Grapevine: Straw Poll: Saturday at Monza

Just when it seemed that the much hoped-for rain was going to desert us at the wrong time, the weather everyone was hoping for soaked the track in the half-hour before qualifying.

Pretty much everyone agreed that wet qualifying session could make tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix, not to mention this afternoon's qualifying session, an absolute classic. So it was to prove.

In first qualifying everyone was rooting for an upset. Would supposedly rain-shy Felipe Massa fall in Q1? What could the rainmeister Jenson Button pull out of the bag? Would Adrian Sutil - who has shown a knack for going very well in the rain in the past 18 months - make Q2? Actually, none of the above.

With the dropouts largely the usual suspects - with the exception of Nelson Piquet Jr whose lack of pace could be excused, given how close his double world champion teammate Fernando Alonso came to missing the cut - it was left to Q2 to create the real drama.

No one could quite believe that Lewis Hamilton missed out on the best of conditions by gambling on normal wets - known to most of us as intermediates despite Bridgestone and the F1 rules-makers shunning of the term - early in the session. By the time he had come in and changed to extreme wets via a visit to the weighbridge, it was too late.

No one could quite believe it. One press room luminary commented that, "if we could see it was going to rain again in the press room, why couldn't McLaren?"

As the rain got heavier and heavier and Hamilton struggled to get heat into his tyres - partly, we later learned, because he had glazed his brakes - he couldn't get close to making it in.

Then again, he was in good company, as Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica both also failed to get out into Q1, and there was plenty of interest in learning what Lewis himself and McLaren had to say about it later in the afternoon.

But first there was Q3 to get out of the way. By and large, the press members are a relatively unbiased lot despite what many would say, and there was widespread delight as Sebastian Vettel and Scuderia Toro Rosso powerboated to pole position.

There was even a round of applause, and few could resist a smile as the team - which, remember, were a few years ago perennial backmarkers as Minardi - cheered. And cheered. And cheered. Later, they cheered some more.

21-year-old Vettel is popular because he new, he's very approachable for the press, and he inhabits a good sense of humour despite being hailed by many as a future world champion. That's why he remains one of the most popular drivers in the paddock.

Hamilton is a bit of a contrast to this. As world championship leader, he is inevitably under a huge amount of scrutiny and pressure that the vast majority could not even begin to relate to - how Vettel bears up under that kind of pressure has yet to be seen.

But there is a feeling that when he's had a bad day, Lewis is not entirely comfortable about talking about it and its repercussions.

You understand his caution, given the way that the slightest slip can be turned around to create a sensational headline, but Hamilton didn't try too hard to hide what appeared to be his frustration at the number of questions born of his relatively brief answers to the questions posed.

All everyone wanted was three things:

- An understanding of the reasoning behind going out on inters, which we got;

- An explanation of why the championship leader should take a gamble in a session that has no bearing on the grid other than the need to safely emerge from it, which we didn't get;

- And some kind of upbeat fighting talk for Sunday's grand prix, which we got a little of but nowhere near enough for a really positive headline.

The reality is, Hamilton and his engineer made a minor misjudgement and were caught out by the weather. That's not a hangable offence. But if you want to get the positive headlines to give your home fans reason to watch the race on Sunday, there was ample opportunity to do it.

Lewis is there to drive, we all accept that, but McLaren boss Ron Dennis set a very good example with his comprehensive answer to the question he received about the Q2 disaster.

Hamilton wasn't the only driver to have a bad day - so did Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica to name two other big names. But a combination of his status as championship leader and his slightly uncomfortable (for him and the press) post-qualifying demeanour helped make him story of the day.

Along with grinning wunderkind Vettel, of course.