No grid penalty for Alonso after failures

Sep.8 (GMM) Tifosi favourite Fernando Alonso will not have to move five places down Sunday's Italian grand prix grid.Some broadcasters on Friday said there was a risk the Spaniard, who endured a bad practice Friday at Ferrari's home Monza circuit, w...

Tifosi favourite Fernando Alonso will not have to move five places down Sunday's Italian grand prix grid.

Some broadcasters on Friday said there was a risk the Spaniard, who endured a bad practice Friday at Ferrari's home Monza circuit, would cop a penalty for his gearbox breakdown.

But technical director Pat Fry explained: "Gearboxes are free on Friday obviously."

Alonso also had a brake problem as well as an engine failure on Friday, but Fry added that the latter glitch was because it was "a Friday engine at high mileage".

Championship leader Alonso, meanwhile, said that even though the F2012 seems more competitive at Monza compared to Spa a week ago, he thinks "McLaren is the favourite to win" on Sunday.

Lotus and Mercedes look quick as well.

Red Bull, however, has not been impressive on the high-speed Autodromo so far in 2012.

"I think overall we are not as quick as we would like to be," admitted 2011 Italian grand prix winner Sebastian Vettel.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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