F1 Monza Quali

Welcome to quali at the home of the passionate Tiffosi at Monza. The fans come in their droves to view their beloved Ferrari who have been at the top of everyones mind over the past few weeks. All the talk over the past week is the result of the FIA / WMSC ruling over the debacle in Germany where Felipe was asked to move over to allow Fernando to win the race.

The question of team orders has been a problem for many a year and there are of course varied thoughts across the sport. There is no doubt Ferrari applied a team order and now the other teams are saying the cost of breaching team orders is $100,000 which is a small cost in the world of F1.

I feel sure all the teams apply team orders in one way or another but Ferrari always have a habit of doing it in your face which does not help. From the teams point of view they have a massive investment, sponsors expect results without their names coming under disrepute and the drivers all want to win. So it is an issue that is very unlikely to go away and how the FIA and World Motor Sport Council deal with it will only become clear at the end of the season.

Anyway back to Monza. The weather looks good as we await for quali to begin. The big guns were locked in combat but both Red Bull's seem to be behind Mclaren and Ferrari in the early stages. Felipe, Fernando and Lewis were all in the 22's which is mighty around Monza. So both Ferrari's headed the timing sheets after Q1 in what is basically a warm up session for Q2 & Q3.

So after Q1 we unfortunately lost Yarno, Heikki, Antonio, Timo, Lucas, Bruno and Saron.

As we move into Q2 the track temperature is 39 & air temperature of 27 which is a little warmer than the drivers have had during the practice sessions. The Tiffosi will be pleased after Q1 with both cars in P1 & P2 but will the others haul them in as they all come out onto the track.

Lewis went straight in the mid 1.22's and has thrown down the gauntlet on soft tyres in difference to all the others. When you watch the cars in the Ascari chicane the cars are mighty and onto the straight into the famous Parabolica. Then it hotted up as Fernando slotted in with a faster time in the low 1.22's.

Again the Red Bull's don't seem to have the outright pace which is not what we have to expect albeit Sebastian sent in a 1.23 but six tenths off the pace. Michael is 1.256 off the pace and down in twelfth three places behind Nico up in ninth.

So everything points to a fantastic pole qualifying sessions as the top cars and drivers are locked in very tight combat. So out went Adrian, Michael, Sebastien, Kamui, Vitaly, Jaime and Pedro leaving us with the top ten to fight it out for pole.

Out they went and Fernando immediately threw in the first one twenty one of the weekend and is looking mighty. Jenson slotted into P2 followed by Felipe and Lewis after the first runs. The Red Bull's are in line astern in p5 and P6. Then they all came in to change tyres and the pole shoot out begins with only just over a minute to go.

The Tiffosi goes wild as Fernando takes his first pole for Ferrari at Monza followed by Jenson with a different set up to Lewis and the F Duct should give him a bonus down to turn one. Felipe took third, Mark fourth and a low grid position for Lewis in fifth.

Sebastian took sixth followed by Nico, Nico (H), Robert and Rubens. All is now set for a brilliant race tomorrow and the chicane at turn one will be very interesting. We look forward to a good race tomorrow with two new protagonists on the front row.