[Race] The GROAT - Round 2 - 1971 Monza vs 2012 Interlagos

[crmalcolm]

1971 Monza
The cars lined up on the grid, and just as the cars were ready, the flag was waved and the drivers started the race. Clay Regazzoni made by far the best start, moving off fractions before the rest, to stunningly take the lead from eighth. Jo Siffert manages to take second, ahead of Jacky Ickx and polesitter Chris Amon. Siffert temporarily takes the lead from Regazzoni before the Ferrari driver drives past his BRM opponent, and takes a sizeable lead. As the drivers start the second lap, Regazzoni leads Siffert, with Jackie Stewart third, Howden Ganley fourth, Ronnie Peterson fifth, Ickx sixth, Henri Pescarolo seventh, Amon eighth, Peter Gethin ninth and François Cevert tenth. Mike Hailwood made a good start from 17th to 14th, as did Nanni Galli from 19th to 16th; Graham Hill started poorly, falling from 14th to 18th.

Siffert attacks Regazzoni, but fails to pass. Peterson makes his way past Stewart and Ganley, the New Zealander also losing a place to Ickx. At the back, Andrea de Adamich's engine misfires, and he falls to last place.

On the fourth lap, Peterson takes the lead, as both Regazzoni and Siffert are overhauled. Stewart finishes the lap second, Siffert third and Regazzoni fourth. Cevert is now seventh, and Amon has fallen to tenth, suffering from an overheating engine. Further down the pack, both Helmut Marko and John Surtees suffered from engine failures, and were the day's first retirements. 21 remained.

The top five cars run wheel-to-wheel on lap five, as Cevert overtakes Ganley for sixth, and Gethin and Amon push Pescarolo down two places. Hailwood was now eleventh, but at the back, Jean-Pierre Jarier, broke his clutch pedal, but it was soon fixed. On lap six, Regazzoni overtook his fellow Swiss driver, while Cevert overtook Ickx. Down the pack, both Tim Schenken and Silvio Moser retired with suspension issues. Hailwood was now tenth, while Pescarolo had fallen to twelfth, behind Jackie Oliver.

Peterson survives to lead lap seven while Cevert passes Siffert for fourth and Galli passes Pescarolo for twelve. Stewart made his way past Peterson on lap eight, and Hailwood moved to ninth after overtaking Amon, while Galli and Pescarolo swapped back.

Regazzoni made a move on lap nine, first getting past Peterson, followed by Stewart for the lead. Peterson then passed Stewart to take second back. Behind them, Hailwood made it past Gethin to get into the top eight, and Galli and Pescarolo swapped once again.

Regazzoni lost the lead to Peterson on lap ten, as Stewart held off Siffert, who'd overtaken Cevert. Ixkx and Ganley were still sixth and seventh, while Hailwood held eighth. Amon had overhauled Gethin for ninth, while Oliver held onto eleventh with Galli twelfth and Pescarolo thirteenth. The top five were separated by 0.9 seconds, and Pescarolo was only 4.4 seconds down on Peterson.


2012 Interlagos
With only light rain just 10 minutes before the start, all teams opted to start on slick tyres. Vettel got away poorly, dropping to seventh position, while his rival Alonso moved up into fifth. Vettel and Bruno Senna collided at turn 4 in a racing incident, which saw Vettel spin while Senna ended up hitting the rear of Pérez. Vettel suffered damage to his left sidepod but was able to carry on, in 22nd position. However, the reigning world champion began to move up the order, as there was close racing for position at the front of the field as well. Massa helped his teammate overtake Mark Webber on lap two going into the Senna-S, giving the Spaniard the crucial third position he would need to win the title. But Alonso lost the position again to the fast running Force India of Nico Hülkenberg after running wide on lap four. Maldonado crashed out on lap two, when he lost control of his car on the kerb through the inside of turn 3, and crashed into the tyre barrier on the exit of the corner.

Rain began to fall during the next few laps and the first cars made pit stops for intermediate tyres, including the two title contenders, while Button and Hülkenberg stayed out. This proved to be the right decision since the rain decreased shortly afterwards and cars on intermediates were forced to pit for slick tyres once again. Hülkenberg continued his strong performance by overtaking Button for the lead at the end of lap 18 (their official time differential at the finish line at the end of that lap was 0.000).

With the two cars in front leading the field by almost a minute, debris on the track brought out the safety car on lap 23. At this point Alonso and Vettel were running in fourth and fifth place. At the restart on lap 29, Kamui Kobayashi took fifth position from Vettel. The damage on the Red Bull car slowed Vettel down considerably more in dry conditions, and Massa helped his teammate by overtaking the German shortly after. Meanwhile, at the front, Hamilton took second from his teammate and was able to pass Hülkenberg when the German half-spun. Hülkenberg pursued the McLaren but slid into him on lap 54, leaving Hamilton out of the race with damage to the left front suspension and himself with a drive-through penalty, handing Button the lead.

When the rain started again, Vettel was one of the first to pit for intermediates, but since his radio had failed the team was not ready for him, causing a long delay. Ferrari timed Massa's pit stop well, letting Alonso take second position from him. Vettel took sixth position from Michael Schumacher which proved sufficient to retain the title even with Alonso finishing second.

The race ended after Paul di Resta crashed on the start/finish straight shortly before the end, bringing out the safety car once again until the conclusion of the race. Caterham's Vitaly Petrov took 11th position which meant his team overtook Marussia in the Constructors' Championship. Former world champion Kimi Räikkönen had an eventful race as well, almost crashing into Vettel after the start and later trying to use an escape road only to find it to be a dead end. He later stated the way had been open 11 years prior, having made the same manoeuver at the 2001 race. He also had a close contest with the retiring Michael Schumacher, who finished seventh after recovering from an early puncture, but gave up sixth to Vettel in order to help him extend his small point advantage over Fernando Alonso in the championship.

[S griffin]

Brazil 2012 was a classic finale, but Monza 71 was a thriller all the way.