Italian Grand Prix

Well, an Italian team won this weekend, but it wasn’t Ferrari. Toro Rosso (ex-Minardi) had their greatest finish in their history when Sebastian Vettel became the youngest driver ever to win a F1 race when he held off the competition in wet conditions to turn his pole into a win. The young German has already been declared the next Schumacher by various media outlets in Germany, but it is still way to soon to tell. It did bring back plenty of memories to hear the German anthem played before the Italian pomp. It was interesting that the more junior of the Red Bull squads won first, maybe there is some moonlighting going on along with the engines they are receiving from Maranello. I guess that would be allowed so long as the technology stays in Italy.

Even though the race was wet for most of the running, it was pretty uneventful for most of the drivers. Heikki Kovalainen captured another podium finish by placing second, but he was no real threat to Vettel during the race. The finish for McLaren helped them in their battle with Ferrari for points in the constructor’s championship, but the gap hasn’t closed too much. Kubica managed to stay ahead of Alonso to capture the last podium spot for BMW, emphasizing the order is still Ferrari (whose engine powered the winner), McLaren and then the German-Swiss outfit. Their positioning was solidified with Nick Heidfeld’s fifth place finish.

Alonso has been making noises about possibly moving to Ferrari in the upcoming season, but that seems rather unlikely at this point. The media drove enough speculation to have Kimi’s contract extended for another couple of years. Massa’s current standing being one point back of Hamilton after this week’s finish in sixth place cements the Brazilian as the de facto #1 driver at the Scuderia, regardless of how much more money the Finn is paid. Hamilton finished in seventh, but probably is more focused on the upcoming appeal hearing than he was of winning at Monza, or at least that’s what it looked like when he was driving. Briatori wasn’t happy that he’s no longer the center of attention since his golden Spaniard driver has shown to be no more talented than Jacque Villeneuve in the long run.

The last point of the weekend went to Mark Webber driving one of the Red Bulls. The Swiss drinks team seems to be doing the most with their investment, but rumors of the junior team being for sale may indicate that they have misjudged and might be selling the wrong group (or at least buying the wrong engines).

With just four races left this season, all of them being fly-aways, the championship battle is turning out to be one more of attrition than a clear leader being identified. The battle is only between Massa and Hamilton at this point and between McLaren and Ferrari. The first battle will probably be decided at the last race or in a courtroom. The other one could go down to the wire if Kimi Raikkonen can’t finish in the points. If Ferrari gets both drivers towards the top, they could wrap it up during one of the Asian races. But it is still way too close to call. Let’s just hope the FIA doesn’t screw things up more at this point.

The teams head to Singapore for F1’s first night race in two weeks. Sounds good for the Europeans who get to watch it during the normal time of home race, those in North America will still need to get up early. There is no telling what the new track will have on the overall results, but it should make for an interesting race.

Race Results

1	VETTEL	STR-Ferrari	1h26m47.494s
2	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 12.5s
3	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	+ 20.4s
4	ALONSO	Renault	+ 23.9s
5	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	+ 27.7s
6	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 28.8s
7	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 29.9s
8	WEBBER	Red Bull-Renault	+ 32.0s
9	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	+ 39.4s
10	PIQUET	Renault	+ 54.4s
11	GLOCK	Toyota	+ 58.8s
12	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	+ 62.0s
13	TRULLI	Toyota	+ 65.9s
14	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	+ 68.6s
15	BUTTON	Honda	+ 73.3s
16	COULTHARD	Red Bull-Renault	+ 1 lap
17	BARRICHELLO	Honda	+ 1 lap
18	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	+ 1 lap
19	SUTIL	Force India-Ferrari	+ 2 laps
20	FISICHELLA	Force India-Ferrari	+ 42 laps, accident
Fastest Lap	RÄIKKÖNEN	Ferrari	1m28.047s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	78 Points
2	MASSA	Ferrari	77 Points
3	KUBICA	BMW Sauber	64 Points
4	RÄIKKÖNEN	Farrari	57 Points
5	HEIDFELD	BMW Sauber	53 Points
6	KOVALAINEN	McLaren-Mercedes	51 Points
7	ALONSO	Renault	28 Points
8	TRULLI	Toyota	26 Points
9	VETTEL	STR-Ferrari	23 Points
10	WEBBER	Red Bull-Renault	20 Points
11	GLOCK	Toyota	15 Points
12	PIQUET	Renault	13 Points
13	BARRICHELLO	Honda	11 Points
14	ROSBERG	Williams-Toyota	9 Points
15	NAKAJIMA	Williams-Toyota	8 Points
16	COULTHARD	Red Bull-Renault	6 Points
17	BOURDAIS	STR-Ferrari	4 Points
18	BUTTON	Honda	3 Points

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	FERRARI	134 Points
2	MCLAREN-MERCEDES	129 Points
3	BMW-SAUBER	117 Points
4	TOYOTA	41 Points
5	RENAULT	41 Points
6	STR-FERRARI	27 Points
7	RED BULL-RENAULT	26 Points
8	WILLIAMS-TOYOTA	17 Points
9	HONDA	14 Points

NOTE: Super Aguri withdrew from the championship after round four.