Round 6 - Monaco 2015 - Delayed Review

Greetings Internet, 

Due an increasing number of rehearsals, everything else had to be rescheduled slightly, and given how late it is tonight this shall be a slightly abridged version of the conventional review post...

It could be said that F1 is a game of percentages, from setting the brake bias front to rear, to filtering out the slowest possible cars in qualifying. Most of the time those percentages are very small, only amounting to fractions of a second, tiniest changes in wing angle and tyre pressure. This season's Monaco GP could be forensically examined - and in one pit stall it certainly will be - to break down those percentages and figures into explanations and reasoning. From here on the sofa those percentages were a lot bigger, wherein the race was 75% dull and forgettable but 25% baffling and inexplicable. And here miles away from anything that matters, out in the wilderness of Northern England it doesn't matter too much if I get those percentages slightly wrong. But when you are sitting on the pit-wall in charge of the leading car in one of the most important races of the season, you have to get those numbers exactly right. Down to the tiniest of all percentages. So when the margins are so small, the margins between victory and defeat, between success and failure - it becomes so easy to look like a bit of a prat. We wouldn't expect the most successful team at present make such fools of themselves now would we... It could be said that there is a certain benefit of having your drivers live in Monaco, because you don't have to endure the awkward flight back to the factory.

The Race

This may be a race of 78 laps, and over 260km but on the streets the most important distance of all stretches from the start line to the entry of St Devote. That is the best opportunity to gain an advantage, and sometimes it is the only opportunity. Often they say that a race cannot be won at the first corner, but in Monaco you can come very close to sealing victory before a single lap has been completed. Despite not getting a strong launch at the start of the formation lap, Hamilton made a far batter start than he did in Spain. Both Red Bulls made strong starts only to find there was no space in front of them - as Ricciardo was blocked by Vettel he lost a place to Kvyat on the inside. Everyone made it through turn one intact - barring a slight collision between Maldonado and Massa in the middle of the pack causing a puncture on the Williams. Further round the lap Alonso attempted a pass down the inside of Nico Hulkenberg but lost control of the McLaren and nudged the Force India into the wall. Hulkenberg lost his front wing but could recover to the pits for a new one. Alonso would later receive a pit-stop penalty for the collision

A couple of laps into the race Lotus were having discussions with Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior about the state of his brakes. The team claimed they were OK, while Pastor was far less convinced. A lack of braking capability was exploited by Mad Max Verstappen who made an excellent pass down the inside of the Lotus in St Devote. Pastor held on round the outside, brushing the wall almost but had to cede the position. If only Max remembered how to overtake a Lotus which was struggling to decelerate later in the race... but then again if he did, the outcome of the race wouldn't have been nearly quite so amusing. Within a few laps of losing the place to the Toro Rosso, Maldonado had to bring the car into the pits to retire from the race, a hydraulic failure was reducing the braking efficiency and would have utimately damaged the gearbox. Grosjean had already suffered a grid penalty after replacing a gearbox so Lotus could do without another one.

After the opening shenanigans, it was very calm - Hamilton was building a lead from Rosberg with Vettel not too much father behind. But in the midst of the calm feint concerns were building for Mercedes, Hamilton was informed that one of his front brakes was outside it's temperature window. So Lewis was instructed to conserve front brakes for a little while. It does say something when the most intriguing development at the front was a hotter than usual bit of brake material. The messages went on for some while - and given that Monaco is a track with very few straight bits - so it does indicate that Hamilton doesn't mind people talking to him during the corners... as long as he is winning. 

While it was predicted to be a single stop race, several drivers towards the lower reaches of the order opted to pit early, probably an effort to get out of traffic in the middle of the pack. Bolting on the softer, faster tyres while in clean air to gain any faint scent of an advantage. Bottas, Ericsson and Sainz - who had to start from the pit-lane - were amongst the early stoppers. Over the coming laps - Nasr and Grosjean joined the list of drivers trying the alternate strategy. In the end it sort of stops being recognised as an alternate strategy when everyone starts doing it. But those at the very front of the field showed no signs of coming in. They were too busy handling the lapped traffic, predominantly the Manor GP cars, which for once were actually getting some TV coverage for their sponsors... if they had any. People of the internet, if you conveniently have several million quid lying about - feel free to sponsor Manor to get something interesting on their slightly bland livery. 

The discussions of pit strategies, and the lack of stickers on the Manor car are a clear indication that this phase of the race was quite dull, which is always a risk at Monaco. A lot of the images showed cars with no-one anywhere near them - there was a shot of Sergio Perez, who had forward and rear facing cameras and all we could see was blank track either side. The only battle on track was between Raikkonen and Ricciardo which was over 5th and 6th place - the Finn appeared to be considerably faster than the Red Bull, but because this is Monaco overtaking requires a much greater pace difference. The rest of the field started to run through their pit stop sequences, which didn't work out too well for Mad Max Verstappen, who lost 20 seconds as the team had some issues with a jammed wheel nut. This dropped the dutchman a long way down the field. In a world where pitting first in a battle often hands you an advantage on track, Raikkonen was running against the grain. In his fight with the Australian, Ricciardo pitted first but the Ferrari driver took the place away from the Red Bull.

With the pit stops all done the longest stint of the race was upon us, and it was a stint that was to last to the end of the race, which meant positions had to be made on track. Well that was the idea anyway, and things never really go to plan these days - instead we had a stint that was mostly composed of various drivers just building a gap to each other and negotiating lapped traffic. This might seem a little uninteresting, and for the most part you'd be right - but the task of negotiating the lapped cars often brings with it a set of amusing radio calls. Radio calls that generally involve Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn was on top form once more as he was swearing at the slower runners as they impeded his quest of hunting down Daniil Kvyat in the leading Red Bull. One car that didn't have to face the challenge of doing any lappery or face being lapped was Fernando Alonso's McLaren - Emperor Dennis likely finds Honda's lack of reliability... Disturbing. At least Darth Button was still on course to score the McLaren Empire's first points of 2015.

As Vettel was negotiating his way through some of the lapped traffic, something devious was occurring. Mad Max Verstappen was stalking the Ferrari whilst being on fresher tyres. So as Vettel lapped a car, Max followed the Ferrari through and claimed the place - his first victim was his team-mate Carlos Sainz on the exit of Rascasse. This was followed up by a pass on Bottas in the first part of Portier. The folk at Lotus noticed what was happening and informed Grosjean - the next car to be lapped - of Verstappen's strategy. As Vettel lapped Romain at the Loews Hairpin, he eased back across just enough to prevent Mad Max from repeating his latest trick. Verstappen was considerably quicker than the Lotus, but he had to make it past on his own this time in his pursuit of the final world championship point. After a couple of laps of stalking the Lotus, Mad Max Verstappen decided to strike. Sitting in the DRS aided slipstream Max was aiming for a pass in St Devote. However there was a minor problem - he missed. Instead he clipped the rear of Romain's car tearing off his left front wheel before slamming into the barriers in St Devote. The impact buried the car in the TecPro padding, and the accident as a whole illustrated the vast differences in the levels of robustness between front and rear suspension pieces. Grosjean's car was completely undamaged and drove away. But if Verstappen's suspension hadn't failed on impact the Toro Rosso would probably have been launched into the air which would have been a very dangerous accident.

For a brief period of time a virtual safety car was called, as had been used in the GP2 races to clear up accidents. But once the marshals noted that the Toro Rosso was deeply embedded in the wall, the virtual safety car was upgraded to a real safety car. I bet Maylander in the safety car was rather pleased to find out that he was no longer virtual and existed in the real world. 

This is when things went quite a lot wrong, with so many cars a lap down and large gaps between cars several teams and drivers opted for a final pitstop. Putting the faster tyres on for a final sprint for the end. But that strategy is generally reserved for those cars who have someone in front of them they want to pass. Not for those cars who are in the lead, but no-one told Mercedes this - and inexplicably they brought Hamilton in for new tyres. Lewis rejoined in third place... and as he fell in line behind Vettel's Ferrari the magnitude of Mercedes' monumental cock up became evident. They had made an unnecessary pit-stop and cost their lead driver the win - all because they miscalculated his lead by 3.5s. Several radio messages allowed it all to sink in, Lewis asked his team if he had lost the race, and what happens next. To save face the team simply responded with a comment on his superior tyre condition... slightly ignoring the fact that you could have strapped jet engines to Hamilton's Mercedes and overtaking would still be very difficult.

In the few laps that remained after the restart, Hamilton didn't even come close to completing a pass on any of the cars in front. Ricciardo on the other hand did make progress - firstly dealing with Kimi Raikkonen. Daniel nudged the Ferrari out of the way, to which Kimi was not pleased summed up beautifully in another comic radio message. The Finn told his team that he was hit out of the way and the fact that Ricciardo was "not very nice" - so being a lapped car is an offence which deserves all manner of expletives, but a bump and run pass is just, not very nice. Ricciardo followed this up with a choreographed overtake on Daniil Kvyat to allow the Australian to make a final charge on Hamilton... who was still stuck behind Vettel. After it became evident that Ricciardo wasn't going to be able to steal the final podium spot, he allowed Daniil to take the place back which the othe Dan borrowed a few laps earlier. 

By virtue of an almighty strategic balls up, Rosberg claimed a third consecutive Monaco GP win, crossing the line ahead of Sebastian Vettel. An understandably grumpy Hamilton finished third - before pulling over at Portier to contemplate the meaning of life. Eventually he rejoined the rest of the podium finishers on the main straight - ramming into the 3rd place marker board in indignation. Outside the podium Kvyat took a career best 4th place, ahead of Ricciardo and Raikkonen. Perez took an anonymous but impressive 7th. Darth Button scored McLaren's first points this year. Despite not being spotted on TV all race, Felipe 'Fred' Nasr appeared in 9th place, while Carlos Sainz completed a pit lane to points finish.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a race which was mostly only good for looking at pictures of the scenery and watching cars driving all by themselves between the barriers... it becomes difficult to pick enough people to give points to. But here goes.

• 25pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - Pits to points in Monaco is definitely an achievement with so few retirements
• 18pts - Daniil Kvyat - A career best 4th place and an excellent move on Riccardo in turn one
• 15pts - Mad Max Verstappen - Before it all went a bit pants, he made the best passes of the day, and employed a brilliant and devious plan
• 12pts - Sergio Perez - Although he did have an anonymous race, keeping the Force India in the points is a good day for a team lacking development
• 10pts - Darth Button - First points for the McLaren Empire in 2015
• 8pts - Kimi Raikkonen - Scores a helping of points for a brace of amusing radio messages
• 6pts - Romain Grosjean - Scores points for his brilliant defence of Verstappen's devious use of Vettel's Ferrari to pass cars
• 4pts - Sebastian Vettel - For being the only happy chap in the post-race interview, his daft grinning face was priceless
• 2pts - Red Bull - For a team who have been so grumpy and petty, they were pretty sporting today in allowing Kvyat to take 4th place back
• 1pt - Roberto Mehri - Takes home the final championship point for finally being able to beat Will Stevens for the first time in 2015

• -1pt - Mercedes - I don't even need to justify this penalty point

Looking ahead to Canada

With one highly anticipated race over and done with, another is lined up in two week's time. The Canadian GP in many respects has a far more exciting reputation than the Monaco GP, generally because the base line performance of a Canadian race is often far higher than that of the Monaco equivalent. A standard Monaco GP is very similar to the first 60 laps of Sundays race, inactive and bland. Whereas a standard Canadian GP brings a little extra to the party, so when things get a little chaotic the level of entertainment is turned up to 11. The infamous four hour epic race of 2011 will live long in the memory of those who witnessed it - and after staying up all night watching the Le Mans 24hr that weekend it was just the sort of race I needed to keep me awake. Le Mans may be scheduled not to conflict with the F1 calander these days, but something of that echelon would be much appreciated. And it will be interesting to see if any of the Mercedes pit-wall conveniently go missing in the intervening period. 

Round 6 - Monaco 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

It is often remarked that this is the most important qualifying session of the year, make pole position even more coveted on the narrow streets. This time last season the fight for pole ended in controversy and suspicion - one year on and it was a lot more routine. With the barriers a constant threat I was surprised to see today's qualifying be so well behaved. There was no-one bouncing down the armco or losing bits of carbon fibre. 

Q1

The first part of qualifying started with a long queue of cars waiting at the end of pit lane, which doesn't make a lot sense because on a track infamous for traffic congestion - why would you want to line up right behind each other... At the front of the queue was the Manor of Roberto Mehri, a sentence that I can't foresee being repeated too often this season. And one that won't be repeated throughout the race weekend. Some drivers were less pleased with their position in the queue than others, Valtteri Bottas for one was looking for every opportunity to overtake Mad Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso. At the pair reached Rascasse they all dropped back from each other - as it the way in Monaco. The Mad Max set the initial pace before the Mercedes cars took to the track. 

As soon as they did the domination continued, as we have come to expect over the years. Rosberg had a brief spell at the front as Hamilton lost time waving at various Saubers, it was like Shanghai all over again as Lewis seemed to keep finding Ericsson and Felipe 'Fred' Nasr in his way. Eventually Hamilton was able to set a time and it was good enough for the top spot - at least for a little while before Rosberg took it back. Both Mercedes' were a second clear of the Ferrari of Vettel in third. 

At the other end of the spectrum, Stevens was not having things his own way for once, Merhi put up a much stronger fight in the immensely important battle for last place. Two of the other three relegation places appeared to the heading the way of Sauber, both Ericsson and Fred were struggling, an indication of how the development race can leave some teams behind. Hulkenberg looked to be on track to join them when he had a near spin in Mirabeau - for some inexplicable reason he called it turn 5 on the radio... they have names Nico... Despite brushing the barrier, the German was able to make it through into Q2. The last contender to try and escape the relegation zone was the Williams of Valterri Bottas - Williams were not having a good day - Massa barely made it through and the Finn wasn't quite so lucky. I can't tell if it was a scheduling error by the team, as Valterri had to allow Massa through on the Brazilian's final lap - but didn't have enough time to start another lap, securing Bottas' relegation. 

Q2

Moving swiftly on to Q2 and the track temperature had dropped yet further as

the cold sea air met the mountains bordering the country. The threat of rain was suggested but failed to materialise, which is always a disappointment. There was an air of positivity in the McLaren garage as both cars were comfortably through into Q2, and had a reasonable chance of making it into Q3. So just when things looked promising - Fernando Alonso pulled over to the side of the road on the exit of St Devote with another mechnical failure. As for the rest of the grid, an interesting pattern was emerging, due to the lower track temperatures drivers were taking an extra lap to build some tyre temperature. Which meant we had several lock-ups and powerslides, but everyone kept it out of the barrier. This seemed to cause a problem for Hamilton who couldn't manage to find any kind of rhythm - he complained on the radio about tyre pressures. All the while Rosberg took the initiative and carved a considerable margin to his struggling team-mate - were we on track for a repeat of 2014's front row...

While Ferrari and Mercedes were safely through into the next session they decided it would be a good idea to have another go - more so on the part of Hamilton as he wanted to fix whatever was costing him lap time. The grumpy arm waving Lewis from Q1 metamorphosed into Zen Hamilton as entered a state of inner calm on radio, and for a few seconds it sounded as if he was talking to himself - which wouldn't surprise me these days. This time in the relegation zone we had Jenson Button in the remaining McLaren along with Hulkenberg, Massa and Ricciardo. The latter was in a much better place to make progess as the Red Bull wasn't too hampered by the struggles of the Renault engine on a track where power isn't the dominant factor. After Ricciardo moved clear into the top ten, but suddenly there was a problem. Yellow flags appeared in turn one behind a cloud of tyre smoke, at the bottom of St Devote was the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. Was this a rehearsal for Q3, the conspiracy theorists were in force across the internet. The late mistake by the German did compromise Jenson Button however, who was on for time good enough for Q3. Somehow while no-one was watching Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior dragged the Lotus into the top ten at the expense of Romain Grosjean.

Q1

As the final part of qualifying was approaching there were a couple of drops of rain in the pit-lane - which could have amounted to so much more - dammit. Alas that was not the case, but the drivers queued at the end of the pit lane, just in case there was some rain hiding in the hills. This time Hamilton ensured that he was on track in front of Nico, you know, just in case the German considered trying something a little questionable for the second session in a row. Both Mercedes' drivers followed the pattern of completing an additional tyre warming lap and thus set relatively slow times as the crossed the line on the first timed tour. Sergio Perez wasn't adhering to this routine and proceeded to give it full refried beans on each of his laps - taking an early provisional pole. However Sergio's charge meant that he didn't have enough tyres left to run later in the session. I can only imagine that Force India gambled on the rain coming and that the track would be too wet later to set better times. 

Despite the Mexican's best efforts, he was easily eclipsed by the Mercedes pairing once they started setting representative times over two seconds faster than the Force India. Hamilton had provisional pole position, meaning that if Nico was planning to park the car in Mirabeau once more, it wouldn't help him this time. Ferrari were having a mixed bag of things, while Vettel was the closer to the front row Raikkonen was down in 9th - turns out the Finn was still having issues with qualifying. Perhaps after a tyre change things might go a little better in the second runs.

The threat of rain had subsided completely and didn't even come back for the GP2 race later on - dammit. At the end of the first sector all three of the top drivers failed to improve on their previous laps - but this after all was the second warm-up phase so no real improvement was anticipated. Nico it seemed was pressing a little harder on his tyres but backed off considerably in the final sector around Rascasse. As a result he lost a lot of the tyre temperature by the time he arrived at St Devote and locked up once more - throwing away his chances of taking pole. By the time he got to the end of the middle sector, after apparently another lock-up at Nouvelle Chicane off camera he abandoned the lap and pitted. This made life easy for Hamilton, all he had to do was complete the lap, pole was already his but he moved the goalpost even further ahead - just in case Vettel found a miraculous burst of pace. That burst never materialised and he almost lost third place to Ricciardo who would have taken it had it not been for a technical error on setting the engine mapping at the start of the lap. So we have another all Mercedes front row with the Nico taking his almost obligatory second place.

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Even though the rain never came, and everyone was reasonably well behaved - only Hulkenberg brushed the barrier in Mirabeau points have to be assigned to someone, and here are the winners from qualifying

• 10pts - Jenson Button - If it wasn't for Rosberg, Jenson would have scored McLaren's first Q3 appearance of 2015
• 8pts - Sergio Perez - Despite running almost no development on the car, Perez still managed to make it into Q3
• 6pts - Daniel Ricciardo - So close to being the closest car to the Mercedes 
• 5pts - Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior - After having a less than ideal season the Venezuelan once more exercises his Monaco speciality
• 4pts - Roberto Mehri - Lead the field out in Q1 - which is a nice novelty, before Stevens demoted him to last place once again
• 3pts - Daniil Kvyat - The wearer of the death stare gets points for being the most aggressive through the swimming pool chicane. 
• 2pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - Gets two consolation points for making it into Q3 before being demoted to the back for missing a weighbridge check
• 1pt - Alex Rossi - Gets a couple of points for his brief flight in the GP2 race after contact with Red Bull Junior driver Pierre Gasly.

• -1pt - Nico Rosberg - Gets a penalty point for ruining Jenson's day
• -1pt - Pierre Gasly - Has to have a penalty for being a bit of a prat in the sprint race, pushing De Jong into the wall and then launching Rossi
• -1pt - Rain - Where was the interesting weather...
• -1pt - Nico Hulkenberg - Turn 5... that would be Mirabeau, the corners have names here

Looking To Tomorrow

It would take some degree of destruction and madness for anything other than a Mercedes 1-2 to be on the cards tomorrow, and the order of those two silver cars comes down to the start. If Hamilton makes the same weak launch he did in Spain, Rosberg will be off into the distance never to be seen again. 

There are usually only two ways a Monaco GP can go - it can either be terribly dull and processional, because overtaking is exceptionally difficult - unless you are Sergio Canamassas who delivered two magnificent passes in GP2. Therefore the order at the end of lap one is often not too different to the final order - minus retirements. But there is always the chance of option two, option two is chaos and disorder - I like option two, but option two probably needs some rain - and a grid with cars out of position. As things stand we don't have either of those factors in play... But we can still hope for a lot of option two... please...

Round 6 - Monaco 2015 - Preview

Greetings Internet

I know, today is Friday again - and these generally meaningless contributions to the omnipresent void of cyberspace technically should be completed on Thursdays. But alas it isn't the case this time, life gets in the way of scribbling nonsensical rants across the internet. So later than intended, time to open proceedings on the Monaco GP, and in the week between races everyone has been a little distracted. Instead of moaning at engine suppliers or tyre companies the teams and the media have been having a go at the results of a recent strategy group meeting detailed in a separate post. But to an extent tyres were back on the agenda, just not in the sense that they usually are. Instead of people wanting to give Pirelli a hard time for doing precisely what they were told to do, they have directed their attention to the potential for a future tyre war. 

This doesn't mean that an army of futuristic tyres are going to rise up and enslave humanity... which would have made the terminator a very different film. It means that multiple tyre manufacturers supply different teams within the championship and therefore battle with one another to develop the best possible compounds and designs. This used to be the case when Bridgestone and Michellin were tyre suppliers before Michellin left and Pirelli ultimately took over. While on the surface, more levels of competition sounds like a brilliant idea - in the same way that engine manufacturers are continually attempting to out develop each other, there are a few problems. In the previous tyre war, Bridgestone made the tyres Ferrari wanted them to make - which really only benefited their car and their operating temperatures. Everyone else on those tyres suffered with poorly optimised tyres, Michellin had the same relationship with Renault. So instead of promoting competition is helped reduce it, it became important to forge a special relationship with the tyre manufacturer to gain an advantage... and one would assume there was a notable monetary influence involved. It is similar to the logic McLaren have applied to their move to Honda power - in order to get the best of the engine it is important to become the primary customer. They couldn't achieve that with Mercedes power because there is a factory team on the grid now. The rumours of a tyre war have come about because Pirelli are not really comfortable with some of the press their involvement with F1 has generated, and that future plans do not meet with their specifications. This may also coincide with their contract coming to an end and influencing their decision to continue being the tyre supplier. At the moment Michellin appear to be the only company on the frey of making a return, largely on the idea that lower profile tyres are introduced. Some tests were conducted with Lotus (who were Renault at the time of Michellin's last appearance), using large rims and low profile Pirellis to test the water for a potential future design concept.

Monte Carlo

Aside from all of the discussions and regulations, there is still the small matter of a race weekend to face, and one on the most famous circuit of all. A circuit which polarises drivers and fans alike, often dubbed the most challenging and mentally demanding race of the season - whatever state F1 finds itself in - Monaco will always be special. Every year we hear the calls for it to be dismissed from the calendar as it is a relic of times gone by, and no longer fits into the new, modern world of Formula one. To some degree I can see where they are coming from, the track is by far the shortest and the slowest on the calendar, but it provides much needed contrast in championship increasingly drowning in soul-less by-the-numbers style Tilke-dromes. Monaco is different, unique and exciting. 

Over the years very little has changed, barriers have improved and the streets have been resurfaced from time to time. Of course there were some tweaks around the final sector of the lap, as land reclaimed from sea allowed the Rascasse to be reprofiled. This time around Tabac corner has also been modified slightly in response to the accident suffered by Maldonado in 2013, after being pushed wide by Max Chilton. It was the incident in which the Venezuelan built a fort made out of the movable barriers. In 2015 the apex has been tightened slightly to lower speeds, and provide more room for barrier structures - the knock on effect is that the entry to the swimming pool section is now straighter and fractionally faster. In the end the lap is now three metres shorter due to the change. Jenson Button has stated that he is not too fond of the change, saying that it does take away some of what made Tabac special. This update is part of a larger update plan for the coming years to improve the latter section of the lap for spectators and pit lane access. How that will impact on the layout of the famous swimming pool section remain to be seen. 

Monaco - Where cars can hover

Elsewhere everything else is precisely where we left it in 2014, and over the course of free practice and the GP2 qualifying - the same corners were catching people out. Many drivers were forced to complete spin turns in the tiny escape road on the outside of Saint Devote which is always tricky as the track curves left while the apex of the corner sits off to the right. The climb up the hill to Massonet remains one of the key iconic images that Sky can and will use in their promotional material for the rest of the season. Massonet itself is a lovely challenge, and in the wet GP2 qualifying Marciello performed an epic save to keep his car out of the wall. It isn't a consistent radius because of the shape of the buildings on the inside and when the rain falls, the road markings and zebra crossings become trecherous. 

On the exit of Massonet the track falls through Casino Square, over large bump which has been part of the circuit since the dawn of time - and one that hasn't been ironed out over the years. The day it is removed would be a sad sad day for the sport. Mirabeau is probably Rosberg's favourite corner after the events of qualifying one year ago in which the German claimed pole after bringing out the yellow flags. Even to this day no-one is completely certain it wasn't intentional. Mirabeau feeds into the incredibly slow Loews Hairpin - the home of Adrian Sutil's spate of brilliant passes. The hairpin was also the location of one the most important collisions of recent years - as Kevin Magnussen attempted a pass on Kimi Raikkonen. Both cars were considerably delayed allowing Jules Bianchi to those all important world championship points. On this weekend Jules' accomplishments will be at the forefront of everyone's thoughts as developing news out of the hospital in Nice indicates that it the family, friends and fans are waiting on a miracle. 

Schumacher vs Wurtz 1998

Each corner has a story to tell in Monaco - and Portier is no exception, it played host to an epic battle between Alex Wurtz and Schumacher where the Benetton driver refused to give up back in 1998. It also saw Maldonado in one of his more aggressive phases take a swipe at Sergio Perez in a free practice session. Of course the exit of portier is important as it leads into the fastest part of the lap - powering through the infamous tunnel and out onto the seafront for the nouvelle chicane. Which in reality isn't that new now but the name seems to have stuck. This chicane is probably the best overtaking spot, but it does require a lot of cooperation to make a pass stick. But before you decide to go for the pass picking a braking point is in itself a challenge - another one of Monaco's famous bumps can fire the car into the wall if you brake in just the wrong place. It has been smoothed over the years after some large accidents - the most recent involving Perez which preventing him from starting the race due to injury. But even though the bump is less of a problem - it still caught Roberto Mehri out in FP2 as the Manor was sent sliding down the barrier.

After the chicane we come to the final marina section, which has borne the brunt of the updates - spreading this season to Tabac which used to be marvellous. With the changes I'm not so sure, but having not really seen too much dry running this far I can't really make an educated call - it shouldn't be too different given how little has really changed, but until someone makes an rFactor model of it I'm just guessing. Get on that internet. After Tabac is the swimming pool section, the first part is magnificent a high speed chicane with no room for error. But as GP2 qualifying showed the curbs can be problem - Sorenson was launched on one of his laps after hitting them. Potentially this is more of an issue after the modification of Tabac changed the entry line and speed. The remainder of the lap remains as it has been since the last update. A slower second part of the swimming pool section brings the cars behind the pitlane. The Rascasse hairpin was the scene of another of Bianchi's triumphs last season as he made a decisive pass on Kamui Kobayashi. The lap is finished with a blast through Virage Antony Nogues where cars will slide right up to the barrier before driving to the line.

The Form Guide

Monaco is unique, very unique and therefore the lessons we have learned thus far in 2015 need not necessarily apply. Although there will be a lot of general similarities - we won't be expecting Manor to lock out the front row and deliver a lights to flag victory. Mercedes do look strong as usual in Thursday's practice sessions - because a car that good will work everywhere no matter how unique the layout. But the rest of the pack is interesting, because Monaco is not a power circuit by any stretch of the imagination Renault are not as hampered as they are everywhere else - and thus both Red Bull and Toro Rosso were up at the sharp end of the field. In FP1 Mad Max Verstappen was second fastest and all Renault powered cars were inside the top seven. 

While this may have no impact on Mercedes' weekend, Ferrari and Williams will find their part of the grid far more crowded than they are used to... the other losers in this may well be Lotus and Sauber - but more so Lotus. Because they could stand to lose a net four places due to Red Bull and Toro Rosso having a better chance this weekend. It could also bring McLaren into the equation because the Honda power deficit won't be as pronounced as it has been in previous events. This could be their greatest hope for points this far. 

The ultimate hope for this race is that there is a repeat of Thursday's rain which causes mayhem and carnage - through the mists of that mayhem Manor GP can score a point or two in honour of the man who scored here last season to guarantee their appearance on the grid in 2015. Monaco is a race of stories, and history, and it is time to write a new chapter.

The strategy group want more fire and more noise.

Greetings Internet, 

In the week leading up to the most recognisable event on the calendar there was a meeting, a meeting of the generally useless 'strategy group' to decide what can make F1 better. Let use remember that this group was set up almost two years ago to, handle all the difficulties and problems facing the sport as it currently stands. In their time in power, they've made a grand total of no worthwhile decisions - as per Christian Horner himself the group has only managed to agree on the utterly pointless: "one helmet design per season rule". Bob Fearnley of Force India, who does like putting the boot in from time to time has declared the whole group as not fit for purpose. While I thought his complaints against Manor were out of line, this comment it entirely reasonable. If we were to evaluate the performance of this group it would be ranked somewhere between terrible and a complete failure. Before we mock the group yet further, it is worth pointing out that is was created with better intentions - the powers that be realised things were not working out, and then asked a small sample of the interested parties how to fix it. 

Thus explaining one of the core reasons this group has failed, and will likely continue to do so - only the top teams are invited to contribute. Which is utterly ridiculous, because these teams are the ones with the money and resources to carry out any foolish schemes. The teams that will suffer aren't allowed a vote. Furthermore including the teams mean that they will inevitably vote to include ideas and concepts that would further their advantage, while penalising others. So what was the big announcement following this meeting - the re-introduction of refuelling...
A decision that utterly contradicts the issues that the teams who aren't allowed in the group are facing. Shipping fuel rigs and crew around the world is expensive and completely disregards the cost-saving agenda of the poorer teams. On top of that, it flies in the face of the idea of improving efficiency - lowering the incentive for future rule changes to further limit the fuel allocations. Finally one of the reasons for bringing it back is to improve 'the show' which apparently means adding more fire... The theory is that fuelling means lighter cars during the race and therefore faster cars, while also reducing tyre wear. But, I can only guess that fuel load isn't the main contributor to increased tyre degradation - I think that the aerodynamic influence of running close to another car is far more destructive. Even on lower fuel at the end of the last race, we watched Raikkonen's tyres fall away faster once he was in the aerodynamic wake of Valtteri Bottas' car. But no making things more flammable is the answer we have not been looking for. 

It could be argued that this decision is another example of the terminally short-sighted approach that have been made in recent years, simply bolting on patches and 'quick-fixes'. It is starting to feel a little like the mid 2000's when there was all kinds of experimentation. Qualifying formats were changed several times, tyres that lasted an entire race in 2005, various rules on starting fuel loads. and modifying circuit design. All kinds of half-hearted half-attempts at correcting what they felt was wrong at the time - in the mid early-mid 2000's it was the issue of Schumacher domination, processional racing and little to no overtaking. Some of that was down to wider gulfs in car performance, and the rest of it is the same challenges we face today - struggling to get one car close enough to another car at speed. So it is not surprise to see that the ideas future development are weak and sketchy at best. It could be argued that since the collossal revamp in 2009, things have been a lot better - because a lot of those changes sculpted aerodynamic design. Taller but narrower rear wings and wider front wings were a natural improvement, along with the eradication of the huge proliferation of winglets that came to a head in 2008. I seem to remember that also in 2009, the FIA Formula Two series was re-launched and one of the key features of that championship was a reduced dependence on over-car aero. Instead they wanted to pursue the idea of ground-effect generated downforce, which creates much less turbulent air than over-car aero. 

It had been abandoned largely over the years to the issues that ground effect can create, it was unstable and could result in airborne accidents as we've seen in Indycar recently. As far as I know, and I am not an aerodynamicist, ground-effect functions by creating a sealed tunnel of air between the car and the surface of the road. Usually by applying side-skirts to keep the flow of air focussed. But as soon as that system fails to provide an isolated air flow - for example if a bump in the road lifts the side-skirt off the ground, allowing air to escape the amount of available downforce is immediately reduced considerably. Furthermore the shape of the underfloor required in a ground effect car means that if the car is spun at high speed, it increases the risk that the air will lift the car off the ground. Something that became a recurring problem in Le Mans prototypes of the time, and potentially the Indycars of today. The thing is, that this day and age, I seriously doubt that the technology doesn't exist to produce safer, more stable and more effective ground effect cars. 

Aerodynamics were mentioned at the strategy group meeting under theh ighly descriptive and insightful statement introducing an 'Aerodynamic rule evolution' whatever that entails. The evolution is one element of the second major point they wanted to make - "in 2017 cars will be 5-6 seconds faster". In addition to the aero this apparently is going to be created by several factors firstly wider tyres. I do approve of this idea because it adds more mechanical grip, which doesn't being with it the downside of aero turbulence. Secondly through reducing car weight - some of which will be through less fuel - but there is a slight problem with this idea. The bulk of the weight gain has been down to the ERS and hybrid gubbins in the car - which meant that before the minimum weight was raised recently, taller drivers were significantly disadvantaged. The extra weight they carried was never a problem, until the mass of the hybrid systems erased any surplus. So I have to wonder, does planning to reduce the car weight put pressure back onto the driver to be as small as possible. The output from the meeting was suspiciously vague in the sense that I can't tell if they intend to lower the base weight or refer to the weight reduction as part of the refuelling idea. Because clarity is over-rated anyhow.

Another aspect of the theorised lap time gain is through the engines, by increasing engine RPM - which I know doesn't necessarily increase speed. But the initial completely arbitrary figure of 1000hp has faded slightly, replaced by far more important engine parameters... One of the recommendations of the strategy group is more noise, I thought we'd had enough of this argument already. Yes the older V8/V10 engines were very audible and delivered an echoing blast of sound, but is it really anything wrong with how they are now. I think not, I like the extra detail that you can hear now that the engines are quieter. Radio communications are easier to listen to, and more of the atmosphere can be conveyed through ambient sound. The final statement in the list of apparent focal points for future development is a general recommendation for "More Aggressive Looks".

This could mean anything, but in the end I'm all for more aggressive looking cars, whether that means painting fangs on the cars a la pre 97-2000 Jordan liveries... which were awesome. The problem is that the current designs are a reflection of the optimum design for the current rule set. So whatever the future regulations state, the most aerodynamically efficient implementation is probably not going to match the aesthetic standards. It could be argued that the 2008 spec cars did look a lot more aggressive and purposeful, but proved difficult to race. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what the future brings on that note, but I imagine that a considerable overhaul of design regulations is not going to help in the cost minimisation stakes...

There was one other inclusion in the report and that referred to tyre allocation, and interestingly enough it was one of the suggestions I made in an article in the middle of last year. The idea is that Pirelli don't decide which tyres a car uses on any given weekend it is more open to the teams themselves in terms of picking which tyres to use. Teams can pick two compounds out of the four available to use during the weekend. An idea that has received reasonable support, but there is a slight caveat in the sense that in order to prevent pirelli having to manufacture considerably more tyres to handle any selection combination it would help if there was a pre-selection process. Say three or four races in advance - such that Pirelli only manufacture the same volume of tyres, just matching the requested compounds. That level of detail was not included in the recommendations - in fact no real thought was given to the implementation phase. But it is early days, and I imagine that further ideas and exhibitions of delusional foolishness might spring forth and the only reasonable ideas will fall by the wayside once more. So in the meantime we get to see team principles up and down the pit-lane complaining about the validity of the group as a whole. I guess the Monaco weekend gives the teams plenty of media time to explain their thoughts and theories to the world. 

From my perspective, I do understand the reasoning behind installing a strategy group - but they way is has been done is a little crap. Either take the decision making powers away from the teams as they will only ever seek to twist the rules for their own gain. A prime example of this was Christian Horner pushing cost cutting through banning wind-tunnel usage... as he has Newey instead giving Red Bull and advantage. So either remove the teams from the process completely or invite them all, so that the likes of Sauber, Lotus and Force India are allowed to fight their corner. Just because they are not as rich as the leading outfits does not mean that their opinions and ideas are less valid or important. As per the findings themselves refuelling is probably a bad idea, it will force more strategy passes in the pit lane, push costs up and risk setting people on fire. Yet, it does improve strategy options, which can make a race more interesting if not more eventful. In the years it has been banned I can't say I missed it. Faster cars and quicker lap times is always a good idea, but there is no real thought as to how these things are going to happen. In this respect the strategy group is more the group of whimsically wishful thinking - this could also be applied to the idea of aggressive cars and more noise. Maybe one day the actual issues facing the way things are might be dealt with... 

Round 5 - Spain 2015 - Race

Greetings Internet

And that ladies and gentlemen is why no-one really looks forward to the Spanish GP - it has to be on the calendar and deserves to be there but it isn't the most enthralling instalment of the season. Some people will be flying home from Barcelona a little happier than others and if this race, being the key opening phase of the all important development marathon, is going to define the pecking order for the rest of the year - it looks rather ominous. To think that people were hailing the Malaysian GP as some undeniable indication of a resurgent and powerful Ferrari force... Even when the track temperatures rose on race day, it proves what the more reasonable among us theorised - Malaysia was a fluke, a unique combination of conditions, safety car interventions and strategic decisions that allowed Vettel to spoil Mercedes 100% record in 2015. Of course next race will be different - because Monaco is always different - but the season as a whole took a significant blow, 45s is a huge gap to conclude the race. Yes, that gap was influenced by strategy, lapped cars and battles elsewhere - but even so this is turning into the same two horse race as it was in 2014. However, one speck of hope is that those two horses have picked up the fight between them, so when everything else appears to be getting worse there is something to look forward to.

The Race

Sunday afternoon started with an air of anticipation, as for the first time this season the balance of power within the top two teams had been inverted. Nico was on pole - and Vettel just behind the pair as an omnipresent threat. But as the race got underway Nico drove off into the lead and Lewis got a little bit of wheelspin allowing Vettel to take second. Bottas almost claimed third but Lewis closed the door in turn one. The other point of interest was also over and done with before the end of the second sector - and it was almost done by turn two. Raikkonen and Massa's recovery from a less then optimal qualifying result. On the run down to the first corner they went either side of the pair of Toro Rossos, but Mad Max Verstappen escorted Massa wide in turn two which compromised Raikkonen's run through turn three. But Kimi went down the inside of Verstappen in turn five and then round the outside of Sainz Jnr in turn seven. Aside from the battles involving the Toro Rosso cars, the Lotus team moved forward at the expense of Daniil Kyvat and Ricciardo.

When things settled down - around turn 10 - Rosberg had opened out a safe gap ahead of Vettel, and Hamilton who was trapped in the wake of turbulent air from the back of the Ferrari. Toro Rosso would have preferred that level of stability in their race, given their strong starting position - the successful qualifying setup was proving to be a terrible race configuration. A combination of a higher downforce setting and a the Renault engine made them very vulnerable in a straight line. On the main straight cars were just driving past as if they weren't there - and this was even before the DRS came into effect. Massa drove past Sainz with ease and Maldonado performed the same move on Verstappen. One lap later Grosjean attempted the same feat on Sainz - except the Frenchman was surprised to find turn one creep up on him quite so quickly. As a result he ran off track, scampered across the run-off area, before rejoining before turn three. Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior swept in front of Romains car when it rejoined but didn't quite leave enough space and slight contact was made. At first it seemed as if there was no lasting damage - but a few laps later once the DRS became active, the process of opening and closing the rear wing flap caused one of the endplates to fail. 

After the incident Grosjean started to lose a few places, to Verstappen and Ricciardo despite a straight line speed advantage. It turned out that one of his gears was malfunctioning - which may have influenced his earlier adventure across the first chicane. His team radioed through to inform Romain that he would have to lift when using the dodgy gear otherwise the engine might explode... which would be rather problematic. With Grosjean out of the way, Ricciardo set his sights on the junior team car inhabited by Mad Max Verstappen - but after sailing past in a straight line the Australian ran wide and handed the place back in turn one. But it wasn't long before the Red Bull was in front.

It was time for the first round of stops and Hamilton came in first, due to being held up by Vettel - hoping that stopping earlier would allow him to undercut the Ferrari. Alas that plan failed, a slow tyre change cancelled out any advantage gained by an earlier stop - then of course he rejoined behind Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior in his increasingly Mad Max Lotus with the flapping wing endplate. The advantage of a Mercedes on new tyres meant that it only took five corners to pass the Venezuelan. Dealing with behind Vettel would prove to be more challenging for Hamilton as we find ourselves dealing another episode of "Grumpy Lewis" which only seems to emerge once other cars happen to be in front of him... This him Lewis was informed that he would have to pass Vettel on track - to which he responded that it was pretty much impossible so the team had to find a new solution... I remember the days when passing someone was confined the minds of the strategists rather than the drivers, looks like we are heading that way once more. But that wasn't the end of this race's edition "Grumpy Lewis" as the world champion made the all too common complaint of instructing his race engineer not to talk to him during the corners... Strange we didn't hear quite the same complaints when he was winning the race.

In this middle phase of the race, it could be said that roughly nothing happened, if I hadn't already visited the kitchen for a pre-race toastie, then this would be the time to do so. Things had stagnated to such a degree that even Alonso's brakes fell asleep - failing to slow the car down in turn one and forcing an unscheduled pit stop. However the idea of a pit-stop is to actually stop the car, which does become rather difficult when the brakes have failed - so the Spaniard overshot his pit-stall by a considerable margin. If the front jack operator hadn't reacted in time, he'd have been dragged down the pit lane with the car. Ultimately the McLaren Empire had to be retired. Sometimes moving to the darkside doesn't always pay off. Elsewhere in pit-lane Lotus were manhandling Maldonado's rear wing ultimately tearing off the damaged endplate and releasing it back into the race. Under maximum load it would flex at rather jaunty angle. On track most cars had sizeable gaps between each other, in commentary it was reported that the closest pair of cars were 3.5s apart, and that was the battle at the end of the points between the two Toro Rosso cars. Because in the end the only thing that wasn't powering past them on the straight was from the same garage. 

So instead we waited for the second round of stops, and this time Hamilton wasn't impeded by a slow tyre change - and he rejoined behind Raikkonen who was running on an alternate strategy. Many expected Vettel to pit on the following lap - to cover off the undercut like under the first round of stops, but Ferrari kept the German on track. In the end it wouldn't have mattered because Hamilton's first lap was 2.5 seconds faster than Sebastian - meaning a covering stop wouldn't have worked. As it turned out the Mercedes team could find another solution to getting past the Ferrari without Hamilton having to make an overtake... this is quite a sad state of affairs but it is how things might be reasonably often in 2015. With this massive pace advantage it wasn't long before he was past Raikkonen on older tyres - so it turned out Lewis could pass a Ferrari. The next question is whether or not the Mercedes could pass a Williams, as Bottas was the next car on track - and with Hamilton's current pace it wasn't too long before we found the answer to that question. As soon as the Briton caught the Finn - he drove straight past on the main straight, Bottas didn't even really put up a strong defence and immediately conceded the position.

After Vettel and Rosberg pitted - Hamilton temporarily inherited the lead... and during this phase of the race we didn't hear Lewis complain once... interesting. Elsewhere in pit-lane, front jack men were becoming an endangered species. Not long after Sith Lord Alonso nearly eliminated his, Romain Grosjean wiped his out. Locking up and sliding into the pit-stall the Frenchman launched his jack operator - to the man's credit he held onto the jack and still lifted the car while sailing through the air. He was uninjured by the slight flight before landing with the shaft of the jack in a rather unfortunate position. Later shots of the pit garage pictured the mechanic sitting with an icepack over his gentlemans vegetables. The rest wasn't too long as Maldonado: Road Warrior was pitting soon, only to retire his damaged car from the race to avoid the risk of total rear wing failure. As Hamilton's stint came to an end he pitted for the final time, without damaging any pit crew members in the process, handing the lead back to Rosberg as Lewis rejoined in second just in front of Vettel - and on newer tyres ending any hopes of that battle peaking in the remaining laps. 

In the final phase of the race two battles were starting to emerge - the first being the battle of the Finns - Raikkonen vs Bottas for fourth place. While the other was at the opposite end of the points as Grosjean was recovering from the early gearbox issue. Rosberg had life easy at the front of the race, saving tyres and fuel just in case Hamilton made a late race charge. There was a theory that Vettel on older tyres would drop into the hands of the Bottas/Raikkonen battle - but that was more of a case of wishful thinking than anything else. We sat and watched as Kimi's tyres were degrading in the turbulent air of Valtteri's car, the Ferrari closed up to the Williams with ease but once he got inside the one second barrier the advances stopped. Lap on lap the Ferrari was sliding more, losing ground through the critical corners - preventing any chance of a positional change. So instead we had to look at the remaining battle at the end of the points - but surprise surprise there was something wrong with that one too. This time it was the problem of being lapped - there always seemed to be a Ferrari, Mercedes or Williams in the middle of their scrap. 

The more astute among you may have noticed that Hamilton was still not winning and therefore it was time for another instalment of "Argumentative Hamilton" which is similar to "Grumpy Hamilton" - this time the team called to tell him to give up the fight for the win as the gap was too large to close in the remaining laps. The team wanted Lewis to save the engine rather than try and hunt Nico down - Lewis complained and questioned the team whether it was impossible to win or not. It was less of a radio call and more of an interrogation. In the end it Lewis conceded defeat, in a way it makes sense to call the fight off, but it is a disheartening statement on how the sport is at the moment. Because the new objective is to get to the end of the race with as little racing as possible in between - because racing hurts tyres and therefore laptime while at the same time risking damaging the engine and so on. 

So Rosberg brought home a simple victory ahead of Hamilton - over 40 seconds behind the leader was the closest Ferrari... those hopes of a dual manufacturer battle seem to have petered out rather. Behind Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen held station as the Ferrari driver's tyres dropped away. Massa came home in 6th place and the last car on the same lap as the leaders, Ricciardo and Grosjean rounded out the top eight positions. Because the leaders were so far ahead the rest of the field hadn't finished and decided to pack in as much racing as possible in the remaining corners. Having taken the last points place from Verstappen Sainz tried to wrestle 9th from Kvyat - as Carlos looked to the outside of the Russian, Daniil locked up and slid into the side of the Toro Rosso barging it off the track. The Spaniard took to the run-off and rejoined ahead of the Red Bull, holding the positions for the remainder of the final lap. 

Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

Well, that won't be the most memorable race in the history of motorsport - and to think that I didn't record any of the BTCC this weekend simply to save space on the disk drive... which now feels like a terrible mistake. In race like that it does become difficult to find anything work handing bonus points to but here goes...

• 25pts - That Lotus Jack man - Scores full points for still doing his job despite being launched by Grosjean, that job takes balls...
• 18pts - Carlos Sainz - Despite a terrible setup on the Toro Rosso, he still managed to score points even after a robust move by Daniil on the last lap
• 15pts - Romain Grosjean - Wins pass of the race, round the outside of Daniil Kvyat in turn one with very little room to spare
• 12pts - Kimi Raikkonen - A strong opening lap including an impressive overtake on the outside of Sainz in turn seven
• 10pts - That McLaren Jack man - Marvellous agility to avoid the same fate that befell his Lotus counterpart
• 8pts - Valtteri Bottas - For the second race in a row Valtteri is able to hold off a Ferrari with almost no effort - just watched Kimi's tyres wear
• 6pts - Nico Rosberg - Gets some points for winning the race, even though he barely did anything
• 4pts - Sebastian Vettel - Great start, and for a while kept up the hope of a proper race between himself and Hamilton for a little while
• 2pts - Lewis Hamilton - Despite entering "Grumpy Hamilton" mode in the race he still wanted to fight to the end even when the team didn't
• 1pt - David Croft - Scores the final point for calling Valterri "Botarse"... unintentional but hilarious 

• -1pt - DRS - It was calibrated all wrong this weekend, and was very evident in the opening phase of the second GP2 race
• -1pt - Mercedes - Telling Lewis to stop racing and accept defeat, so much for allowing the drivers to race eh?
• -2pts - Sky F1 - Today's strategy explanation phase was very poor, addressing the audience as if we were all morons, and to make matters worse it was all done by placing pens on a box. For a broadcaster who paid millions to take this away from the BBC is was an embarrassment - at least by Ted a whiteboard to write things down on so he can move on from using Startbust sweets and stolen pens as props... Look even a national touring car championship in Australia can do this a million times better. Major disappointment this time round folk

Looking Ahead to Monaco

Well, Monaco has to be better than Spain, one can hope. While the Spanish GP isn't one of those races everyone looks forward to - the Monaco GP certainly is, even if it does bear the risk of being another procession, overtaking on the narrow streets is even more difficult than it was today. But the risk of safety cars, carnage and mayhem is also much higher - which can throw all of those pre-defined strategies and plans out of the window. It is one of those big iconic races in the world of motorsport, alongside the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24hrs, just with a lot more money involved. As a result the Monaco GP has one unfortunate symptom, and that is a chronic infection of 'celebrities' all crowding around the circuit for the briefest portion of TV coverage, we didn't see that many famous faces crowding on the grid. That plague of invaders aside, the Monaco GP is always a voyage into uncertainty where it is race that could either be painfully dull or manically destructive with various levels of action in between.

Round 5 - Spain 2015 - Qualifying

Greetings Internet, 

It took a while, and we waited for so long - but now at the fifth race we might finally get to see the battle we want to see between those two drivers in the Mercedes team. One can only hope that this opening phase of the European season sets the scene for the remainder of this part of 2015. The Spanish GP has also seen the impact of the development race on the lesser funded teams - both Force India and Sauber have lost a lot of ground to those cars around them while McLaren travel in the opposite direction. It could be argued that the relative performance losses by two of the poorer teams on the grid has rather flattered the gains that McLaren have made in the three weeks since the Bahrain GP. They probably spent most of the time converting to the dark side of the force through their new livery rather than fixing the issues which are preventing the union between Honda and McLaren delving better results. 

Elsewhere Lotus also seem to have lost pace in comparison to the Renault powered teams they were beating and at least competing with in the early part of the season. Even the addition of Mad Max sponsor ship has not allowed Grosjean and Maldonado: Road Warrior from retaining the early season performance levels. Overall it seems that chassis upgrades are stating to overcome the base power advantages from the power unit. Cars with strong engines and weaker aero packages are now beginning to struggle to live on the engine performance alone.

Q1

The first part of qualifying got underway with a notable lack of activity, the same could be said of all the sessions to be honest but at least in Q1 there were more cars to choose from. Eventually it was Manor's Roberto Merhi soaking up the TV coverage which would have been good for their sponsors all that international exposure... if they had any. But don't worry Manor, McLaren don't really have a title sponsor either and they've been around for a lot longer. As more cars took to the track Mehri lost his temporary grasp on the top spot. Interestingly however several teams were struggling to get laptime out of the harder compound tyres. The most interesting development was that interestingly Manor were able to set faster times than Mercedes in at the very start of the session - of course is was just down to a couple of rather slow installation laps on the part of the mercedes team not some magical resurgence from the Yorkshire based outfit

Normal service was soon resumed when Nico Rosberg took over the top spot, taking it from the other Nico - the one in the Force India. At this point the majority of the drivers were only using unfavoured hard compound - because it would be more beneficial to use less of the more useful medium tyre, saving them for the race. But someone using the faster option tyre could help themselves avoid the threat of relegation - a threat that is more of a problem to some teams than it is to others. The McLaren Empire is certainly one of those teams, and so both Darth Button and Sith Lord stuck on a set of the quicker tyres and immediately jumped into the top ten - 5th and 6th places. Emperor Dennis appeared more pleased than he did in Bahrain. This planted the two Lotus cars in the relegation zone - the Mad Max livery wasn't helping Grosjean or Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior survive the thunderdome of demotion from Q1.

A flurry of laps at the end of the session, saw those on the medium tyre made significant strides forwards, the remaining three relegation places changed hands rapidly. For a time both Lotus cars were in there, then it belonged to Toro Rosso and Red Bull - when the dust settled it was the Force India cars who found themselves in the bottom five along with Manor. The final place belonged to Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber - proving that teams with limited resources to keep up the development pace struggle to replicate their early season form.

Q2

The second part of qualifying started with the same level of enthusiasm that Q1 did - and by that I mean nothing happened to begin with. But the silence was eventually broken by the appearance of Felipe 'Fred' Nasr in the Sauber. Fred had the track to himself for a little while before the rest of the remaining drivers thought it might be a good idea to join in. At the front of the field Hamilton took his Mercedes to the top of the timesheet - with a comfortable margin between himself and the rest of the field. That was of course before Rosberg came along and spoiled his party - perhaps there was a hint that the qualifying pace that often defeated Hamilton had returned. Stealing P1 by over half a second was a sign that it might be the case. At the conclusion of the first runs, Mercedes, Ferrari and Bottas decided that they had done enough to make it through without needing to use another set of tyres.

Only five more places were up for grabs in the final part of qualifying - and ten

cars competing for it. Just like we saw in the Q1, the change in lap time only start to take effect in the dying moments of the session. Except this time a larger gulf in time had developed between the edge of the top ten and those cars caught in the relegation zone. The McLaren Empire were unable to make it past the rebel blockade and creep into the final part of qualifying - Sith Lord Alonso seemed to be closest to making up the grid until Pastor Maldonado: Road Warrior demoted both members of the McLaren Empire further down the grid. In the end it was Grosjean who came closest to eliminating one of the cars currently in the promotion places. This meant all four of the Renault powered cars made it into Q3, looks like the fuel upgrade in conjunction with the chassis updates have been working for Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

Q3

There was a slightly more energetic response to the final minutes of qualifying as Valtteri Bottas took to the track first for Williams, followed by both of the Mercedes cars. Hamilton crossed the line first and set what seemed like a very reasonable lap time, using a fresh set of medium tyres. But Nico Rosberg replicated his run of form from the previous session and trimmed a couple of tenths off his team-mate's time to claim a provisional pole position. Vettel and Bottas were the only other drivers to complete the opening runs on newer tyres - the latter getting several shades of sideways on the exit of Campsa corner. Raikkonen and Mad Max Verstappen were the only other drivers to set an initial time. 

Then something strange happened - the track appeared to get slower, in commentary it was suggested that the change in temperature had something to do with the loss of lap time. Neither Vettel or Bottas were able to improve on their initial runs, so attention was directed to the Mercedes pairing once more it was Hamilton with the lead track position, but the change in track conditions meant he couldn't improve on his first time - leaving Rosberg on pole. Realistically it was done there and then, no other car could have the pace to defeat the Mercedes cars. But there was a surprise in store - not at the very front, but a little further back. Even though the track seemed slower - both Toro Rosso's locked out the third row. Carlos Sainz Jnr went fifth and Mad Max sixth. Both cars beating the factory Red Bull team... Perhaps Christian Horner might want the junior team equalised...

The Bonus Points Championship Points Winners

In a session which saw driver performances delimited by the capabilities of the car they are driving - especially in the case of the teams beyond the top ten - it could be argued that handing out driver points becomes that bit more difficult. But here goes.

• 10pts - Carlos Sainz Jnr - A brilliant 5th place to become the lead Spaniard on home turf... and to thing people came to the circuit to see Sith Lord Alonso
• 8pts - Mad Max Verstappen - Backing his team-mate up in 6th place, completing a complete domination of the main team
• 6pts - Sith Lord Alonso - McLaren are more competitive this race, and Alonso is heading the charge, just ahead of Darth Button
• 5pts - Nico Rosberg - Finally the Hamilton domination has been silenced, at least for one day, tomorrow is a whole new kettle of piranhas.
• 4pts  - Valtteri Bottas - Scores some points for his sideways moment over the crest at Campsa
• 3pts - Roberto Merhi - He may not have any sponsors to show off when he took to the track alone in Q1, but gets some points for actually doing something
• 2pts - Daniil Kvyat - The scary Russian may have been a little off the pace of Ricciardo, but outqualified the Australian today
• 1pt - Stoffel Vandoorne - Another win for Sith Apprentice in GP2 - the McLaren Empire is at least taking hold in the lower classes.

Looking To Tomorrow

The fact that the vast majority of races on the Barcelona circuit have been won by the pole-sitter stands as an indication of how the Spanish GP might play out. Plus as qualifying demonstrated, that the chassis performance is by far and away the dominant performance factor in governing positions in the middle of the pack. Which is where most of the entertainment has been for the majority of the season this far. But outside the front row, there are a few cars out of position - Raikkonen down in 7th, Massa in 9th who could make things interesting. 

However I imagine the focus will be set on the front row, for the first time in 2015, Rosberg is ahead of Hamilton, and we know that Hamilton is more than up for a fight with his German team-mate. So a combination of Lewis' aggression and Rosberg's desperation might make for a very interesting afternoon. I'd like to see a race long fight but in reality I imagine that it will be more of a strategic battle, based on tyre wear and pit stops - tyre wear which might turn Vettel into a potential threat to a day of Mercedes domination. There are few instances in the past year or so when the front of the race might be more interesting than the rest of the grid. And this could well be one of them.