GP Italy: Times, standings, track info, weather

Timetable GP Italy

It is already time for the last destination on the European part of the Formula 1 calendar. That also means that you don’t have to take into account very special times next weekend if you want to follow the action live. However, all sessions at the race are just an hour later than last weekend.

Championship standings

We don’t have to say anything more about Max Verstappen’s place in the championship, behind that it is especially noticeable that the gap between Sergio Pérez and Fernando Alonso has shrunk slightly again. It is still a gap of 33 points, so Alonso will have to work hard to finish second this year. Behind it, Lewis Hamilton is right behind him. For P5 to P7 in the championship, the penny continues to alternate between Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc and George Russell.

Among the manufacturers, it also looks slightly more favorable for Aston Martin, which had a significantly better weekend in the Netherlands than Mercedes-AMG. The gap between the two has shrunk by 11 points, although Mercedes remains the favorite for second place in the championship for the time being. Ferrari logically does not relinquish fourth place and still has a view of third place, while McLaren has actually gained steam a bit too late to go for P4. In turn, Alpine has scored nice points in Zandvoort in the hunt for P5.

Circuit

The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is also called the ‘Temple of Speed’ because of its long (almost) straights. Formula 1 achieves the highest average race speed on this track, so top speed is extremely important. Red Bull once again has the best credentials in that area. The circuit used to be much more focused on pure speed than it is now. After all, the circuit, which opened exactly 100 years ago, originally also had a banked track as part of the layout. It was initially always used, later it became a separate part of the track that could be used. The banked track was used until the late 1960s when it was closed off from the rest of the circuit. It is still there, albeit largely overgrown. Where the drivers now turn onto the straight in Parabolica, they used to come out of the corner of the bank there (a little further back).

The speed is increased even more in the two DRS zones. The first is along start-finish, the second is at the back of the circuit, after Lesmo (Turn 7). The drivers will drive 53 laps of the just under six kilometer long circuit this Sunday, to reach a total distance of 306.72 km. Although the distance is roughly the same as the other circuits (except for Monaco), the Italian GP is usually a fairly short Grand Prix due to the high average speed. Remarkably enough, the lap record is still held by Rubens Barrichello, who crossed the track in 1:21.046 in 2004. That was still in the days of refueling, which meant that the already lighter cars raced with even less weight on board than they do now.

Weather forecast

Some team members will have looked at the rain radar more than anything else last weekend, but next weekend it will be a different story. In Monza it will be wonderful summer weather, as it looks now. It remains dry, the sun shows itself a lot and especially Sunday seems to be a sunny day. That will also be the hottest day of the weekend with temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius.