For me, these three words describe the 2011 Italian Grand Prix:
Unfortunate: for Rosberg and Petrov who didn't get the chance to complete a lap of the race. They retired due to a collision caused by Liuzzi.
Agonising: Lewis Hamilton got stuck behind Schumacher for several laps and had to cope with illegal defensive moves from the German. He lost a place to his team-mate and had an unsuccessful last-lap attempt to overtake Alonso to gain a podium place.
Emotional: Bruno Senna scored his first F1 WDC points in his newly acquired seat in Lotus-Renault and the Senna name makes an apperance on the points board for the first time in 18 years.
Alonso had a great start which delighted the Ferrari 'tifosi'. Both McLarens were sluggish off the line and they dropped several places at start. Liuzzi's crash within a few minutes of race-start brought out the safety car, and at the re-start, Schumacher got ahead of Hamilton. And there began the British driver's race woes.
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| Loyal Tifosi in Ferrari red (photo by @ilariaF1) |
Hamilton (running 5th) was 'stuck' behind a relatively evenly-paced Mercedes of Schumacher (4th) and because of the scarcity of braking zones at Monza, there weren't many opportunities to harvest energy for KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System).
Schumacher had to be 'reminded' by his team-boss to leave enough room for the Brit and while trying to make a pass past the German, Hamilton lost 4th place to his team-mate, Button.
Hamilton eventually made it past Schumacher several laps later (by which time the leading pack had built a decent gap to the rest of the field), and almost chased down Alonso in the last few laps. He finally crossed the line in 4th place - to the delight of the tifosi - who were happy to see a Ferrari driver on the podium.
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| Italian GP Podium (photo via www.ausmotive.com) |
Hamilton refrained from commenting on the Schumacher incident and just seemed content and grateful just to finish a race after his latest run of bad luck
Video from Sixtybuckss YouTube Channel (via BBC.co.uk)
Top 10 drivers: VET, BUT, ALO, BUT, SCH, MAS, ALG, DIR, SEN, BUE.
Notable Drives
Of the rookies, Di Resta was the only one to score points, finishing in 7th place. Kovalainen equalled his best finish of 13th and both Toro Rosso drivers finished in points-scoring positions, having started from 16th (Buemi) and 18th (Alguersuari). My drivers of the day were Alguersuari and Di Resta.
