2007 Italian Grand Prix|Photos|Video

Sunday,

"Probably the biggest problem was that I could not keep my head up
under braking. My neck is not in such a great shape after yesterday so
that was the main issue. But we just didn’t have the speed."

"The
problem was under braking. It was hard to keep the head up. It didn’t
help for sure. I tried to do my best but he got too close and got past
me."

"Monza is a bit like Montreal. We knew that they would be strong
here. We knew from the test last week that we were not where we wanted
to be."

McLaren painted Monza silver with a painfully dominant victory in the Italian country, beating Ferrari by a clear 27 seconds. Alonso had a trouble free race, whereas teammate Hamilton got caught out by Kimi in the second pit stops as Kimi was on a 1 stop strategy and jumped ahead of him. However, by merely a second ahead of Hamilton, Kimi was passed in a suprising move by the McLaren driver up to turn 1 who slip streamed through a huge gap. Kimi was forced to brake hard and Hamilton squeezed in from the inside line and managed to take the exit of the chicane cleanly.

The start looked set to be a challenge even before the lights went out. Hamilton had his car in the box pointing towards the left where Alonso sat, making sure he wastes no time to get right behind him and fend off the Ferraris and BMW. Massa still put up a fight and was pushed right to the edge by Hamilton who then simply couldn’t match the start speed of the Ferrari. He was behind Massa up to turn 1 but Hamilton passed Massa on the outside to gain his position back. Kimi managed to get ahead of Heidfeld exiting the chicane. A clean start to the race, with no accidents and no cars cutting the chicane although Hamilton missed the apex of the exit corner but it was deemed acceptable by the stewards.

David Coulthard suffered the only crash of the day, where his front wing completely failed and broke off in the middle of Curva Grande and sent him flying off into the barriers.

For a more personal view: There were some good squabbles in the race between Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and
Heidfeld. An interesting strategy between McLaren and Kimi upfront for a change and for once, a top team
passed their rival team, in Hamilton and Raikkonen.

I’m so pleased for Kimi, simply because he got on the podium with the 1 stop strategy. Considering Heidfeld pitted before him and he qualified ahead of Kimi, Raikko’s qualifying performance was quite good. He also was suffering from bad whiplash on his neck, he found it particularly difficult under braking (download the Press Conference for more below). Kimi looked as bored as ever in the press conference, it was quite funny. But I also cried a bit, because Ron Dennis was crying during and after the podium and I felt his feelings. It means so much to him.
Ferrari got owned badly today. End of story (but obviously their story will be told in the court rooms, rather than on track).

Sunday quotes: Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen – 3rd: "This was definitely a tough
race for me because of the pain I felt in my neck after yesterday’s
accident, which was bad enough to make it hard for me to hold my head
steady under braking. Having said that, today we were not really quick
enough. We knew it would not be an easy weekend, as we had already
realized that in last week’s test, with Friday and yesterday confirming
it.

"The car was not bad in the first stint but then we were not strong
enough. Hamilton’s overtaking move? I tried to defend my position but
he was definitely quicker than me. In the final stages I slowed to save
the car for the next race. We were keen to win in front of our fans but
we did not manage it. At least I got onto the podium. Now we tackle
another fascinating circuit at Spa-Francorchamps where I think that we
and our closest rivals will be more evenly matched."

Felipe Massa – DNF: "I am very disappointed. It’s horrible to see your chances go in the early stages because of a reliability problem.

Jean Todt: "We are very disappointed at having failed
to secure a better result than just this third place for Kimi in our
home Grand Prix.

Luca Baldisserri: "We are very disappointed and there
is no use in denying it. We tried to change things around by putting
Kimi on a different strategy, but in general we were not quick enough.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1h18:37.806
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +     6.062
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  +    27.325
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +    56.562
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +  1:00.558
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +  1:05.810
 7.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +  1:06.751
 8.  Button        Honda                (B)  +  1:12.168
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +  1:15.879
10.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +  1:16.958
11.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +  1:17.736
12.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
15.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
18.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap
19.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +     1 lap
20.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:22.871

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Massa         Ferrari              (B)    11
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)    3

Video
The Race Start:

http://www.mediafire.com/?dc3jqmf41cc

Hamilton Passes Kimi after final pitstop:

http://www.mediafire.com/?0d92djmoyt1

Full Race Press Conference

http://www.mediafire.com/?ebtvij2yzis

Photos

Don’t forget to get hi-res pics at the forum!

Raikkonen: crash didn’t affect qualifying
"For sure it didn’t help, but I don’t think it hurt us too much,"
said Raikkonen. "We’ll see tomorrow in the race how we do. Of course we
could have done better in qualifying, and in the whole day so far, but
I think we are still in a good position for the race."

Raikkonen has blamed the morning’s accident on the rear tyres
locking under braking. Moments before the crash he was seen adjusting
the brake balance in the cockpit.

"I just locked the rear brakes, and unfortunately it turned right
and not left," he said. "Once it turned right I could not do anything,
so I just waited until it stopped. Once you are on the grass there is
not much you can do."

Saturday quotes: Ferrari
Kimi: "The McLarens were strong in the test and in free practice, so I don’t
think there was much I could have done about getting pole position. All
the same I think we can get a good result given our pace over a longer
distance. It definitely won’t be the first time that we have had the
odd difficulty in qualifying and then been very competitive in the
race. I will do all I can to give our fans something to cheer about."

Photos

Jenni Raikkonen at Monza today.

Check
out the forum for Kimi photos from the whole weekend so far, including images of Kimi’s crash. You’ll have to register
though! This is because the photo album on the website is having some
problems today, sorry. Go into the 2007 Italian GP section.

But this is so funny that I must show it here because it’s made my day. What a funny sight! Gorilla Kimi – Kimi Go Mad!

Video
Download – Kimi’s crash (replays)



http://www.mediafire.com/?b1y4inlmm1i