Jenson
Button, who starts third, agreed wholeheartedly with his team-mate
adding that the pair of them were perplexed by Red Bull’s pace, which allows
the RB7 to pull out a massive advantage over their rivals in the final
sector – which includes the famous Curva Parabolica – despite
running less downforce on their rear wing. “It’s difficult to understand,”
he said.
If Hamilton and Button were confused, Ferrari’s
famously raucous tifosi, soaking up the gorgeous early autumn
sunshine in the park, would have been left frustrated by events yesterday.
Fernando Alonso starts fourth this afternoon – which was better than he could
have hoped for given the team’s lacklustre pace all weekend – but the
Spaniard will have his work cut out if he is to repeat his success of last
year.
He said he was simply looking to meet the expectations Ferrari’s well-coiffed
President Luca di Montezemolo, who sashayed into Monza after the usual
fashion and held court with the media an hour before qualifying.
“I will be disappointed if we don’t finish on the podium,” Montezemolo warned.
“We will see,” Alonso said.
“We are usually better on Sunday, so we will see tomorrow if we can repeat
this. The weekend has been complicated and we have never been fast enough.”
Red Bull’s Mark Webber starts fifth, with Alonso’s Ferrari team-mate Felipe
Massa sixth, while Briton Paul di Resta narrowly failed to make the top 10,
having been squeezed out in the final seconds of Q2 by Renault’s Bruno
Senna. Di Resta will start 11th in his Force India.
But really yesterday, as it has been so often this year, was all about Vettel.
The German, who theoretically could tie up the championship at Singapore in a
fortnight’s time if everything goes his way, admitted he had surprised even
himself by taking his tenth pole in 13 races, an achievement which
incidentally makes him the first driver since the late, great Ayrton Senna
to take pole on ten occasions in different seasons. The records just keep on
tumbling.
Monza, of course, was the venue for Vettel’s first-ever win in Formula One,
for Toro Rosso back in 2008.
His chances of repeating that victory today are difficult to gauge given the
new regulations this year, which include fast-wearing tyres and two ‘DRS
zones’ here in Monza.
That is to say two zones in which the chasing driver is allowed to activate
his movable rear wing in order to lessen downforce and increase
straight-line speed.
“It’s not so important to be on pole position as in previous years,” Button
predicted. “I think we are going to have a lot of fun tomorrow. I don’t
think Red Bull will have it all their way.”
The truth, though, is that Vettel doesn’t really need to win. He could finish
fourth at each of the remaining seven races and still be crowned champion,
although that will not stop Button and Hamilton giving their all to beat
him.
The pair are now engaged in a fascinating duel for British bragging rights
and, despite both of them playing it down all week, it is clear there is
real pride at stake here.
Button currently leads his team-mate by three points, and Hamilton – who has
never been beaten by a team-mate in Formula One – admits he needs to cut out
the collisions, of which there have been too many this year, if he is to
reassert himself.
No doubt it was the memories of his crashes here in 2009 and 2010 which
informed his final comment.
“The target is to finish,” he said bluntly. “And if I can do that then I think
I will be able to finish up quite high.” We will see.