At least we were racing - Sutil

His race ended in the barriers, but there’s no question that Adrian Sutil also made a positive impact over the course of the Monaco GP weekend. His former team mate Lewis Hamilton might have stolen the headlines, but those in the know recalled that it was Adrian and not the Briton who set fastest lap in the 2005 Monaco F3 race, when they had identical machinery.

Sutil’s own moment of glory came on Saturday morning, when wet conditions levelled the playing field and put more of an emphasis on driver ability than the equipment. As showers blew across the harbour, conditions changed by the lap, but at the very last minute Adrian popped up with fastest time.

It wasn’t a question of him being the only driver out on a drying track – many big names were also running, and if anything it was wetter at the end than it had been a few minutes earlier. But the timing screens told the story – Adrian Sutil on top, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Giancarlo Fisichella.

"Everybody was out at the moment, the best drivers," says Adrian. "But I did a very good lap. I was on the top, I never expected it, but it was a great moment, and I really enjoyed the two hours before qualifying!"

In the afternoon Adrian did a good job to beat Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota and Takuma Sato’s Super Aguri, but there was a little frustration as a couple of tenths would have gained two more places, even if entry into Q2 remained out of reach.

Having suffered so much disappointment on the first laps of the early races this year, Adrian was relieved to survive the Monaco start in good shape. He then spent much of the first stint of the race chasing of Jarno Trulli and the two Super Aguris.

"We were able to fight some cars, and at least we were racing. It was interesting for me. I had a lot of blue flags, and in one situation Trulli was so slow, he held us up by four seconds a lap. We lost some time there, but usually I could always go on my pace.

"However, the brakes were going off quite quickly, and it was unpredictable. Sometimes I had good brakes, sometimes not, and it was always hard to get the right braking point."

Alas, things came unstuck on 54, when he slid wide at Massenet, the tricky lefthander on the entrance to Casino Square.

"It was a good race until I crashed! I had just a little bit of oversteer, and I missed a little bit the apex on the braking. It’s so dirty on the outside, so I went into a barrier. It was not a huge crash, just the tyres were off the rim, and I couldn’t go on."

Not making the chequered flag was a major disappointment, but Adrian was able to see the positives.

"It was a good weekend, and it was nice to race with the other cars. I enjoyed it really, we put a good show sometimes, and to be on the top on free practice was great. We can be quite happy with that."

So is he going to keep a copy of the Saturday morning practice times?

"Oh yeah, I will!"