Well, if things in the Mercedes garage were not tense enough eh, nothing like a little side serving of controversy to round off what was an unusually well behaved session in Monaco. Perhaps if Hamilton hadn't overslept on Thursday he wouldn't be wearing such a grumpy face this afternoon, he ended the session with a stare even more deathly than the one Daniil has been wearing all season. However after the Russian had an almighty moment coming out of the tunnel I daresay that Mr Kvyat will be wearing a 'new pants please' stare for a while.
Monaco always manages to throw up something different, and today was certainly no different - conspiracy theories are once more being chanted from sofas and grandstands up and down the country. Flashbacks to Schumacher's infamous parking manoeuvre at Rascasse in 2006 and the allegations of cheating that followed. Yes Michael was renowned for bending and occasionally breaking the rules for personal gain, but would Nico be quite so devious. The stewards have made their call, but the rest of the world isn't quite so sure.
Q1
With track position so important on a track where it is so easy to get held up it was the Mercedes team who decided that it wasn't enough to be winning everything they had to be first to take to the track. Within moments the rest of the field joined in and things ultimately got very busy. For some reason in the initial top time was set by Pastor Maldonado - but the Venezuelan has always done well on the streets of Monaco, in fact those drivers who are occasionally considered a liability tend to be very quick in Monaco. Checcoto in GP2 is another prime example. It wasn't long before the yellow flags came out, as we heard a radio message from Kvyat where the Russian pointed out he'd damaged the front wing. Yet the replays showed that Daniil had a monumental sideways moment coming on the run down the chicane, and somehow managed to avoid shattering the Toro Rosso into thousands of pieces - only knocking the front wing off. Many drivers have had much larger accidents in exactly the same place.
Normal service resumed when it was a Mercedes at the front of the field - this time in the hands of Nico Rosberg, slightly ahead of Hamilton - who had managed to wake up for this session, just not enough to beat the German. Then there was a slight turn in events when several drivers decided to switch onto the softer tyres to escape the relegation zone - a change that worked well for Toro Rosso, Vergne was able to go fastest and Kvyat after sliding down the wall also made it into the top ten. At the very end of the session there was a little skirmish between Marcus Eriksson and Massa. Felipe on an outlap left room for the Caterham in Mirabeau but the Swede got several kinds of sideways and bounced into the side of the Williams knocking the Brazilian out of qualifying.
Q2
After the excitement of Q1 it could be said that the second phase of qualifying was a lot more routine and once again Rosberg was able to get out of the garage ahead of Lewis - Hamilton slightly asleep again perhaps. Just like in the first session the Mercedes cars took two laps to get the most out of tyres whereas others were straight on the pace - Hulkenberg immediately into the 1:17's while the silver cars were a second or so slower. Naturally that order was corrected on the following lap, Rosberg going fastest 0.035 only ahead of Hamilton.
Behind the Mercedes team everyone else was very quietly going about their business, except Vettel - who found something else to complain about on the radio. This time it was the electronic gubbins in the car not giving him enough power - yet the German still was the closest driver to the Mercedes pair, so I doubt that was quite as much wrong with the car as he suggested. It was turning into quite the day for Toro Rosso as both cars had made it into the top ten. While Jenson Button was having a less successful afternoon, in comparison to his rookie team-mate, despite some severe lock-ups into St Devote Magnussen made it through into the final part of qualifying. But in reality it was up to the Red Bull team to take on the Mercedes pairing as we moved into Q3.
Q3
Ten drivers remaining, only two of which had any realistic chance of taking pole position, I'd like to say that we were in for a titanic struggle down to the final few seconds of the session... but no. In the first round Nico Rosberg delivered the first strike, setting what turned out to be the pole time 0.059 seconds ahead of Hamilton. There was a certain symmetry to the opening runs as the second row was a whole Red Bull affair and Ferrari had control of row three - it sort of points out that there is a disparity between the performances across the top three teams. Previously it was just a muddle over everyone else behind the silver arrows but it has spread out since then.
After a quick set of pit-stops it was time for the all important second runs the only point in the whole weekend when the drivers are able to give it full beans... and it all fell apart miserably. Rosberg once again went out first and was pushing hard through the first sector - until he reached Mirabeau. And this is where the controversy begins - Nico went in too deep and had to take the narrow escape road to keep out of the barrier. This brought out the yellow flags, naturally, but the Mercedes was sufficiently down the escape road for it not to be too much of a problem for following cars. Until he reversed back out on to the track, which is the de-facto approach to an off at Mirabeau - the problem was that Nico emerged from the escape road into a position of more danger as Hamilton was approaching the corner... Consequently Lewis had to abandon his lap - which was going to be faster - and allow Rosberg to take pole position.
Cue the raft of conspiracy theories, the video of Rosberg's mistake has been analysed to death by world champions, engineers, journalists and everyone else and no-one can conclusively decide that it wasn't an intentional act. You could say that is merely cynicism coming through, trying to rile up the intensity of the relationship in the team - not being a driver myself it just looked like a simple outbreaking incident. The actual reversal onto the track wasn't captured on camera, we only saw Hamilton's on-board where Nico was much closer to the edge of the track. Either way Hamilton was very displeased, in the press conference and interviews he had a stare Kvyat would have been proud of. The incident was investigated and no wrong doing was discovered.
The Bonus Points Championship
Monaco still offers a unique challenge, especially considering the difficulties these new cars pose and it means that a driver can really make a difference - well at least a bit of one. But bonus points will be scored as follows:
- 10pts - Daniil Kvyat: After avoiding a monumental accident in Q1 puts the car in the top ten on a track he had never visited before - gets the full points
- 8pts - Jean-Eric Vergne: More points for Toro Rosso, even though he was on the super-softs setting the fastest time in Q1
- 6pts - Kevin Magnussen: Another rookie making into the top ten while his world champion team-mate is trapped down in 12th
- 5pts - Pastor Maldonado: Has to have some points for an epic slide coming down the hill, the closest you could get to a shunt without actually hitting the barrier.
- 4pts - Nico Rosberg: Despite ruining the final part of qualifying, pole position does deserve some points considering Hamilton's run of form
- 3pts - Daniel Ricciardo: Again the Australian beats the German Bloke... even if there were more technical difficulties with Vettel's car
- 2pts - Kimi Raikkonen: Gets a couple of points for coming ever so close to the wall in Tabac
- 1pt - Max Chilton: For not being last
Looking to Tomorrow
It's going to be fun isn't it, the events of today make the battle between the Mercedes drivers that bit more interesting - Hamilton is not best pleased and the target of his displeasure is positioned right alongside him. Further back we have lots of cars of a similar pace all fighting for what remains of the points, and if the GP2 races are anything to go by, there will be safety car interruptions. That'll severely re-arrange the strategies and to make things potentially worse, there is a 30% chance of Thursday's rain showers returning. Jenson Button said that no-one wants rain, but I can say Jenson from my sofa and I think rain would be a brilliant idea because the outcome would be complete insanity. So sorry Jenson, I believe there are millions of people around the world really prefer a decent downpour.
If the Monaco GP wasn't enough there is also the Indy 500, let the greatest race weekend of the year commence...
No comments:
Post a Comment