2009 Italian Grand Prix Race day at Monza

Rubens Barrichello has his eyes closed, in deep concentration as he mentally prepares himself for the start.

The final choice of tyre compound is now fitted to each car. With similar performance from both options, and most planning a one-stop, the selection may go in favour of the soft to get additional grip off the line.

There are five minutes to go until the formation lap begins at Monza.

Key factors for the race:

The start. Can the 19 starters plus Alguersuari get through the first chicane cleanly?

KERS. The McLarens and Raikkonen are likely to occupy the top three places early on, but Alonso needs the magic button to stay in touch.

Tyres. Can the one-stoppers keep their tyres in shape for over 30 laps?

Soon, we will find out.

The drivers are climbing aboard their cars with a tense atmosphere on the grid ahead of what is set up to be a fascinating race.

Ferrari consultant Michael Schumacher is on the grid, overseeing Fisichella's final preparations.

The tifosi rise in respect for the Italian national anthem. Will they be hearing it again in two hours time?

All 19 cars that are to start from the grid have made it round without any issues. Jaime Alguersuari is the one driver who will start from the pitlane today.

Weather conditions are fine over the circuit with just one or two light clouds on the horizon. We are set for a fully dry race at Monza.

Fisichella draws up to the back of the grid in his Ferrari as the fervent tifosi celebrate their new hero.

The grid is packed with mechanics and VIPs as the sunshine beats down on the Monza pit straight.

Heikki Kovalainen practices a KERS-powered launch from the end of the pitlane before heading around his reconnaissance lap.

Race engineer Rob Smedley looks on as Giancarlo Fisichella prepares to head to the grid for his Ferrari debut. What a moment for the Italian.

The pitlane is now open for the cars to head around to the grid.

Jaime Alguersuari will start today's race from the pitlane. The Toro Rosso driver was handed a five place grid penalty for a gearbox change and then subsequently qualified in 20th position.

The team has replaced engine cooling panels on his car, plus removed a gurney flap from the upper element of the rear wing, forcing the Spaniard to start from the pitlane.

There was some concern last night at Brawn that they may be forced to change the gearbox on Rubens Barrichello's car. The team has decided this morning that the transmission does not need to be swapped, meaning Barrichello will start a strong fifth on the grid.

Barrichello's car caught fire due to an oil leak at the end of the Belgian Grand Prix, prompting the concerns over the multi-race unit. But the Brazilian has completed 43 laps with the same gearbox since race weekend parts were installed here at Monza on Saturday morning.

Liuzzi

While Adrian Sutil has been setting the timing monitor alight over the past two days, his team-mate for this weekend at Force India deserves a mention for his excellent performance after almost two years out of the sport.

Tonio Liuzzi was given his opportunity to shine, following Giancarlo Fisichella's defection to Ferrari last week, and has grabbed the chance with both hands so far this weekend.

Working well within the team, and providing some great feedback to the engineers, particularly in Friday practice, the man with the wildest fashion sense in the sport has quietly got on with the job, working through his programme and getting the car set up nicely on the first day.

Yesterday the Italian began to build up his performance, moving steadily up the charts in the final practice session, before that great qualifying performance in seventh.

Liuzzi himself was pretty pleased with the way he has handled the weekend so far. "The approach that I took to this weekend was pretty good," he said. "Not to push from the beginning as hard as I couldn't to get as high up the timesheets on Friday. I wanted to learn the tyres, the car and to slowly, lap by lap, improve myself. And there is still a lot more to come so I’m really optimistic about the race and the future."

From the fourth row, Liuzzi has a genuine shot at scoring points in this afternoon's 53-lap race, although he and the Force India team will be all-too-wary of being sucker-punched by the heavier one-stoppers behind.

The pitlane opens in 15 minutes' time, allowing the drivers out on to the track for the first time today as they bring their machines round to the grid.

It will be a very important time for the drivers following that monumental shower yesterday, which washed away much of the rubber that had been laid down during final practice and the qualifying session.

Grip levels will need to be established, team radio links checked, a feel for the general car set-up established and of course, making sure that the car is running well are all jobs on the drivers' list, in just one single lap to the grid.

fuel

The fuel weights show that Hamilton and Sutil locked out the front row with a relatively light fuel strategy and both plan two stops this afternoon. Kimi Raikkonen is on a similar strategy and - based on the stops at Spa - may be pitting around the same time as the Mercedes-powered front row.

Sutil doesn't have KERS to defend from Raikkonen or Kovalainen but is still well placed to score his best ever result, assuming he isn't eliminated by Kimi again.

It is all about sprinting for Hamilton if he is to convert this pole into a win and the world champion needs to quickly put distance between himself and the one-stopping field. His strategy also hinges on coming out from his first stop in clean air as the pack spreads out - not ending up stuck behind slow one-stoppers in the middle stint while needing to build the advantage to make a second visit to the pits.

Two stops is theoretically a slightly faster strategy but the execution needs to be perfect and any delay in slower traffic will hand the advantage to the one-stoppers.

McLaren has opted for a split strategy and Heikki Kovalainen put in an excellent lap to take fourth with the fuel for one stop today, albeit with quite a long final stint. With both tyre compounds proving durable, and not significantly different in grip levels, the one-stop plan has turned out to be very popular with the team strategists.

Kovalainen has the grid position and KERS boost to head the one-stop charge, while the Brawn pair behind him are slightly heavier and also well in the fight for the win against the two-stop men. Heikki is the key to this group and much depends on how the Finn fares off the line and his pace in the early stages.

It was also a good qualifying run from Liuzzi on his Force India debut and the Italian is set for a scrap with Alonso and the two Red Bulls for the remaining points positions.

Outside the top 10, all the drivers are working around the optimum one-stop plan. With yesterday's rain having washed the rubber from the circuit, some may struggle with tyre wear by the time they get to the end of a lengthy first stint.

The following shows the weight of each car, fuelled for the first stint of today's grand prix: Pos Driver Weight (kg) 1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 653.5 2. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 655.0 3. Raikkonen Ferrari 662.0 4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 683.0 5. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 688.5 6. Button Brawn-Mercedes 687.0 7. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 679.5 8. Alonso Renault 677.5 9. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 682.0 10. Webber Red Bull-Renault 683.0 11. Trulli Toyota 703.0 12. Grosjean Renault 699.8 13. Kubica BMW-Sauber 697.5 14. Fisichella Ferrari 690.0 15. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber 697.5 16. Glock Toyota 709.8 17. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 706.2 18. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 708.6 19. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 706.0 20. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 706.0

The final morning action at the circuit gave the enthusiastic tifosi a good chance to warm-up their vocal chords ahead of the main event.

Across the red carpet emerged the drivers for the traditional pre-race parade around the Monza circuit.

The atmosphere was wonderful as the airhorns sounded loudly in support of Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella.

From row two on the grid, Raikkonen is the tifosi's best hope for a fairytale victory this afternoon, on the back of his first win of the season last time out in Belgium.

With the parade over, the drivers headed back to their team hospitality units to prepare for the race.

Rene Rast stormed to a dominant victory in the Porsche Supercup race at Monza with his fifth win of the season, but ever-consistent title rival Jeroen Bleekemolen now needs just two points from the final pair of rounds to clinch a second successive series crown.

Rast led from lights to flag while Bleekemolen was troubled in the early stages by team-mate Jiri Janak, who eventually fell off the road at the Ascari chicane and finished eighth.

With the top two unchallenged for the rest of the way, the majority of the action was a multiple car battle over third. Stefan Rosina eventually took the final podium slot ahead of Damien Faulkner, Patrick Huisman and Lance David Arnold.

The series returns for its final two rounds in support of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the end of October.

Nico Hulkenberg

Luiz Razia became the 10th different winner in the 2009 GP2 Series with a lights-to-flag effort in the sprint race at Monza today, while Nico Hulkenberg secured the championship with third.

Razia made a perfect start from pole, and after surviving an initial challenge from Lucas di Grassi, never looked threatened. Di Grassi’s second place owed everything to his superb start – the Brazilian made up five places on the run to the first corner.

Hulkenberg finished completed the podium to become the first driver ever to secure the GP2 crown with a round still to spare.

Razia wins as Hulkenberg takes title

Fans

AUTOSPORT forum members are invited to join the fun throughout the day, offering thoughts and opinions as the race unfolds.

• Who is your pick to win the Italian Grand Prix?

• Will we see a clean start? So often there are minor incidents at the first chicane on lap one.

• Do you think that any of the one-stoppers in the second half of the field have the right strategy to score points today?

Tell the world what you think.

Click the SHOW LIVE FORUM link in the red bar at the bottom of your browser window if you would like to join the debate.

We are set for another cracking weather day at Monza. Sunny spells and patchy cloud are set for the race, with a slight possibility of a shower once the race is over and the teams are packing up to leave the circuit.

The temperature will be slightly lower than what we had on Friday and Saturday, with a maximum of 24 degrees Celsius.

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position yesterday at the end of a pulsating hour of qualifying that kept you guessing right to the end - the perfect finish.

The drivers wasted no time in getting out onto the circuit, but surprisingly it was Ferrari that led the charge out of the pits. Throughout the first 20-minute period, the times tumbled. Williams have struggled here this weekend, and the session proved to be a disappointment. Rosberg and Nakajima were immediately eliminated, along with Glock and both Toro Rosso drivers - Buemi and Alguersuari.

BMW did their best to introduce some comedy into the mix during the second period, as both Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica broke down with engine-related problems, eliminating both from the shootout. Joining them would be Ferrari's new hero Giancarlo Fisichella, Romain Grosjean and Jarno Trulli.

Cue the final act, and what drama it gave us. The ten-minute period started off very quietly, with just five cars out there. Brawn, Force India and Heikki Kovalainen all decided to just do one run of laps at the end.

Raikkonen was holding the fort at the top early on but, as it got towards crunch time, Lewis Hamilton took over the mantle as the five late-starters joined the party. Adrian Sutil put in three timed laps on his single run and got close with his first effort, backed off for traffic on his second, but nailed provisional pole with a decent final effort.

He was one of the first to complete his final tour, and the waiting began for Force India. Button, Barrichello, Kovalainen and Raikkonen all crossed seconds later and were unable to match the German's time, but one man was determined to beat it ...

Lewis Hamilton shot out of the Parabolica and stopped the party before it had even begun with a great 1m24.066s lap. Sutil starts alongside the world champion on the front row of the grid, with Finns Raikkonen and Kovalainen third and fourth.

Hamilton takes last-gasp Monza pole

Monza

Hello everyone and welcome to AUTOSPORT Live for round 13 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Fans all over the globe look forward with relish to the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Since 1922 the world's best drivers have tested themselves and eachother at the cathedral of speed.

Pre-chicanes, this place was amazing. The drivers would blast over the line and straight into the Curva Grande, then continue on towards the Lesmo bends, hang onto their cars in hair-raising fashion through the Curva di Vialone and be flat-out on their way to the Parabolica.

Just imagine today's race on that layout!

As it is, Monza is still a great circuit, but sadly the only real high-speed challenge left on the calendar. Raw speed in low downforce trim, pit strategy and quite possibly the magic KERS button will be three of the key factors today in winning one of the most prestigious races in the world.

The race itself starts at 12:00 GMT, but before then we will review Saturday's action at the circuit incase you missed it, take a look at this morning's support races as well as looking at the weather forecast. We'll also analyse the fuel weights and what they mean for the outcome of the race.