We are half way through the two major events of the day at the end of the Monaco Grand Prix, which I can say that the teams got rather lucky which is a shame for all us folk sitting on our chairs in front of the television as they were all spared the rain by the falling of the chequered flag. As the podium celebrations were in flow the skies finally released the onslaught of moisture, which would have been a lot of fun had it descended in its entirety during the final few laps of the race instead of the minor intermittent drizzle we settled with. This time round Monaco did suffer from the perennial problem of cars not being able to overtake on the narrow street course. A problem that mainly affected the race of Button who found himself dealing with slower cars for the majority of the race - echoing back to the race where DC had forty laps trapped behind Enrique Bernoldi in an Arrows.
Today's race, encompassed many of the traditional elements of a Monte Carlo race, mainly in the fact there was a whole bunch of posh people turning up just to plug their own films and products - none of which is going to taking place here. Mainly because the blog doesn't really care too much for their secret agendas, this corner of the internet focusses a little more on the action on the other side of the barriers. Just because the event didn't have too much going on this time round in the central portion of the race - well by not much it could be classified as almost nothing. Does open up the bonus points opportunities for anyone who made the effort to make their way past another driver without losing wheels in the process. But by the end of the 78 laps we had our 6th different winner of the season which according to the guys on TV is a nice new shiny record.
The Race
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| Grosjean going the wrong way: F1Fanatic.co.uk |
Several thoughts were bouncing around the paddock as everyone was lining up in position, firstly rumours of a possible protest surrounding a hole in the floor of the Red Bull car placed on either side in front of the rear wheels. The hole diverts the air from under the car round the wheels and into the rear diffuser, therefore increasing downforce and airflow, however this comes with questionable legality from some teams. The second idea running it's way up and down the pit lane was the threat of some rain, the same rain that was proposed for the Saturday qualifying session but that failed to make an appearance.
The start of a Monaco race is one of the more exciting moments of the Formula One season, and as those famed lights start to illuminate it is enough to make you put down the race snacks and shift all the concentration onto the CRT screen in the corner. Well life in Blog HQ isn't exactly living in the technological future, especially with this machine running completely without any form of battery functionality - little trip to Amazon needed to fix that problematic situation methinks in the not too distant future. But all those superfluous thoughts are banished from anyone's mind when that final light illuminates on the timing gantry.
All five red lights extinguished and the cars were released and an equal start off the front row for both Nico and Webber left the Australian out front through Sainte Devote without threat from behind as Hamilton in third had a less then ideal launch and left a space. However space is not something the short down to turn one has a lot of, and a shortage of space requires a lot of patience to get through the corner. This leads to another problem, at the start of a race where this could easily be the only chance to overtake another driver patience does tend to get ignored rather easily. When patience gets ignored in such a small space then things tend to go a little wrong, and go wrong they did.
Alonso made a strong start and tried to get past Romain Grosjean before turn one, the Ferrari touched the Lotus and Romain was forced left. The normally isn't too much of a problem but on Grosjean's left was Micheal Oh Sch...umacher and an immovable steel barrier - you can see where this is going. Romain made wheel to wheel contact with the Mercedes which broke the suspension on the Lotus and sent it spinning across the track. Most cars managed to avoid the spinning car except Kobayshi who was thrown through the air after clipping the rear tyre on the Lotus almost landing on Button on the outside of the corner. But the mayhem wasn't quite done as Maldonado starting from the back drove into Pedro De La Rosa and One-Stop Perez made contact with the rear of Petrov's Caterham, meaning we lost 5 cars as a result of the first lap.
On a slightly different note Sato leads the indy 500, awesome
Ultimately the safety car had to be thrown to clear up the debris from the cars, and the restart seemed to almost catch Hamilton by surprise, as much as it did the commentators, but the race control message was displayed as the SLS reached the swimming pool. It also said DRS was enabled but that had to have been an error as it is disabled immediately after a restart. For this phase of the race the drivers went into more of a conservative mode - finding some of that patience that was going be very useful for the majority of the race. Especially for Jenson Button who had found himself behind the Caterham of Heikki after avoiding the launched FC Sauber in turn one. Webber lead the queue of cars from Rosberg and Hamilton, in a process of tyre conservation laps in the process of setting up a single stop strategy without pressing too hard to catch the cars in front as that would destroy the tyres. Of course there is the other matter that even when right behind the car in front passing between the walls is not really the easiest of tasks, even with the vagaries in tyres this season.
Interestingly it turned out that overtaking wasn't entirely impossible in this iteration of the Monaco GP, it may have been a lot more inactive than last seasons but it was a couple of iotas above inert as One-Stop Perez was mounting a recovery. Having to start from the back of the grid after binning it in Q1, had found himself behind Jean Eric Vergne's Torro Rosso on the run down into the chicane. Sergio lunged up the inside and the Frenchman was forced to cut the chicane and retained the position in the process. At this point the first call threatening rain came through to Raikkonen encouraging him to stay out as a train of cars was beginning to build behind him it was China all over again. Oh Sch...umacher was the first car trapped behind the Lotus and in turn was been hunted down by Hulkenberg in the Force India.
Back on an alternative note, Takuma now running third on pace behind the two Ganassi cars.
Having squeezed past Vernge, One-Stop Perez had found is next victim in the form of Charles Pic's Marussia. The chicane that eliminated Sergio from the qualifying session and the whole event in 2011 seemed to prove to be a little more productive this time round. Performing the exact same move on Pic down the inside into the chicane, Charles cut the corner to avoid contact kept the place but surrendered it into Tabac. Not having the same sort of success was Jenson Button languishing behind the Catherham and probably not being too pleased in the process as the pit stop sequence was setting into motion for those running on the softer of the two compounds present.
As Vettel was running the prime tyres cycled through into the lead and was running several really quick laps on clear track uncontested even with more threats of rain coming through the radios. When Sebastien finally came in for his stop he rejoined in front of Hamilton but behind Alonso who had also jumped Lewis. But things were a little more consistent in the realm of Jenson Button who was also running longer on his tyres, as when rejoined the race a shiny green Caterham sneak round the outside of the McLaren at the blend line. Which settled positions for a really long time.
So I'll turn to the Indy 500 - under caution with 12 to go and Sato is in 4th
While the yellow flies in Indy back to the plot and a replay shows Perez, trying to get to the pits while Raikkonen was trying to pass to the inside, luckily contact was narrowly averted but One-Stop was handed a drive-through for impeding the Lotus. With 20 laps remaining in the race the top six cars had began to run line astern Webber leading Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton. Towards the back of the train Oh Sch...umacher was rapidly catching the train lapping as second a lap faster as the leaders were holding themselves up in the long train that was building.
But it wasn't destined to last long for Micheal as he radioed in a mechanical problem and was beginning to lose power in the higher speed sections of the track. He immediately began to fall down the order initially to Jean Eric Vergne on the front straight and the two Force india drivers were closing fast. But the German was forced to retire.
Curses and more curses, Sato crashe out making a pass for the lead on the final lap of the Indy 500
Not too pleased at that, but I shall get back to the main programme of events here at blog HQ, the race was coming closer to its conclusion and finally that threat of rain was starting to materialise but only in the form of light drizzle. It brought the lap times down by a couple of seconds and with the clouds forming on the hills and the radar become more populated it was Vergne who took to the pit-lane for intermediate tyres. If the rain had intensified it would have paid off wonderfully but it didn't so he fell back massively. A little further down the grid Button was getting tired of looking at the back of a Caterham and had a look down the inside into the chicane. Heikki squeezed the McLaren close to the walls and maintained the position, Jenson was to have another go into the final part of the swimming pool but found the door closed once more. In avoidance of Heikki's car, Button span off into the run-off area and trundled round into retirement.
It wasn't the end of Kovalainen's fun for the day as although Button was missing from the queue the next car swooped into position in the form of One-Stop Perez, and Sergio hasn't been as considerate as Jenson had been when it comes to passing people. Sure enough the FC Sauber driver was going to have a go, however opting not to use the chicane this time but turn one instead. Diving to the outside of the Caterham lead to the pair bumping wheels in the braking zone, which sent Sergio down the escape lane - handing Heikki a temporary reprieve. Battle would be re-commence once the leading cars had made their way though under the influence of blue flags. While Ricciardo retires his car with an undiagnosed mechanical problem.
After having a period of light rain the track began to dry up again with only a couple of laps remaining, and Perez was reunited with the back of the Caterham which now was missing parts of its front wing, not entirely sure where those went missing but likely Sergio was involved. The FC Sauber driver capitalised on the reduced braking capability Heikk had at his disposal and used the chicane to pass the Finn who was forced to stop to change the nose but remained in a strong 13th position.
Positions out front remained consistent right to the end despite all the top runners being separated by mere tenths, but passing was a little out of the question. Rosberg pressed hard on the final lap of the race but was unable to defeat the Australian so Webber crossed the line to complete a Red Bull trilogy at Monaco heading a podium populated by Rosberg and Alonso who now leads the championship. Vettel finished fourth ahead of Hamilton and best friend Massa in sixth. Both Force India cars scored points with Di Resta 7th and Hulkenberg 8th while Raikkonen and Senna rounded out the points and the top ten.
And in other news Franchitti has begrudgingly won the Indy 500... buggerit
So we had another party on the Monaco Red Bull barge with reporters and the like all staying well away from the central pool, especially Eddie who probably is still recovering from the soaking last season. What was most notable was that while the crew from the BBC were in the middle of the barge, those people from SKY was trapped behind the barriers and were quarantined with the other photographers and reporters. Score one for the BBC and that is why the evil folk from sky are providing inferior service, massive shame we are shifting to SKY TV for the next race in Canada so no idea where the coverage here is coming from, but will cross that bridge when it comes to it in a fortnights time.
The bonus points championship points winners
Despite the race being for the most part rather dull, with a lot of processional running it may seem harder to assign points but the blog will not falter in the face of a challenge, well not in this instance, other times there may be a lot of faltering in this little corner of the internet.
25pts - Takuma Sato - Came so painfully close to winning the Indy 500 today, a bloody good job there shame for it to finish in the fence so here are some points
18pts - Heikki Kovalainen - For withstanding virtually an entire race under immense pressure and was only forced offline to surrender the position by Perez
15pts - One-Stop Perez - For actually passing people because no-one else seemed to bother today
12pts - Mark Webber - A strong drive and a good win from lights to flag
10pts - Felipe Massa - For scoring four times his entire season points haul on one race today
8ptes - Jenson Button - Wins points for being so immensely patient for most of the race at least
6pts - Jean Eric Verge - A very brave call, if it had worked it would have been genius
4pts - Paul Di Resta - Great avoidance of the flying FC Sauber on lap one and strong race
2pts - The BBC - For beating sky in the post race and spying on them in the process, well played BBC
1pt - Dario Franchitti - Suppose you should get a point for winning it and all, despite falling out with the blog in the process, just means no Christmas card this year
The penalties series
In a season where driving penalties have been a little scarce in comparison with technical penalties for changes of gearboxes and engines post qualifying but they have started to escalate and following the race we can add Sergio Perez to the list for the pit entry issue with Raikkonen.
The penalty points series
Now I was a little fatigued yesterday when the post was released and this section was missing, so there is some catching up to do really, starting with Sebastien Vettel - who is handed a penalty point for not running in Q3 yesterday.
Moving swiftly on to the race session and there is very little to complain about - except a certain race over in Indiana - on the basis that no-one really did anything but that situation would have been averted should the rain have turned up a little earlier and intervened a little more substantially. So I shall give a penalty point to the weather for this weekend as well.
Looking ahead to Canada
Last season we were treated to an outstanding Monaco GP and I might have challenged Canada to outdo it a little... and Montreal delivered what could be considered the greatest race of the entire season and at least a few years before that. So Canada would you mind beating that once more, please although it shouldn't be too complicated this time around.
In addition to the Monaco GP, Canada is one of the most exiting races of the season, as the track behaves much in the same way that a street circuit does, with the additional component of higher speeds and concrete walls instead of steel armco. On top of that it is possible to pass other drivers in Canada unlike in the event that just unfolded (no not that one, the less said there the better) which does add a further dimension. Without looking at the forecast for next race I doubt there will be same quantity of rain and madness we did see in 2011, but I can expect it to be one of the best events of the season.
In light of recent events think I shall wrap things up here now and weep into my tea at the most fantastic conclusion of this dual race weekend fading away with three corners to go... so sad, so until next time this is farewell from me here in Blog HQ.
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