Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/376810
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2014 Sport 47 SPORTTODAY FORMULA 1 Hamilton beats Rosberg to pole in Italy LEWIS Hamilton captured his first pole position in eight Grands Prix with a storming performance at Monza on Saturday afternoon, eclipsing Mer- cedes team mate Nico Rosberg by just over two-tenths of a second. Williams duo Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa locked out the second row, while a last-gasp flyer from Kevin Magnussen lifted the Dane into fifth and into a share of the third row with McLaren team mate Jenson Button. Hamilton set the pace from the out- set, topping Q1 with 1m 25.363s as all the leading runners ran the hard- compound Pirelli tyres. Rosberg was close behind, with Massa then lead- ing Bottas. Further down, Lotus had a tough time, with neither Pastor Maldonado nor Romain Grosjean able to progress into Q2. The Venezuelan was told to stop changing gear as the team sensed transmission problems, and having been on the bubble in 17th was there- fore unable to improve upon his best of 1m 27.520s. Grosjean, meanwhile, was delayed at the start of the session and eventually slotted into 18th on 1m 27.632s. That did at least put both E22s ahead of the Caterhams and Marussias - but it was close, as Kamui Kobayashi took his CT05 round in 1m 27.671s to head Jules Bianchi's MR03 on 1m 27.738s. Then came Max Chilton on 1m 28.247s and Marcus Ericsson on 1m 28.652s. Hamilton and Rosberg each failed to improve on their first-run times in Q2, but they still set the pace ahead of Bottas and Massa. A late charge by Magnussen bumped Kimi Raikkonen down to 11th, with the Ferrari driver unable to respond as two late, scrappy efforts consigned him to a Q2 exit. He was pushed down further by Daniil Kvyat, who lapped his Toro Rosso in 1m 26.070s to the Finn's 1m 26.110s. However, the Rus- sian will drop to a provisional 21st on the grid thanks to a ten-place penalty for an engine change. Jean-Eric Vergne wasn't far off his team mate with 1m 26.157s, as Nico Hulkenberg failed to emulate team mate Perez in getting a Force India into Q3 and was 14th on 1m 26.279s, ahead of the Saubers of Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutierrez on 1m 26.588s and 1m 26.692s respectively. Rosberg set the initial pace in Q3 with 1m 24.552s, just below Hamil- ton's best from Q2, but the Briton de- molished that with 1m 24.109s and set up what seemed like a great climax to the session. Rosberg duly improved to 1m 24.383s, but that was insufficient to unseat Hamilton, even though his own second run was only good for 1m 24.637s. Behind them, Bottas didn't im- prove on 1m 24.697s as Massa put the second Williams fourth with 1m 24.865s. Magnussen jumped Button as they annexed the third row with 1m 25.314s and 1m 25.379s respectively, while Ferrari's practice speed ebbed away as Fernando Alonso couldn't better 1m 25.430s for seventh. Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ric- ciardo could only manage 1m 25.436s and 1m 25.709s respectively for Red Bull, with Perez rounding out the top ten for Force India on 1m 25.944s. Thus, with Kvyat's penalty the pro- visional grid will line up: Hamilton, Rosberg; Bottas, Massa; Magnussen, Button; Alonso, Vettel; Ricciardo, Pe- rez; Raikkonen, Vergne; Hulkenberg, Sutil; Gutierrez, Maldonado; Gros- jean, Kobayashi; Bianchi, Chilton; Kvyat, Ericsson. Ericsson will start from the pit lane after being penalised for failing to slow down for double waved yellow flags during FP3 - an offence that also earned him three penalty points. FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO D'ITALIA 2014 Pos No Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps 1 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.363 1:24.560 1:24.109 20 2 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:25.493 1:24.600 1:24.383 19 3 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:26.012 1:24.858 1:24.697 16 4 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:25.528 1:25.046 1:24.865 17 5 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.337 1:25.973 1:25.314 18 6 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.328 1:25.630 1:25.379 18 7 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:26.514 1:25.525 1:25.430 17 8 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:26.631 1:25.769 1:25.436 18 9 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:26.721 1:25.946 1:25.709 17 10 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1:26.569 1:25.863 1:25.944 23 11 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault 1:26.261 1:26.070 16 12 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:26.689 1:26.110 13 13 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault 1:26.140 1:26.157 15 14 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:26.371 1:26.279 18 15 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1:27.034 1:26.588 17 16 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1:26.999 1:26.692 17 17 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1:27.520 8 18 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:27.632 5 19 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1:27.671 9 20 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1:27.738 8 21 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1:28.247 8 22 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1:28.562 9 Q1 107% Time 1:31.338 Note - Kvyat qualified 11th, drops 10 grid places for an engine change. Lewis Hamilton FERRARI President Luca di Mon- tezemolo has hit back at rumours that he plans to step down from his role. Ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, speculation had been building over di Montezemolo's future at Maranello, but he has made clear that he has no intention to resign and says he is keen to stay on for at least three more years. "I said I was ready to accept last March three more years to my shareholders and my people in Ferrari. They are the most important part of my life and I took a commitment with them," explained di Montezemolo at Monza. "If and when there will be some news about me, I will be the first, I emphasise the first, to let you know." Di Montezemolo added that his priority moving forward is to re- turn Ferrari's Formula 1 team to winning ways. "I am here [at Monza] not to have a vacation," he said. "I am here because we are working very hard. We are working with [team boss] Marco Mattiacci to improve the organisation, to improve the Formula 1 team." Montezemolo denies plans to step down