Italian Grand Prix 2015 - Qualifying Analysis. Raikkonen and Vettel split Mercedes dominance.

Qualifying for the 2015 Italian Grand Prix took place yesterday and Ferrari proved that they could rise to the occasion and pressure of the Tifosi at Monza. Ferrari took there best qualifying of the season with Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively behind a very dominant Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes.

Tensions were high heading into qualifying as Nico Rosberg took an engine change which saw him use a fairly worn engine instead of the new prototype Mercedes were testing this weekend. Due to the engine being an older one Rosberg will not incur any grid penalties. Lewis Hamilton will continue to run the prototype engine.

Polesitter Lewis Hamilton

As Q1 rolled around all cars took there first runs on the white striped medium (Prime) tires except for both McLaren's and Manor-Marussia's. At the session started work was still being done on the Toro Rosso of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull. They looked unlikely to post times.

There was an early frustration for Nico Hulkenberg as he was twice held up by Marcus Ericcson on a flying lap (at Parabolica and the 2nd chicane). Towards the end of the session it looked as though 1 McLaren-Honda would make Q2, but Daniel Ricciardo spoiled the party as he managed to get out of the garage and set a lap time good enough for 15th pushing Button down into the cut off zone. Max Verstappen also managed to get out of the garage, albeit with 20 seconds to go. It proved though they had rushed the decision because as he went through Turn 3 the rear bodywork of his car flew off due to it not being sealed down tight enough. The FIA later have said Verstappen will have a drive through penalty which must be served in the first 3 laps of the race. So at the end of Q1 both McLarens were gone with Button leading Alonso, and both Manor's with Stevens leading Merhi, whilst Max Verstappen didn't set a lap time and finished 20th

Felipe Nasr of Sauber

Q2 started and it was to be a terrible session for Red Bull. There Renault power unit worries continued to grow because for the first time since 2008 a Red Bull didn't make Q3. Daniil Kvyat was 14th whilst Ricciardo choose not to set a lap time and finished 15th. Grid drops will see them start from further back. The other 3 unlucky people to be knocked out were Pastor Maldonado who missed Q3 by under a tenth and will start 11th, Felipe Nasr in the Sauber and the Toro Rosso of Sainz who finished 13th. However he will be dropped down the grid due to engine penalties.



So Q3 started and it was 7 Mercedes powered cars and 3 Ferrari powered. It was a phenomenal session as Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel both put in 2 of there strongest qualifying laps of the season to see them qualify 2nd and 3rd respectively. Ferrari have worked very hard since Q1 where the gap to the Mercedes was over a second and now Lewis Hamilton could only grab the pole by under a quarter of a second. Nico Rosberg couldn't match his team mates efforts as he could only manage a very low 4th on the grid.

Sebastian Vettel (L) and Kimi Raikkonen (R) line up 3rd and 2nd respectively.

Williams opted to give Massa a tow on his laps by sending Bottas out just ahead of him, giving Massa extra slipstream on the straight. This saw him get the better of Bottas in qualifying and they line 5th and 6th respectively. The race will be interesting for Williams as Massa definitely wouldn't have been 5th without the tow. It will be interesting to see in Bottas will have the race pace to overtake him.

Felipe Massa of Williams lines up 5th

Sergio Perez managed 7th for Force India as they look for some strong points on Sunday. He achieved his main objective of out-qualifying Lotus and a good race could see Force India regain 5th in the Constructors Championship. On the other side of the garage it wasn't good news as Nico Hulkenberg's car lost all power on his in-lap and we are unsure yet if the problem promotes a grid drop or not. Hulkenberg finished the session in 9th as he did manage to set one lap.

Nico Hulkenberg will start 9th after problems in Q3

Lotus take 8th as Superman Romain Grosjean continues his good form and he once again outqualified his team mate Pastor Maldonado.

The last spot in the top 10 goes to Marcus Ericsson who managed to get into Q3. If he can hold his own on Sunday he could bring home some much needed points for Sauber.

The grid (including confirmed grid penalties) will look like this:

1) Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2) Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
3) Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
4) Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
5) Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
6) Valterri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
7) Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
8) Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes
9) Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes
10) Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
11) Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
12) Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
13) Will Stevens - Manor-Ferrari
14) Roberto Merhi - Manor-Ferrari
15) Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda (Grid Penalty)
16) Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda (Grid Penalty)
17) Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault (Grid Penalty)
18) Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull Racing-Renault (Grid Penalty)
19) Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull Racing-Renault (Grid Penalty)
20) Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault (Grid Penalty)

The Italian Grand Prix gets underway in just under 10 hours. It will be constested over 53 laps and is expected to be a 1 stop race. There will be an interesting battle up front, can Ferrari win at Monza for the first time since 2010? Will Raikkonen take the lead into Turn 1? Can Force India find some of the FP1 and FP2 pace they had? and can Red Bull still score points? Find out later today!

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