2014 Monaco Grand Prix

[beelsebob]

Well, IF Nico did it on purpose, he would have my approval. He had the guts to do it.

o.O

[stefan_]

I can-not-believe how this "Nico did it on purpose" nonsense escalated...

[Redragon]

Spanish press is reporting Vettel is sanctioned because of gear box change, but nothing is confirmed and I can't find anything, anyone have heard anything?

[prince]

Nice pictures on the BBC website from previous F1 races at Monaco.

http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-27526445

the guardian had some nice ones too

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/galler ... x-pictures

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Gua ... hi-019.jpg

personal favourite from the gallery

I would have always driven there with a Swim Suite. Looking at this picture, if someone makes a mistake there, A Swimming Session seemed complimentary.

[ell66]

The lock up looked like an intentional one. His line was way off from his pole lap and his unnecessary sawing at the wheel was bizarre.

[djos]

I can-not-believe how this "Nico did it on purpose" nonsense escalated...

It did look very odd. .... That said I assume the stewards looked at the data and found everything above board.

[tim|away]

LEWIS HAMILTON:
I'd had a good weekend so far and I've just been concentrating on my own performance and working on the pace one step at a time. Qualifying was going well today but in hindsight, I should have nailed my best lap before the end of Q3. This is Monaco and there is always the risk of yellow flags here. Of course, I'm extremely disappointed that I didn't get to finish my lap as I was a couple of tenths up. That's motorsport. I have to get the best possible start and then see what we can do from there.

+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|Driver        |Sector 1|Sector 2|Sector 3|laptime |
+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|Nico Rosberg  |  19.826|  35.241|  20.922|1’15.989|
|Lewis Hamilton|  19.973|  35.140|  20.935|1’16.048|
+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

On his final run, Lewis managed to set a time of 19.906 for Sector 1. That's 0.067 faster than his own personal best - not a couple of tenths and not compared to Rosberg. His Sector 1 time was still slower than Rosberg's previous Sector 1 time. Then again, Lewis was slower in S1, but faster in S2.

It's quite possible that Lewis could have taken pole position, but it's definitely not as clear-cut as a lot of people make it sound.

[johnsonwax]

Looks like our chance of rain may be gone. Pity. Monaco is lovely when it rains this time of year.

[myurr]

LEWIS HAMILTON:
I'd had a good weekend so far and I've just been concentrating on my own performance and working on the pace one step at a time. Qualifying was going well today but in hindsight, I should have nailed my best lap before the end of Q3. This is Monaco and there is always the risk of yellow flags here. Of course, I'm extremely disappointed that I didn't get to finish my lap as I was a couple of tenths up. That's motorsport. I have to get the best possible start and then see what we can do from there.

+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|Driver        |Sector 1|Sector 2|Sector 3|laptime |
+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|Nico Rosberg  |  19.826|  35.241|  20.922|1’15.989|
|Lewis Hamilton|  19.973|  35.140|  20.935|1’16.048|
+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

On his final run, Lewis managed to set a time of 19.906 for Sector 1. That's 0.067 faster than his own personal best - not a couple of tenths and not compared to Rosberg. His Sector 1 time was still slower than Rosberg's previous Sector 1 time. Then again, Lewis was slower in S1, but faster in S2.

It's quite possible that Lewis could have taken pole position, but it's definitely not as clear-cut as a lot of people make it sound.

He was 2 tenths up on Rosberg's second run at the point Rosberg stuffed it. Also if you multiply 0.067 by three you get.... two tenths.

[stefan_]

I can-not-believe how this "Nico did it on purpose" nonsense escalated...

It did look very odd. .... That said I assume the stewards looked at the data and found everything above board.

Maybe it looked odd because he probably lost the rear end. I don't think he would have taken the risk to play with the steering wheel and maybe lose it completely and damage a car that is well set up for the race.

If he wanted to do something on purpose it would have been much safer and easier just to "forget" the braking point, hit the brakes 10 meters later and just plant it 1 cm away from the barrier without any damage.

[myurr]

I can-not-believe how this "Nico did it on purpose" nonsense escalated...

It did look very odd. .... That said I assume the stewards looked at the data and found everything above board.

They only looked at it from the perspective of the FIA rule book. Locking up isn't illegal, only bringing the sport into disrepute. If there wasn't overwhelming and clear evidence that it was deliberate they couldn't find him guilty of anything even if they wanted to, so their findings aren't unexpected nor enough to satisfy everyone. That said it was better they did make a ruling on this to try and draw a line under it. Had they ignored it completely then the rumours would have continued to escalate.

More interesting will be Hamilton's reaction over the next few days. He also has access to all the data and if he's more circumspect and publicly accepts it was probably an accident then I'd have no doubt that were the case. If he remains publicly suspicious then it wouldn't be wrong of me to also remain suspicious. The crash, the reversing, and Nico's celebration all looked odd - had it been an accident I would have thought Nico's first reaction, as a sportsman, would have been to go over to Hamilton and apologise just as a tennis player would with a net chord that goes in their favour. But it's easy to read too much into it.

[alexx_88]

I think stefan_ summed it up beautifully and it's also an opinion expressed by Anthony Davidson from Sky. Brake much later than usual and just stick the nose into the barrier. No risk of damaging the setup as it's only a nose change.

Doing all those movements with the steering wheel is plain stupid if you want to crash deliberately. Braking intensity is not picked up by the footage and it's much easier for it to go unnoticed to the naked eye of the viewers.

[myurr]

I think stefan_ summed it up beautifully and it's also an opinion expressed by Anthony Davidson from Sky. Brake much later than usual and just stick the nose into the barrier. No risk of damaging the setup as it's only a nose change.

Doing all those movements with the steering wheel is plain stupid if you want to crash deliberately. Braking intensity is not picked up by the footage and it's much easier for it to go unnoticed to the naked eye of the viewers.

Davidson's analysis also highlighted the exact frame at which Rosberg hit the brakes and Herbert pointed out that he was already starting to turn the wheel to react to the rear locking (which Rosberg still hasn't mentioned, only referring to locking the fronts over the bump). Human reaction time is around 160ms which is 4 frames, so even allowing for a super human or predictive reaction Rosberg's a couple of frames ahead of where he should be reacting to the movement of the car. I don't think anyone can state definitively what happened, it's certainly not clear cut and there's enough reason for doubt and enough reason to trust him based on your personal preference and point of view. Let's not vilify each other's opinions in these circumstances.

[prince]

+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|Driver        |Sector 1|Sector 2|Sector 3|laptime |
+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
|Nico Rosberg  |  19.826|  35.241|  20.922|1’15.989|
|Lewis Hamilton|  19.973|  35.140|  20.935|1’16.048|
+--------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+

On his final run, Lewis managed to set a time of 19.906 for Sector 1. That's 0.067 faster than his own personal best - not a couple of tenths and not compared to Rosberg. His Sector 1 time was still slower than Rosberg's previous Sector 1 time. Then again, Lewis was slower in S1, but faster in S2.

It's quite possible that Lewis could have taken pole position, but it's definitely not as clear-cut as a lot of people make it sound.

He was 2 tenths up on Rosberg's second run at the point Rosberg stuffed it. Also if you multiply 0.067 by three you get.... two tenths.

Nice assumption, to multiply by 3. I don't understand that maths well. Whole weekend, Lewis was slower on S1 and S3 and even the last run that he aborted, he was still slower than Pole lap of Nico. There was a comparison that Anthony Davidson was doing on Sky after qualifying, where he compared Lewis' last lap (S1) with that of Nico and it was very clear that there wasn't anything to suggest that lap was going to be mega.

[Anon123]

Was Hamilton fully commited for the whole of S1? he could have been 2 tenths up coming out of casino square only to ease off as he saw the yellows. Not the point anyway, he was denied a chance because of a Rosberg 'mistake'.