2010 Italian Grand Prix Race day at Monza

Polesitter Alonso is now on his reconnaissance lap to the grid.

Nico Hulkenberg joins the racetrack for his reconnaissance lap to the grid. The German starts from a promising eighth today.

Lewis Hamilton pulls out of the McLaren garage and heads around to complete a lap in the low-downforce car.

Di Grassi in the Virgin leads the cars out of the pitlane.

The pitlane is now open for the the drivers to make their way around to the grid.

During the next 15 minutes, they have several jobs to undertake. Support races earlier this morning will have changed the grip level, so each driver will want to quickly ascertain how hard he can push when it comes to the early laps of the race. They will check basic functions such the drinks bottle, throttle response, gearbox controls and the all-important team radio.

The pitlane closes at 11:45 GMT. Any car not on the grid by then will be required to start from the pits.

Kobayashi is a man to watch in the midfield

Kobayashi is a man to watch in the midfield © LAT
Continuing our look through the field, we have the attacking Kamui Kobayashi in 13th place with Sebastien Buemi alongside the Sauber on row seven.

The exciting Japanese needs no introduction. Having gained a lot of fans over the course of the last 11 months with his attacking driving style, today he is presented with the chance of nailing Schumacher, a Monza her, ointo the first chicane. Buemi could also provide action, thanks to the extremely low downforce package that Toro Rosso is running. Buemi and Alguersuari have featured at the top of the speed charts all weekend, so may provide some good overtaking action if they can stay close to a competitor exiting the Parabolica.

Lotus drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen have taken full benefit from Liuzzi's mechanical woes and Petrov's penalty.The T127s start in 17th and 18th positions on the grid and may benefit if there is bumping up ahead into the first chicane, but once the field sorts itself out they will have to keep an eye on their mirrors for the advances of the Force India and the Renault.

This will do little to help Virgin Racing's hopes of challenging the Lotus cars on the opening lap, with Liuzzi and Petrov now between the two new teams. Once the two quicker cars are through and chasing after the pack, Glock and di Grassi can begin the race-long fight in the new teams class. The battle has been closing over recent races and we expect another scrap today.

Glock will of course have to dispatch the two Hispania entries first, but with one second per lap speed advantage it shouldn't take him more than a couple of laps to join team-mate di Grassi, leaving the Hispania duo to bring up the rear.

Button starts from the front row

Button starts from the front row © LAT
The front row of the grid has a great story-line with two drivers that know they need to avoid contact with each other at the tight and tricky first chicane.

Jenson Button may well be the driver to watch off the line. With a higher downforce package on his McLaren, he can afford to go slightly deeper into the braking zone. Will the Briton, who desperately needs championship points, chance a move up the inside of Alonso's Ferrari at the start?

Massa, Webber and Hamilton are certainly there to pick up the pieces from any altercation, but the Rettifilo chicane stands ready to pose problems. Raised apex kerbs and a strategically placed speed hump on the outside mean that the racetrack is the only way through if you want to be sure of avoiding damage to the floor of your car. Usually we see the field fan out across the run-off area but that is less likely this year. The GP2 drivers tried this yesterday and all filed into Turn 1, only to trip over each other at pathetically low speed when they got there.

Both Williams drivers start inside the top 10 and the Grove-based team will be aiming to continue a positive run of form. Rubens Barrichello in particular will hope to get further in his 301st grand prix than he did at the landmark event at Spa two weeks ago.

Michael Schumacher starts from 12th and will face a tough afternoon. Once the darling of the tifosi, the Mercedes driver will have a difficult job on his hands just to beat the Williams pair and Robert Kubica's Renault, but of more concern to him at the start may be the hard-charging youngsters behind.

Here's how the grid will line up this afternoon: Pos Driver Team 1. Alonso Ferrari 2. Button McLaren-Mercedes 3. Massa Ferrari 4. Webber Red Bull-Renault 5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 6. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 7. Rosberg Mercedes 8. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 9. Kubica Renault 10. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 12. Schumacher Mercedes 13. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 16. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 17. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 19. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 20. Petrov Renault * 21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 23. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 24. Glock Virgin-Cosworth ** * Five-place penalty for impeding Glock ** Five-place penalty for breaking gearbox seals

Tandy took victory, but rival Rast secured the title

Tandy took victory, but rival Rast secured the title © Porsche
Nick Tandy came out on top of a thrilling Porsche Supercup season finale at Monza but victory was not enough to prevent Rene Rast clinching the title with a fourth-place finish.

Tandy started brilliantly from pole and lead comfortably into the opening lap as Rast began to come under pressure from the pack, soon allowing team-mate Jeroen Bleekemolen through to challenge the leader.

Bleekemolen finally muscled past Tandy on lap four, but was forced to take to the run-off at the first chicane to make the move stick. The Ductchman decided not to cede position to his rival, so ended up with a drive-through penalty - putting him out of contention.

Spa winner Sean Edwards finished second after spending the remainder of the race in a tense dice with Tandy, while Norbert Siedler held on to the final podium spot. At times Rast looked in danger of falling out of the points - which would have handed the crown to Tandy - but in the end he kept Jan Seyffarth and local hero Alessandro Balzan at bay to clinch the crown for Lechner Racing.

Christian Vietoris made a sesnsational start to win in GP2

Christian Vietoris made a sesnsational start to win in GP2 © LAT
Christian Vietoris secured a hard-fought win in today’s GP2 Series sprint race at Monza, while Pastor Maldonado managed to secure the championship despite completing less than two laps.

Vietoris’ victory owed much to an extraordinary start from the third row to lead into the first corner, but from there the Racing Engineering driver had to withstand race-long pressure from DAMS’ Jerome d’Ambrosio and ART’s Sam Bird, with the podium trio finishing in that order after a fascinating late dice.

Maldonado’s swerved to avoid Sergio Perez as the Mexican ran wide at Parabolica on the second lap, only to end up skating across the gravel and into the barriers instead. But, with Perez clearly falling well short of the perfect result he needed, Maldonado’s series crown was finally secure.

Jules Bianchi finished fourth ahead of Max Chilton, who did well in the face of extended pressure from iSport’s Oliver Turvey.

Maldonado secures title, Vietoris wins

Wickens was victorious in the final GP3 race this morning

Wickens was victorious in the final GP3 race this morning © LAT
Robert Wickens took a commanding victory in the final race of the inaugural GP3 Series season at Monza.

The Status driver made a sensational start from fifth on the grid and arrived at the first corner just behind Roberto Merhi, who’d led off the line, and passed the Spaniard on the exit to claim the lead. From there, Wickens enjoyed a straightforward run to the flag, claiming the win by a margin of 1.6s.

Carlin’s Josef Newgarden had the front row of the grid to himself after polesitter Nigel Melker was relegated to the back for causing the first start to be aborted, but the American was boxed in on the run down to the first chicane and dropped to fourth behind Merhi, Wickens and Mirko Bortolotti.

Bortolotti made short work of Merhi to claim second, while Nico Muller also found a way passed Merhi to claim the final place on the podium.

Wickens victorious in final GP3 race

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The tifosi want a Ferrari victory this afternoon

The tifosi want a Ferrari victory this afternoon © LAT
Motor racing fans love to debate and discuss the action on track, and the live forum at the bottom of the screen is your chance to let everyone know your thoughts on events as they unfold at the circuit.

• Will Fernando Alonso convert pole into a rousing victory for the Scuderia and get right back in the title hunt?

• Jenson Button and his F-duct McLaren doesn't feature highly in the top speed charts. Do you think he will become a target on the straights?

• Sebastian Vettel needs to quell his impetuous streak and end a difficult weekend for the Red Bull team with good points, but can he do it?

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'd like to join the debate.

Wall-to-wall sunshine at Monza for the third day in a row, just in time for the grand prix weekend. There's hardly a cloud in the sky and pleasant conditions are set in for the race.

Temperatures have climbed steadily since dawn and we are moving towards a maximum in the air of 26 degrees and a top track temperature of 40 Celsius.

Fittipaldi (left) joined the stewards this weekend

Fittipaldi (left) joined the stewards this weekend © LAT
Three-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi is the ex-driver on the FIA stewards panel this weekend, having last been present at the Canadian Grand Prix in June.

The panel has enjoyed a quiet weekend dealing with Formula 1 thus far, but there were still three incidents to look at on Saturday:

• Timo Glock was handed a five-place grid penalty after his team opened up his gearbox to change the differential following final practice. The mechanics had to break a seal on Glock's gearbox to replace the differential - which is a breach of F1's technical regulations.

• Glock then went into qualifying knowing that he would start at the back of the field. Nevertheless, he tried as hard as always to set a quick time, but encountered Vitaly Petrov slowly leaving the pits at the first chicane. Petrov was completely unaware that Glock was there, and destroyed Glock's first effort. Petrov was later handed a five-place grid penalty.

• Race director Charlie Whiting drew an on-track altercation between Michael Schumacher and Jaime Alguersuari to the attention of the panel. Having looked at the available evidence and listened to the descriptions from both drivers as well as team representatives, no further action was taken.

A happy top three

A happy top three © LAT
More often than not, qualifying produces plenty of shocks, but yesterday's session yielded little in the way of surprises.

In the new teams category, Virgin and Lotus have both made a step forward in relation to the rest of the field, but still, the six cars typically occupy the final three rows on the grid. If one of the established runners encounters trouble then the fight to avoid the dreaded 17th position becomes an anti-climax, and that is exactly what happened with Tonio Liuzzi, who completed one run but was unable to get back out to improve his time with a loss of power.

On current form, seeing Michael Schumacher eliminated on pure performance wasn't terribly big news either. In recent qualifying battles, the Mercedes team has been embroiled in a fight with Williams to grab the final berths for the shootout and when Rubens Barrichello pulled a slightly quicker lap out of the bag, it was a stretch too far for the seven-time champion. He joined Adrian Sutil, Kamui Kobayashi, Sebastien Buemi, Vitaly Petrov, Jaime Alguersuari and Pedro de la Rosa in explaining rather than driving.

So to the shootout itself. Nico Rosberg did get his Mercedes through and then narrowly beat both Williams drivers, despite not being happy with the balance of the car in free practice. Robert Kubica was perhaps expected to show a little more, having given the F-duct a superb debut at Spa two weeks ago. He managed ninth on the grid.

At the sharp end, Alonso threw down the gauntlet with a stunning 1m21.962s lap at the end of the first of two runs. His time was so fast that he even had the luxury of aborting his final effort while the Red Bull duo were still giving it their all. Jenson Button clocked a lap one-tenth slower to grab a front-row spot, with Massa third, Webber fourth, Hamilton fifth and Vettel in sixth place.

Alonso ends Ferrari's pole drought

It could be Ferrari's day in the sunshine

It could be Ferrari's day in the sunshine © LAT
Hello everyone and welcome to AUTOSPORT Live for coverage of the 2010 Italian Grand Prix - round 14 in this year's FIA Formula 1 world championship.

Ferrari has its first pole position since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix and Fernando Alonso aims to to score a maximum points haul today to keep his title aspirations on track.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton is only fifth with a car configuration that he already knows isn't ideal for the 53-lap race, so his main objective is to try and escape out of Europe with his slender points lead intact by marking Mark Webber's card.

The Australian has grappled with reliability issues so far this weekend. A loss of water pressure stopped him on Friday afternoon, then an airbox fire on Saturday morning prevented him from testing the soft compound tyres towards the end of the session. With Jenson Button starting on the front row in an ultra-quick McLaren, we have the guys needing points at the front and those at the top of the table behind.

Sebastian Vettel is the odd-one-out. He starts only sixth but ideally needs to score a podium to keep his challenge for the championship on track. Having come under a lot of scrutiny for his racing tactics over the summer, the German has a good opportunity to show us his good points today.

The race itself begins at 12:00 GMT, but before then we will set the scene by reviewing yesterday's qualifying session, update you on today's weather conditions and support card activity, and focus on some of the major talking points heading into the race.