Monaco Grand Prix Review

May 28, 2008

I always enjoy watching the Monaco Grand Prix, and this year was no different. It was made especially interesting with the changing wet and dry conditions and the lack of traction control this year. In the end, Lewis Hamilton won easily, but at times during the race, this looked far from happening.

Ferrari had an impressive qualifying session, and to most people’s surprise (even Ferrari’s I think) they locked up the front row, with Massa on pole and Kimi next to him. The McLarens were next, with Lewis in third and Heikki in fourth.

There was a lot of rain in the morning before the race, and then it rained again as the cars came to the grid, so the drivers had big decisions to make on the choice of tyres. In fact, Ferrari didn’t get the tyres changed in time (within 3 minutes of the drive off) and he ended up getting a drive through penalty. The other Finn, Heikki, stalled his car on the grid (caused by a software glitch that didn’t allow him control of his clutch) and had to start from the pit instead of 4th place.

When the race started, Lewis managed to get ahead of Kimi into the first corner and was just behind Felipe. Further back, Nico Rosberg tagged Fernando Alonso and damaged his front wing that had to be replaced. Also, Jensen Button who had had an excellent start and passed Rubens Barrichello and Mark Weber before hitting Nick Heidfeld and also damaged his car.

Lewis punctured his rear tyre when he hit the barrier in the 5th lap and had to go in and change his tyre. McLaren quickly changed their strategy and filled up his car so that he could go much longer into the race, and he reentered in fifth place. This was a masterful change, as shortly after this tyre change, the safety car came out when David Coulthard hit the barrier and then was hit by Sebastian Bourdais’s car. This allowed Lewis Hamilton to catch up with the leaders.

The next incident was Alonso hitting Heidfelds car. I don’t know what he was thinking, but he tried to pass Heidfeld in the hairpin, which was never going to happen. With these cars stopped in the hairpin, Rosberg slid into Heikki and damaged his second front wing.

When the race restarted, Kimi had to serve his penalty, and then damaged his front wing when he hit the barrier at Sainte Devot. This allowed Kubica to take second behind Massa, and then first when Massa made a mistake at Sainte Devot as well. When both Kubica and Massa took their first pit stop, Lewis moved into first place. Mark Weber, having an excellent race was now in fourth.

On lap 45, Alonso was the first to move to dry tyres, and Nelson Piquet changed to dry the next lap. This was a mistake for Nelson (who doesn’t have the car control of Fernando) and quickly hit the barrier and was out of the race.

When Lewis made his final pit stop, on lap 53, he changed to dry tyres and now had a 40 second lead over Felipe. Kubica then moved ahead of Massa again, when they both pitted and changed to dry tyres. The safety car came out again, when Nico Rosberg had a massive crash at the swimming pool. This ensured the field were together for the restart, and by this time, Adrian Sutil of Force India, with a miraculous drive had made it up to fourth, with Kimi now in fifth.

Kimi then lost control of his car under braking coming out of the tunnel and took out Sutil. It will be interesting to see if he receives a penalty for this, because you can be sure if the roles were reversed, Sutil would get one.

With the rain, the safety cars, and the incidents, the race finally ended short of its planned 78 laps when the 2 hour limit was hit. This was lucky for Lewis Hamilton as he discovered he had a slow puncture on his cool down lap.

The final positions were:

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  2h00:42.272
 2.  Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  +     3.069
 3.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  +     4.811
 4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  +    19.264
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  +    24.657
 6.  Barrichello   Honda               (B)  +    28.408
 7.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  +    30.180
 8.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  +    33.191
 9.  Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  +    33.793
10.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  +    1 lap
11.  Button        Honda               (B)  +    1 lap
12.  Glock         Toyota              (B)  +    1 lap
13.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  +    1 lap
14.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  +    4 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:16.689

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)    67
Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)    58
Piquet        Renault               (B)    46
Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)    37
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)    13
Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    13

World Championship standings, round 6:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      38        1.  Ferrari                69
 2.  Raikkonen     35        2.  McLaren-Mercedes       53
 3.  Massa         34        3.  BMW Sauber             52
 4.  Kubica        32        4.  Williams-Toyota        15
 5.  Heidfeld      20        5.  Red Bull-Renault       15
 6.  Kovalainen    15        6.  Renault                 9
 7.  Webber        15        7.  Toyota                  9
 8.  Alonso         9        8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      6
 9.  Trulli         9        9.  Honda                   6
10.  Rosberg        8
11.  Nakajima       7
12.  Vettel         4
13.  Barrichello    3
14.  Button         3
15.  Bourdais       2

Posted in Monaco Grand Prix