This weekend it´s time for the last race in Europe this season. Monza being the fastest track of the calendar with very low downforce it wasn´t supposed to suit either Red Bull or Lotus very well. Nevertheless, Sebastian had shown excellent pace in all three free practices and Kimi had been up there in the 3rd place in the FP2 so I was confident in terms of the qualifying.
Sebastian was the fastest man on the track in Q1. Toro Rosso seemed very competitive under the Italian sun as well as Vergne was 4th fastest in the first session. Sauber´s Gutierrez was the first man to be eliminated from Q2. Unfortunately Bottas at the wheel of his FW35 didn´t make his way through in to the second session, either but qualified 18th. His team-mate Maldonado managed to finish his lap 3 tenths faster than the Finn and he was 12th in Q1. So not a very strong performance from Bottas today but I know he´ll do everything he can to fight for positions in tomorrow´s race!
Q2 was filled with surprises. Once again Sebastian was the fastest man on the track -there was no one who could have challenged the German! So in that regard everything was looking very promising. But in the second session it could clearly be seen that Lotus was struggling with their performance. The E21 simply wasn´t fast enough! Kimi was the first driver to be knocked out from Q3, which was quite shocking indeed! Only 18 thousandths of a second separated the Iceman from the top ten. Hamilton, who had snatched four pole positions in a row, was also knocked out from Q3 as the Briton was only 12th fastest! The British Mercedes driver got impeded by Force India´s Sutil in Q2 but Hamilton himself admitted after the qualifying that he had "driven like an idiot" and apologized to his team. Kimi´s team-mate Grosjean was only 13th fastest and also out of Q3! It was very worrying that both the Toro Rosso and McLaren drivers made it among the top ten but either one of the Lotus drivers didn´t!
Today there was nobody who could have been capable of putting up a fight for pole with Sebastian! Sebastian´s driving was simply epic and phenomenal and the German was completely unstoppable today. Webber at the wheel of his RB9 made it a front row lock-out for Red Bull. And this happened on the track that wasn´t supposed to suit Red Bull! So pretty amazing achievement indeed. Sauber´s Nico Hulkenberg made it in P3 -who could have predicted that! Hulkenberg´s performance was staggering considering that his team-mate Gutierrez didn´t even make his way through in to the Q2! Very well done from the young German! Ferrari tried to gain advantage from slip-streaming but the strategy didn´t work out as Massa was too far ahead of Alonso in the decisive moment. So Massa ended up being 4th fastest ahead of his team-mate Alonso who qualified 5th. We heard an angry message on the team radio by Alonso who called his team members idiots because the strategy failed. Rosberg qualified 6th, Ricciardo 7th, Perez 8th, Button 9th and Vergne 10th.
I´m expecting Sebastian to cruise to the victory tomorrow if there won´t be any technical worries. The weather might be a factor tomorrow as some showers are predicted to arrive in the area tomorrow afternoon. Alonso at the wheel of his Ferrari will have strong race pace for sure but I don´t think the Spaniard will be able to challenge Sebastian for the victory. Kimi will have loads of work to do tomorrow but Kimi if anyone is capable of fighting for good points. It´s so amazing how dominant Sebastian seems at Monza this weekend. It seems the German has the perfect car, the perfect skills, the perfect team and the perfect concentration to make his races victorious -even in venues which haven´t proven victorious before. It´s absolutely imposing to watch Sebastian in the pit garage with headphones on and eyes shut -there´s nothing that can break this man´s concentration. I believe he is on his way towards his fourth world title!
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