:28

    I have seen JB not even once covering the air vent with his left hand on long straight, as seen from the onboard camera. How was the F-duct activated then? I think McLaren are are up to something different in JB’s car…

    1. charlieboy
      11th September 2010, 11:30

      I thought McLarens FDUCT was operated by the drivers knee??

    2. Logitech
      11th September 2010, 11:31

      I think mcalaren doesnt use same system to cover vent, i think mcalren drivers covers it with left leg. (sorry for bad english )

      1. Xusen
        11th September 2010, 11:37

        Logitech – Don’t worry mate, it was perfectly understandable, I probably wouldn’t be able string together a single sentence in your language ;)

    3. Younger Hamilton
      11th September 2010, 11:35

      No Jenson is activating the F-duct with his left knee most of the time they’ve used their left knees.Red bull and Ferrari use their left hands activate it differently to McLaren although its possible at some time this season McLaren have activated it with their left hand most notably in Turkey.

    4. JSC
      11th September 2010, 11:39

      McLaren engineers confirmed during the race at Spa (when asked by the BBC) that they have not changed the F-duct trigger from the left knee. Whatever they’ve been doing with the left hand it wasn’t activating the F-duct…

  9. VA
    11th September 2010, 11:33

    Nop, McLaren were the first with F-duct, and it is left hand operated.

    1. Logitech
      11th September 2010, 11:35

      How Does The F-Duct Work?
      The RW80 system works by channelling some of the air flowing over the car through the small scope. This airflow through the scope is directed into the driver’s cockpit, through a small hole in the bodywork. When the driver covers this hole, in McLaren’s case by use of the left knee, the air is redirected. It then flows through the body work and out through a slot in the rear wing. This redirected airflow disrupts the flow over the rear wing and ‘stalls’ the wing. It is this process of ‘stalling’ the rear wing that causes a reduction in aerodynamic drag and thus allowing an extra 3mph on the straights.

      1. Calum
        11th September 2010, 11:52

        On Mclaren’s bonnet their is a duct next to the F in Vodafone – hence F Duct – and this is blocked when the driver moves his left knee, as opposed to other F Duct systems which use left hands.

    2. Kremer
      11th September 2010, 11:53

      Um, no. Left knee operated:
      http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/f1/449813/f-ducts-how-do-they-work.html
      http://www.suite101.com/content/the-mclaren-f1-f-duct-how-it-works-a256163
      http://formula1race-andygold.blogspot.com/2010/05/f1-rw80-f-duct-system-how-it-works.html

      Please Google before typing. :D

  10. VA
    11th September 2010, 11:36

    I think Renault’s is also hand operated

  11. Darren
    11th September 2010, 11:38

    What actually happened to Webbers car?

    1. VA
      11th September 2010, 11:41

      Total loss of power, Horner wouldn’t say more..

    2. Jack Peekoc
      11th September 2010, 11:42

      Commentators think it was an electrical or hydrolic fault. The car just cut out. Sudden (too fast for engine failure) loss of power.

    3. Profile Photo

      Jenson1 (@)
      11th September 2010, 11:49

      Red Bull say airbox fire caused Webber to stop. No engine change

      1. bosyber
        11th September 2010, 11:54

        Well, that is good news, it would be really sad to see him lose the WDC by default.

      2. Kremer
        11th September 2010, 12:00

        If so, not a big worry (additional fuel injectors have long been installed on intake manifold runners for all F1 engines).

        However, that sort of flies in the face of their official low water pressure reason.

  12. VA
    11th September 2010, 11:40

    Correction, McLaren fduct is knee operated. Sorry.

  13. Eric
    11th September 2010, 11:45

    those times are so close, not much more than 10 yards between the 5 drivers.
    this is going to be a excellent race.
    even if Lewis is not on pole he will blow them away down the straight, that is fine by me.

  14. jenson
    11th September 2010, 11:46

    How come button ended up fifth?

    1. zecks
      11th September 2010, 12:43

      his lack of straight line speed is the issue, but crucially at monza it is how all about hoe long you can make the soft tires last.
      In theory jenson will get at least another 5 laps thanks to his higher downforce. Hopefully mcclaren will have also realised that if he gets into the tow of a car in front he will have the same top speed and gear his car appropriately.

  15. Ben Curly
    11th September 2010, 11:49

    I think Renault engine is lacking in power a little bit here, but that’s the way it is. I also noticed that there was unusually large gap between RBR cars in all 3 practice sessions, but I’m not ready to come up with a conspiracy theory just yet ;)

  16. Ed
    11th September 2010, 12:01

    Massa is closer than usual to Alonso so far this weekend, it will be interesting to see if he outqualify him.

  17. Damon
    11th September 2010, 12:11

    Yes it would if Ferrari allow him to

  18. nikhil
    11th September 2010, 12:21

    liuzzi should be replaced if force india NEEDS TO SCORE POINTS…HE IS A BAD DRIVER….. NO DOUTE

  19. nikhil
    11th September 2010, 12:40

    i mean liuzzi.. is not on d pace…i dont no y they have kept him…

  20. Pete
    11th September 2010, 12:41

    If Massa leads Alonso in championship will Ferrari appeal FIA decision?

Comments are closed.