Vettel stays on top by reduced margin at Monza

2013 Italian Grand Prix third practice

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Sebastian Vettel remains the driver to beat at Monza but his pursuers were closer in the final practice session ahead of qualifying.

Vettel set the quickest time of the weekend so far with a lap of 1’24.360 but Fernando Alonso’s best effort was within three-tenths of a second of him.

Ferrari were leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to get on terms with Red Bull, instructing their drivers to give each other tows on the straight to improve their lap times. Felipe Massa ended up seventh, 0.6s off Vettel’s time.

Mark Webber was third ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. Sergio Perez was fifth for McLaren on his medium-tyre run after damaging his front-right tyre while running on hards earlier in the session.

A late improvement from Daniel Ricciardo saw him take sixth for Toro Rosso, clocking 340kph through the speed trap as he did so.

Jenson Button was eighth ahead of Pastor Maldonado, who gave Williams some encouragement with the ninth fastest time.

Having been ‘best of the rest’ behind Red Bull on Friday, Lotus could only manage tenth for Kimi Raikkonen and 14th for Romain Grosjean, both drivers complaining of a lack of grip.

Paul di Resta’s session came to an end when he went off at Parabolica, hitting the barrier head-on. “Something broke there,” said Di Resta before climbing out of his car. Moments later the other Force India of Adrian Sutil spun at Ascari but without hitting anything.

Nico Rosberg only managed five laps before an overheating problem on his Mercedes ended his session.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’24.36018
23Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’24.6430.28313
32Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’24.6770.31722
410Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’24.7120.35217
56Sergio PerezMcLaren1’24.8640.50419
619Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’24.8650.50519
74Felipe MassaFerrari1’24.9950.63514
85Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’25.1030.74315
916Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’25.1160.75620
107Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’25.1200.76018
1118Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’25.1360.77616
1211Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’25.2730.91321
1312Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’25.3240.96422
148Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’25.4991.13917
1517Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’25.6601.30021
1615Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’25.7021.34219
1714Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’26.1201.76011
1820Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’26.6072.24721
1921Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’27.1722.81220
2022Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’27.6053.24518
2123Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’27.6653.30518
229Nico RosbergMercedes1’27.8223.4625

Combined practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2FP3Fri/Sat diffTotal laps
1Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’25.7531’24.4531’24.360-0.09383
2Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’25.6001’25.3301’24.643-0.68776
3Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’26.1031’25.0761’24.677-0.39988
4Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’25.5651’25.3401’24.712-0.62880
5Sergio PerezMcLaren1’26.0071’25.6271’24.864-0.76382
6Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’26.3871’26.5991’24.865-1.52283
7Felipe MassaFerrari1’26.4491’25.5191’24.995-0.52459
8Jenson ButtonMcLaren1’26.0351’25.5321’25.103-0.42980
9Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’25.9411’25.1161’25.120+0.00476
10Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’26.2951’25.1161’25.499+0.38380
11Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’26.1491’26.1381’25.116-1.02277
12Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’26.1551’26.2241’25.136-1.01973
13Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’27.2241’26.3851’25.273-1.11280
14Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’26.1941’25.8881’25.324-0.56487
15Nico RosbergMercedes1’25.7041’25.3671’27.822+2.45572
16Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’26.8021’27.1981’25.660-1.14286
17Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’26.0281’25.702-0.32656
18Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’26.5941’25.8301’26.120+0.2964
19Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’27.8181’27.6961’26.607-1.08982
20James CaladoForce India-Mercedes1’27.04124
21Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’27.7711’27.172-0.59958
22Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’27.8691’27.5481’27.665+0.11775
23Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’28.0571’27.605-0.45250
24Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault1’28.19221
25Rodolfo GonzalezMarussia-Cosworth1’29.52626

2013 Italian Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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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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21 comments on “Vettel stays on top by reduced margin at Monza”

  1. Now we know why Red Bull was weary of the Ferrari and Mercedes threat, Garry Anderson from BBC suspects they are driving around with a bit more downforce to counter the rain that might fall tomorrow. RB, Ferrari, Mercedes and Lotus are verry close in the speedtraps (335-337) so that could be a titanic battle tomorrow.

    I’m still going to put my money on Vettel for pole but the massive gap that existed yesterday is a thing of the past now.

  2. Interesting to see Maldonado so up there, hopefully it’s a sign of something good for Williams, as it’s been long due for them.

    1. Why should it be long due for them? They built a bad car, end of story.

      1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
        7th September 2013, 11:21

        +1

  3. So not only did both Lotus drivers fail to improve on their times, but Maldonado matched them so all three have set best laps of 1’25.116 so far!

    1. Yes, it is a bit strange. Maybe they are setting up the car for the probable rain tomorrow?

    2. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
      7th September 2013, 11:24

      Maldonado matches Lotus. Doom.

      1. For a paydriver Maldonado’s pretty decent, and his speed is undoubted. Unfortunately his propensity to get involved in all sorts of collisions is a serious issue he needs to sort out. Like Grosjean, he’s not going to be able to develop into the driver he’s capable of being at this rate.

  4. Daft as it sounds, i really like the photo at the top of the page cos the angle of the shot almost makes it look like he’s on the old Monza banking.

    1. So it does haha!

  5. I think Vettel kept some in hand on that last run, everyone else improved more than him on the option tyres. Considering he still had a half second in hand on the hard tyres that session I think he’s still in a pretty commanding position.

  6. Let’s hope Merc & Ferrari can pull something out of the bag as last thing we need is another finger boy dominance. Rain only help them tomorrow.

    McLaren also looking good. Wonder if they will go for a different strategy to try and maximise on wed or dry race. Would love to see them on the podium but it’s a BIG BIG ask.

    Hopefully Lotus will have a terrible race which will only push Kimi closer to that Ferrari seat

  7. @keithcollantine “Mark Webber was fourth” – should be third.

  8. Massa towing Alonso again – I really hope that he’s fired swaps places with Kimi and resurges at Lotus.

    1. Alonsos fastest lap on Mediums was without tow, Massa was behind him on track. Saw it myself on the drivertracker app.

  9. Why is it that only Nico has problems – I’m sure Mercedes sabotages his car to make it easier for Lewis :)

    1. Think it as karma. For last year, when only schumacher had the most problems…:)

    2. @tmf42
      Not particularly a fan of Hamilton but when people make such ignorant claims I’m compelled to reply. Unless it’s explicitly revealed like Massa’s gearbox at USA last year, what evidence do you have? Besides, the last time I checked it was Hamilton’s tyre which exploded at Silverstone, not Rosberg’s and in addition, the WCC is a team effort and it makes absolutely no sense for a team to sabotage one of their drivers after investing millions on both cars. Likewise for Red Bull and the baseless conspiracy theories surrounding Webber’s machinery.

      1. @woshidavid95 It’s a joke – for all the Webber conspiracists frequenting this site.

        1. @tmf42
          Oh your intention was to show how ridiculous those conspiracy theories are? My bad then.

          1. @whoshidavid95 – exactly :)

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