Tifosi dream! Italian grand prix qualifying

- Published on Sep 11th, 2010 by Tess Tarossa

Ferrari had an awful lot to prove coming into this race, their home grand prix, and so did their driver Fernando Alonso.  It's mildly embarrassing to wage a championship campaign off the back of a team orders scandal.  But today, at the supreme Monza circuit in Italy both Ferrari and Fernando somehow, perhaps by magic, or a good helping of Italian enthusiasm, pulled it out of the bag to take a dominant pole.

The only man to break into the one minute twenty ones, Alonso was quickest in both Q2 and Q3, with team-mate Massa fastest in Q1.  Not much of a 'thriller' of a qualifying given that the drivers on top during all three sessions pretty much, well, stayed on top.  The usual last-minute switches, swaps and surprises didn't feature as Alonso's cracker of a lap sat pretty a-top of the time sheets.

The Red Bulls faded into the background a little, falling back into an uncustomary 4th and 6th.  Saturday is usually a Red Bull speciality.  Who knows?  Perhaps they've got a cunning race-day plan to blow the Ferrari pretenders out of the water.  Lewis Hamilton could only manage 5th as it was revealed by team-mate Jenson Button that each side of the McLaren garage had opted for different set-ups.  The gamble paid off for Jenson, but needless to say Hamilton was miffed, and just a tad sulky in his post-qualifying interview with the BBC.

With a resurgent Jenson Button hot on the Spaniard's heels, and potentially a tank full of fuel vapours to be so suddenly quick, Alonso has an Italian Job on his hands tomorrow for sure...