Hamilton leads McLaren front-row at Monza

  • Saturday 8th September, 2012 11:06pm
  • Author: SpeedCafe ©
hamilton2 344x224 Hamilton leads McLaren front row at Monza

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have secured a McLaren front-row lockout for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Hamilton set his 1:24.01s pole time on the first of his two runs in Q3, while Button jumped to second when he chimed in with a lap just 0.12s shy of his team-mate after the chequered flag fell.

Felipe Massa was a surprise third for Ferrari and will start a full seven places ahead of his team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The Ferrari team experimented with having its drivers slipstream each other during the course of Q2 and the early part of Q3.

The Spaniard was all alone when it mattered most however, and failed to get within 1.5s of Hamilton’s benchmark after suffering from a rear anti-rollbar failure.

Paul di Resta was a career best fourth fastest in his Force India but will start ninth due to a five-place gearbox change penalty.

Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Kamui Kobayashi  all benefit from the Scot’s misfortune to fill fourth through eighth on the grid.

Mark Webber is set to start 11th after missing out on the Q3 cut-off by a scant 0.07s.

Nico Hulkenberg meanwhile endured the worst session of all having been forced to pull off the circuit with gearbox troubles in his Force India before being able to set a time in Q1.

See below for the full qualifying result

Pos

Driver

Team

Q1

Q2

Q3

1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.211 1:24.394 1:24.010
2 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:24.672 1:24.255 1:24.133
3 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:24.882 1:24.505 1:24.247
4 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:24.875 1:24.345 1:24.304
5 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:25.302 1:24.675 1:24.540
6 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:25.011 1:24.687 1:24.802
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:24.689 1:24.515 1:24.833
8 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:25.151 1:24.742 1:24.855
9 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:25.317 1:24.683 1:25.109
10 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:24.175 1:24.242 1:25.678
11 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:25.556 1:24.809  
12 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:25.103 1:24.820  
13 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:25.300 1:24.901  
14 Bruno Senna Williams-Renault 1:25.135 1:25.042  
15 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 1:25.728 1:25.312  
16 Jerome D’Ambrosio Lotus-Renault 1:25.834 1:25.408  
17 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 1:25.649 1:25.441  
18 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:26.382    
19 Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1:26.887    
20 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:27.039    
21 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:27.073    
22 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:27.441    
23 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:27.629    
24 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes      

See below for Speedcafe.com’s Italian Grand Prix Race Guide

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