monaco recap

[ mclaren, monaco, lewis hamilton, formula 1 ]

extremely busy for the past week and couldn't slot a time for a post. furthermore, the blogger of f1 @ c.c.c.p. will be out of town (and his blog workstation/tv) for a long period of time. hopefully, i can find time to watch f1 live and to continue with my posts.

anyways, here's a recap of what the monaco gp brought us:

0 overtaking
that was basically the whole story wasn't it? we didn't see any overtaking, at least not on tv, for one and a half hour. quite pathetic. 1-2-3-4 stayed as 1-2-3-4, not even the pitstops could rattle the front runners.

mclaren's awesome speed, a one-off?
the mclaren of alonso and hamilton managed to lap everyone except massa. they even managed to lap some cars not once, but twice. when the silver cars have crossed the line and were celebrating through half of the circuit, massa claimed third only about one minute later. mclaren were truly on a rampage, but was it a one-off for the monaco show? according to alonso, it was.


team order from ron dennis
that shouldn't be a surprise. monaco is notoriously difficult to overtake, and for lewis hamilton to attempt and screw up the party for mclaren would be crazy. the sensible thing to do would be to hold position until the end. however, ron did reveal that if there was a safety car period, anytime during the race, hamilton would have won. and given the very high possiblity of a safety car period at monaco, i would say ron is actually favoring lewis.

kimi continues to disappoint
kimi's weekend was ruined by first screwing up his qualifying through what seemed like an amateur mistake. he hit the barrier and drove through the curb so hard it snapped the front suspension of the ferrari, and was unable to contest for q3. during the race he was consistently stuck behind horrible traffic and horrific strategies. last year, michael managed to finish 5th from last, 22 on the grid (+17), this year kimi could only managed 8th from 16th on the grid (+8). the only good thing for him during the weekend was he proved that 'parking' at rascasse isn't necessary a means of cheating.

another red bull dnf
webber has been quiet recently. well, i would shut my trap too if i have been retiring 3 out of 5 races, and to finish no higher than 10th position for the remaining two races. but of course it isn't entirely his fault. the red bulls are designed by adrian newey, and his cars are well known to be insanely unreliable during its initial stages. we'll see if redbull can fix its unreliability and produce a similar result as spanish gp.

good bye schumacher?
it seems that the topic of conversation around the paddock has been the soon-disappearance of the name schumacher from f1. with michael gone last year, it is possible that ralf will lose his seat this year. ralf's contract has yet to be extended, while jarno is set to stay at toyota. worse still, toyota is honest about their hunt for a new driver.


winner of the race
yeah mclaren was clear winner with their one-two (both qualifying and race) and fastest lap, but i'd also like to give credits to fisichella/renault for finishing fourth, speed to finish 9th from 18, and alex wurz for finishing ahead of nico although nico way out-qualified alex.

loser of the race
toyota and honda share the title. i wonder how long are they going to continue embarassing themselves in the world motosports arena. their dismal display can't be good for their names.



previous posts:
wonderful video by shell
lewis crash! boom! bang!
are you ready for monaco?
f1 circuit chief sacked for corruption
kimi raikkonen is rubbish