Italian Gp: Who has the best Race pace?

Analysis:

The above picture indicates the race simulation lap times of top 5 teams. This data is from second practice when teams did heavy fuel simulation runs.

On paper it looks like Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus are the quickest cars but Mclaren didn’t do a proper race simulation in second practice so it is difficult to say how fast they might be.

The weakest among the top 5 teams is Mark Webber’s Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel didn’t do a race simulation so I have taken Webber’s data. But, Vettel is quicker than Webber this weekend so we can see a strong race from Sebastian but chances are that he will struggle to fight for podium places as the Mercedes and Ferrari are significantly quicker than his Red Bull.

The Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen also looks very quick, but that’s how the Lotus E20 has been throughout the season.The Lotus E20 has always been a consistent performer in races, so we can expect Kimi to move up the order and maybe challenge the Mercedes duo for a podium place.

For Felipe Massa this race is his best opportunity to seal his future with Ferrari. He qualified third on the grid and his race simulation runs look very quick and so, he clearly has a car underneath him which can challenge for victory.

Note: The fuel levels are not known during the second practice session so some teams may have been running lighter but usually they run almost same amount of fuel.

Stay tuned for post-race analysis.