2007 Italian Grand Prix: Report

By Effwun - FOAS #65

Fernando Alonso took a decisive victory at Monza on Sunday to reduce his world championship deficit to teammate Lewis Hamilton to just 3 points. Lewis Hamilton came home second whilst Kimi Raikkonen brought his Ferrari home a somewhat distant third. Championship contender Felipe Massa retired however with a suspected suspension failure at the rear of the car. Although the race itself had some dramatic moments, the real drama this weekend was off the track.

Stunningly, the McLaren spying scandal was resurrected by the announcement earlier in the week that the appeal hearing scheduled for September 13th was to be cancelled and replaced with a reconvention of the World Motor Sports Council, to hear new evidence in the so-called Stepneygate affair. The crux of this new evidence is supposedly emails between Fernando Alonso and McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa. The announcement led to much speculation in the paddock and the press and, it would be fair to say, has created an uneasy atmosphere amongst Formula 1 fans. These events set the scene, then, for the Italian Grand Prix Weekend.

The weekend started well for Ferrari - both Ferraris at the top of the P1 time sheet, with Kimi Raikkonen edging out teammate Felipe Massa by just over a tenth of a second, with a best time of 1:22.446. The McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were just behind though, third and fourth fastest respectively. P2 was another matter entirely, and Fernando Alonso dominated with a time of 1:22.386 - over eight tenths faster than his McLaren teammate in second place. The Ferraris could manage no higher than sixth and eighth, although different fuel loads and tyre strategies were undoubtedly the reason.

P3 on Saturday morning was another all McLaren affair, with Alonso again fastest (1:22.054) with Hamilton second, a tenth and a half slower. The story of the session, however, was a high speed crash by Kimi Raikkonen under braking for the Ascari chicane - his car jinked to the right under braking, connecting with the outside retaining wall before slamming heavily into the tyre wall at the end of the straight. The cause of the sudden jink is debatable - some claim that Raikkonen simply lost it over a bump, but there is some speculation that there was a mechanical failure on his car. Either way, Raikkonen only managed 3 laps in P3, and his best time was only good enough for 20th fastest. Luckily, although sore, the Finn was uninjured. His engine was transferred to the spare chassis, and would take part in qualifying without an engine penalty. In the other Ferrari, Massa was third quickest - half a second slower than Alonso - followed by the two BMWs of Heidfeld and Kubica, then the two Williams-Toyotas of Rosberg and Wurz.

This led to qualifying. Q1 was mostly a case of the usual suspects, although Ralf Schumacher found himself eliminated - his time of 1:23.787 was only good enough for 18th on the grid. Yamamoto and Coulthard both had offs, although the latter was due to transmission problems on the Scot's Red Bull-Renault. Q2 was also quite familiar, although Giancarlo Fisichella failed to progress to Q3 after being balked by an off track excursion by Rubens Barrichello. The only real surprise was that Jenson Button managed to make it into Q3 for the first time this year (on merit - he also appeared in Q3 at the Monaco Grand Prix but this was due to a punishment levied on David Coulthard). As predicted, Q3 was all about the McLarens. Alonso was again untouchable, his time of 1:21.997 set on his first hot lap. Hamilton's challenge for pole came up short, and he would line up second, with Massa third, Heidfeld fourth and Raikkonen - probably still feeling the effects of his morning shunt - a somewhat disappointing fifth.

The build up to the race had been full of drama both on and off the track. The race itself was slightly more sedate, but there was still a good dose of action. At the start, Hamilton - who was launching from the dirty side of the track) tried a Schumacher Chop on Felipe Massa, squeezing the Brazilian to the edge of the track. Massa had a better start and got ahead of Hamilton though, and took the inside line into the braking zone for the first chicane. Hamilton, on the outside, carried a lot more speed into the first part of the chicane and went round the outside of Massa, only to miss the apex of turn 2 and cut the corner. A message from race control confirmed this, however replays of the incident indicated that Massa's car had made contact with Hamilton's, causing the Englishman to run wide; no penalty would result. The order was Alonso, Hamilton, Massa. Hamilton vigorously defended his position for the rest of the lap, before pulling out a gap to Massa. Further down the field there was some jockeying for position, and at some point David Coulthard ran into the back of Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault. This damaged the Scot's front wing which, on lap 2, disintegrated whilst he attempted to negotiate Curva Grande. The resultant loss of downforce saw Coulthard spear into the tyre barriers at high speed, although he emerged unhurt. This incident precipitated a safety car period, and it allowed the frenetic action to cool off somewhat. At the restart, Hamilton stayed close to Alonso but not close enough to make a pass; the McLarens began to show their pace and started to pull away from Massa.

Massa's race would soon be over, however. After an unscheduled pit stop on lap 10, the Brazilian toured around before retiring on lap 11. A mechanical failure at the rear of the car seemed to be the problem (later reported to be the rear suspension). The leaders held station until the first round of pitstops. Hamilton was the first of the McLarens to pit, on lap 19, followed by Alonso two laps later - the McLarens were two stopping, as were the BMWs. Robert Kubica's first stop was marred by a problem with the front jack, which managed to slide all the way underneath the car. A possible reason for this is that the lower lip of the front wing could have been damaged over the Monza curbs. In contrast to the two-stoppers, Raikkonen would only stop once - on lap 26, after inheriting the lead. It looked like a race would be on - the gap to Alonso was too large to be able to take the lead when Alonso made his second stop, but it looked as though he could take second from Hamilton. This was indeed the case - Hamilton emerged from his second stop just behind Raikkonen. However, the glory would not last long for Raikkonen - two laps later, Hamilton steamed passed the Finn into the first chicane. However, the Finn didn't put up much of a fight - it would later transpire that he was having neck problems, a result of his Saturday morning smash.

Elsewhere, there was a tight battle between Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button. Eventually the young German gained the advantage over Button, but not before some tight dicing into the first chicane.

After the second round of pit stops, there was little else to talk about. The drivers all dialled back the revs on their engines in order to preserve them for Spa next weekend, and although Nick Heidfeld was catching Kimi Raikkonen, there was no real danger of him relieving Raikkonen of the final podium position. Late in the race, Robert Kubica put in a spirited charge - being at times 1.5 seconds faster than his teammate Heidfeld - but he ran out of laps before he could catch the German.

So, after having been the fastest man for most of the weekend, Alonso cruised home to a somewhat easy victory, six seconds ahead of his McLaren teammate, to make it the first McLaren 1-2 finish ever at Monza. After all the political drama and innuendo in the build up to the race, this is perhaps the best way McLaren could have responded. Indeed Ron Dennis's visibly emotional display after the race told the story of the whole weekend - a race held in the long shadow cast by a scandal that could yet turn this season upside down. Sadly, the real action this week will be neither in Monza or Spa, but in Paris.

-Effwun