Monza Qualifying

robin · Post by **robin** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 2:05 pm

Why did Button abandon his final lap?

He was 0.1 ahead of the then current P1 time at the end of both 1st and 2nd sectors - he only needed 0.1s to get P2 which he must easily have had, even if he made a mistake in 3rd sector?

Cheers,
Robin

ceejam · Post by **ceejam** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 3:49 pm

Both the McLaren boys aborted.
Seemed strange at the time.
Guess they saw Vettel going .3s faster & realised they weren't going to improve.

Button could have pipped Lewis, so maybe a team call?

robin · Post by **robin** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 4:37 pm

Hamilton gave up because he went off at one of the chicanes so could not improve his time.

The only thing I can think is that Button wanted the clean side of the grid more than the chance of running vettel off the road at turn 1

Cheers,
Robin

Mr Momo · Post by **Mr Momo** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 4:48 pm

He seemed pretty pleased with P3 on the clean-side.

Loved the two black lines left by Vettel through the Ascari chicanes on his last stint

robin · Post by **robin** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:54 am

I just checked the qualifying times and Button needed just 0.050 to get P2. Although he said in his interview that he locked a wheel into T1 and then carried a 0.1 deficit for the whole lap I am sure that he was showing green vs the current P1 for sector one and sector two and so must have been quicker than his previous best, even if it wasn't going to be quick enough for P1. Ultimately it's no loss to his team as the have 2/3 anyway but I still think he would rather have been in P2 than P3.

I wonder if the team prefer to have Hamilton ahead? It would make sense - he is aggressive and will no doubt push (too) hard in the first stint; I reckon Button will come in ahead of Hamilton simply because he'll get a better average lap time from smarter tyre use. Hamilton will push hard, wreck his tyres, drop off and then ultimately run fewer laps on working soft tyres and more laps on the harder tyre.

I wonder whether Di Resta will start on the hard tyre and aim for 8th?

Cheers,
Robin

tut · Post by **tut** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:31 pm

Would be satisfied for Hamilton to just stay in and finish the race, if anything goes wrong at Red Bull he is still in with a chance.

They just need to sit on the start line mumbling "you can lose the race at the first corner but you can not win it"

tut

tut · Post by **tut** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 1:05 pm

Knew that they would not listen........

tut

ps:- don't forget you can watch from the drivers eye view at F1 online.

robin · Post by **robin** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 4:59 pm

Well it finished as I predicted though not quite the way I had imagined

It was quite something to watch Button swoop past Hamilton and Schumacher in the space of 5 seconds ... shows the advantage of looking after your tyres!

Cheers,
Robin

kenny · Post by **kenny** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:35 pm

Button passed Hamilton because schuhuffer did what he does best and pushed the boundaries well beyond the acceptable. If it had been the otherway round it would have been a penalty for Hamilton. F1 fast becoming a joke as eccelstone protects his new pet.

Rubbish.

Good to see di resta getting more points. Baffled why big teams aren't signing him.

Scottish Elises