Monza
11-13 September 2009
Lap Distance 5.793 Km
Race 53 Laps 306.720 Km
Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button put Brawn GP firmly back on the map in the Italian GP, with Barrichello leading his team mate home for an emphatic 1-2 finish. The result has put the team into an almost unassailable position in the drivers and constructors championships and sees Barrichello close to within 14 points of Button. Barrichello and Button benefitted from a single stop strategy that saw them see off a challenge from the strong early leader Lewis Hamilton whose two stop strategy was to lead to his downfall. Hamilton was closing strongly on Button when he lost the rear end of his McLaren dramatically on the last lap and suffered a heavy subsequent impact with the barriers. Kimi Raikkonen had a race long duel with the now front running Force India of Adrian Sutil but despite his best efforts Sutil was unable to get fully on terms with and pass the KERS powered Ferrari as the pair finished the race 3rd and 4th. Fernando Alonso and Heikki Kovalainen rounded out the top six. Nick Heidfeld finished 7th for BMW but team mate Robert Kubica tangled with Mark Webber resulting in retirement for the Red Bull driver and a damaged front wing for the BMW and eventual retirement. Sebastian Vettel salvaged a single point for the Red Bull team with 8th place. Giancarlo Fisichella managed to bring his Ferrari home 9th on his debut for the Maranello squad and seemed happy with his decision to follow his dream despite the success of his ex team mate Adrian Sutil who as well as finishing 4th, started form the front row and also set the fastest lap of the race. Kazuki Nakajima closed out the top ten for Williams. Lewis Hamilton was classified 12th and had clearly been driving his McLaren at the limit in his attempt to catch Button when he crashed out. As the season reaches its closing stages it looks like a battle between the two Brawn drivers to decide the title with Barrichello appearing to have the upper hand at the moment.
After a first session topped by the dominant McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen it was the impressive Force India of Adrian Sutil that rounded out the first day of free practice for the Italian Grand Prix at the top of the time sheets. Sutil had battled it out with the two Renault drivers and it was newcomer Romain Grosjean who outpaced his accomplished double world champion team mate to take second place at the end of the final session of the day. Alonso settled for third ahead of Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren in fourth. The BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were fifth and seventh in the final session sandwiching the leading Toyoya of Timo Glock in sixth. Kimi Raikkonen, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastian Buemi closed out the top ten fastest in the final session. Vitantonio Liuzzi making a welcome return to F1 with the Force India team finished a very respectable twelfth fastest. Not so impressive was the ex Force India and newly signed Ferrari driver Giancarlo Fisichella who was last, some 1.6 seconds adrift of his old team mate Adrian Sutil. Fisichella has a big challenge on his hands especially this weekend in fron of the hordes of expectant tifosi sure to be present at Monza. Comparisons are sure to be drawn between him and the outgoing Luca Badoer who was pilloried by one and all after failing to get on the pace in the previous two races. Equally worrying was the performance of championship leader Jenson Button who was only a tenth or so faster than Fisichella in nineteenth place. Team mate Barrichello was also pretty lack lustre finishing sixteenth. The Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were also outside the top ten in the final session, recording fourteenth and eighteenth best times.
Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position from under the nose of Force India's Adrian Sutil in the dying moments of the final qualifying shoot out at Monza this afternoon. Sutil had put in a superb lap and looked to have had pole sown up but Hamilton had other plans. Nonetheless it was another excellent performance from the dramatically improved Force India Team. To further underline their impressive form new recruit Vitantonio Liuzzi also made the final shoot out finishing a very creditable seventh fastest on his return to Formula One. Kimi Raikkonen was the only Ferrari driver in the top ten, securing a second row grid place with the third fastest time. New team mate Giancarlo Fisichella was eliminated in Q2 and will start from 14th place, having done little better on his Ferrari debut than outgoing countryman Luca Badoer.Heikki Kovalainen joins Raikkonen on the second row of the grid which is top heavy with KERS powered cars. Rubens Barrichello once again outperformed his under pressure team mate Jenson Button but on this occasion only marginally so as the two Brawns closed out the third row of the grid with Barrichello just 0.15s to the better. Fernando Alonso was next up in eighth place for a Renault Team embroiled in yet another F1 controversy and facing a meeting with the FIA's World Motorsport Council amid claims of fixing last years Singapore Grand Prix. The Red Bull cars of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber rounded out the top ten. It was a tough session for the Williams Team with Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg both eliminated in Q1, and facing the prospect of starting the race from seventeenth and eighteenth places on the grid. It was an even worse result for the Torro Rosso Team with Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari nineteenth and twentieth.
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01 L Hamilton
1m 24.066s
02 A Sutil
1m 24.261s
03 K Raikkonen
1m 24.523s
04 H Kovalainen
1m 24.845s
05 R Barrichello
1m 25.015s
06 J Button
1m 25.03s
07 V Liuzzi
1m 25.043s
08 F Alonso
1m 25.072s
09 S Vettel
1m 25.18s
10 M Webber
1m 25.314s
Eliminated Q2
11 J Trulli
1m 23.611s
12 R Grosjean
1m 23.728s
13 R Kubica
1m 23.866s
14 G Fisichella
1m 23.901s
15 N Heidfeld
1m 24.275s
Eliminated Q1
16 T Glock
1m 24.036s
17 K Nakajima
1m 24.074s
18 N Rosberg
1m 24.121s
19 S Buemi
1m 24.22s
20 J Alguersuari
1m 24.951s
01 R Barrichello
02 J Button
03 K Raikkonen
04 A Sutil
05 F Alonso
06 H Kovalainen
07 N Heidfeld
08 S Vettel
09 G Fisichella
10 K Nakajima
11 T Glock
12 L Hamilton
13 S Buemi
14 J Trulli
15 R Grosjean
16 N Rosberg
Retired
L1 M Webber
L17 R Kubica
L20 J Alguersuari
L23 V Liuzzi
Fastest Lap
A Sutil
1m 24.739s L36
01 L Hamilton
1m 23.936s
02 H Kovalainen
1m 24.332s
03 A Sutil
1m 24.471s
04 F Alonso
1m 24.477s
05 N Heidfeld
1m 24.683s
06 S Buemi
1m 24.703s
07 J Button
1m 24.706s
08 G Fisichella
1m 24.732s
09 M Webber
1m 24.759s
10 K Raikkonen
1m 24.761s
11 R Kubica
1m 24.813s
12 R Barrichello
1m 24.826s
13 N Rosberg
1m 24.927s
14 K Nakajima
1m 25.15s
15 R Grosjean
1m 25.612s
16 V Liuzzi
1m 25.689s
17 J Alguersuari
1m 25.742s
18 S Vettel
1m 25.951s
19 J Trulli
1m 26.02s
20 T Glock
1m 26.325s
01 A Sutil
1m 23.924s
02 R Grosjean
1m 24.163s
03 F Alonso
1m 24.297s
04 H Kovalainen
1m 24.482s
05 R Kubica
1m 24.622s
06 T Glock
1m 24.634s
07 N Heidfeld
1m 24.693s
08 K Raikkonen
1m 24.796s
09 K Nakajima
1m 24.799s
10 S Buemi
1m 24.884s
11 L Hamilton
1m 24.902s
12 V Liuzzi
1m 24.921s
13 J Trulli
1m 24.967s
14 M Webber
1m 24.979s
15 J Alguersuari
1m 25.003s
16 R Barrichello
1m 25.14s
17 N Rosberg
1m 25.215s
18 S Vettel
1m 25.386s
19 J Button
1m 25.424s
20 G Fisichella
1m 25.543s
01 A Sutil
1m 23.336s
02 J Button
1m 23.404s
03 N Heidfeld
1m 23.49s
04 R Barrichello
1m 23.575s
05 L Hamilton
1m 23.633s
06 H Kovalainen
1m 23.803s
07 V Liuzzi
1m 23.849s
08 F Alonso
1m 23.915s
09 T Glock
1m 23.959s
10 R Kubica
1m 23.996s
11 R Grosjean
1m 24.197s
12 K Raikkonen
1m 24.302s
13 J Trulli
1m 24.326s
14 K Nakajima
1m 24.392s
15 S Buemi
1m 24.572s
16 N Rosberg
1m 24.621s
17 M Webber
1m 25.154s
18 S Vettel
1m 25.244s
19 J Alguersuari
1m 25.791s
20 G Fisichella
1m 25.951s
