[tccox]

Most boring race ever.

[Biorin]

That gap between Hamilton and Vettel

Impressive clawback to 3rd by Kimi though, hopefully he'll regain it.

[E90SLAM]

Relatively straight forward race. Sad to see Kimi had a botched race start.
And FIA managed to try to put some drama into a mediocre race.

FIA upholds Lewis Hamilton's Monza win after tyre investigation

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...-investigation

The FIA has upheld Lewis Hamilton's Italian Grand Prix victory after an investigation into Mercedes' tyre pressures.

More to follow....

Lewis Hamilton's Italian Grand Prix victory under investigation

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...-investigation

Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix but faces a stewards investigation after his tyre pressures were found to be below the minimum level set by the FIA and tyre supplier Pirelli.

Hamilton won by 25 seconds from Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, but will have to visit the stewards to find out whether the result will be allowed to stand or if he will face a penalty. Hamilton was told to up his pace in the closing laps by the Mercedes pit wall in case of a time penalty, but was not aware of the reason why at the time.

The FIA checked the tyre pressures on the left side of the front four cars on the grid ahead of the start of the race and found Hamilton's left-rear tyre pressure to be 0.3 PSI below the minimum pressure of 19.5 PSI set by Pirelli. The left-rear tyre on his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg was found to be 1.1 PSI too low, but Rosberg's race ended two laps before the end when his engine let go while running third. Both Ferraris had pressures in compliance with the regulations.

"We don't understand it, to be honest," Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe said after the race. "All I know is we set our pressures fully supervised by the Pirelli engineer, he was perfectly happy with them, as they were set. We'll go and investigate."

The FIA informed the teams of the potential breach of the regulations one hour and four minutes into the race, which was when the Mercedes pit wall gave Hamilton the hurry up.

Asked about the pit radio message to his driver, Lowe added: "I'd call it an abundance of caution, because we haven't done anything wrong. We thought let's make a gap. We've been summoned to the stewards so we'll go there and explain it."

The issue of tyre pressures has been particularly sensitive since the Belgian Grand Prix when Vettel suffered a tyre failure in the final two laps of the race. As a result, Pirelli enforced pressures 1 PSI higher at Monza this year than normal and the FIA made a point of checking the pressures and temperatures of the tyres on the front four cars of the grid five minutes before the start.

Before the post-race drama, the Italian Grand Prix had been a fairly dull affair. Ferrari's hopes of causing an upset by beating Mercedes were halved when Kimi Raikkonen's car kicked into anti-stall at the start and he dropped from second on the grid to last place by the first corner. Vettel quickly realised the difficulty of the task of keeping up with Hamilton within a handful of laps had dropped over five seconds off the Mercedes. The two Williamses of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas were third and fourth ahead of Rosberg, who made a slow start and dropped to sixth.

Running a five-race old engine after a problem with his new Monza power unit on Saturday, Rosberg struggled to match the two Williamses for straight-line speed and instead made an early pit stop on lap 18 to gain an advantage on fresh tyres. Once the pit stops had panned out Rosberg emerged comfortably in front of Massa and Bottas and set about closing the gap to Vettel. He got within 1.2s when his engine let go with a lick of yellow flame from the exhaust, much to the delight of the Tifosi lining the circuit.

That promoted Massa back up to third but he had to hold off Bottas at the end. The pair were engaged in a thrilling battle on the final lap as Bottas attacked his team-mate, but ultimately came up 0.3s shy as they crossed the line. Raikkonen battled his way from last place back up to fifth with a series of bold overtaking manoeuvres that showed the strength of the updated Ferrari power unit. at Monza Sergio Perez finished sixth ahead of Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo and Sauber's Marcus Ericsson, who picked up the final point on offer in tenth.

If Hamilton's result stands he will take a 53-point lead in the drivers' championship over team-mate Rosberg, giving him the safety net of being able to retire twice and still lead the title race.

[ptack]

I swear I saw Tom Brady in the Mercedes garage.

[jkoral]

Originally Posted by ptack

I swear I saw Tom Brady in the Mercedes garage.

Yup, another instance of the ideal gas law at work.

At least Pirelli had calibrated gauges (unlike the logo/non-logo ones used by NFL officials that differed up to 0.45 psi).

And also unlike the NFL the tire temperature was also recorded (which perfectly explained blanket warmers that were not plugged in and the cooler temperature compared to Ferrari).

Although, like the NFL, why did Pirelli only check the first 4 cars (Merc and Ferrari) on the grid at the 5 minutes before mark? Very similar to the the NFL officials checking all 12 of the Patriots balls and only 4 of the Colts balls -- they simply ran out of time!

[DC-T]

Originally Posted by ptack

I swear I saw Tom Brady in the Mercedes garage.

I'll just leave this here.

[NickyC]

I snoozed and I didn't lose.

Yawn.

[M_Six]

Hamilton stomped the field just like the Pats stomped the Colts. No need to ruin a great drive over such trivia. Slap a wrist or two and move on.

So bummed that Kimmy booted the start. Great comeback drive, but barring that gaffe, I think there would have been two Ferraris on the podium.

That said, it was cool to see Massa up there again. You could see it was special for him.

I bet Vettel was telling Ham later that, "Yeah, they booed me last year, too."

[hellrotm]

Hammer time!

[MrPrena]

So, I assume temperature of the football increase and decrease just like tires on track?

[SenorFunkyPants]

A very quick look suggests that a ~4C drop in temp would see the tyre pressure drop 0.3psi.
You probably didn't see a Sky TV interview with Pat Symonds after the race...he reckoned that the Mercs should be disqualified for the tyre infringement - a bit rich considered his checkered past and that one of his cars ran mixed tyres in the last race...oh and he ought to remember who supplies his engines before being harsh about Mercedes.

[Mtxzptlk]

Originally Posted by SenorFunkyPants

A very quick look suggests that a ~4C drop in temp would see the tyre pressure drop 0.3psi.
You probably didn't see a Sky TV interview with Pat Symonds after the race...he reckoned that the Mercs should be disqualified for the tyre infringement - a bit rich considered his checkered past and that one of his cars ran mixed tyres in the last race...oh and he ought to remember who supplies his engines before being harsh about Mercedes.

Maybe he does remember and is salty about not getting the same spec engines as the Merc team ran in Monza. Lol

[SenorFunkyPants]

Originally Posted by Mtxzptlk

Maybe he does remember and is salty about not getting the same spec engines as the Merc team ran in Monza. Lol

Probably not as much as Rosberg though!

It turns out that the deal was that the tyres should be at a minimum of 19.5psi while in the tyre blankets at 110C - which they were when checked by the Pirelli rep in the Merc garage before being sent off to the grid to await the car after its lap from the pits to the grid.
The FIA agreed to enforce the 19.5 psi limit but weren't told about that Pirelli were checking this at 110C and so checked the tyres on the cars on the grid when out of the blankets.
Apparently the FIA were just a little bit miffed to find out that had made all that fuss when the tyres were in spec after all.

[gary88]

My trackside souvenirs



I'll post a huge album when I finish going through the pics, flying back tomorrow.

[E90SLAM]

gary88, only if maldonado crashed at start-finish straight, you might be able to get part of the lotus pieces!!!

However, the debt collectors and lawyers might come after you.

[slalomfever]

was fortunate to watch this at Monza. We were at Laterale Parabolica. Here's a short video from our seats

[slalomfever]

Originally Posted by Railgun

Was that recorded on a Nokia 6600?

Iphone 6