Masterful performance of Alonso in Monza quali

F1 Grand Prix, GP Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza

The Monza qualifying session proved to be a dominant performance for McLaren. Alonso was largely ahead of his teammate after the first attampts and didn't even go full throttle for his second flying lap. Neither of the Ferraris could match the pace of the silver arrows and Raikkonen even got passed by Heidfeld for 4th place on tomorrow's grid.

At the initial phases of the first session, Yamamoto was really the first driver to draw attention to himself. Starting his first flying lap, he brakes slightly too late and spun off the track. Although he could control the rear slipping initially, he hit the barriers enough to lose the front wing of his new Spyker B version. Takuma Sato on the other hand also spun but could continue without damage.

Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen came out early to try out the T-car after crashing his regular race car in the morning. The McLarens did not experience any problems through the weekend and put themselves in the first two places. Alonso was 0.2s faster than his teammate. Massa follows at 5 tenths and Raikkonen is eventually a further 4 tenths down.

At the end of Q1, Coulthard also locked up his rear wheels in the first corner and spun off before stalling his engine. Sato, Ralf Schumacher, Liuzzi, Coulthard and Yamamoto are knocked out. It were mainly Vettel and both Honda's who surprised being relatively competitive.

Alonso is again the fastest in Q2 as he has been for 5 times already this year. Surprisingly though he did not mark a pole position since Monaco. Hamilton is second followed by Massa, Raikkonen. Knocked out are Webber, Barrichello, Wurz, Davidson, Fisichella and Vettel. Fisichella himself explained later to the team that he lost some tenths during his final attempt due to Barrichello rejoining the track after an error at Lesmo 2.

The strategy in Q3 is well known by now with all cars pitting after 7 minutes to fit new tyres for the first of their two attempts. Trulli is the only man deviating from this strategy as he continues for 2 more laps compared to the other drivers.

The top challengers meanwhile completed their first attempts. Alonso was there comfortably faster than his teammate as 0.35s seperated them. Massa is a further 4 tenths down and is closely followed by Raikkonen. The second attempts were to no avail for Hamilton and Ferrari as they could not improve their competitor's times. Alonso even didn't push to the end after knowing he was on pole thanks to his first flying lap.