Italian GP 2013 - Race

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There were several surprises in QF but none at the front where Red Bull dominated the proceedings as expected. Missing from Q3 were both Lotus, Force India and Hamilton, instead there were 2 McLarens, 2 Toro Rosso and...one Sauber in third place no less, in the hands of the impressive Hulkenberg.  Ferrari tried time and again to slipstream their two cars in pure NASCAR style but in the end backfired as Massa was faster than the intended Alosno pushing the Spaniard to the third row. Hamilton missed Q3 for the first time in 67 races: “I drove like an idiot” he said dejectedly, “That’s the worst I’ve driven for a long, long time”. Later his team said his undertray was damaged when he hit a kerb earlier affecting the balance of the car. He’ll start 12th behind Raikkonen and ahead of Grosjean.

The Red Bull 1-2 was predicted by Alberto, Erik,  Joe,  Champ Rocco, Sebastian & Uwe.  The rest (except for 3 zeros) were one-pointers thanks to Vettel’s first.  We’ll blame Hulkenberg this time for our average (bad) result.

http://f1.manbos.com/userbets.asp?t=2013&gpn=Italy&nevent=qualifying

The grid:

VET  WEB  HUL  MAS  ALO  ROS  RIC  PER   BUT  VER

The most likely scenario is a one-stop for the 53 laps race (and dry, only 30% of precipitation at race time).  It was like that last year when they were using the same hard/med compounds. With the new maximum pitlane speed down to 80kph it now takes 23 seconds to pass through it. Don’t expect much in the way of strategy for overtaking, the two DRS zones will provide plenty of opportunities instead.  The excitement level is not looking very promising for the legendary Italian GP this year, but the start is always something else in Monza as they rush to the first chicane; traditionally a few cars end their race right there including some of the front runners.

 An interesting statistic for this season is the most positions gained at the start of the GPs with Massa, Maldonado and Perez leading the list with +15; Gutierrez +13 (it’s a Mexican thing I guess), DiResta +12, Button +10. The losers are (you guess this one already) Webber -15 (including mechanical problems), Rosberg -10, Raikkonen -4. If Alonso can’t catch the Red Bulls when the lights go off Vettel will disappear into the distance with Webber in his back. Curiously Red Bull has had one podium finish in Monza when Vettel won in 2011; Webber has never been higher than 6th.

And here we go again:

Cato – VET  WEB  ALO  MAS  ROS  BUT

Good luck!

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