Italian Qualifying: Williams Uncompetitive

After struggling to produce any real performance from the FW31 the AT&T Williams team were not looking in a strong position for qualifying for the 2009 Italian Grand Prix. The final practice session had again seen Kazuki Nakajima head of team-mate Nico Rosberg in the times but they were way down in fourteenth and sixteenth. It was not looking good for either driver to make it past the first twenty minute period.

The period would get underway with Fisichella heading out early after the team had to repair his car after his practice crash. He was on the soft tyres while Raikkonen and Liuzzi on the harder one. several other drivers would leave the pit lane as the first time went to Fisichella with a 1m:25.590. Raikkonen was second with Liuzzi third. But Raikkonen would go quickest with a time of 1m:24.230. Glock was now second but Grosjean would move up to second but this would become third as Sutil went second fastest with a time of 1m:24.245. Button was now third while Sutil would improve his time but not his position remaining second.

But Brawn would show some pace with Barrichello now fastest, 1m:24.036, and Button was second. Kovalainen was seventh as Raikkonen continued to improve his times again moving to the top of the times with a 1m:23.610. With eight minutes of the period completed the whole field was out on the track as Barrichello returned to the top of the times with Raikkonen second followed by Heidfeld. Button would move ahead of Barrichello while Hamilton would finally leave the pit lane and despite a moment at the first chicane would post a time that would see him fastest, 1m:23.384. Vettel was down in eighth. Hamilton would improve with a 1m:23.375.

Both Williams drivers were facing the prospect of not making it through the first period. On his last lap Nico would fail to make the cut while Kazuki would make a mistake at the first chicane and would abort his lap returning to the pits. With the first period of qualifying completed the following five drivers had fail to make the cut Glock, Kazuki, Nico, Buemi, and Alguersuari. The result for the Williams team was not entirely unexpected given their pace in the practice sessions leading up to qualifying.

After the second period the top ten would be Button, Hamilton, Barrichello, Sutil, Liuzzi, Webber, Raikkonen, Vettel, Kovalainen, and Alonso. In the final period Raikkonen would set the first benchmark time with a 1m:25.586. Vettel was now second, 1m:25.846, while Hamilton would go quickest with a time of 1m:24.605. With six minutes of the ten minute period completed only three times had been set. A lot of the drivers would only be making one run. Sutil was now second with a 1m:25.142 but Raikkonen would move ahead of him. Kovalainen was fourth so with the drivers only having time for one final lap the order was Hamilton from Raikkonen, Sutil, and Kovalainen.

Button would improve to be sixth while Vettel was fourth. On his last lap Sutil would go fastest with a 1m:24.261 but Hamilton would cross the line setting a time of 1m:24.066 to push Sutil down to second. Raikkonen would finish third from Kovalainen, Barrichello, Button, Liuzzi, Alonso, Vettel, and Webber in tenth.

With Kazuki and Nico starting Sunday's race from seventeenth and eighteenth the chances of achieving an sort of points scoring finish looked very remote. At least Kazuki had the satisfaction of out-qualifying team-mate Nico but he was facing the prospect of still having zero points showing against his name at the end of the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday..