Unlike many other events of the year, the Italian Grand Prix qualifying sessions did not make for terrific news copy. Coulthard's pole was commendable, and performances by Schumacher, Barrichello, and Frentzen were noteworthy. Johnny Herbert was out-qualified decisively, but for the second time this season, he did not seem to mind while spraying champagne on Sunday afternoon. Once again, the 107 percent rule would have eliminated Inoue, Montermini, Moreno, Diniz, and Lavaggi leaving the field to an anemic 19 cars. Three-car teams were widely discussed at Monza, and let's face it, the time is now for expanding the grid with more competitive grids.
The lack of any big qualifying story in Italy left time to reflect back over the first 12 races. Damon Hill and David Coultard are in a virtual dead heat. Hill has won the qualifying battle by an average of only 0.05 seconds, and Hill has been out-qualified five times so far. In qualifying, Coultard is looking better all the time, and Hill's skills are looking more questionable each race. Michael Schumacher has dominated Herbert by an average of 1.41 seconds, but Herbert has managed to out-qualify Michael on two different occasions (neither of Johnny's wins, however). Ferrari drivers have been competitive on Friday and Saturday, but Gerhard Berger has the edge. Jean Alesi has won the qualifying duel three times, but only 0.35 seconds, on average, separates these drivers.
Mika Hakkinen must wonder what is needed to get noticed before Sunday comes around. McLaren has thrown Nigel Mansell and Mark Blundell against Hakkinen, but in all twelve races, Mika has dominated. Similarly, Heinz-Harald Frentzen has totally dominated his Sauber teammates in every race. Eddie Irvine started the season on fire during qualifying, but in recent weeks, Rubens Barrichello has looked much better. After total domination for the first six weeks, Irvine has lined-up behind Barrichello half the time over the past six events. Eddie was soundly beaten in Italy; he clearly needs to find his second wind. Finally, Ligier machinery looks terrific, but in my view, they need to find a driver to match. Olivier Panis has seen all events, but despite having to beat journeymen Aguri Suzuki and Martin Brundell, Olivier has started most races behind his teammate.
The remaining turbulent teams have erratic qualifying numbers that are difficult to follow. For example, of all drivers who have participated in nine of more events, Bertrand Gachot has out-qualified his teammates more than any other driver. Gachot averaged 2.39 seconds over Montermini and Lavaggi, but I suspect that Bertrand will not get the call from Ferrari et al. anytime soon.
Qualifying will be the big story sometime in the next few races, but in Monza, it was no more interesting than Sunday's final lap.