Italian GP: Facts and figures
2010-09-09 08:10
Sept 8 - Facts and figures for Sunday's Italian F1 Grand Prix:
Circuit: Monza.
Lap distance: 5.793 km. Total distance: 53 laps (306.720 km)
Race lap record: Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Ferrari one minute 21.046 seconds (2004). Average speed 257.320 km/h.
2009 pole: Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 1:24.066
Resume of last five races:
2009 - Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Brawn
Barrichello had started with concern about his car's gearbox but ended with team mate Button's lead trimmed to 14 points. Button returned to the podium for first time in six races. Hamilton started on pole but crashed on the last lap while in third place.
2008 - Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso
Vettel, 21, became Formula One's youngest race winner as well as the youngest driver to start on pole. The win, in spray and slippery conditions, was Toro Rosso's first.
2007 Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren
Alonso, on pole, led team mate Hamilton in a McLaren one-two, cutting the Briton's lead to three points with four races left.
2006 Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari
Seven-times champion Schumacher took a 90th career win and announced his retirement. Renault's Alonso was demoted five places on the starting grid for impeding Ferrari's Massa in qualifying. He retired with a blown engine.
2005 Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) McLaren
Montoya won from pole and Alonso stretched his lead over Kimi Raikkonen to 27 points with four races remaining. Schumacher was mathematically ruled out of the title battle for the first time since 1999.
Monza is F1's oldest and fastest circuit, with cars reaching speeds of more than 360km/h and averaging more than 240km/h a lap. It takes a heavy toll on brakes and engines.
Set in a royal park to the north-east of Milan, Monza has been home to every Italian Grand Prix since 1950 with the exception of 1980 when the race moved to Imola. No other circuit has hosted more grands prix.
The first race there was in 1922.
Tragedies include the deaths in 1961 of Ferrari driver Wolfgang von Trips and 14 spectators, killed when the German crashed into the crowd. Von Trips had been heading for the title, won by American team mate Phil Hill.
Austrian Jochen Rindt was killed in qualifying at the Parabolica curve in 1970 and became F1's only posthumous champion.
