Vettel is almost there

Sunday, 11 September 2011 17:00

All the excitement in the 2011 Italian Grand Prix at Monza was in the first half of the race.

Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren and Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari came out of a three-abreast charge from the line: Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton. Vitantonio Liuzzi in his Hispania car, was the first corner bowling ball that knocked skittles Petrov (Renault) and Rosberg (Mercedes) out of the race.

The subsequent safety car saw Lewis Hamilton napping at the restart and a peppery Michael Schumacher able to squeeze his Mercedes in front and keep Lewis behind him by driving on the edge of the rules. And all over the track.

Team boss Ross Brawn said that Mercedes GP didn't have the fastest car today but nobody told Michael Schumacher, who raced as if he did, starting like a cannonball and driving hard. As Michael weaved in front of him, Lewis Hamilton could have been forgiven if he was waiting for the stewards to step in. I expected them to, but Ross Brawn used his scary voice on the radio to remind Michael to leave Lewis room for his car and Michael lived to dice another day.

Gear ratios-versus-rear wing settings perhaps made this race confusing for the spectators. Pre-race, all the talk was about the two DRS zones and whether overtaking was going to be too easy, yet what we saw was cars hitting the rev limiter and failing to make passes. Lewis Hamilton's McLaren was an obvious example. On lap 13, Hamilton, side-by-side with Schumacher, did get the inside line and brake latest for a lovely clean overtake. But Schumacher got the slipstream and swept straight back past. And Lewis knew exactly what square one looked like. After that, he was unable to get past Michael Schumacher's kicking-donkey Mercedes yet, when Lewis was shoved onto the grass, lost impetus and swapped places with teammate Jenson Button, Jenson flowed past Michael Schumacher in a few corners.

Schumacher's tyres gave up the ghost and pitted, Jenson following him in for the first McLaren pitstop, rejoining the track ahead of Michael. Schumacher had enjoyed two laps of new tyre advantage by the time that Lewis Hamilton pitted, so Lewis emerged from the pits behind Michael Schumacher and had it all to do again ... (Square One revisited.)

McLaren must be disappointed that Jenson Button had an awful start, getting clutch slip and slithering back to sixth. What could he have done if he'd launched well? It's impossible to say whether he could have challenged Sebastian Vettel, who, naturally, drove only as fast as he needed to win the race. And seemed fairly relaxed about it. But I would have loved to see Jenson try.

I’m so tired of Vettel winning. I have to respect and admire his level of excellence but … his exuberant celebrations? There's no doubt that he feels the need - he was visibly emotional on the podium. And then there’s his extreme youth. This race taking place on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in America, he was asked what he was doing on that day. He was out on his bike, he said. He was 14 years old.

To look a little further down the field, I've been feeling sympathy for a different young man, Bruno Senna, not just because he seems like a really nice guy, but because he hasn't been able to maximise his chances in Formula 1, so far. I was surprised - and doubtful – when, two races ago, Lotus Renault replaced the experienced Nick Heidfeld with Bruno, but Bruno qualified well in Spa, though his catastrophic mistake took him out at turn one. He put up a good show in qualifying in Monza, too, an area that was weak for Heidfeld. Senna had a decent race, keeping out of trouble, and getting inside Buemi in the chicane on lap 47 for a balletic pass, heading off to finish in ninth on the tail of Force India's Paul Di Resta.

There must be additional pressure to racing under a famous surname - Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve may or may not agree. I expect it does open some doors, especially regarding sponsorship, but everybody seems to expect a lot, as if the name knows how to win because it did so a generation earlier. In fact, Bruno says that he had to take a break in his young racing career when the more famous Senna, Ayrton, was killed at Imola in 1994, so it could be argued that the bad has outweighed the good.

I want to mention Jaime Alguarsari, too, who was this week’s man from the back to have a good finish, not just by slipping past the first corner incident and going from 18th to 11th, but racing cleanly and with determination to a great 7th place.

But the class of the field, aided by his fabulous Adrian Newey-designed car and season-long amazing reliability, was Sebastian Vettel. And surely he will win the driver's title in the next two races.

But it would be a lot more fun for the other drivers and many millions of spectators if he had a couple of ‘did not finishes’, instead. By Sue Moorcroft

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