AL2 From the Cockpit: Monza

For this week's AL2FTC I will be trialling a new style that I intend on running for the rest of the season. The usual review of the race will still be here, but in a slightly more brief form, with a new feature concentrating on the individual fortunes of the championship contenders race by race. If you have any views on the new format please let me know whether you want it to continue or not.

Monza is a circuit that has generated some great racing in F1 over the years, and as this amazing AL2 season arrived much was expected. Sadly the attendance was registered as just 8, since Ferrari have absolutely no hope of registering a championship this season. The 8 people were treated to a grand spectacle in qualifying however, with 2nd to 8th separated by just half a second. Sadly this was bad news for me, as I was surprised to be down in 5th, having been 2nd just seconds earlier. I then tried to improve on the options. I did not, as Barwell took a comfortable pole.

At the start, chaos reigned. Collisions between raptor1995curtis and daveh, con_reece and barwell, justanumber and S007PS and raptor1995curtis and myself all occurred. While this was going on daveh just said, "Nope." and ghosted straight through the middle of the carnage. It later transpired that a disgruntled McLaren employee had switched the controls for the brakes and the KERS in protest of the teams signing of Eric Boullier. When interviewed he simply said, "There is no place for the French." Martin Whitmarsh failed to comment on either the incident or the fact that he hasn't been seen in months and his mother is calling him in for tea.

Meanwhile, benappleby benefitted from the incident as he lead con, raptor and myself, however as I got around raptor, con and ben collided leaving ben in the gravel, con slowing to allow ben back past and myself leading the race from raptor.

The fight through the field of the day was provided by barwell, who quickly carved his way back up to 2nd from 9th and managed to overtake me during the stops. However, more controversy occurred at this point...

Soon after barwell's stop, I caught CHM1945 to lap him, but he failed to give way and as I used DRS to pass, he squeezed me to the grass on the way to Ascari, before using the fact that he had put me out of position on the track to attack me towards the Parabolica. In previous races he has only let me passed when specifically by tallboy and on this occasion there was no message forthcoming. After I had pitted and come out behind barwell, he seemed to have a similar problem passing the Mercedes, which he confirmed after the race. This is the problem with running with the rules on 'corner cutting only', as there are no blue flags and I guess he thought he was defending for position, despite the fact that he was obviously last. Luckily as I passed him for the second time he was much less stubborn.

This problem with the backmarker allowed me to close the gap to barwell, and I was soon withing DRS range. I was then able to muscle past at the rettifilio, before fending him off through the variante della roggia. This battle was most entertaining and showed all that is good about F1. At Ascari though, we collided in an incident that was just plain ugly. Barwell used the DRS to get alongside me on the outside, but as I braked slightly earlier due to my compromised line he must have thought that he had completed the move and swept into the corner, however I was still very much alongside him and despite using a vast amount of kerb it was impossible to avoid contact. This left me in the gravel trap and con perilously close when I recovered, to the point that when barwell allowed me back past con was able to opportunistically take 2nd. After this they battled on and I was able pull away and take a fortunate win, with barwell salvaging 2nd and con 3rd after not being on his usual pace all weekend.  Fellow championship contender benappleby struggled to a lowly 8th and may yet be the subject of a stewards enquiry after an alleged illegal overtake on daveh.

I just realised that it was such an action packed race that the review is no more brief than normal. Oops.

Championship Challenge Centre:

This will be home to information about all the championship challengers as we move towards the end of the season. Currently this will concentrate on the top 4, but should anyone pull off a remarkable comeback it will be shown here.

1st Place, 164 pts: con_reece

Con has undoubtedly been the class of the field through the middle part of the season, being totally untouchable in Germany and Hungary. This was a relatively disappointing race for him by his high standards though. The main question being asked is whether this will prove to be an isolated incident? Or will his performances drop off towards the end of the season? Whatever the case, he is still the bookies favourite for the title.

2nd Place, 151 pts: RosstheIcon

The last two races have been ideal for me, with back-to-back victories putting me back in the hunt after it was looking difficult after Hungary. Can I maintain this run of form through the next few races and pose a genuine challenge to Con? Only time will tell.

3rd Place, 138 pts: benappleby

The man who lead the championship for much of the season suffered a bit of a shocker at Monza, and dropped to 3rd in the table. Consistancy of performance has been the key to Ben's success up to this point, however he will need to win races to win the championship from here. For Ben, the question is whether or not he has the raw speed to do that.

4th Place, 135 pts: barwell74

The man the bookmakers are tipping as the dark horse, Barwell had an excellent but unlucky race at Monza, but can barwell do what Kimi Raikkonen did at the end of 2007? With Singapore next he has reason to be optimistic, after showing street circuit form at Monaco, as well as his pace at Monza.

Awards:

DOTD: Barwell74
Romain Grosjean start of the Day: Just about everyone
Gaston Mazzacane Awful Backmarker of the day: CHM1945
Jenson Button award for winning after a crap qualifying: RosstheIcon
William Shakespeare regrettable birthday of the day: Will-I-Am_3001
Racism of the day: the disgruntled McLaren employee

Great write up Ross & as I can categorically say I am not in for the Drivers Title (never was really)  for the Championship Challenge Center how about some emphasis on the Constructors Championship as well as their are TWO Titles to be competing for..

be nice to see reports on battles throughout the field as well as the EPIC battle that WE (The other 7 or so drivers that make up the league) are witnessing upfront & u clearly are the man to write it up LOL.. 

Great new format

Nice one Ross, And you're not the only one about the corner cutting only rules. Germany in AL3 was a good example of people not knowing about blue flags :/

The trouble is with writing about the battles between others is that I usually don't get to see the battles that I'm not involved in! Also I need to keep the column down to a digestible (and writable!) length. There's no reason why others can't do a write up as well if they have the time, perhaps giving a different angle on the races. A constructors section may well be the next feature though, although that battle may well only really hot up towards the end of the season, as it can yet take massive swings and most of the teams are still in with a shout! thanks for the feedback though!

Also I'm still waiting for the last 8 editions of 'AL2 in pics', S007PS!

Also I'm still waiting for the last 8 editions of 'AL2 in pics', S007PS!

LOL    sadly Ross with the acquisition of a capture card i hung my Lens up for this season as I didnt think 'Pics' would be in as much demand?..

ah man! the pit babes were the highlight of my week! XD

Great read again Ross. Agree that I had an absolute shocker. Managed to avoid most of the first corner carnage. The tap from con put me on the back foot, and from there it just all went wrong, crashing twice with two front wing changes and four pit stops in total. Evidence that practice does really help - only had time to do a few time trials to tweak set up, and then made mistakes on higher fuel, gunning out of corners and touching the gravel which spat me off the track. Don't think I'm quite on the top pace, so going to have to cut out all errors and hope for the best from here on out to keep in touch.

just get faster! must be said though, it's the second week running that contact between you and con has let me get clear into the lead! You'll soon be getting the Bernie Ecclestone award for taking bribes

Sorry ben but i did back off but still managed to rear end your car sorry if stewards give me punishment i defo deserve it