Behind the scenes

The catering team had been busy making a cake to help Panasonic Toyota Racing's test and young driver Kamui Kobayashi celebrate his 22nd birthday on Saturday at Monza. There was no present in the form of a GP2 result, however, when Kamui was forced off the track after 15 laps in slippery and difficult conditions. He finished Sunday's race in 13th place, which gave him 16th place in the final championship classification, with 10 points. Italian Giorgio Pantano was confirmed as GP2 champion at his home track, while the highlight of Kamui's season with Jean-Paul Driot's DAMS team was a victory with fastest lap in the second round of the series in Barcelona.

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The Italian Grand Prix produced a historic first Grand Prix win for both Toro Rosso and Sebastian Vettel, who became the youngest driver ever to record a pole position and a Grand Prix victory. The young German is just 21 years and 73 days and beat the previous record held by double world champion Fernando Alonso. Vettel dominated both Q2 and Q3 in the season's first all-wet qualifying session and went on to lead from lights to flag. French team mate Sbastien Bourdais also qualified fourth for the Italian team but suffered the heartbreak of being unable to get the car off the grid. Rejoining last, he went on to set the second fastest lap of the race.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton gave himself a difficult task when he qualified 15th. His problems began with tactics at the beginning of the second qualifying session. As most of his rivals scrambled out onto the circuit, Hamilton and his race engineer elected to wait for a gap and then ventured out on Bridgestone's wet tyres while everyone else was using the extreme wet. Hamilton, finding no grip, had to pit to go onto extremes, by which time the rain had intensified and track conditions deteriorated. He therefore started the race 15th. Making strong progress, he suffered the same unfortunately timed pit stop as both Toyotas, taking on more extreme wets on lap 27 and having to pit again for normal wets nine laps later. He finished seventh, right behind championship rival Felipe Massa.

Ferrari also had a difficult home Grand Prix, Felipe Massa qualifying sixth while world champion Kimi Raikkonen had a moment at the Ascari chicane when conditions were at their best in Q2 and had to start the race 14th on the grid. Raikkonen made his first stop on the same lap as Jarno ( lap 26) and they also came back in together (lap 35) for wets. Despite setting the quickest lap of the race, as he had in dry practice on Friday, the world champion could only finish ninth, one place shy of the points.

Robert Kubica took advantage of a long first stint to switch to intermediate tyres at precisely the right time, moving him from 11th on the grid to the final podium position alongside Vettel and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen. "You absolutely couldn't see anything at the start," the Pole said, "in fact I passed my team mate into Turn 1 without even realizing!" Kubica (64) is now just 14 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton (78) in the championship with four rounds remaining. Nick Heidfeld finished fifth, ahead of championship contenders Massa and Hamilton, while Mark Webber, who qualified his the Red Bull third, took the final point.

Race Report

Panasonic Toyota Racing was unfortunate not to add to its points tally in the Italian Grand Prix, round 14 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Monza. Both Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock qualified in the top 10, with Jarno seventh and Timo ninth. The plan was to execute single stop strategies but the mixed weather conditions that afflicted the entire Monza weekend conspired against the team and demanded another unscheduled stop, dropping the TF108s to 11th and 13th.

The only dry running of the Monza weekend came on Friday afternoon and Saturday qualifying was entirely wet. Jarno reported that, in the dry, the car did not feel at its best in low downforce Monza specification, but both drivers did a fine job in the wet, the team being one of only two to get both drivers into Q3. Jarno was fourth quickest in Q2 and then seventh fastest in Q3 with a one-stop fuel load. Timo was eighth in Q2 and ninth in Q3.

With heavier rain falling as the start time arrived, the first two laps were completed behind the Safety Car before the field was released in blinding spray on the fastest circuit on the calendar.

"Driving at 200mph without being able to see anything is always difficult and at Monza, with such high speeds everywhere and low downforce, it is the worst possible combination," Jarno explained. "But I got a good start and was sixth at the end of the first lap."

Timo finished the first true racing lap right behind Jarno but lost a place to Fernando Alonso and then to Robert Kubica when he had a spin at Turn 1 on lap 7. "Early on it was very hard to see through all the spray when the track was at its wettest," he said. "It was hard to attack but I still managed to pull off some moves. Then the extra pit stop cost us the chance to go for points."

Jarno was up into fourth place by the time he pitted on lap 26, with Timo having stopped a lap earlier. Both were well positioned to score strong points but at the time they pitted the only tyre choice was to bolt on another set of Bridgestone's extreme wet, which had been compulsory for all drivers in a race that is started behind the Safety Car. Some of the cars running longer first stints, however, were able to dovetail their pit stops with a switch to Bridgestone's wet tyre, which was better suited to what were now intermediate conditions.

"We were unlucky with the weather today," said Senior General Manager Chassis, Pascal Vasselon. "Our pit stops came in exactly the wrong window. Robert Kubica, for example, ran eight laps further to his first stop, having started 11th, and he finished on the podium, while Fernando Alonso ran just four laps further than Jarno, was able to take on the standard wets and finished fourth. Both drivers did a good job in the conditions and we will now refocus and concentrate on getting back into the points in Singapore, F1's first ever night race."