Alonso Wins Ferrari’s Home Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso won the Italian Grand Prix this afternoon, while Jenson Button kept him honest, and Lewis Hamilton saw the end to his race within six corners.

Alonso was forced to go defensive off the start after losing the lead to Button, who got a clean, strong getaway, and after trying to run Button wide into the first corner, he had to settle into second, ahead of his teammate Felipe Massa, who fancied his chances off the start as well. Hamilton got a good getaway, to pass Mark Webber for fourth, while the Australian slipped back, but while trying to dive up the inside of Massa into turn four, Hamilton made contact with the Ferrari, snapping his steering arm, before running off the road at turn six, the first Lesmo, due to the damage.

Button lead Alonso and Massa through the first lap, while Nico Rosberg made up three positions off the start to sit fourth, with Robert Kubica up to fifth, Nico Hulkenberg up to sixth, Sebastian Vettel down one to seventh, Michael Schumacher up four to eighth, Mark Webber down five to ninth, and Sebastien Buemi up in tenth.

The Red Bulls got a poor start compared to the Ferraris and the McLarens, but after Hamilton’s early elimination from the race, it didn’t seem too bad for Webber, who was guaranteed to regain the lead of the championship as long as he finished eighth or higher.

By lap six, he passed Schumacher for that eighth position, and while Schumacher tried to squeeze back past him, Webber was able to keep hold of the position.

Button maintained the lead, with Alonso maintaining the pressure for the majority of the race, as Button seemed to be struggling with pace after having lost a piece of his rear wing end-plate following first corner contact with Alonso. As Button and the Ferrari’s led the rest of the pack, Vettel started suffering with engine problems on lap 21, losing seventh to Webber, and falling back into the clutches of Schumacher. Luckily for Vettel, it seemed to be just electrical problems with his engine, and the problem ended up solving itself, and he was able to make up time in the remainder of the race.

The pitstops came later in the race, and on lap 34, Kubica became the first of the front-runners to pit. Rosberg and Webber were next on lap 36, with Webber dropping behind Kubica as he rejoined the track. On lap 37, Button pitted from the lead, followed shortly by Hulkenberg, who rejoined the track ahead of Kubica. Webber was then making moves on the squabbling pair, managing to make a move round the outside of Kubica stick into turn four on the same lap.

Alonso was next to pit from the lead, which he had been gifted by Button, who after his stop was in third. Alonso’s stop was smooth and having made a few tenths on his inlap, he was able to stay ahead of Button as he rejoined the circuit. Massa was next to pit on lap 39, and he rejoined in third.

As the race headed into its final ten laps, Vettel was the only driver of the front-runners who was yet to pit. Alonso led, from Button and Massa, who was just ahead of the recovering Vettel. Rosberg was fifth, ahead of Hulkenberg, Webber and Kubica. As speculation grew over when Vettel would pit, and where indeed he would rejoin the track, Webber was able to pass Hulkenberg, who he had been squabbling with for the majority of the race.

Vettel finally pitted at the start of the final lap, and was able to maintain fourth after pulling out a comfortable lead over Rosberg, while Alonso was busy heading for the chequered flag, with Button between him and his Ferrari teammate.

Alonso’s win pulls him closer to the title, while Mark Webber took advantage of a handful of points and Hamilton’s retirement to regain the lead of the championship on 187 points, with Hamilton on 182 and Alonso third on 166. Button’s second place means he holds onto fourth in the standings on 165 points, while Vettel slips to fifth on 163, with just 24 points and a win separating the top five drivers as the season heads into the final five, long-haul races of the season.

Red Bull maintain their lead in the championship on 350 points, while McLaren slip back by a further two points on 347. Ferrari’s first and third places see them on 290 constructors’ world championship points.

The next race will be in Singapore in two weeks, with qualifying on Saturday 25th September, and the race live on BBC1 at 1pm on Sunday 26th.

Alonso on Pole on Ferrari Home Soil

Fernando Alonso took his first ever Ferrari pole position on Ferrari home soil in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix in Monza this afternoon.

Jenson Button will start alongside the Ferrari in second, in the F-duct-sporting McLaren, while teammate Lewis Hamilton, who will be running less downforce and no F-duct, will start fifth.

Alonso didn’t let the media-hype surrounding Wednesday’s World Motor Sport Council meeting over Ferrari’s team orders in Germany get the better off him, and he set the pace early on in Q3, setting a time of 1:21.962 – a time that no one could beat. Button came close, but wasn’t close enough, while Alonso’s teammate, Felipe Massa, couldn’t do better than third. The Red Bulls, for the first time this season, seemed off the pace, with Mark Webber managing to steal P4 from Hamilton at the last possible second, and Sebastian Vettel the slowest of the leading teams in sixth.

In Q1, once the top teams had set their fastest times, with Massa setting the pace, it was a battle of the new teams for the remainder of the session, to try and be the quickest of the knock-outs in the first round. Vitantonio Liuzzi lost out early on, with electrical problems with his Force India, forcing him to bow out. Lotus were the fastest of the new teams, with Jarno Trulli in 18th, Heikki Kovalainen 19th, with Luizzi eliminated early on and forced down to 20th. Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi set the 21st and 22nd fastest times for Virgin, with Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto 23rd and 24th. Due to a five-place grid-drop penalty for changing his gearbox, Glock will start from 24th, elevating di Grassi, Senna and Yamamoto.

Alonso set the fastest time in Q2, while Adrian Sutil, Michael Schumacher, Kamui Kobayashi, Sebastien Buemi, Vitaly Petrov, Jaime Alguersuari and Pedro de la Rosa were eliminated in 11th down to 17th, respectively.

In the end, it was Alonso who was unbeatable, and for just the second time this season, Red Bull won’t start from pole, in fact, they won’t be on the front row at all. Elsewhere in the top ten shoot-out, Nico Rosberg will start seventh, Nico Hulkenberg 8th, Robert Kubica ninth, and Rubens Barrichello will round out the top ten in tenth.

The race is live on BBC1 at 1pm tomorrow.

Alonso Takes Controversial Win in Germany

Fernando Alonso took a controversial win in Germany this afternoon, after coded team orders from Ferrari saw race-leader Felipe Massa hand over the lead.

The two Ferrari drivers got a good start, with Massa taking the lead as Sebastian Vettel attempted to close the door on Alonso. The German pole-sitter ultimately lost out, with both Ferrari drivers diving past him on either side. Massa then led Alonso through the pitstops, with the two then trading fastest times early in the second stint. On lap 49, after jostling for first place a few laps earlier, Massa’s race engineer, Rob Smedley, gave a coded message to his driver over the radio: “Ok, so, Alonso is faster than you. Can you confirm you understand?” Moments later, the Brazilian driver lifted coming out of the turn six hairpin, and Alonso made the move for P1. The team order was confirmed a lap later over the radio, when Rob Smedley told Massa: “Good lad. Just stick with it now. Sorry”.

The team’s response after the race was that it wasn’t a team order, that it wasn’t a direct instruction, and that Massa made the decision. In the driver press conference, Alonso claimed he didn’t know what happened, while when asked what happened, Massa said: “He passed me”, adding that it was his decision.

While Massa had struggled for pace after stopping for the harder compound tyres, he had been able to pull out a gap to Alonso of around three seconds, before traffic brought the two closer together, and saw Alonso very nearly make a move on Massa stick into the turn six hairpin, and through turn seven. But when he was unable to pass his teammate, Ferrari chose to switch their two drivers, sparking controversy and a post-race $100,000 fine for breaking article 39.1 of the FIA rules and regulations that team orders are prohibited, and article 151c for bringing the sport into disrepute. Ferrari will have to face the World Motor Sport Council next, who could impose a harsher penalty on the Italian team.

Elsewhere in the race, polesitter Vettel lost out in the first corner to both Ferraris, managing to hold up Jenson Button as he attempted to make a move through the field. Lewis Hamilton immediately leapfrogged his teammate, and passed Mark Webber along the long parabolika straight, on the way down to turn six. By the end of the first lap, Massa was leading Alonso from Vettel, Hamilton, Webber, Button, Robert Kubica and Michael Schumacher, who was on the move from 11th on the grid.

Contact on the first lap between the two Toro Rosso drivers, saw the end to Sebastien Buemi’s race, when he lost his rear wing. The two Force Indias were also in the pits at the end of the lap, but a mix up of Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi’s tyres meant the two drivers had to pit again soon after, to switch their tyres over.

On lap 13, Red Bull took the opportunity to pit Vettel, putting him back out in clear air in fourth, and a lap later, Ferrari chose to bring Alonso in to ensure Red Bull didn’t get the upper hand on them. Webber pitted on lap 14 as well, but was released back out into traffic. Massa and Hamilton came in a lap later, with Massa rejoining in second behind Button who was yet to pit, while Hamilton rejoined in sixth behind Kubica, who also still needed to pit.

Button held on until lap 22 before he came in for his first and only stop, and after a handful of fast laps, was able to leapfrog Webber. The order after the pitstops was Massa from Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Webber, in the top six.

The race remained constant from then on, with Massa and Alonso swapping fastest laps, until 18 laps from the end when Massa gifted the lead, in an obvious fashion, to Alonso. The move meant Massa lost his first win since his horrific accident in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, exactly a year ago today. Had Massa won, he would have moved further ahead in the drivers’ standings, taking him to 92 points, while Alonso would have 116 points.

Alonso’s win however, moves him closer in contention to the title on 123 points, behind the two Red Bull drivers who sit joint third on 136. Hamilton maintains his lead on 157 points, with Button on 143. In the constructors’ standings, McLaren further their lead on 300 points, with Red Bull on 272, with Ferrari moving up on 208.

The next race takes place next weekend in Hungary, with qualifying on Saturday 31st July, and the race live on BBC1 at 1pm on Sunday 1st August.