The Italian Grand Prix - Practice 2 Formula 1

Glorious sunshine and scenes from an Italian paddock. Welcome back to

Monza. Practice has just started but you haven't missed anything. This is

one of the most important sessions. We get to see what could happen

tomorrow. The time is right to get the track temperature. It is a good

simulation for qualifying and the race because it is at the same time

of day so they will do the longer runs on the harder tyres to begin

with and then put on the softer ones. This is the session that

matters for everybody. You can just hear a car on track, that is Max

Chilton, just the one. Monza is beautiful, possibly one of the most

scenic settings on the calendar. We can go to James

scenic settings on the calendar. We McNish now.

This is a majestic circuit. 3.6 miles. 11 turns. On Sunday they will

do 53 laps, 75% taken at full throttle. This is the red-blooded

track, all about the speed. Trees lining certain parts as well which,

when it rains, makes life a bit difficult but it certainly acts adds

character. It has got personality. But for me, it is Ferrari's home

turf. In Italy. You feel that in the car, the grandstands are alive.

Every corner has got a name, like Parabolica, and her something about

it that is different to any other track.

Lets not forget the McLaren won this race last year with Lewis Hamilton.

This year, the opposite. Yet to get on the podium. It is a very

different season for McLaren. Last week they celebrated their 50th

anniversary as an entity. Bruce McLaren set up the team on the 2nd

of September 1963. Quite a milestone surviving in Formula One for that

long, that is an achievement in itself. McLaren are one of the storm

warts of Formula One. They have been here for such a long time. -- store

bought. But they seem to have found their sweet spot. The problem for

bought. But they seem to have found Perez and Button is the sweet spot

is not quite quick enough. I expect this to be one of their better Grand

Prix. Lastly it was an emotional win for Lewis Hamilton. He was telling

us last night how much pleasure he took for winning in Ferrari's

backyard. Some booing from the highly partisan fans gave him even

more encouragement. Hammering down the back straight, hard compound

Pirelli tyres. The yellow flags are showing. Sector 13. They have now

gone away. Interestingly they are running a media centre of -- running

a film in the media centre of highlights. I forgot the enormous

accident Kimi Reichmann had in 2007. He went piling into the

barriers. He was fine but it was an absolutely enormous accident. If you

go off here, it tends to be quick. Now we are on board with Adrian

Sutil. A lot of forces going through the

driver's body, the car and the suspension, and that is one of the

characteristics of this place. High speed. It is the biggest stop of the

year, from 330 kilometres an hour down to 90 kilometres an hour, 9.5

G. It is a very big hit on your chest with the seat belt spoiling

you. We saw this morning a lot of people having big problems. It is

easy if the tyres are not up to pressure to lock a brake and with

the Pirelli tyres, they are quite sensitive to that. Adrian Sutil is

on a lap at the moment. The Force India cars have tended to go quite

well here. It is certainly a circuit where they will be hoping to take

away as many points as possible in their battle with McLaren. He was

sitting in fifth place before Spa in Belgium but they have now dropped

behind McLaren. 65 for McLaren and Belgium but they have now dropped

61 for Force India. Joining us at Belgium but they have now dropped

the pit lane is our technical expert, Gary Anderson.

They have fired up Sebastian Vettel's car and I just having a

look at Mark Webber's. There has been a lot of fiddling with this car

in the last two minutes. Rebalancing the car. It is still on stilts. Why

would they change it? The battery pack gets a lot of energy put into

it and taken out that every lap. 80 horsepower 46 seconds of a lap, that

is around half a second of lap time, so you cannot run out it. Sometimes

the battery will not charge to its maximum. Then you pay a lap time

deficit. It is better if you change it now and lose ten minutes than

suffer the consequences in the whole of the session. Mark Webber always

seems to get the problems in this team. It could be Ricciardo

inheriting them next year. People should not be worried. Problems do

occur. I don't see why a team of the stature of Red Bull would compromise

one driver's performance so that is just the way things are.

Noisy down in the pit lane. A couple of episodes for the Marussia going

off circuit and managing to rejoin. This is Kimi Reich inning. He tries

to make the corner but the problem is this thing on the inside which is

very high and it kicked up the rear wheel. It is better to straighten up

and abort the corner completely. It is the damage that could have gone

into the suspension gearbox that is the problem. He is putting 750

horsepower through it at the same time. The force on the drive shaft

is colossal. Look at the Force on his head bouncing around in the

cockpit. You need to use all of the curve but

as you come through that, the road dips away and it is easy to barely

the car. That is one of the characteristics of this, people

pushing the limit as early as they can. We are ten minutes into this

free practice session ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix at Monza. 43

degrees track temperature, 29 the air temperature.

We will see some quicker time is definitely this afternoon. Grosjean

is second for Lotus. Button is third for McLaren. Perez is forth and Di

Resta is fifth. Ricciardo, who we know will be

replacing Mark Webber at Red Bull, is still in the Toro Rosso for the

rest of the season and he is in seventh place. Maldonado is eighth,

Hulkenberg ninth and Gutierrez in 10th.

Alonso has just gone out on track. Webber is having his battery changed

which has delayed his start to the session. Lewis Hamilton, who set the

fastest time this morning in practice, is also still in the

garage. Jenson Button is the fastest of all in the first sector, which is

the very slow corners and accelerations, so the car is working

well there, but after that in the high-speed bits he is a little bit

off, so it is clear where McLaren needs to improve. Grosjean needs to

turn in early year as well. No way he was going to make that curve --

earlier. Quite a few mistakes already only ten minutes in. Lotus,

Marussia, Raikkonen, people pushing the limits. We are also at a very

high speed circuit where if you are, I don't know, one tenth of a second

late, you have covered ten metres on the break, so the difference between

getting it spot on and hitting your apex and not, fine margins. You do

not have the downforce in the car. If you do hit it a little bit late,

there has got to be a recovery process. Fernando Alonso, second

fastest time this morning in the Ferrari. The Italian media is

describing this as a must win race for this team. Alonso is trailing

Vettel, and this is Round 12 of 19. He has to turn it around soon

because he is almost two complete race wins behind Vettel. Vettel

snatch the title away from him in the final round so Alonso is hoping

he will do the same thing -- snatched the title. Vettel is on a

good lap as well. Three tenths of a second faster than his own margin

previously. This lap is even faster still. Vettel in his groove

straightaway. Out of the Parabolica still. Vettel in his groove

he goes. Accelerating at over 200 miles an hour. The fastest lap we

have seen so far this weekend for Vettel. It is the quickest in all

other sectors, which is ominous for everybody else, because it means the

car is working in pretty much every condition around the circuit, but

that does not mean it will be a Spa type dominant performance. It is a

very different circuit to Spa. How would you, what would you

characterise this Monza circuit? In my experience, in every type of

category of racing, you need to have a very stable car, you need to be

confident when you hit that brake pedal hard, that you know what the

car is going to do. You want to be able to predict it very easy.

Afterwards, when you get in towards the apex, you need the front to

Afterwards, when you get in towards up and allow you to go full

throttle. As a driver you need attacking finesse, you cannot be too

brutal with the car in turning in to the throttle, you have to have

velvet gloves on. A little correction on the steering wheel as

Alonso comes out. The fingers of his right hand flicking the paddle as he

makes his way down to the Parabolica right hand flicking the paddle as he

corner and the curves are such a big right hand flicking the paddle as he

heart of Monza as well. I am delighted to say he is in the

pit lane and joins us now. Congratulations on this fantastic

pit lane and joins us now. opportunity. How did you feel about

this morning? A fantastic opportunity to get back into the

car. I had so much fun. Over the moon to be here. In the morning, it

ran smoothly and a made no mistakes. I was able to give some good feed

back to these boys in this session I was able to give some good feed

now. Over the moon. Alan is joining me in the commentary box. He was

describing the Monza circuit as a place you need velvet gloves. Is

that how you found it? That is a pretty good description. It is very

tough on braking. It is where you gain most black time at monster.

tough on braking. It is where you They added it is to progress the

car and get it good on brakes. -- lap time at monster. It was amazing

on brakes, especially at the start. At the end I was able to give

feedback. It was not stable. In the end, I was happy and only used one

set of tyres and was able to match my same lap time. Just one question,

you drove the young driver test at Silverstone. You talked about prep

was not the power and straight-line speed you had to get used to come

up was at the same here? Silverstone is a very different

circuit. Part of the reason for me doing free practice is because the

jump from Formula One 2 GP2 is not as big as Silverstone and Monaco.

It was not a problem to adapt. In terms of power, it is not much

different. It is the sheer downforce the cars have. The

braking force is incredible. They have all the fancy electronics.

That also accounts for lifetime. The record for Force India has been

pretty good. What sort of shape is your team in for the weekend? You

are locked into an intense Championship battle for 5th place

with the McLaren team. It is an important weekend. Practice went

well. We will have to see how they went on in the session. I was happy

with the car towards the end of the session after I got rid of the

sheer delight of driving in Formula One. They have been good in

straight-line speed. Women who next be in the car on Friday morning? --

when will you next? Probably in Abu be in the car on Friday morning? --

Dhabi a. It is or was great when young drivers get an opportunity,

even better when young British young drivers get an opportunity,

drivers get an opportunity. -- it is always great. Thank you. The

reserve driver for the Force India team are joining us there.

Fantastic to see him getting his chance. It has been a week of

opportunities. Red Bull it is a championship-

winning car of last season - possibly this season as well. It

was a long-term choice. Not just next year. Daniel Riccardo is going

to have to take time to get up to speed and understand the

differences in the team and also to work out Sebastian Vettel. That is

a high benchmark. They are looking to develop him. Christian Horner

said they were looking to develop him over the longer term. Their

thoughts are 2015, 2016, as opposed to their first few races next year.

Everyone talks about any Ricardo as a young driver. He is only two

years younger than Sebastian Vettel. It shows you a lot about his

achievement at a young age. It also shows you there is not much between

them in terms of age but a lot between them in terms of experience.

An hour and 10 minutes of this Friday free practice session

remaining at the beautifully sunny Monza. The track temperature is 44

degrees. We have Sebastian Vettel, the reigning world champion, at the

top. Then it is Mark Webber, Nicky Rosberg, Kimi Raikkonen. Can Lewis

Hamilton make it a 5th pole position in a row?

A bit of work going on in the McLaren garage. Incidentally, we

mentioned and Iran about the 50th anniversary. You can go to the BBC

sport Facebook page 4 pictures of Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard and

Jenson Button. -- for pictures. We would like to know your favourite

McLaren moment in F1 history. We will show you responses later. You

have been getting in touch. A will show you responses later. You

couple of questions here. It is a little bit quiet in the pit lane at

the moment. This could prove to be a pivotal raised in the

Championship if Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are on the podium.

I think Ferrari and Mercedes will be hoping for that. With the likes

of Hulkenberg and di Resta be more attracted to this?

There is no question about it. Ferrari, Alonso is number one. The

Lotus team has been doing a fantastic job with the budget they

have. Not many people would turn down a Ferrari drive. Would you?

I'm not sure that is a problem I will ever have to face. A lucky few

ever did. Filipe Massa is trying to focus on retaining his Ferrari

opportunity. Many believe it is hanging by a thread at the moment.

He has been in this situation many times before. The rumours are this

could be the one that he does not quite so. The big question is, who

will fill the seat for 2014 if that does happen? People are talking

about a certain finish five. You have to remember that Filipe Massa

is part of the family but that he has been part of it for a long time.

We will be seeing if that is enough to keep him in that seat. Joining

us now from the pit lane for the second time today his team

principal of ripple racing, Christian Horner. -- Red Bull

racing. There was an issue with a curse that to that we did not like

the look of. -- KERS battery. He is about five minutes behind in the

programme. It looks like Sebastian Vettel started on the front foot.

Tell us a bit about this circuit and you and your team. You have won

here but it would not necessarily suit your car on paper. How

confident you feel? Traditionally it is a tough track. It exposes

some of our weaknesses. There are long straights here and no real

high-speed corners. For sure, it will probably suit Mercedes, we

think, and Ferrari. They always put quite a lot of effort into this

race. Hopefully we can take the fight to them. What is a weather

forecasting for Sunday? One thing we saw of Sebastian Vettel's first

victory was in the wet. We understand there could be some

thunderstorms coming. There is some rain. Rain is not great here

because it lingers in the trees and visibility is not great. It is the

same for everyone but hopefully it visibility is not great. It is the

will stay away until after the race. You are in a comfortable position

in many ways. You have got a gap you can manage. Almost two race

victories clear of your nearest rival. You need to throw a lot of

effort into next year's new technology with a small capacity

hybrid engine. Are you going to manage the Gap or will you try to

crush the opposition? What is your focus? I do not think you can take

anything for granted. 200 points are still available. It is a really

difficult dilemma how much effort you put into this year and how much

effort you put into next year. We will keep pushing and tried to get

everything we can add of each individual event until the end of

the year. -- out of each. Are you individual event until the end of

happy there has been an announcement about driver line-up?

I do not think it changes anything for us. Probably a bit of a

distraction for me. As for the rest of the team, it does not really

change anything. It is business as usual. It is great to get the

announcement out there. I was asking you a minute ago about how

you manage the margin. Looking at the run-in now, when we leave here

we go to Singapore, Japan, Aberdovey. The places where you

were strong, particularly with Sebastian Vettel. -- Abu Dhabi. As

we said this year, before moves around a lot from circuit to

circuit. -- perform. We're taking each race as it comes. Still a lot

of points available in the Championship. Reliability, pace,

and that will be critical. We are looking at the berm of Kamran for

and that will be critical. We are Paul di Resta. -- the thermal

camera. Can you see that? We are looking at it at the moment. It

shows had dramatic the changes of temperature are, particularly for

the high-energy corners. You can see it again now - the temperature

building on the left-hand tyre. It will pull off down the straights.

At the end of the straights, you will see a massive build-up in heat

again. Quite an aggressive circuit on the brakes, put the energy into

the tyre. It would have been interesting to have this on the

cars at Silverstone. They were interesting to have this on the

probably be showing more than yellow. Thank you for your time.I

think looking at that on board and seeing the colour, it shows why

there are so many mistakes. You can see the change in colour. That is a

difficult thing to manage. The tyres cool down so much it is only

be in there may be two inches that up to optimum temperature. When you

hit the brakes, the load goes more on the car. I can see the straight

line speed was of a big loss. We are looking into it. -- straight

line speed. They are trying to work that out. Just one thing here, it

is a very difficult thing to manage - the instantaneous build up of

grip. If you do not have a feel for it, you can easily make mistakes.

That is the art of what you can do - Beale for the grip and get their

tyres up to temperature. The Pirelli tyres have been tricky -

getting the front and the rear up to temperature at the same time.

Jenson Button had a problem with that will start that -- a problem

with that. He could not get proper balance. It is about tyre balanced

and the driver balance. All of that coming together. With the way the

Pirelli tyres have been, some teams and drivers seem to hit the sweet

spot and others do not. When you talk about Jenson Button, he did

struggle with that. Now they're coming back on stream. That was

Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus. Looking to see his time as he comes

through. He sets 1:28.77. One hour of the session remaining. It is a

90 minute session. They do some long runs, try some things out.

That is the old banking from the beginning of racing through to the

1970s. They finally got rid of it when the car's got to Crick. By dad

used to race on that. -- the cars got too quick. There were

centrifugal force. Only a little bit of tyre action and that was it.

That was a braver man than me. That is a steep bank. It is difficult to

climb up it, to the point where you are on your hands and toes. They

had American Indy cars racing against Ferrari to produce a car

against them. It is one time the Americans and Europeans were raised

against them. It is one time the against each other. They called it

the race of two worlds. Back in the 1950s when the Indy 500 was a World

Championship round. Second mistake by Romain Grosjean. We were

mentioning earlier, a huge stop from over 200 miles an hour. Nearly

six G Wright on the driver's chest. Sebastian Vettel on the medium tyre.

-- 6 capital G Wright on the driver's chest. Let's have a look

what they should be. We have got the medium and harder compound tyre.

Some would say a fairly conservative choice. We will see

Conservative choices for the rest of the season. There will be fewer

stops - probably one stop race for the weekend and for most people.

Sebastian Vettel is almost too tense up after the first two

sectors. The harder tyres can give that extra

release of the speed. Not that much difference between the hard and the

release of the speed. Not that much media at the moment. During the

race, the degradation was the same between the two. Sergio Perez

started the race on harder tyres, and managed to come from 12 up to

second place, so that was a woody top strategy last year. -- a really

top strategy. Strategy is a fascinating part of the game at

Monza. I know it is early days, I was saying it is likely to be a

one-stop strategy for a lot of people, but how are you seeing the

deformities of the tie years? Three tenths of a second between the hard

and medium? -- - performance of the tyres? You do not gain as much as

you think. You may see some people getting the better lap time on the

second lap on the medium tyres. My predictions so far is that a two

stop is six or seven seconds slower. So it is quite close. It depends on

the car. I was talking to one of the engineers who were saying that if

you are going to do it properly, a Monza package, for want of a better

word, you need a front wing, a rear wing, a floor, brake ducts, it is

easy to drop 1.2 million on your Monza package! A lot of money for

one race. Who is going for it this weekend? Everybody is going for it.

We used to have two of these races so it justified it. But now there is

only this one. It is a lot of money. You cannot run here without doing it

though. You have to play around with the front wing to get the balance. I

do think Red Bull are pursuing straight-line speed quite closely.

Vettel has had some of the bits of the front wing removed. He is

quickest at the moment. There are six slot gaps. I think everybody is

still pushing pretty hard to come away from Monza with the best result

and money is not the object. Vettel, weather and Ross -- Tosberg on the

medium tyres. -- Rosberg. Webber, personal best in one and two.

Hamilton is yet to use the medium compound tyre.

Perez has a set of the medium tyres now which should improve his pace,

currently 10th. Also Felipe Massa coming down into Parabolica, the

final corner. The Ferrari has not looked as quite as stable as I would

have expected. It has a reasonably gentle front end on it. They have

been pushing the limits on it. This team needs to push the investment

into the race. A lot of pressure on Ferrari to

perform this weekend and get back in the game. The confidence Ricciardo

must be feeling, knowing his future is secure for the next couple of

years. The Red Bull team have told him they should be pressuring Vettel

by midway through the season. If I was in Ricciardo's shoes, the

crucial thing is not to try to beat Sebastien -- Vettel, the crucial

thing is to make sure Ricciardo delivers his best 20 times a year

because whatever that brings will be delivers his best 20 times a year

good enough. For Ricciardo it will be trying to manage expectations.

There is no way saying there is no way I am going to beat him, I am

there to play down the expectations. But I am sure that there will be

expectations from Red Bull. He will But I am sure that there will be

have to lift their game. They are expecting him to finish on the

podium, quite early on. The expecting him to finish on the

constructors' title will rest on Ricciardo's season, not on

Vettel's. Absolutely. Webber's extra points have brought them the

constructors. It is not inconceivable that Ricciardo will do

as well as Webber. Webber is averaging 10.8 Grand Prix. That is

just off the podium. He should be aiming to be on the podium. It is a

pretty big ask but it is something he will be aiming for and so will

the team. When we saw the Mercedes he will be aiming for and so will

of Hamilton starting his lap, he is weaving around a lot and that is the

one thing here, to try to bring the tyres up to temperature and pressure

at the right point for these first important chicanes is very critical.

You will see some of them weaving around more than they would do at

other circuits. The Ferrari bounces over the curves.

You were talking about the cost of preparing wings for the race because

it is so specific and that could be a problem for Williams because

Bottas is reporting that his front wing is dragging massively on the

straights. We heard earlier this morning Jenson Button having a

problem. His TRS got stuck and it was a bit hairy for him -- DRS. But

it was a problem with the parts. That is another thing. They don't

use this rear wing very often. The sporting director said it should not

happen again and the problem is resolved.

Thank you, Jenny. Lewis Hamilton in fifth place now. Fernando Alonso

just in front of him. Charles Pic, not the first man to get it wrong in

the first chicane. Everyone gets it wrong into there! You are pushing

the brakes as late as possible. If wrong into there! You are pushing

you can keep the temperature on the tyres, it helps you for the next

one. But in one tenth of a second, you are travelling ten metres so a

small-time mistake is a big penalty. It is a bit like getting a duck in

cricket. Until you have done it, you are not a cricketer. I am Scottish,

we do not know what cricket is. I will explain it to you.

That is what an engineer hates. When a driver says "everywhere".

At the halfway point in this free practice two session. Not exactly

qualifying simulations. Lewis Hamilton being given verbal

instructions. They have lost the data that come from the car back to

the pits in real-time. They are capable of getting them back to the

factories in real-time as well. For Mercedes, that is back in

Silverstone. The engineers are sitting there watching everything

that is going on. For Hamilton, they are now looking at a blank screen.

Vettel on top. Then Webber. I think they are pursuing

straight-line speed for Sebastian Vettel. It is a minute rear wing on

the Red Bull. To get the balance on the front wing, they have taken off

some parts. There are seven elements and six slot gaps. The area in front

of the tyres are very critical because when you are producing

downforce, then you turn the front wheels into the corner, you change

the way the area of the wing produces completely. So more slot

gaps means more consistent airflow. It is quite an impressive piece of

kit. It certainly is. The highest speed we have seen so

far in the session has been Ricciardo, 211 miles an hour.

It gives you an idea of the speeds they are travelling at. It is the

only time of the season that the Formula One cars reach those kinds

of speeds. You don't see straight-line speeds as high as that

anywhere else on the calendar. The important thing is it is not just

once a lap they are over 200 mph. You have another four straights

where you have these high speeds. From that point of view it is

important to have the efficiency of the straight-line speed. I think Red

Bull's idea of the low downforce is their strategy. Normally they have a

bit more downforce to break the DRS possibility. I am not sure it would

work here. Vettel won in Canada and was strong with the straight-line

speeds in Spa, which was one of the cornerstones of his win, he was able

to go past Hamilton on straight-line speed and that is very unusual, a

Red Bull overtaking a Mercedes down a straight. They have obviously

found something for these high-speed sections that is really working for

them. Different in character from places where they are normally

strong like Silverstone. The interesting thing in Spa is that

even though they do not have much wing, they are still very good with

the corners. They were extremely quick in the middle sector at Spa.

Hamilton was surprised how fast they were on the streets in the midfield

section. Raikkonen goes third fastest on the medium tyres. Still

some way off the pace set by Vettel. Raikkonen is in third for Lotus.

Alonso is fourth, Hamilton is fifth. Jenny has found the Pirelli boss.

This is a big race for you, the Italian fans are here, how important

is it to have a strong weekend to? Very important. You can hear the

cars. It is a very much of a home race for us. It is hot, which we

like to see in Monza. So far so good. You bought the medium and the

hard tyres this weekend. How tough is this circuit on your tyres?

hard tyres this weekend. How tough Everyone was talking about the

high-speed, it is not so much that but breaking from high speeds. It

creates blistering, this circuit. We have not seen it so far. We are very

limited but the teams have been looking at a one-stop race here. We

vary what we see in terms of stoppages but this is likely to be a

one-stop. This is James Allen and Allan McNish. We have this thermal

camera this weekend. You are seeing the extreme

temperatures that the tyres go up to. But if you are in flat spots you

can go up to 100 degrees, so the life of the tyre is tough. Would you

say that one or two teams seem to have got a grip of the latest tyre

more than others? I don't think there is much of a difference. We

have exactly the same tyres as we had last year. We wanted to make it

as easy as possible which is why we went in that direction. A mistake

from Nico Rosberg going into the first chicane. He had to go straight

back on again. You said it is likely to be a one-stop race. Monza always

was the Grand Prix web designers would design the fuel tanks for a

one-stop race. -- where the designers. Are we going to see a

similar pattern, will the race be less oriented about the pit stops?

We were looking at the choice is going on to the end of the season

today. Places last year where we have maybe taken one step more.

Monza is tough, you have got Suzuka coming up where you have to on the

side of caution, but then places like Austin where we can make it

up, so we do not expect to see many more one-stop races. We are looking

at a bit of the tyre on Paul di Resta's are heating up as it goes

at a bit of the tyre on Paul di through the corners. The thermal

imaging is pretty spectacular. Actually I think that was Pastor

Maldonado was Mac. Amazing images. You use that for testing. It shows

the level of technology going into working on the tyres. Yeah. We have

eight or nine infrared cameras. The big job is treating the data we

picked up and turning them into the images you are seeing. That takes

some very clever IT work. We use it on all sorts of development cars.

When it goes to orange, through the corn and itself. -- corner. You are

When it goes to orange, through the out looking at around 200 degrees.

It is hot! You can fry your eggs on it. One final thought before you

leave us. Denote anything more about whether you are the supplier

part-timers next season? -- do you know anything more about whether

you are the supplier of tyres next season? As far as we are concerned,

I have booked my ticket for Melbourne. All the data needs to go

out in a couple of weeks' time. The early discussions we have at the

moment for next year. -- the only discussions. Thank you for joining

us. Sebastian Vettel is on top. 39 minutes of the session of our

remaining. Karen is Sebastian Vettel on a harder compound tyre. -

- currently Sebastian Vettel. The Red Bull drivers, they may not be

exchanging Christmas cards, but they are working together to gather

data and have as clear a run as possible. That is for tomorrow's

qualifying session for the Grand Prix. How long will the tyres last?

What is the optimum stop lap? How far will the mediums both? This

What is the optimum stop lap? How afternoon is where they do the

basic work. This morning it is about getting ideas will start in

the afternoon, it is about the long runs. -- getting ideas. It is the

final Tickle before going into qualifying. No big changes after if

the overnight changes. Guido van de Garde, his

performances have improved quite a bit. He managed to get a 40in

Hungary. He repeated that in SPAR in qualifying. -- Spa. Give more

space to Sebastian Vettel. He is in qualifying. -- Spa. Give more

heavy on fuel. Mark Webber is lapping in the 1:29. Sebastian

Vettel is through. Very consistent lap times from Red Bull. It he is

heading the field, he is only four seconds a lap slower than he was

before. -- if he is. It shows that car is quick on a single lap and

quick on a long race. We have seen that by the results. For the fuel,

there are less corners ban on normal circuits. It may be

different than Barcelona. Daniel Okada will be sitting in a Red Bull

car. As we go on board, it is getting bumpy. Easy to get

wheelspin, especially when the tyres are dropping off. This is

wide open throttle. Very easy to take the line through here. Try to

spot the brakes. After that is your braking point. You can take one or

the other. A usually end up running over the kerb on the left-hand

point. -- are usually. The light changes a lot with the shadow of

the trees. The camber falls away right at the apex of. It throws the

car out to the right hand kerb. Underneath the old track Bridge. In

that over the kerb on the left. Wide open throttle through the

right. Straighten up the wheel. Try to let the car be as free as

possible. This is where you break about 50m and ran it in towards the

apex. At this moment, you hang on a second before squeezing on throttle

and running out towards the white line. Daniel Ricciardo dropped down

a gear. He ticket down a gear. Jackie Stewart used to say, the

higher be clear you go into a corner, the more stable a car is.

But lower the gear, the more jumpy it is. With these gearboxes, it is

pretty seamless. When you change down, it is more your engine note

that tells you if it has changed any more. He pulled it down at the

apex to get the car to hook up. It allows you to get back on the

throttle. It is an alternative to braking. It has a braking effect a

more knock some speed off. Without question. If you lift off in second

gear with wide open throttle, it will be like hitting the standard

brakes. If you shift down, you have engine braking prior to hitting the

brakes. If you shift down, you have brake pedal. A some idea of what it

takes to drive a fast lap at monster. 3.6 miles and 11 corners.

-- Monza. The rest are curves or chicanes. We heard a radio message

saying that Sebastian Vettel was on heavy fuel. This is your Beria.

There is always a penalty when you carry around extra fuel full

stabbed there is a penalty. -- extra fuel. Sebastian Vettel is on

a hard tyre. Always after the first pit stop. I am 99.9 to 9% sure the

top guy can qualified on a medium tyre will start -- 99.99 %.

Sebastian Vettel is doing a long rant on the hard tyre. -- a long

run. He would have had about nine kilograms of fuel in the car. That

is equivalent to about four seconds in-lap time. It is how you try to

get a team to work together was dug there is no point Sebastian Vettel

having a cup full of fuel. -- work together. Last year, we are talking

about it earlier on, remember that Sergio Perez started the Grand Prix

on a hard compound tyre. That is the same tired we have here this

year. He did a long stint on the hard tyre and changed on to the

mediums. He came through the field to finish in second place. If

you're not a midfield team, but not a top team and you're on the back

end of the top 10, which you think about going out on a harder

compound tyre? We do try to do it from a higher grade slot? -- we do

try? The medium tyre will be tha stare at the beginning of the race.

-- will be better at the beginning of the race. If you are further

back, you can start on whatever tyre you want. Sergio Perez was a

long way back last year. He did not do much of a different stint. It

was not sort of that he had a quick tyre. He qualified at of position.

The Sauber last year is a lot better than this year. With 30

minutes of the session remaining, we had the session this morning,

who is looking good? The usual bunch - Mercedes come at Ferrari.

The Red Bulls are up there. -- Mercedes, a Ferrari. Romain

Grosjean, I am not sure where he is. It is a good comparison. It will be

very close. Getting the medium tyre to work on the first lap when it

has its best grip, without the straight line penalty is the

biggest challenge. It has always been a challenge and will be a

challenge again. Romain Grosjean has set an identical lap time. I

have not seen characteristics in the lotus to help them. Anything to

give it more stability under braking are the chicanes will study

had to have a problem before you can fix it. You can keep changing

things with the car. Maybe they will not have two of them, maybe

they well. Very briefly, in layman's terms, at long wheelbase.

What they had done is move the front wheels forward. I think they

have made for it about four inches was up you have to do a new crash-

test with their nose. -- moved forward it about four inches. By

doing that, you get less weight forward it about four inches. By

transfer on braking. There is that a less weight on the front axle.

These cars end up transferring about 250 kilograms of load up the

rear tyres on to the front tyres. That is the only advantage I can

see the stub whether it is a big enough advantage, I do not know. --

I can see. Identical lap times for the pair. That will give them a bit

of a head scratch. They are fighting for the World Championship.

It is not all over yet. They have done it for competitiveness. It

does send Dad a little sick not in Formula One. -- send it out a

little signal. Lotus is always pushing hard. Also to Kimi

Raikkonen, who is willing to put in the effort to get the World

Championship. In his situation with did not finish he had in the last

grand prix, that put him on the back foot without any question. It

was a fantastic record by Lotus for reliability and Kimi Raikkonen to

go solo without having any problems. It is unfortunate in happened at a

critical stage. Sergio Perez has a problem at the second chicane but

there he almost rips off the floor of the McLaren. -- but he almost

rips off the floor. 27 minutes of the session remaining.

A plastic tear got into the braking system and it caused it to fail.

A plastic tear got into the braking This stupid little thing that the

driver and the team cannot do much This stupid little thing that the

about. They could retrieve it at the first pit stop but by then the

damage had been done. The Lotus looks stable generally. It is not

quick reaction inputs, it is a very small and gentle input. They must

feel they have a potential with a longer wheelbase but I think it will

be over a race distance where you will see that. The Lotus is already

very kind to its tyres. It can go longer on these Pirellis than the

others. They are not the fastest in a single that but certainly very

good over the longer run. Quite a weapon for Raikkonen and no shortage

of push from the 2007 world champion.

Vettel's engineer was speaking to him and looking at Vettel's long

runs, they are looking very good. Vettel is hanging those lap times

in. 28.6, 28.5, 28.48, pretty impressive. The key with target

shooting is to have the holes in the target as close as possible to each

other and Vettel's lap times, the fuel is burning off all the time.

Having said that he has just done 28.2 on the last lap. The tyre is

clearly holding up as the fuel load burns off and it looks like a very

consistent run indeed from Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull. The reigning

world champion is on top of the time sheets with 25 minutes of the

session remaining. Hamilton has been in pole position

for four in a row, record-breaking for him, can he make it five?

Two 100ths of a second is the difference between Hamilton and

Rosberg, only! Vettel is nine tenths of a second

faster on lap 12 than he was on the first one, that is the weight to the

fuel. All four wheels are drifting, not just the rear one, so he is

reasonably aggressive on the throttle. The car looks extremely

reasonably aggressive on the stable and he looks like a man with

total control and confidence in his car. Gary Anderson has looked at the

data from Vettel's long runs. The fuel load is equivalent to 0.8

seconds. So you should go faster if the tyre is staying consistent. It

does look like Vettel will have no problems unless the tyres wear out.

But they are definitely not degrading. There may just not be

enough rubber on them to accept the sliding. The shoulder gets dragged

around all these right-hand corners, sliding. The shoulder gets dragged

then Parabolica and the two Lesmos, but they do look pretty consistent.

It looks like the front is biting nicely and then he is getting back

on the throttle. The car looks in line all the way through. The

important thing is if you can get the balance in the where, and you

are not having one axle is sliding, and the other not, it stays

consistent, it uses all four tyres consistently, so ideal if you have

that sort of balance. Sebastian Vettel is in the pit stop, you might

be able to go and have a look at his tyres. We are now on board with Nico

Hulkenberg, also on a long run. 28.2 was the last one. 1.8 seconds slower

for a lap than Vettel. But the fuel weight effect is still quite

predominant. Sauber are still waiting for the

Russian investment coming through. Hamilton distracted I think slightly

by the car that came out onto the line in front of him. Doing exactly

what Rosberg did five or ten minutes ago. Watched by Toto Wolf. Had the

opportunity to be the Mercedes Chief Executive and also to buy shares.

Nevertheless you sense a real rising tide of momentum within that team.

Wings seem to have fallen into place. He has got his role, Wolf.

Does it feel a bit like a wave, the wave is growing? Hamilton says that

is exactly what he feels like. They improved their car from what was

already pretty quick last year to something that is quick on every

occasion this year. With Lewis Hamilton, who I consider probably

the quickest guy over one lap in qualifying situation, he himself has

fitted into the team now, he has his feet under the table, he understands

the car better and he is able to produce some of the best drives that

we have seen in quite a long time. 20 minutes to go in the second free

practice session for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix in Monza. Track

temperature is 44 degrees. James Allen and Allan McNish with you.

Sebastian Vettel is fastest. Ahead of his team-mate, Mark Webber. The

two Lotus are third and forced. -- third and fourth.

Chilton at the moment is on top in the battle of the small teams at the

back of the field. Gary Anderson is at Red Bull.

Vettel went straight into the pits and went straight back out again.

Then after that lap he put on the medium tyre. They did not change the

fuel load. This will be a good comparison of lap time to see if the

medium tyre was faster. You gather so much data and a lot is sent back

from the pits. Around the track sometimes you do not get a good

reception. But that first visit from the pits, it may have been to

download the data from the car. Then they can gather more data to look at

later on tonight after he has changed tyres. You can see the

thermal imaging camera. It is warmer, but still some generation of

load. If you see it again later on on a big long straight, it was cool

down so it will only be the inside edge that has got the temperature,

and then when you hit the brakes it will instantly flare up. It is

impressive, a stunning piece of imagery. And interesting to bring it

out at this stage. We have had some problems with the

tyres this season, in Bahrain and then at Silverstone. Clearly this is

about showing what they go through and how it works. Interestingly we

also have tyres from what we are seeing that are super consistent.

The fact that Vettel's performance over ten laps is more or less what

you would do simply by learning the fuel loss, that is to say the tyres

are not degrading any more, that was not what he really wanted, they

wanted the tyres that would degrade, add to the spectacle. There has been

a big ideological debate as to whether that is what Formula One

a big ideological debate as to should be about. Red Bull say they

want tyres to go for ever. That is a discussion to be had. Hamilton once

again missing a breaking point in the second chicane. Very interesting

to have this thermal imaging camera on this car throughout this weekend

on Paul di Resta's car. Alonso, medium tyre. He is over one second a

lap slower for most of it than Vettel. But of course, what we don't

know is how much more fuel he is carrying than Vettel. If he has 30

know is how much more fuel he is kilos more, Vettel's tyre was on the

harder compound before. Vettel is now doing 27.6 on the medium tyre

though significantly faster than the Ferrari. But 30 kilos of fuel, 35

kilos of fuel, is about one second. Do you think that is what it is? Red

Bull and the other teams may not the thoroughly have the same fuel load

for the various different tyre performance runs. I have seen teams

run a different fuel load for each tyre to try to stimulate different

parts of the race which spices things up further. Right now the

Ferraris are probably not quite on things up further. Right now the

the pace of the Red Bull, because both the Red Bulls of Sebastian

Vettel and Mark Webber on the long runs on both tyres looked to be

pretty consistent. And we are never quite sure how high they have the

engine is turned up on a Friday afternoon. They are certainly not

running at full power. This is one of those race tracks, along with

Spa, where they want to try to have a brand-new engine on Saturday

morning for peak performance. They have to make eight engines lost

throughout a 19 race championship, which is no mean feat. In practice

they will be using an engine which may have competed for example in a

wet race earlier in the season. Maximum power is not being used.

They know how much more speed they would have if they used for power

to do these runs. We will find out on Saturday afternoon when everyone

goes for it. Then we will see who has the fastest car. Pastor

Maldonado out on circuit. Valtteri Bottas is a -- his 18th.

Come back like that. Do not go down in the first or second. You will

have to go from second into neutral. Problem with the gearbox with

Filipe Massa. The engineer is telling him to drive back safely

and slowly. It was a 42nd sector. He has a fair way to get back to

the pits. Your thoughts? We have seen a couple of gearbox problems.

The cars are so light that when they are riding over the kerbs at

the chicane scrap the wheels are so light. -- the chicanes, the wheels

are so light. This is a difficult surface. Sometimes when the wheels

land, they spike through the line. Kimi Raikkonen got it a little bit

wrong at the first chicane. We are talking about the shaking and

shuddering or suspension. It is a surprise for me, to be honest. We

have had a Nico Hulkenberg this morning and now Filipe Massa. I

know there are places like that but I have never seen this number and

frequency. You would have called that a sleeping policeman. In Le

Mans, they were called baguettes. Black stuck in my mind. Into the

final 12 minutes. -- that stuck. We Black stuck in my mind. Into the

were talking earlier on about telemetry - the data cent in real

time from the cars. 120 sensors measuring wheel speeds and

temperatures and pressures. When the car is on the circuit, they can

look at the steering. They can see when the driver has made a mistake.

There is no work for a grand prix driver to hide in modern Formula

One. -- nowhere. In the holidays they could tell the mechanics and

engineers are what the car was doing. - us the old days. Nowhere

to hide for a modern grand prix driver. They are watching all this

data coming through in real time and making decisions. As for

Sunday's race, they make a lot of strategy decisions, based on a lot

of that data as well. Who is strategy decisions, based on a lot

looking good in the middle of the field? We have talked about Red

Bull. We have not seen where everyone is at. They have been

doing different programmes. Can you draw any conclusions? We would

normally see Force India being very strong. Paul di Resta is only in

11th at this point. You have picked up on the two cars that have the

most chance now. Everybody ahead of them, in pure time, is doing a very

good job. Force India right now is back into the midfield area. The

likes of McLaren have jumped up a little bit. Mercedes are keeping

the high performance level right the way through. In Montreal, the

last circuit on this aerodynamics circuit, Paul di Resta had a really

good ran. They are certainly the ones I would watch out for right

now. Filipe Massa is out of this session. We heard him telling the

team he had a problem with the gearbox. He only had third gear to

get back to the pit lane. Lots of black smoke coming out of the left

front tyre of Adrian Sutil. He tried to break from about 210 miles

an hour for the first chicane. A big stop - 150 metres. He gets down

to around 50, 60 miles an hour for the first chicane. Over 210 miles

an hour. A brutal experience for car and driver. The other a Toro

Rosso driver, overlooked for the seat of Mark Webber next year, he

has been assured his place is secured with the team for next year.

Who do you think they will put into the team? They have two guys

knocking on the door. One is Antonio Felix de Costa. He is more

mature than the son of the former world rally champion but looked

quick in the young drivers test. I think at this moment, to cast a has

probably got the best chance. I do think it will be a young Red Bull

driver coming through the system. I think it is logical they will try

to do that with one of the juniors coming through. Right now I think

Antonia Felix de Costa is in a prime seat but he needs to prove

himself. It has been an up and dance season for him. Fernando

Alonso was saying he thinks moving on is great. He has a lot of

momentum. There are a lot of sponsors who have links. He is

pushing without any question. At the end of the day, it would be

quite a big jump. He is racing in GP 3 the DUP that is a perfect

platform for him to say, this is me, this is what I am doing was a -- GP

3. Do you have a view on this? It is interesting. It will be a

back to back between the two drivers. He did a great job at

Monaco. They need to see how good he really is before they make a

decision. I do not think it is too young. When you bring him in, as

long as you are going to give him time to mature, the earlier you get

long as you are going to give him hit the better.

Another driver has said at the age of 19 he was not ready and it was a

mistake to bring him in there. What we have seen has been the Toro

Rosso team giving a driver a chance on a Friday morning. I would expect,

as they have to put one of the drivers into the team next season,

in the closing part of the season, we will possibly see both of them

driving on Friday morning. What do you think? I am not sure if we have

lost Gary. That chance is pretty high. Fernando Alonso is getting a

kiss inside the kerb. He is running through gravel. The chances are

pretty high. Danny Ricardo knows he is assured of the Red Bull seat.

Red Bull has always been very high - putting pressure on the driver's.

Seeing who stands up to it and who brakes. It will be clear to see if

they use the same strategy. Fernando Alonso turns in. He turns

in two early goals that he will clip the inside kerb. That is the

reason he steers the wane. -- -- too early. If you do not do that,

you will steer wide and the camber will fall away from you. The tyres

are getting tired at the end of the long runs and one or two mistakes

are starting to happen. Red Bull one and two. Kimi Raikkonen and

Romain Grosjean, identical lap times. Last round of the 97 World

Championship, do you remember? Jacque Villeneuve and Michael

Schumacher going for the title. It was the race when Schumacher drove

into Jacque Villeneuve. All three set identical lap time at the top

of the time sheets. He said it first was decided he was in pole

position. You do not see that very often. It is pretty unusual to have

two identical lap times. That is what we have today. Track

temperature still well up. It is 25 past three local time. In the Royal

Park, just outside the city of Milan. Niki Lauda, the chairman of

the Mercedes Formula One team is still working for German television

in giving his opinions on a Saturday and Sunday. He manages to

juggle those roles. We saw Rubens Barrichello standing next to a chap

with glasses on in the garage. It is the grandson of the great scion

of the Fiat dynasty. His brother John is involved with the company.

They're all very out there. He is a very out their character. Up Jenson

Button in the McLaren. They won last year with Lewis Hamilton.

Looking reasonably good for a top 10 qualifying spot. How they will

race, we will have to see. Slow but sure progress. We think we have got

on top of the problems. Particularly aerodynamic problems.

Getting that right is so important before the end of the season. There

will be some carry over into next season. A lot of the technology we

will see next year it will be quite different. Certainly eight-track

Jenson Button has always enjoyed racing on. His team-mate is just in

front of him. He will be boys by looking at that provisional

calendar for 20 fact -- he will be buoyed by looking at that

provisional calendar for 2014. Mexico is the week before the US

Grand Prix in Austin. They are working flat out to try to get that

circuit ready for next year. What you feel about that? It is great

news to be going back to Mexico. There are a heck of a lot of

Mexican drivers on the scene. From that point of view, no reason why

they should not have the grand prix in the home country. Nigel Mansell

was the last winner of the Mexican Grand Prix. That last corner, just

the way he attacked through there is unbelievable. He is talking with

Filipe Massa. His gearbox broke earlier in the session. He tried to

overtake on a high-speed corner and it was a very brave thing to do

from Nigel Mansell. He used to do what he wanted and the rest had to

fall into line. The president of Ferrari is to here

tomorrow. He likes to come on qualifying day. A bit like Enzo

Ferrari did. He does not come on race day because he finds it too

stressful. He is calling for action race day because he finds it too

from his team. He has sent a nice to every member of staff after the

Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso had a bit of a go at the car and he had a

go at Alonso. He set a knife to every member of staff. He wants

them to put it between their teeth every member of staff. He wants

and get on with the work. If they do not get on with their work, they

can use it for something else. Looking at the way Ferrari are

going to day, they have been more competitive. Following on from

their performance in SPAR. -- Spa. Adrian Sutil is getting a

slipstream. That is brake dust from the carbon-fibre brakes. That means

the high brake wear for the Force India. We are counting down for the

chequered flag as Adrian Sutil crosses the line. The brake discs

go down many millimetres from the start to the end of the race. They

literally wear away. Sebastian Vettel is doing a practice start.

He is the getting there is a right hand corner. He is having to go

straight on, as a number of drivers have done this afternoon. Helmet

Mark Howard, one of the key men who took the decision to put down

Daniel Riccardo in the team. Sebastian Vettel is topping the

time sheets. Apart from him, it is pretty close.

Tomorrow when it comes down to qualifying, it could be a different

story. I think it will be a lot closer than what we see there. It

needs to be because people need to get on the front row with Vettel if

they are going to try to contain him. It is a Red Bull one and two.

They are just doing some simulations for Sunday's Grand Prix. It will be

interesting to see how the picture shows up tomorrow in qualifying and

hopefully we will get similar beautiful conditions to the ones we

have had today. It is predicted beautiful conditions to the ones we

be hot and sunny tomorrow. You have to come into the pits and

brake to a certain speed and so Vettel was practising it because in

the race you have to do it as late as possible. I think Vettel is

making sure he knows through the barriers, the zigzag section, so if

he gets pushed off through the race he knows how to get through it.

Michael Schumacher used to practice a lot of things like that, he would

drive outside the gravel tracks so that if it happened in the race he

knew what to do. Interesting story with Lotus. Same lap times,

completely different cars. They have spent £100,000 or even more on Kimi

Raikkonen's car, on extending the wheelbase by ten centimetres. They

are trying to get the car to be better. But both drivers have gone

within 1000th of a second, third and fourth. Maybe it is £100,000

unwisely spent! We will have to wait and see. You can get more Formula

One tonight if you want to watch the news channel. 6:45pm. Tomorrow

morning, free practice three live. These sessions will be repeated

before then and I will be back tomorrow on BBC One at ten past 12,

where we will have all the news. Gary and the gang will be there as

well. Thank you very much for your company. We will catch you tomorrow.