Italian GP 2009

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Practice 2 Report - Sutil fastest, Fisichella slowest...

Adrian Sutil, Italian GP 2009
© The Cahier Archive

The old Force India team had an odd day at Monza with Adrian Sutil setting the fastest time of the Friday afternoon session by two-tenths of a second ahead of Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso. The Renault team needs some good news and the performance will obviously help morale. It will also help to stop calls from Renault Brazil to put Lucas di Grassi in the car. The South Americans are believed to be very unhappy at the moment as a result of the ongoing "race-fixing" scandal. It remains to be seen whether Renault has the pace in race trim. It is hard to know that because Monza is these days a circuit which is completely different to all the others on the F1 calendar (with the possible exception of Spa). Low downforce spec has turned the F1 pecking order on its head, with Force India becoming a major player and BMW and Toyota both looking quite good. The Red Balls and Brawns are struggling.

Behind the two Renaults was the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen, followed by the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica, the Toyota of Timo Glock and Nick Heidfeld's BMW. Kimi Raikkonen was eighth quickest for Ferrari ahead of Kazuki Nakajima, who had a wild ride through the gravel beds in the final corner but managed to stay away from the walls. Sebastien Buemi was 10th for Scuderia Toro Rosso, last year's winners here at Monza.

Eleventh fastest was Lewis Hamilton ahead of Force India's new boy Tonio Liuzzi, although the Italian was on a much faster lap at the end of the session but then decided to go into the pits rather than show his hand. The finished result would have been three or four tenths off Sutil's best, which would have put him third or fourth.

Behind Liuzzi was Jarno Trulli's Toyota, the Red Bull of Mark Webber, the Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari, Rubens Barrichello's Brawn, Nico Rosberg's Williams, Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull, Jenson Button's Brawn and Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari's new driver, who was only eight-tenths off Raikkonen's best but still at the back of the grid.