Focussing on race set-up paid off again for Jaime Alguersuri.
| Sebastien Buemi | Jaime Alguersuari | |
| Qualifying position | 16 | 18 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q1) | 1’25.164 (-0.17) | 1’25.334 |
| Race position | 10 | 7 |
| Laps | 52/53 | 52/53 |
| Pit stops | 2 | 2 |
Toro Rosso drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | |
| Sebastien Buemi | 133.341 | 142.601 | 132.192 | 93.194 | 94.682 | 92.235 | 91.652 | 91.489 | 91.12 | 91.198 | 91.142 | 91.129 | 91.36 | 90.975 | 90.933 | 96.01 | 110.907 | 89.786 | 90.589 | 90.091 | 89.7 | 89.454 | 89.37 | 90.008 | 89.473 | 89.263 | 89.579 | 89.208 | 89.213 | 89.261 | 89.212 | 89.201 | 88.937 | 89.054 | 89.103 | 89.15 | 89.236 | 89.253 | 89.843 | 94.305 | 110.034 | 88.867 | 88.919 | 89.511 | 88.585 | 88.798 | 90.378 | 89.48 | 90.012 | 90.183 | 88.202 | 88.677 | |
| Jaime Alguersuari | 126.976 | 143.127 | 135.4 | 93.975 | 94.234 | 92.744 | 91.754 | 91.727 | 91.215 | 90.835 | 90.991 | 90.704 | 91.625 | 90.317 | 90.38 | 90.861 | 90.849 | 90.528 | 91.061 | 94.23 | 108.592 | 89.578 | 89.683 | 89.355 | 89.195 | 89.384 | 89.55 | 89.282 | 89.75 | 89.51 | 89.246 | 88.768 | 88.755 | 89.316 | 88.699 | 88.544 | 88.834 | 88.827 | 88.617 | 88.567 | 92.363 | 108.215 | 88.963 | 88.558 | 89.765 | 88.628 | 88.811 | 88.488 | 88.357 | 88.791 | 89.089 | 89.278 |
Sebastien Buemi
| Start tyre | Soft |
| Pit stop 1 | Soft 24.234s |
| Pit stop 2 | Medium 24.086s |
Crashed at Parabolica early in second practice but out-qualified his team mate for 16th on the grid.
Buemi suspected damage from the first-corner accident slowed his car during the race.
He was passed by Bruno Senna and Paul di Resta in the closing stages and went off at the Rettifilio chicane at one point.
Sebastien Buemi 2011 form guide
Jaime Alguersuari
| Start tyre | Soft |
| Pit stop 1 | Soft 21.988s |
| Pit stop 2 | Medium 22.279s |
After reaching sixth in qualifying in Spa, Monza was some of a reality check. Alguersauri was eliminated right at the end of Q1, admitting “my lap was simply not quick enough”.
He climbed to 11th on lap one and briefly got in front of Felipe Massa before being re-passed by the Ferrari driver.
On lap 18 he capitalised on the battling Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado to pass both of them for seventh place.
He came out of his final pit stop ahead of Paul di Resta who wasn’t able to catch the Toro Rosso before the end of the race, leaving Alguersuari a career-best seventh.
“I am very happy with my race today,” he said afterwards. “I think I would like to start even further back on the grid for the next one, because it seems that whenever I have a poor grid position, I finish in the points!”
Jaime Alguersuari 2011 form guide
2011 Italian Grand Prix
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
Eric
12th September 2011, 12:22
Hey Keith, do you mean climbs to 7th?
It was a good drive though. Admittedly Liuzzi did his best to help
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th September 2011, 12:23
Yes. Oops!
David-A (@david-a)
13th September 2011, 3:04
Help his former team :P
BasCB (@bascb)
12th September 2011, 12:23
I think i fail to get the joke in the title about climbing to 18th Keith!
Alguersuari did “climb” from 6th in Spa qualifying to 18th here, but it doesn not really fit, does it?
He must have been relieved to get that 7th place with DiResta failing to get him, just like Hamilton failed to get Alonso.
BasCB (@bascb)
12th September 2011, 12:24
Ah, yes not it makes more sense!
graigchq
12th September 2011, 14:45
..unlike your comment here, which makes no sense at all lol
Felipe Bomeny (@portugoose)
12th September 2011, 12:27
Keith, how did Sebastien Buemi overtake Sebastien Buemi? ;)
Anyways, another commanding race performance from DJ Squire.
Eric
12th September 2011, 12:30
If he could get his qualifying together he would be doing really well. I think this aspect of his driving is the only thing keeping Buemi in contention at the moment. I never really rated him when he first started but he is beginning to grow on me.
Q85
12th September 2011, 22:27
perhaps he knows the game better and purposely concentrates only on race set up?
he qualys 18th instead of 16th, but his race pace is much much better.
His turn around from first few races where he looked totally lost, for me is the comeback performances of the season. Very impressive.
Eric
12th September 2011, 12:32
And this is how Buemi overtakes buemi :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBVuvIPe0tc
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
12th September 2011, 12:35
Changed it, thanks.
Girts
12th September 2011, 12:59
So this is already the 9th time in 13 races this season when a driver who is eliminated in Q1 finishes in the points on the next day.
China: Mark Webber 18th – 3rd
Turkey: Kamui Kobayashi 23rd – 10th
Spain: Nick Heidfeld 24th – 8th
Canada: Jaime Alguersuari 18th – 8th
Valencia: Jaime Alguersuari 18th – 8th
Britain: Jaime Alguersuari 18th – 10th
Hungary: Sebastien Buemi 23rd – 8th
Belgium: Michael Schumacher 24th – 5th
Italy: Jaime Alguersuari 18th – 7th
hawkfist
12th September 2011, 13:03
Interesting that!
Marco
12th September 2011, 14:18
Mistake – Alguersuari – 24th – 8th in Canada…
Girts
12th September 2011, 14:39
You are right, he qualified 18th but actually started from the pits.
I found one more mistake myself. In Germany, Kobayashi finished 9th on Sunday after having started from 17th on the grid but actually he had qualified 18th and moved up one position because of Buemi’s grid penalty. So that makes 10 times in 13 races when someone is eliminated in Q1 but finishes in top 10 afterwards.
graigchq
12th September 2011, 14:52
could this be to do with tyres?
i found it interesting that Rosberg chose not to chase pole and went for the hard tyres, because this is perhaps why.
If you go out in Q1, and if you only set one or two flying laps on the softer tyres to do so, then you have two fresh sets of tyres for the race, plus the ability to start on hards, and finish on softs, thus having that extra driveability at the end of the race where a lot of overtaking has happened this year (China/Malaysia for example).
Again with Jenson in Spa, perhaps being behind with the hard tyres phase out foo the way early on, gave him the best possible set up for the rest of the race, with three sets of softs in good/perfect condition.
This actually makes a lot of sense, and but also seems a bit mad, that they are still going for glory with soft tyres, sometimes two runs in Q3, knowing full well that it is knocking off about 5-10 laps from the performance of those tyres the following day.
I think we’ll see more of this, certainly from p11-p17, and perhaps more drivers like Nico, who know they won’t get pole, but are thinking more about the race pace and where they will be stronger.
I certainly would prefer to get the hard compound out of the way, and be racing at the car’s fullest potential right at the end of the race, low fuel, soft tyres, why would anyone plan to do things differently to this??
hawkfist
12th September 2011, 15:29
I thought that when I first realised it was happening, but then I plotted the data for last year too and it was happening just as much in the 2010 season (before Pirelli tyres).
Maybe it just makes people go more banzai on their strategy? Possibly people see what happens in front of them at the start and can follow people down gaps that open up into the first corner (and also can see where incidents are and avoid them)? It was happening on Bridgestone rubber last year as well though so it isn’t solely down to that.
Marco
12th September 2011, 13:03
Great performance from Jaime again… To be honest I
didn t expect him to do so well at Monza as it was one of his weakest tracks previously… But at least it shows how greatly he has improved on stop/go circuits with long straights and not so many fast corners like Montreal, Valencia or Monza… I believe it is not the end and 6th place for Toro in Constructors championship is not impossible…
Marco
12th September 2011, 13:05
Correction – is still possible… :)
Enigma (@enigma)
12th September 2011, 13:37
That was awful by Buemi – he was going around the outside of Rosberg and kind of bounced of him when touching rear wheels. Rosberg did move a little forwards just before, but Buemi should be more careful. It’s entirely his fault his car was damaged throughout the race.
Terrible.
michaeldobson13 (@michaeldobson13)
12th September 2011, 17:10
Not really. The alternative was to go on the gravel, which could also damage the car or get stuck, at the speed he was going. Besides, F1 drivers have little practice at driving slowly around other cars.
The bigger damage at this point was the position loss; while Buemi, along with Barrichello, Senna and one of the Force India’s followed the track and had to slowly negotiate the stricken cars, the rest of the field behind them cut the corner.
bosyber
13th September 2011, 15:12
I don’t think there was a lot he could do to avoid it really. Anyway, good save by him after also apparently having his car hit by Trulli (I think).
Eggry (@eggry)
12th September 2011, 22:41
Their ‘for the race’ approach paid off. Now I think many medfilder want to be eliminated in Q1 :P
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
14th September 2011, 17:59
It’s that fabled 18th position!
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
14th September 2011, 18:01
Soild stuff from Jaime. Witnessing the battle between himself, Kobayashi and Barrichello for 17th was great.