Hamilton leads final Monza practice

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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 Hulkenberg 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.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
12Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’22.49819
25Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’22.5450.04721
38Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’22.6440.14615
47Felipe MassaFerrari1’22.6480.15016
51Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’22.7240.22619
64Nico RosbergMercedes1’22.9460.44817
76Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’23.0820.5849
810Nico HulkenbergWilliams-Cosworth1’23.1290.63118
911Robert KubicaRenault1’23.2090.71120
1014Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’23.3030.80519
119Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’23.4500.95219
1216Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’23.6731.17520
133Michael SchumacherMercedes1’23.8961.39821
1423Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’23.9081.41024
1517Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’23.9091.41117
1612Vitaly PetrovRenault1’23.9671.46919
1722Pedro de la RosaSauber-Ferrari1’24.1911.69319
1815Vitantonio LiuzziForce India-Mercedes1’24.4391.94115
1918Jarno TrulliLotus-Cosworth1’25.7883.29014
2019Heikki KovalainenLotus-Cosworth1’25.9253.42716
2124Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’26.4343.93619
2225Lucas di GrassiVirgin-Cosworth1’26.6824.18419
2321Bruno SennaHRT-Cosworth1’27.4714.97318
2420Sakon YamamotoHRT-Cosworth1’28.7306.23214

2010 Italian Grand Prix

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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. Superb! Looking forward to a tight quali session!

    2. same here i tip hamilton for pole with vettel behind him

    3. Looks like Hammy’s choice worked out.

      1. Thanks to Sutil’s slipstream.

    4. 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. Yes, Webber pole and wins the race

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

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

        1. No, judge them after the race!

      2. 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. It is possible Jenson has the faster car.

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

      2. 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. I think, Jenson will take pole. :)

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

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

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

      1. 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. 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.

    10. I think Renault’s is also hand operated

    11. What actually happened to Webbers car?

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

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

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

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

        2. 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. Correction, McLaren fduct is knee operated. Sorry.

    13. 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. How come button ended up fifth?

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

    17. Yes it would if Ferrari allow him to

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

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

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

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