There are those occasional races on the calendar that immediately jump out at you as points of interest and now we have two in a row coming up. As the season begins to settle into the European rhythm with updates and car development it might be a good idea to disrupt that process and throw in one of the most unpredictable races of an already mad season. That can only mean one thing, the arrival of the Monaco Grand Prix, where drivers have to negotiate their way between 2.1 miles of steel barriers and concrete walls with a little help from some rain this afternoon in second practice. A little quantity of moisture that made the run-off area on the outside of Mirabeau very popular as several cars paid it a visit and Kovalainen didn't come back from the escapade.
This race falls on one of the two most important racing weekends on the yearly calendar, there are universally recognised as three major race events in a year, the three ultimate races - The Le Mans 24hr, The Indy 500 and the Monaco GP. On Sunday two of those races take place making the coming days the pinnacle of global open wheel racing, almost worth buying in additional race-snacks for. Both races exist at opposite ends of the racing spectrum, the most high tech series in operation competing on the slowest course on it's calendar while on the other side of the Atlantic the Indycars will be covering 500 miles with lap speeds in excess of 220mph. Rather exciting really.
But this corner of the internet is aimed a little more toward the event that is cited on this continent in the small and exotic Mediterranean principality traditionally drowned in coastal sun and overly posh people - but the less said about them the better. Coverage as it always has been in Monte Carlo will be infiltrated by pseudo celebrities and people who want to be pseudo celebrities, who will be continually pointed out and stalked for no apparent reason. When the activity on the other side of the barriers is generally far more interesting, however that said should anyone actually relevant or important in the world of Blog HQ be around than I might let that slip, not so much as to enter the bonus points table however. So to turn things back onto the twisting ribbon of carnage inducing tarmac the field will be competing on over the 78 laps on Sunday afternoon.
The Track
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| Credit to the FIA for the trackmap |
For this season there have been more modifications to the track, this time on the exit of the tunnel down to Nouvelle Chicane which were evident when watching the practice session this afternoon - which takes place on Thursday only for this weekend on Monaco. What has taken place is that the stretch of road from the crest of the descent running all the way down to the exit of Tabac has been resurfaced to take out some of the bumps in the braking zone. Bumps that caused One-Stop Perez to crash into the inside wall and make secondary contact with the barriers in the chicane putting him out of the race and the subsequent event in Montreal. Additionally the barriers that Sergio made contact with has been moved a long way further back, taking out a tree in the process.
Everything else has remained as it has been for many years, because if it isn't broken there is no need on fixing anything, and while street races have sprung up across the calendar with Singapore and they still think Valencia counts as street event but that makes no sense. But the race there in Monaco still remains something special with corners recognised all through the world of motor-racing - except the folk who attempted the track from Top Gear who apparently didn't know the layout of the track which is fairly embarrassing on their part really.
But introducing the lap is something rather challenging to manage in a text box on the internet when there is something far more interesting that I can release unto the internet, in the form of the Thursday introductory video. This time we have gone a little further not just looking over the lap the cars will be covering this season but taking a mysterious journey through time and space - as a spontaneous I should have used a Delorean, well perhaps in a later edition that will come into play. But this is a 14 minute epic journey through the different phases of the Monaco GP.
What to Expect
This week I do have the benefit of seeing the first two practice sessions, well the first on only in highlight form and the second on in it's entirety, safe to say that productivity was defeated by the session, no contest really. But what I can say is that it didn't really help, it only served to demonstrate how competitive it is going to be as both Lotus and Ferrari have pulled themselves much closed to the front likely only due to the unique configuration and demands of the Monaco circuit.
So up at the front end any of the top five teams could end up on pole on Saturday afternoon, and following that the number of candidates for the top step of the podium could even verge into double figures. Additionally as the track takes away the advantages some teams have placing it more into the hands of the drivers. Allowing drivers like Kubica and Sutil to run well in cars that were off the pace compared to the leading teams at the time, therefore the top five teams could very well expect some company from the mid-field, especially considering in Spain a Williams won the race, and another team is not out of the question this time with Sauber seeming to lead the midfield struggle.
There is also another consideration to introduce this weekend and that is the weather, narrow, steel lined streets with some water thrown into the mix is an astounding thought, there was some drizzle in the second practice and more of the wet stuff is predicted for qualifying. So in prospect we could end up with a disjointed grid for the race and when you add a disjointed grid to a manic race such as Monaco and frankly all hell could break loose and I rather hope it does because it will be fantastic. I have spend a lot of time this season complaining about tracks and corners, mostly those built by Tilke but - although some of the elements of the track are not ideal, loews hairpin for example they've become comfortable and traditional. So therefore it will probably take about 70years before anyone likes the Valencia track in a couple of races time.
Blog Predictions
I know I've spent the past few paragraphs mentioning how unpredictable this event is going to be and now I get to demonstrate how true that is when the order that is to be listed below will bear no resemblance to the order that will likely appear on Sunday.
- Raikkonen
- Hamilton
- Button
- Alonso
- Grosjean
- Button
- Vettel
- Rosberg
- Webber
- Kobayashi
Qualifying battle
- Red Bull - Vettel
- McLaren - Button
- Ferrari - Alonso
- Mercedes - Schumacher
- Lotus - Raikkonen
- Force India - Hulkenberg
- Sauber - Kobayashi
- Williams - Maldonado
- Torro Rosso - Vergne
- Caterham - Kovalainen
- Marussia - Glock
- HRT - De La Rosa
There we have it all the preparations have been taken care of, with the small matter of the fact that another session will be delayed because I will not be around for the broadcast and consequently I will be back at the computer later on in the evening. Blog HQ is not used to all this socialisation it is all too complicated and confusing not something I am truly not accustomed to. But with the rain threatened it will be very worth waiting for and until that post on Saturday evening is released this is farewell from blog HQ.
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