Sauber – Race 13 – Italy
Quali – 4th
From free practice, I was not that confident going into qualifying and I was plesantly surprised to see myself on provisional pole in Q3. I went out for a second run to try and improve my time. While I could not, others did and I dropped down to 4th. Alonso took pole in a very tight Q3, with the two Mclarens behind him. Kobayashi was 10th.
Race – 14th
I got a terrible start as my first gear was probably too long, hence why I bogged down. I was in 6th on the way down to the first corner but I got up to 5th as I outbroke Vettel. Then I got into Webber’s slipstream and passed him down the inside of the roggia chicane. The first laps were quite busy, and I got up to 3rd as I passed Button, just like Webber, down the inside of turn 3. On the next lap, DRS was activated and I made good use of it. I had caught up to Hamilton and was in the DRS zone down the start-finish straight. He took the defensive line, I went to the outside but he squeezed me onto the grass. I just about stopped the car on time and made the move stick, a very fun move I must say! On the next lap Grosjean passed Hamilton to get into third behind me. Alonso was 5 seconds ahead in first place. Up until I pitted on lap 12, I had a great fight with Grosjean, which involved lots of DRS passes and even at one stage, being side by side through the two lesmos! I pitted early but it was part of my plan to rejoin into traffic behind Hulkenburg as I would get use of DRS. Seeing how effective it is here, I thought that if I could use it, then I would retain 2nd when the guys ahead pitted. And thats exactly what happend. Hamilton had jumped Grosjean in the pits and he was 2 seconds behind me in third, while Alonso was miles ahead, something like 16 seconds. On lap 17, Hamilton passed me in the second DRS zone. As I was following him closely through Ascari, I underestimated how little grip I would have in his dirty air. I spun and lost my front wing, crawled back to the pits, put on options and rejoined in a fairly miserable 18th place. That was my race ruined but I still was pushing like crazy to salvage something. Rosberg had an engine problem as I was told by my engineer, so I got passed him easily. Vergne spun at Ascari and I passed him to get into 16th. Then Vergne went straight on at turn one and passed me illegally, which disqualified him. I then caught up to his teammate Ricciardo and also Hulkenburg on the last lap. I passed them both to salvage a poor 14th place finish.
It just shows you how tricky this game is. One mistake and you go from 3rd to 18th within a lap. Very frustrating but nevertheless I actually had some great battles for once with the AI. At least thats one positive I can take out of that race. Alonso won with Hamilton and Button also on the podium. Kobayashi was 9th.
Drivers Standings
