11/09/2010
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's sole free practice session, the air temperature is 22 degrees C and the track temperature is 17 degrees. It's bright, fresh and sunny, a typical Monza morning.
While the McLarens had the edge in yesterday's opening session, it was Sebastian Vettel and the Ferraris who appeared to have the upper hand in the afternoon.
After an intriguing gamble yesterday, McLaren continues to hedge its bets this morning with Hamilton and Button’s cars running entirely different packages in terms of downforce. Basically, Button ran with the F-duct and high downforce configuration, while Hamilton ran without the F-duct and a low downforce configuration.
Having failed to drawn any serious conclusions from yesterday's back-to-back running - the two were separated by just 0.056s - McLaren will continue running its drivers on differing strategies this morning and possibly for the remainder of the weekend.
While the Woking outfit remains undecided about the F-duct, most of its rivals - including Toro Rosso, which is running its version for the first time - will continue with their low downforce strategies.
While Vettel was quickest in the afternoon, teammate Webber was sidelined by a water pressure issue and missed the last seventeen minutes of running.
Tyre options this weekend are hard (prime) and soft (option), however, Bridgestone admits that overall there was little to choose between them based on yesterday's activity.
The lights go green and di Grassi leads the way, ahead of Kovalainen, Petrov, Yamamoto, de la Rosa and a whole load of others. As Massa and Schumacher head down the pitlane, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is surrounded by journalists and photographers in the paddock.
As Webber returns to the pits the green fluorescent high visibility flow paint on the rear of the car is very much in evidence. The Milton Keynes crew appear to have been very, very generous in terms of the amount of paint applied.
Ten minutes into the session, following several minutes of total inactivity, Glock, di Grassi and Schumacher give the fans something to watch.
As he completes his first flying lap (25.857), Schumacher is told to try his drink button. Glock posts 28.540 and di Grassi 29.127.
As Schumacher raises the benchmark with a 25.026, Vettel completes another installation lap. Meanwhile, Kubica, Button and Hamilton head down the pitlane.
Kubica posts 24.966 to go quickest but this is soon eclipsed by Button who crosses the line at 24.959. Moments later a 24.100 sees Hamilton take the top spot with the high(er) downforce package
Next time around Kubica posts 24.103, Button 23.959 and Hamilton 23.076, the 2008 champion around 0.8s quicker than the 2009 version.
Buemi goes fourth (24.519), ahead of Schumacher, Liuzzi and Hulkenberg.
As Button closes to within 0.65s of his teammate, Hulkenberg goes third. Elsewhere, Buemi goes quickest in the first sector however, a weak final sector sees the Swiss remain fifth.
Vettel goes sixth with his first effort, the Red Bull driver crossing the beam at 24.622. Button closes to within 0.036s of Hamilton only for the 2008 champ to improve with a 22.954.
Vettel runs wide coming out of the second Lesmo, as teammate Webber goes eighth with a 24.394 on his first flying lap.
Having gone quickest in S2, Vettel improves to third with a 23.210. Moments later Webber makes it a Ferrari 3-4 when he posts 23.603.
Next time around Vettel and Webber both improve taking second and third, thereby splitting the two McLarens. Hulkenberg is fifth, ahead of Kubica, Buemi, Barrichello, Alguersuari and Kobayashi.
Having shaken hands with di Montezemolo, Massa and Alonso are both on track. After half-an-hour the Ferrari duo have yet to post a time. The Brazilian subsequently posts 23.886 to go sixth while the Spaniard posts 24.095 to go eighth. With 26:00 on the clock all but Jarno Trulli have posted times.
Next time around Alonso leapfrogs his teammate. However, on his third flying lap, having gone quickest in S1 the Brazilian runs very, very wide as he exits the second Lesmo losing a whole heap of time. Alonso goes third with a 23.029 - the top three covered by just 0.075s.
Posting personal bests in all three sectors, and still on prime tyres, Button posts 22.858 to go quickest. Meanwhile, changes to Webber's Red Bull as the Milton Keynes outfit opts to run the Australian with a different rear wing to his teammate. Essentially, it has a bigger slot than the German's.
Having gone quickest in S1, Hamilton loses time behind Liuzzi in S2, costing the Englishman any hope of improving.
More bad news for Webber as the Australian stops in the middle of the first chicane, his session is over. Elsewhere, Rosberg goes quickest in the first sector, ultimately consolidating seventh with a 23.393.
Replay fails to shed any further light on the reason for Webber's retirement other than the fact that there was a sudden and complete loss of power. On the pit-wall, Adrian Newey and the crew look suitably glum. Like yesterday, the Australian's session has ended with around seventeen minutes remaining.
Alguersuari repeats the mistakes of Massa and Vettel, running very, very wide at the second Lesmo. Nonetheless, next time around the Spaniard improves to twelfth with a 23.925.
With 13:00 on the clock, Schumacher is the first driver to switch to the option tyre, the German clearly concentrating on the forthcoming qualifying session. Despite posting personal bests in all three sectors there is no significant improvement. Same goes for Petrov who is also on options.
Vettel (prime) consolidates second with a 22.849, closing to within 0.019s of Button.
Talking of Button, the Englishman is back on track, now running on options. On his first flying lap he's 0.027s up on his best at the first split. At the second it's 0.049s with the Englishman posting 22.768 at the line. He's improved but not by a significant amount.
Alonso loses time in S3 which essentially ruins his lap, while Button fails to improve.
Massa goes quickest in S1 as Alonso goes quickest overall, crossing the line at 22.656 to go quickest. However, Massa and Hamilton are both on hot laps. The Englishman fails to improve due to traffic in S3 while Massa suffers the same fate.
Alonso raises the benchmark with a 22.644, the Spaniard constantly improving. Elsewhere, Button goes quickest in S2, however, he fails to improve in S3.
Hamilton posts personal bests in sectors one and two finally crossing the line at 22.498. Elsewhere, Buemi and Rosberg are on hot laps however despite their pace in the opening sector it drops off in S2. That said, Rosberg crosses the line at 22.946 to go sixth.
Alonso's hot lap is ruined when he encounters Kobayashi in the Parabolica.
All eyes on Vettel who posts a personal best in S1 and goes quickest in S3, crossing the line at 22.545 to go second, 0.047s down on Hamilton.
Consequently, the session ends with Hamilton quickest, ahead of Vettel, Alonso, Massa, Button, Rosberg, Webber, Hulkenberg, Kubica and Sutil.
Barrichello is eleventh, ahead of Buemi, Schumacher, Kobayashi, Alguersuari, Petrov, de la Rosa, Liuzzi, Trulli, Kovalainen, Glock, di Grassi, Senna and Yamamoto.