Italian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

First thing's first. The Hamilton penalty discussion should be continued in the Belgium GP thread (here: [www.grandprixgames.org]) unless the FIA decide to penalise him even more at Monza for being remotely close to a red car in Italy (shades of Alonso vs Massa in qualifying, 2006?).

Secondly, have an old Monza map!





Monza hosts the Italian GP, there since the 1920s, and has missed it once, in 1980, when Imola took the rights to hosting the Italian Grand Prix for one year only.

McLaren have a good chance to win here, having taken a surprise 1-2 with Alonso and Hamilton last year, but Monza has been favourable to Ferrari, not least because of home territory, but also because the Ferrari car is designed to be faster/more streamlined in a straight line. BMW, Torro Rosso, Toyota, Renault and Red Bull will be looking to fill the rest of the points and take the spoils if the Red and Silver machines fail to make the distance, which is likely for Ferrari having had 2 engine failures in 3 races, and more this season than any other engine manufacturer!

53 laps, the fastest GP on the calendar, and a lap pushing 158 mph on low fuel and soft tyres, without safety cars the race will be over by 2.20pm BST!

Official details from formula1.com:

Race Date: 14 Sep 2008
Number of Laps: 53
Circuit Length: 5.793 km
Race Distance: 306.720 km
Lap Record: 1:21.046 - R Barrichello (2004)

Montoya holds the outright lap record from qualifying, a lap of 1:19.525. This is unlikely to be beaten in the current 2.4l V8 era, unless turbo engines akin to the 1980s are re-introduced along with modern ground effects and super-sticky qualifying tyres! One can only dream.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2008 12:27AM by mortal.

this could be a entertaining race, especially if a red car doeesn't win, and hamilton or kovy wins instead. wonder what the fia will do then? say hamilton was going to fast, and exceeding the italian speed limit?

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Rain is predicted and a very cold temperatures so Ferrari will most likely have huge difficulties.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2008 02:19PM by vesuvius.

Not just Ferrari, everybody will struggle, Mclaren too. Temperatures @ 13° most likey are also below what Macca needs that is about 20° (Ferrari 24°) this tends to give us some surprises :P

yes, this will be an exciting weekend, with the events of last weekend still clouding over the championship battle and several teams battling for 'best of the rest'

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X (@ed24f1)

How surpringful ,when asked about, Alonso declared he supports Massa for WDC

"- He is more my friend"

This race could throw up a big shock with the rain.

People like Alonso will be well up for this.

yes, the rain could cancel out any disadvantage renault have with their engine.


i think BMW could surprise here, they have been good here in the past

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X (@ed24f1)

wow guys did you read the Monza interview ?

just to mention:

Q. You say you are confident for the coming races, but how much is the shadow of Massa a concern for you?

LH: Not really. I think Massa he is on the back foot and he is the one that has to work damn hard to keep up with me. We do have a close race, a close battle, but I feel I am in a very strong position. I feel I have got a great car and we are going to continue going down the same route we have been going down, and continue to knock at them and take points from them, and improve our reliability in all areas.

Q. But Raikkonen was braking much earlier than you?

LH: Well, that's his driving, that's all. That is how he drives. If you don't have the balls to brake late then that is your problem! At the end of the day, in those situations it is the driver who can feel the grip more and put the car more on the edge. And I know I am great in those conditions. I felt the grip more than him, I knew where to place my car and I did place it in different positions to him and I found the grip.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2008 05:29PM by Rodrigo007.

Hamilton seems very confident there. That test 2 weeks ago must have gone very well.

If it stays dry and a couple of the top 4 retire, I can see a Toro Rosso getting a shot at a podium here. Lots of ifs there, but they ought to be strong. If it's wet, who knows.



SchueyFan Wrote:
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> yes, the rain could cancel out any disadvantage
> renault have with their engine.

Hmm, it will nullify it, but with the length of the straights, they'll still be flat out for a hell of a lot of the lap, unless it's soaked Fuji style.

if he does those kind of things a bit less i might have liked him alot more...

Yep, should be exciting weekend, hopefully rain can spice things up and ferrari can make their car drivable in the wet!!

Like kimi said, he has nothing to lose, so hopefully we see some risky but great driving from him!
Should be also good to see some of the midfield pack cars get in the mix if rain does occur!

The battle for third place is going to be awesome I guess :S

And I see good chances for Raikkonen to finish this one for a change.

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Felipe Massa, World Champion 15:34:11pm- 15:34:21pm.

anyone playing gridbids should get their picks in

Lol! Lewis thinks he's the new Muhammad Ali and is getting ready to put his foot in his mouth again by the looks of it. His recent comments are hilarious and show that he is clearly rattled, not a good sign.

If he can win on Ferrari's turf however, he will do some psychological damage and it would be payback for Belgium.

First practice underway and it's very Spa-like. Dry/wet track. Wet under the trees, dry in a lot of the track with a few damp sports every now and then.

"Rain expected in 9 minutes".

Nakajima with quite a fast off there.

Conditions down at Ascari seem to be catching a lot of people out. Vettel and Sutil off now.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2008 10:30AM by DaveEllis.

Dam rain...

Its pissing down now

this could be interesting.