Italian Grand Prix – Monza Free Practice 2

Back to Monza for the afternoon session, with the lovely Crofty and friends on BBC Five Live. In the lunch break, Ferrari boss Luca de Montezemolo managed to get everyone talking again, having this to say when asked if Alonso was joining the team next year

“Sooner or later I’ll make it happen. We’ll see when,” di Montezemolo told Spanish reporters at Monza.

“For next year we have Raikkonen, Massa, Fisichella, Badoer, Gene, and I hope Michael Schumacher, so we have a bench as long as Real Madrid’s.

In all, there are 20 seats up for grabs at the end of this season. At the moment, it’s like a big game of chicken, as no-one wants to make any decision until there is confirmation of where Alonso will be.

On the track, it was another mixed-up session. An electrical problem with Mark Webber’s Red Bull hampered his run somewhat, and it appears that the Brawns only ran on old tyres, presumably so they have more new ones available for qualifying tomorrow. Giancarlo Fisichella did not do as good a job as this morning, ending the session as the slowest driver, 1.8 seconds off the pace. Force India looked to have this session in the bag, with Sutil happily at the top for some time folllowing an engine change, until the final few minutes when Romain Grosjean pulled out a fabulous lap to go top, with Fernando Alonso just behind in the other Renault. Sutil didn’t back down, however, and showed he’s happy to be the lead driver at Force India now, reclaiming his top spot just at the end of the session. Heikki Kovalainen popped his McLaren into fourth, and BMW managed to get both cars into the top ten too.

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps
 1.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:23.924            28
 2.  Grosjean     Renault               (B)  1:24.163  + 0.239   31
 3.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:24.297  + 0.373   35
 4.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:24.482  + 0.558   41
 5.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:24.622  + 0.698   40
 6.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:24.634  + 0.710   36
 7.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:24.693  + 0.769   34
 8.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:24.796  + 0.872   39
 9.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:24.799  + 0.875   36
10.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:24.884  + 0.960   44
11.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:24.902  + 0.978   32
12.  Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:24.921  + 0.997   39
13.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:24.967  + 1.043   40
14.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:24.979  + 1.055   25
15.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:25.003  + 1.079   34
16.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:25.140  + 1.216   35
17.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:25.215  + 1.291   38
18.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:25.386  + 1.462   27
19.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:25.424  + 1.500   32
20.  Fisichella   Ferrari               (B)  1:25.543  + 1.619   36

Saturday practice is at 10am