Monaco GP 2008

[Sawtooth-spike]

PS: Two men that also drove flawlessly were Massa and Kubica. Kudos to them. It's somewhat of a shame that the one stopper of Massa (brilliant qualy lap. Has Dennis anything to say?) was hampered by a drying track.

Kubica Yes. Massa...... unless the first corner involves a left turn then a uturn no.

What a Race!! I was on the edge of my seat. Lewis was lucky... Sorry Lewis was Stupidly Lucky! But he did drive hard to make up for it.

Alonso Ruined Nicks race with an overtaking move Sato would be proud of. But Give alonso his due, ignoreing that one incident the guy drove the nut off that car.

I really felt for force india, I wounder if the steward would have taken it away for the overtaking under the yellow flag.

More races like this please!

[Miguel]

Kubica Yes. Massa...... unless the first corner involves a left turn then a uturn no.

Oops! Forgot that one. In any case, Massa exceeded my wildest expectations about him today.

Alonso Ruined Nicks race with an overtaking move Sato would be proud of. But Give alonso his due, ignoreing that one incident the guy drove the nut off that car.

Indeed. There's an article in "El País" in which Alonso comments this incident. I'll translate it later. It goes on the line "I was losing ground to Kubica behind Heidfield and if I wanted to have a shot at the podium, I needed to overtake nick as soon as possible. It was all my fault"

[bazanaius]

Blimey - Alonso admitted he made a mistake... weird.

I think the problem with piquet is not that he's not winning races - he's in the R28 after all. It's the problem that he's just not performing to the best of the cars ability. He's not expected to win races, but he is expected to qualify well and race well - perhaps not on a par with his double world champion team mate, but at least on par with the other relatively new guys in cars that are a lot worse than his.

He's just not up to it. I feel the same about Glock - I was very keen for Glock to do well at the start of the season, but he also just doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes.

[Chaparral]

What does anyone here think of Mike Gascoyne's call to have Kimi's error looked at by the marshalls? He sort of has a point in some ways,.. if it had been the other way around Ferrari would be screaming blue murder about hammered Force India.

Or is it just the big disappointment speaking at the moment?

R

I believe Gascoyne did the correct thing - you have to ask the question - its not just Sutil but also the team that were devastated - shows good leadership even if in his own mind he knew it was a racing incident - those little things help galvanise a team

[Miguel]

Okay, the original news can be found here. Spanish speakers can click there, while I'll translate Alonso here for other people:

I saw how Kubica was running away, and I had to overtake Heidfeld in order to keep my podium hopes alive. I then decided to overtake him. I had the advantage of using extrem wets, while he was on the intermediates and was losing a lot of time in slow corners. I tried it once, but he blocked me well. After that, I saw a small gap for the next corner [Loews], where an overtaking is impossible. I had a chance in a million. And it didn't work out. It was my fault. I made a mistake for risking too much. After that, despair.

A bit later, he reasons why he was going flat out:

I was going flat out to keep options for as long as possible. I risked a lot and I lost. But it isn't important for us. It was for Raikkonen, who left with no points while fighting for the title. We aren't. We know this season is tricky, and we have to get as many points as possible in serious races [????]. But in races as chaotic as this, we could take the luxury of risking. Losing the gamble means nearly nothing

The rest of the article is a mix between Alonso commenting on the race after his crash with Heidfeld and how Hamilton had a great race to win in the principality.

[donskar]

Pretty typical Monaco GP (but better than most), with the usual assortment of oddities (Kimi's penalty, Hamilton's tire problem/no problem), but Hamilton's win was well deserved. Nice to see the new generation of drivers doing so well. How long before Kubicza gets his first win? With a little more speed from BMW, he would have a realistic shot at the DC. Sutil and Vettel also showed well.

Speaking of DC (as in Coulthard), who replaces him next year. That seat should be one of the best available.

Massa again showed IMHO that he is an excellent #2 driver on a top team or a very good #1 on a mid-field team. He can win from the front, but he seems to lack that something extra to battle back when behind.

[donskar]

RobW wrote:

What does anyone here think of Mike Gascoyne's call to have Kimi's error looked at by the marshalls?

It was his duty to have the incident looked into. And the officials made the right call. Kimi was doing what he is paid for, going as hard as possible in quest of a single point or even position. Either he made a mistake (probable) or a mech problem caused the collision. He certainly was not driving wildly, nor did he intentionally ram his opponent.

If only DC's driving were called into question more often . . .

[Mr Alcatraz]

A very tough brake for Sutil. He managed to be where he was by running heavy from the start, and keeping it on the track. He wasn't the only one who had to retire through no fault of his own! Monaco, wet track, a recipe for disaster! If Kimi had held it together and made the pass everyone would be saying that Kimi is so great because he is a hard charger, willing to take chances. It worked out very badly for both of them! Was Kimi being reckless? Too hard to tell! I prefer leaving these things alone. The same situation could come up later in the season, say in Japan, or China! If Kimi were the recipient, I’d hate to think the stewards would be compelled to give LH a penalty for an accident where he lost control while chasing down Kimi with the title hanging in the balance!

[Belatti]

I have my doubts about what would happen if Kimi didn´t hit Sutil...
As far as I could see, Sutil was not going to brake in time to turn into the chicane [frontal video replay appreciated]Maybe he would just pass through the kerb and continue to lead Kimi, but... we will never know.

The problem with Nelsinho is not that he is doing mistakes, cause you are allowed to make mistakes when you are young and inexperienced. The big problem here is speed and pace. Hamilton had the same speed as FA and quite a good pace. Nelson is 0.5 sec away from there.

And please I don´t want anybody to come now and say "Lewis was allowed to use FA setup" because 0.8 secs (the average gap in the 6 qualys till now) can´t be just that. Its not as easy as sitting in Schumacher´s Ferrari and you win 5 consecutive titles.

[myurr]

I have my doubts about what would happen if Kimi didn´t hit Sutil...
As far as I could see, Sutil was not going to brake in time to turn into the chicane [frontal video replay appreciated]Maybe he would just pass through the kerb and continue to lead Kimi, but... we will never know.

The problem with Nelsinho is not that he is doing mistakes, cause you are allowed to make mistakes when you are young and inexperienced. The big problem here is speed and pace. Hamilton had the same speed as FA and quite a good pace. Nelson is 0.5 sec away from there.

And please I don´t want anybody to come now and say "Lewis was allowed to use FA setup" because 0.8 secs (the average gap in the 6 qualys till now) can´t be just that. Its not as easy as sitting in Schumacher´s Ferrari and you win 5 consecutive titles.

Sutil made the turn no problems, from memory I think he was already turning in when Kimi hit him. As it was, even with the thump he still made it round the speed bumps.

It was a terrible shame, and at the time I felt Kimi deserved a penalty. But in retrospect it was in no way deliberate, and he wasn't trying a reckless move, so no penalty required. He just locked the rears on a damp patch, possibly even braking earlier than usual to try and avoid Sutil. And fair play to him, he's held his hands up and apologised.

[NaZzO]

Can anybody please point me to a high resolution photo, of all sides if possible, of Kimi's Monaco special helmet for this race? [-o< He has by far the best helmet designs of any driver. I would be greatly appreciative.

here is what i was able to find:
http://nazzouhte.googlepages.com/diapo_ ... ;init:.jpg

[Chaparral]

I have my doubts about what would happen if Kimi didn´t hit Sutil...
As far as I could see, Sutil was not going to brake in time to turn into the chicane [frontal video replay appreciated]Maybe he would just pass through the kerb and continue to lead Kimi, but... we will never know.

The problem with Nelsinho is not that he is doing mistakes, cause you are allowed to make mistakes when you are young and inexperienced. The big problem here is speed and pace. Hamilton had the same speed as FA and quite a good pace. Nelson is 0.5 sec away from there.

And please I don´t want anybody to come now and say "Lewis was allowed to use FA setup" because 0.8 secs (the average gap in the 6 qualys till now) can´t be just that. Its not as easy as sitting in Schumacher´s Ferrari and you win 5 consecutive titles.

Here you go Belatti - this shows it very clearly - it looks like a restart and KR was on cold tyres as he says - he plain and simple locked up the rears and fishtailed down the road into Sutil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ocqjwa ... re=related

[Fridge13]

I have my doubts about what would happen if Kimi didn´t hit Sutil...
As far as I could see, Sutil was not going to brake in time to turn into the chicane [frontal video replay appreciated]Maybe he would just pass through the kerb and continue to lead Kimi, but... we will never know.

The problem with Nelsinho is not that he is doing mistakes, cause you are allowed to make mistakes when you are young and inexperienced. The big problem here is speed and pace. Hamilton had the same speed as FA and quite a good pace. Nelson is 0.5 sec away from there.

And please I don´t want anybody to come now and say "Lewis was allowed to use FA setup" because 0.8 secs (the average gap in the 6 qualys till now) can´t be just that. Its not as easy as sitting in Schumacher´s Ferrari and you win 5 consecutive titles.

Here you go Belatti - this shows it very clearly - it looks like a restart and KR was on cold tyres as he says - he plain and simple locked up the rears and fishtailed down the road into Sutil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ocqjwa ... re=related

If you also look at that footage, Sutil is applying opposite lock, im defintely in doubt if he would have made the chicane

[WhiteBlue]

Fridge13, what are you talking about? Sutil is totally in control while Kimi goes through a series of tank slappers. He is breaking and turning in while Kimi is fighting with his car and getting nearer. Adrian is definitely not having any problem there or in danger to loose control until Kimi hits him from behind. Even then he just cuts across the chicane and there is no one else close he coild have lost a place to. so even that could not affected his race result, but the hit by Kimi has damaged his rear and so he cannot continue the last laps. this is 100% due to Kimi loosing it on cold tyres and 0% Sutil's responsibility. The only evasive action open to him would have been less braking and cutting the chicane but you cannot ask that of him. he is supposed to make it around the track. So what are you actually saying by your post? do you think that Sutil saw Kimi in the last moment and aborted his turn in by opposit lock trying to straighten the car?

[Fridge13]

Adrian is definitely not having any problem there or in danger to loose control until Kimi hits him from behind.

i am not saying that it is Adrian's fault at all, i am saying that had he been turning in the whole way, it is possible(albiet by the smallest of minute margins) that kimi might have just clipped his front wing or even just sailed through the chicane.