Italian GP 2008

[ESPImperium]

I can see Kimi and Hamilton doing a 2 stopper, same for Massa and Hekki... I dont see them changing that too much from what would have been the usal for Monza for the top 6 cars.

However, i can see Vettel, Bourdais and Webber doing a modified 2 stopper now, as they would have been on a 1 stop strategy, but now that things have been shaken up in Quali i can see them trying for a hat full of points.

Contenders for a 2 stop out right:
Hamilton
Hekki
Kimi
Massa
Heidfeld
Kubica

Starts as a 1 stop, moves to a 2 stop:
Vettel
Bourdais
Webber
Rosberg (posibility)

Starts as a 1 stop ouughtright:
The rest of the field

Heres a few things im spotting right now looking at the times from all Quali sessions;

Sutil would have been on pole if he did his Q1 time in Q3
If Hamilton had produced that Q2 time in Q1 hed have been last on the grid
If Hamilton reproduced his Q2 time in Q3 he would have been in P8 on the grid

One thigs for shure, that track will be as green as anything for tomorrows race, so if it is a dry race, id expect the teams to start on the soft compound tyre, then switch to the hard as soon as they can and try to hand on for the 1 stoppers. As for the 2 stoppers, i can see the starting on the hard compound for the first 2 stints with a soft on the last stint.

But wouldnt it be nice to see a wet, or damp start to the race just to add a little more spice to the exictment.

Odds on a first corner pileup???

[dumbdave]

Thats what i thought, not sure why everyone is comparing Hamilton to Massa's time? If they were on different tyres then surely the two cant be compared in that way, that Hamilton could have found as much grip on Inters as Massa could on Wets is just rubbish.

EDIT:
How could Sutil re-produce his Q1 time in a race fueled car in Q3?

[timbo]

Thats what i thought, not sure why everyone is comparing Hamilton to Massa's time? If they were on different tyres then surely the two cant be compared in that way, that Hamilton could have found as much grip on Inters as Massa could on Wets is just rubbish.

Hamilton was on intermediates on his FIRST run of Q2. For his second run he was on extreme-wets just like Massa. In that conditions it was only Massa who managed to improve his time and go to Q3, nor Hamilton, nor Raikkonen, nor Kubica weren't able to do so.

[dumbdave]

Ah, that makes more sense, i didnt realise he had gone in for wets, thought he was still on inters

[WhiteBlue]

I agree that we could be in for a very interesting race with the top drivers mostly starting further back. From the comments I did not get the impression that STR has a wet biased setup. They said they are light which could play into their hands if conditions are lucky again. If the track is initially wet and dries out a tyre change could hit their window of refuelling. Certainly there are good chances to bring in many points with two cars in the top four. I look forward to see Kimi and Lewis scrap from the back of the grid. They will probably show some good passes. Kubica and Heidfeld are also relying on overtaking opportunities to make points. If Heidfeld stays in front at the start I expect him to do a good job there.

[jon-mullen]

I bet Ferrari and McLaren are wishing they'd run more laps in practice, instead of acting too cool for school.

First Practice:
Vettel 13, Bourdais 20
Massa 5, Raikkonen 5
Hamilton 1 (untimed), Kovalainen 1 (untimed)

Second practice:
Vettel 35, Bourdais 39
Massa 34, Raikkonen 21
Hamilton 25, Kovalainen 29

Third:
Vettel 11, Bourdais 8
Massa 6, Raikkonen 3
Hamilton 8, Kovalainen 6

It struck me as really arrogant of McLaren and Ferrari to act 1) like they weren't worried about not having a lot of track time and 2) like they knew Sunday would be dry and running in the wet wouldn't help them anyway.

This is going to be a hell of a race.

[chasefreak]

has anyone read this ... i find it strange
why does hamilton have to have all thw luck possible

Realising his error halfway round the circuit, he returned to the pits for the extreme tyres, but lost further time as race control called him in to weigh his car

http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3 ... 68,00.html

read the article
he lost all the valuable time

[majicmeow]

A little off topic here, but as i was browsing through some images and watching qualifying, i noticed that Timo and Jarno are running different wings.

Timo is running the TF108's standard bridge wing setup, while Jarno is running the low downforce wing that we saw during the Jerez test before Belgium.

Anyone have any ideas why, aside from the drivers perhaps being more comfortable with one wing over the other? is Toyota going to try and run two different setups in hopes of scoring big points?

[myurr]

I bet Ferrari and McLaren are wishing they'd run more laps in practice, instead of acting too cool for school.

It struck me as really arrogant of McLaren and Ferrari to act 1) like they weren't worried about not having a lot of track time and 2) like they knew Sunday would be dry and running in the wet wouldn't help them anyway.

This is going to be a hell of a race.

That's been my thought as well - even when they were running they seemed to try and run all their laps in the race conditions. I still think that Massa's run a slightly more wet biased setup than Kimi and Lewis - perhaps a touch of arrogance on their part.

Watching Lewis' times in practice suggested that he'd actually gone for a more Ferrari like setup - his first quick lap times weren't that special, but his long runs were by far the most consistent of any of the runners. Even on the softs in FP2 he was putting in 5 - 6 lap runs with identical times on each lap whereas the others were getting a better first lap, but then subsequent laps were slower. Maybe he believed that because this is a circuit where you can overtake race pace was more important than qualifying pace, and that stung him in the wet as he wasn't able to generate enough heat in the tyres.

But all armchair speculation of course.

[timbo]

That's nothing new when top teams qualify badly in the wets. And normally it pays off - if you look at wet qualify heroes like Barichello 1994, Frentzen 1999 (both on Jordans!) they didn't won subsequent race.

[timbo]

That's been my thought as well - even when they were running they seemed to try and run all their laps in the race conditions. I still think that Massa's run a slightly more wet biased setup than Kimi and Lewis - perhaps a touch of arrogance on their part.

Kovalainen probably runs wet-biased setup too.

[axle]

I think Kovi has slightly more DF than Lewis, but the main reason why Kovy is P2 and LH P15 is that god awful tyre choice, otherwise they would have been closer to each other.

The first few laps are bound to be fun, or end in disaster for Kimi and Lewis...lets pray we just see them blitz the midfield (and that Massa stays put while they do it - to get the WDC contenders together on track).

Kovy IMO should win today.

[Moanlower]

Now, did Nelson dissapoint again ??

Not if you ask me. He's been 3 tenths slower than Fernando in Q1 in very difficult conditions with a car that performs the worst of the season.

It's easy to put the blame on Nelson for qualifying P17 which looks very disappointing.

By the way, the 3 tenths gap between the 2 Renault drivers is the smallest between teammates.

[JamesS]

A very wet race with a mixed up grid, couldn't get any more exciting and nerve racking for the teams, drivers and fans!

[myurr]

Interesting that now the track is starting to dry Lewis is coming alive and is dropping Raikkonen by 1 second per lap.