IN A new series, I will be looking back at six classic races every weekend from the country about to stage an event in the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship. This is my selection, of races from the Italian Grand Prix between 1991 and 2010. Enjoy the archive!
1993
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| SOMERSAULT: Fittipaldi hits his team-mate in 1993 and sees sky |
WINNER: Damon Hill (Williams Renault), 2nd: Jean Alesi (Ferrari), 3rd: Michael Andretti (McLaren Ford)
DAMON Hill received a degree of fortune, which was long overdue at Monza in 1993. After a first lap clash with Ayrton Senna sent him tumbling down the order, the Brit fought back to second behind his team-mate Alain Prost. All looked set for Prost to clinch his fourth world championship when his engine spectacularly blew up with just four laps to go, handing Hill victory. Jean Alesi brought some much needed smiles to Ferrari on home ground, with an excellent second position, whilst Michael Andretti ended his failed F1 experiment and returned to IndyCars after this race. However, the American did record a podium finish. Right at the end, Christian Fittipaldi clipped his Minardi team-mate Pierluigi Martini and somersaulted across the line. Luckily, Fittipaldi finished on three wheels and lived to tell the tale.
1996
WINNER: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 2nd: Jean Alesi (Benetton Renault), 3rd: Mika Hakkinen (McLaren Mercedes)
WILLIAMS’s drivers Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve dominated the championship in 1996, but both had off-days at Monza. Hill was cruising to certain victory when he clipped the tyre stacks placed on the exit of the first chicane on the sixth lap. With broken suspension, Hill had to play the role of devastated spectator for the rest of the afternoon. Luckily for him, Villeneuve finished out of the points in seventh position. The temporary tyres placed in the first two chicanes also claimed David Coulthard, Eddie Irvine and Heinz-Harald Frentzen and was widely criticised by drivers. On his first drive at Monza for Ferrari, Michael Schumacher recovered from a slow start and survived a scrape with the tyre stacks to hunt down and pass Jean Alesi in the pitstops and record a popular victory, his second in a row. Mika Hakkinen recovered from damaging his front wing early on against THOSE tyre stacks to finish a remarkable third, having been as low as 18th after his unscheduled stop.
1998
WINNER: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 2nd: Eddie Irvine (Ferrari), 3rd: Ralf Schumacher (Jordan Mugen Honda)
FERRARI threw the 1998 title race wide open after this sensational race in 1998. Michael Schumacher took his first pole position of the season, but made a terrible start and dropped to fifth. Mika Hakkinen had a great start and took the lead, before letting lighter fuelled team-mate David Coulthard past him. On lap 14, Coulthard’s engine blew up entering the second chicane. Hakkinen was wrong-footed through the smoke, and this allowed Schumacher to take a quicker exit from the chicane and snatch the lead. Hakkinen chased hard, but had problems with the traffic, notably from Giancarlo Fisichella’s dithering Benetton. Then, with ten laps to go, his brakes exploded into the second chicane, sending the Finn backwards across the gravel trap at high speed. Amazingly, he didn’t hit anything, kept his composure and rejoined. However, his lack of braking capacity meant both Eddie Irvine and Ralf Schumacher were able to cruise past the ailing McLaren. Schumacher won, with Hakkinen having to settle for fourth. With two races left in this fantastic season, Schumacher and Hakkinen were now locked together on 80 points each.
2000
WINNER: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 2nd: Mika Hakkinen (McLaren Mercedes), 3rd: Ralf Schumacher (Williams BMW)
MICHAEL Schumacher famously broke down in the post-race press conference after winning for the first time since June, equalling Ayrton Senna’s tally of 41 Grand Prix victories. The success brought him to within two points of leader Mika Hakkinen in the title race. Hakkinen drove a cautious race to second, whilst Ralf Schumacher held off serious challenges from BAR’s Ricardo Zonta and Jos Verstappen’s Arrows for the final podium spot. Both Zonta and Verstappen benefited from lighter fuel strategies and misfortune for others. Jacques Villeneuve looked good for a podium, before engine failure struck his BAR, whilst a slipping clutch lost a lap in the pits for Giancarlo Fisichella. However, tragedy was the over-riding of the race. On the first lap, an incident triggered by Heinz-Harald Frentzen caused mayhem. Frentzen, Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli, David Coulthard, Pedro de la Rosa and Johnny Herbert were eliminated in the second chicane and the flying debris from the crash tragically caused the fatality of 33-year old fire marshal Paulo Ghislimberti. His death was the first at the racetrack since Ayrton Senna’s death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
2004
WINNER: Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari), 2nd: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), 3rd: Jenson Button (BAR Honda)
FERRARI showed their dominant speed in a race that at least five drivers had the chance of winning. In the end, Rubens Barrichello’s three-stop strategy prevailed, as he recorded his first win of the season. This was despite the wrong choice of tyre at the start of the race, going for intermediates on a drying track. Michael Schumacher spent much of the day fighting up the order, after spinning on dry tyres at the second chicane on the opening lap. He set lap record after lap record on his recovery drive to second place. The race could have been won by Jenson Button, but his lack of speed in a straight-line meant he had to settle for a podium finish. However, that result and fourth place from Takuma Sato was enough for BAR to take second place in the constructors championship from Renault. Fernando Alonso led the opening stint and was also a winning challenger, but he spun off with 15 laps to go and stalled his engine. Another contender, Kimi Raikkonen was forced out by engine trouble early on. There was a lucky escape for Gianmaria Bruni and the Minardi pit crew after a refuelling fire. Luckily, just Bruni suffered minor injury, as he inhaled some of the smoke from the fire.
2008
WINNER: Sebastian Vettel (Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari), 2nd: Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren Mercedes), 3rd: Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber)
THE battle for the world championship in 2008 paled into insignificance at Monza by the incredible achievement of Sebastian Vettel and Scuderia Toro Rosso. Toro Rosso, with Minardi DNA achieved their first Grand Prix victory and Vettel became the youngest driver ever to win a Grand Prix race. The 21-year old’s stunning weekend began with pole position in a rain-soaked qualifying session on Saturday. His team-mate Sebastian Bourdais started fourth, but a clutch problem left him stranded on the line and he lost a lap in the pits. Vettel drove away from the field effortlessly, making Heikki Kovalainen’s superior McLaren look like an amateur. It was one of the greatest drives seen in recent years. A rueful Kovalainen had to settle for second, whilst Robert Kubica timed his sole pitstop perfectly with a switch to dry tyres. It earnt him third spot, from a lowly 11th on the grid. Title contenders Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton had to settle for sixth and seventh, meaning there was now just one point between them, in Hamilton’s favour. However, this was Vettel’s weekend.
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