Vettel steals the headlines as Kovalainen takes 2nd in the wet at Monza

Räikkönen renews Ferrari contract ot the end of 2010 season

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The big story in Formula One over the weekend was that Sebastian Vettel of Toro Rosso collected his first pole position in a rain-affected qualifying session at Monza on Saturday, and then went on to win the Italian Grand Prix in even more sensational fashion, leading more or less from start to chequered flag and humiliating the big guns of Ferrari and McLaren.
      All manner of new records were set, not least the title of the youngest-ever winner of an F1 Grand Prix. Vettel was just 21 years, two months and eleven days on Sunday, and so eclipsed the record set by Fernando Alonso, who was 22 when he won in Hungary in 2003.
     
It was also the first time the Italian GP had been raced in the wet, and the first time for more than fifty years that a Formula One race had been won by an Italian team that was NOT Ferrari.
      Scuderia Toro Rosso are the “junior” team for Red Bull, using Ferrari engines instead of the Renault power-units supplied to Red Bull Racing. This was their first-ever GP win.
     
The podium line-up, which also featured Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) and the BMW pilot Robert Kubica, was also the youngest of all time, with an average age of less than 24 years.
      Aside from Kubica, who is third in the overall drivers’ standings, it was not a particularly good day for the title hopefuls. Race leader Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) was 7th, one place behind his closest rival Felipe Massa (Ferrari). Finland’s Kimi Räikkönen finished in 9th and out of the points, and he is now 21 points adrift of Hamilton with just four races left in the season. Only one point now separates Hamilton and Massa at the top, with Kubica 14 points behind Hamilton on 64 points in 3rd place.
     
Räikkönen had trouble getting his tyres to work in the early stages of the race, and since he started from 14th on the grid after the rain on Saturday had played havoc with qualifying, his was a lost cause.
      It will come as little consolation that Räikkönen recorded the fastest lap in the race for the ninth time this season.
      His goose would appear to be cooked as far as retaining his World Championship title is concerned, but we all know what happened at the end of last season.
     
In any event, even if 2008 does not produce a title for Räikkönen, he will be able to try again with Ferrari in 2009 and 2010, since the team announced on Saturday that he had renewed his contract with the Italians until the end of the 2010 season.
      Felipe Massa is also contracted to drive for Ferrari until 2010. The Räikkönen announcement came as a slight surprise, as in some circles it was believed the Finn - who has struggled to impress this season - might have called it a day after 2009, when his original contract would have come to an end.
     
As for Kovalainen, who started alongside Vettel on the front row of the grid and was widely expected to win the second GP of his career, the weekend was ultimately a disappointment in spite of the eight points gained for 2nd place.
      Kovalainen, too, had tyre problems in the chilly wet conditions, and he allowed Vettel to build a comfortable lead in the opening laps that was never surrendered or seriously threatened as the race wore on.
      Lewis Hamilton briefly looked like pulling off a famous and unlikely victory as he charged up the field from 15th, but his one-stop strategy was undone as the drying track allowed for a change to faster intermediate tyres, necessitating an additional pit-stop.
     
The next GP will be in Singapore on September 28th. anything less than a win for Kimi Räikkönen, and preferably one that also includes failures from those above him in the table, will probably settle matters within the Ferrari camp, with Räikkönen being given the task of helping Massa win the drivers' title.
      Heikki Kovalainen is currently in 6th place with 51 points to his teammate Hamilton's 78, and his fate for the remainder of the season is presumably to serve as Hamilton's lieutenant.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Räikkönen shunt at Spa crushes his championship dreams (8.9.2008)

Links:
  Formula One
  Scuderia Toro Rosso

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