Monza 6 September

It always seems fitting that the Royal Park of Monza, with its fantastic history of racing, should provide the backdrop to the final race of the season to take place on the Old Continent and so far, the weather gods have decided to make it look particularly lovely, with warm weather and sunny blue skies.

In these conditions, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa lapped the 5.793 kilometre track a total of 108 times. The Spaniard ended up fifth quickest, having completed 63 of those laps, which is ten more than Sunday’s race distance. The Brazilian managed just 45, as his afternoon session ended prematurely with a gearbox problem. He was eighth fastest. If the F138s and the other twenty cars on track look different to usual, that’s because they are all running in “Monza configuration,” which means they sport the smallest wings giving the least aero downforce of the season. The first time the cars rush down those long straights at the highest speeds of the year is a breathtaking sight, even from inside the cockpit. Apart from these changes, the Scuderia was also trying other updates here and, with the exception of Felipe’s gearbox glitch, it was a trouble-free day.


Finding out how the Hard and Medium compound Pirellis work over a long run was a key item on today’s job list, because the high speed nature of this circuit means that making as few pit stops as possible is usually a winning formula. Sebastian Vettel was fastest overall in the Red Bull, the only man to break the 1m 25 second barrier and a staggering six tenths faster than his team-mate Mark Webber who was second on the afternoon time sheet. Ahead of Fernando were Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, respectively third and fourth for Lotus.

Now we can look forward to tomorrow and one of the highlights of the season, featuring the fastest qualifying laps of the year.