After Race 12: Italy

Formula 1 bid farewell to Europe for another season with the off-track action more intriguing that the on-track action. Such has been F1’s globalization over the past decade, there are still a whopping seven races to go – there were only two races after the 2003 Italian GP! This week’s F1 Power Rankings were delayed in order to include the Ferrari 2014 driver announcement.

The Magic of Monza: the Tifosi pose for Alonso
Source: Fernando Alonso, Twitter

1. Sebastian Vettel (last week: 1^st, no change) (Season high: 1^st, low: 4^th)

The triple world champion extended his title lead to over two race victories and tied Fernando Alonso for 4^th-all-time with 32 wins (only Schumi 91, Prost 51, Senna 41 are ahead). The Tifosi booed him but that was to be expected, and Sebastian Vettel won’t care one bit as long as he’s racking up the big trophies.

Flashback 2008: Vettel takes his maiden win for Toro Rosso at Monza
Source: F1 Fanatic

2. Fernando Alonso (last week: 3^rd, up one spot) (Season high: 1^st, low: 13^th)

Ferrari’s qualifying drafting failed once again but Alonso took an easy second place on Sunday. He was nowhere near Vettel, however, and best of the rest is all he can hope for this season. The signing of Kimi Räikkönen will shake things up at the Scuderia (ironic, given The Iceman’s laid-back nature) and it will be an unwelcome wake-up call to Alonso.

3. Lewis Hamilton (last week: 3^rd, down one spot) (Season high: 2^nd, low: 9th)

Having been hugely self-critical of his qualifying performance – branding himself an idiot – Lewis Hamilton then found himself on the back foot early in the race with a slow puncture. He rebounded magnificently with an excellent drive to pick up a couple of points but, with Vettel winning again, it was scant consolation.

 4. Kimi Räikkönen (last week: 3^rd, down one spot) (Season high: 2^nd, low: 12^th)

Rather like the clichéd London buses, Räikkönen failed to score points for the second race running having scored in the previous twenty-seven. He misjudged his braking into the tricky first corner which necessitated a new front wing and he spent the race in catch-up mode but, unlike Hamilton, he was unable to crack the top ten. Ferrari 2014 can’t come soon enough as far as he is concerned.

Räikkönen celebrates winning the 2007 title for Ferrari
Source: BBC Sport

5. Mark Webber (last week: 5^th, no change) (Season high: 1^st, low: 15^th)

Five weeks at #5 for Mark Webber; his last F1 race in Europe ended on a high as he finally cracked the spectacular Monza podium after over a decade of trying.

6. Nico Rosberg (last week: 7^th, up one spot) (Season high: 2^nd, low: 12^th)

Nico Rosberg moves up one spot in the rankings although that is more by default than anything else. A solid, but distinctly mediocre, weekend saw him both qualify and finish sixth as he spent virtually the entire race behind Nico Hülkenberg.

7. Nico Hülkenberg (last week: 13^th, up six spots) (Season high: 7^th, low: 19^th)

Monza saw the return of The Incredible Hulk: a stunning qualifying lap saw him take third and, unlike Valtteri Bottas in Canada, he managed to hold his own in the race and finish a superb fifth – enough for him to score his highest F1 Power Rankings position to date – just ten seconds behind Vettel. Even if the Sauber seemed suited to the low downforce circuit, The Hulk still had to finish the job off in one of this season’s stand-out performances. His main concern will be where he’ll end up next season. Monisha Kalternborn told Sky Sports that 18-year-old Sergey Sirotkin will almost certainly be in one Sauber – and you’d have to think that Esteban Gutierrez will retain the other. With his outside shot at a Ferrari having evaporated, the options are thinning out, with Lotus the best available option. Otherwise, he faces losing a richly-deserved place in F1 due to (lack of) money for the second time, after Williams in 2010.

 

The Hulk put in the performance of the weekend
Source: F1 Fanatic

8. Felipe Massa (last week: 13^th, up five spots) (Season high: 3^rd, low: 15^th)

With his Ferrari days now officially coming to an end, Felipe Massa scored his best finish in seven races with after a fine weekend and he would have also gained a good deal of personal satisfaction from having outqualified Alonso. In a similar way Hülkenberg, you’d imagine it was Lotus-or-nowhere for the Brazilian in 2014.

You somehow can't see Fernando & Kimi like this...
Source: Fernando Alonso, Twitter

9. Daniel Ricciardo (last week: 16^th last week, no change) (Season high: 5^th, low: 18^th)

Finally confirmed as an RBR driver for 2014, Daniel Ricciardo put in an important performance to silence any lingering doubters that he was the wrong choice as he qualified and finished an excellent seventh.

10. Romain Grosjean (last week: 8^th, down two spots) (Season high: 6^th, low: 22^nd)

Disappointing weekend for Lotus – especially in qualifying as both cars dropped out in Q2. Grosjean kept his nose clean and brought the car home a solid eighth in a solid, if unspectacular, performance.

=11. Jenson Button (last week: 6^th, down five spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 16^th) & Sergio Pérez (last week: 10^th, down one spot) (Season high: 8^th, low: 17^th)

The McLaren duo are both fallers in this week’s F1 Power Rankings and they are level with each other for the third time in four weeks. Checo outqualified JB and was running ahead of him until a slow pit-stop elevated the Englishman. Thereafter, it appeared that Sergio Pérez was quicker than his team-mate but just could not find a way past him as both McLarens lacked straight line speed.

13. Jules Bianchi (last week: 11^th, down two spots) (Season high: 6^th, low: 13^th)

There were no repeated heroics by the backmarkers this weekend after they excelled in the inclement Spa qualifying but Jules Bianchi, once again, did his usual solid job for Marussia.

14. Paul di Resta (last week: 9^th, down five spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 17^th)

Force India’s mid-season slump continues as PDR failed to score for the fourth consecutive race, having finished in the top ten in seven of the first eight races; the change in Pirelli tyres has hurt them more than anyone else. Like Räikkönen, he misjudged his braking on the opening lap but, unlike the Finn, saw his suspension disintegrate. Another man in contention for a Lotus 2014 seat, this loss of form will not help him.

 

di Resta was reprimanded for his first lap collision, captured here by FOM's new on-board thermal imaging camera
Source: FOM TV images

=15. Jean-Eric Vergne (last week: 16^th, up one spot) (Season high: 5^th, low: 20^th) & Giedo van der Garde (last week: 12^st, down three spots) (Season high: 12^th, low: 22^nd)

A weekend of missed opportunities for JEV. STR had a good car and Jean-Eric Vergne had the opportunity to show the senior team picked the wrong driver but he committed a costly error exiting Parabolica in Q3, similar to his Silverstone mistake, before his early engine failure on Sunday. Next season will be critical for him – he will need to beat his team-mate, whether it be António Félix da Costa, Carlos Sainz, Jr. or Daniil Kvyat. Meanwhile, Giedo van der Garde’s good form continued as he outqualified Charles Pic, but a miscommunication over his second pit-stop saw him surprise his mechanics.

17. Esteban Gutiérrez (last week: 19^th, up two spots) (Season high: 15^th, low: 22^nd)

Slowly but surely, Guti is finding his feet in F1. Sure, he was knocked out in Q1 for the umpteenth time this season and he finished half a minute behind Hülkenberg but his racecraft has improved significantly over the last two races – he even managed to finish on the tail end of the mammoth midfield battle, just behind the McLarens, rather than his usual anonymous performances.

18. Charles Pic (last week: 18^th, no change) (Season high: 7^th, low: 19^th)

No change for Pic this week. The battle at Caterham has evened up recently, which does not reflect well on the team’s ‘veteran’.

19. Adrian Sutil (last week: 15^th, down four spots) (Season high: 5^th, low: 20^th)

Poor weekend for Adrian Sutil. Savagely blocked Hamilton in qualifying, for which he picked up a deserved penalty, before a hugely underwhelming Sunday afternoon drive.

20. Max Chilton (last week: 20^th, no change) (Season high: 17^th, low: 22^nd)

No change this week for Max Chilton but it was a solid weekend from the young Brit and probably the closest he’s been to Bianchi all season.

=21. Pastor Maldonado (Season high: 12^th, low: 22^nd) & Valtteri Bottas (Season high: 10^th, low: 21^st) (both were =21^st last week, no change)
Not much to say about Williams as their dreadful season continues.