Coulthard OK after crash, Webber 9th on the grid
If they gave out prizes for crashing, then the Monaco Prize for the biggest moment of the afternoon goes to David Coulthard, who had a huge shunt, as he locked up the rear of the car coming out of the tunnel at the fastest part of the circuit, shot over to the right hand side of the track where the barriers did their worst, ripping off the right rear wheel, while the right front came perilously close to the driver’s head.
Fortunately, DC was fine and was able to return to the pits on foot. Thankfully, the chassis has only sustained light damage and this can be repaired, along with changing all the other damaged components under parc-ferme conditions, so that David, who qualified tenth fastest, one place behind his team-mate, Mark Webber, can start tomorrow’s 78 lap Monaco Grand Prix.
Before the incident, there was one of those sadly all too rare sporting moments with two teams helping out another. David’s car was called into the FIA weighbridge area during the first part of qualifying and before our mechanics could dash down there to cool his brakes with the blowers that all the teams use, the lads from McLaren and Williams, (the only other teams David has driven for in F1) already on site as their drivers had only just left, kindly kept DC’s brakes from cooking. Our team manager thanked his two opposite numbers and offered, tongue in cheek, to reimburse the money for the fuel used by the blowers. A reply came back from Williams stating that their blowers ran on a very expensive type of beer!
The weather looks as though it’s going to be unpredictable and the qualifying session only just finished before the rain came again. Ferrari has not won here since 2001 and this has always been considered a track where McLaren had the edge, but it looks as though the Prancing Horse is galloping back to form because Felipe Massa is on pole for the third time this season, with Kimi Raikkonen locking out the front row. It’s a case of the animals coming in two by two, as the second row sees Lewis Hamilton in third alongside Heikki Kovalainen. Robert Kubica is fifth for BMW, sharing row 3 with Nico Rosberg.
The Energy Station is still floating in the harbour alongside the paddock, but the stormy weather is beginning to make itself felt, as a quick look at the water level in the on-board swimming pool reveals that the whole structure is rocking about nicely on the waves. Red Bull and seasickness tablets anyone? Actually, it’s lucky the whole thing isn’t sinking under the weight of celebs from A list to Z list who have packed it out today. Disappointment for a couple of rock and roll fans on the team, who rushed upstairs to have their photo taken with guitar god and living legend, the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards. Imagine their disappointment when it turned out there was a pop star on board, but one more famous for clean living rather than having sympathy for the devil – Sir Cliff Richard.
Car 10 Mark Webber, Position 9th “We had a clear run with no problems. I was locking up quite a lot, but there was no particular sector of the lap that was worse than the others – we’ll just have to see how things go tomorrow. Seventy eight laps is a long race and there’s some uncertainly over the weather, so hopefully we can get some points.”
Car 9 David Coulthard, Position 10th “I was doing around 185kph when the incident happened, and I went into the wall quite hard. When I hit the brakes the car turned, I was going over a rise so it’s possible I locked the rear axel, but normally when that happens, you can just release the brake a little bit. We’ll check the car and see if anything was going wrong at the rear, as it turned very quickly. It’s normal for the rear to go light when you brake there, as we don’t have engine braking or anything like that, but you drive with that in mind, so I’m surprised what happened was so violent. But, we’ll get the car back, look at the data and then we’ll know.”
Christian Horner: “The main thing after such a nasty looking incident is that David is completely unharmed and the cars damage is relatively contained so, after a difficult weekend for him, which has included engine throttle problems on Thursday, an gearbox oil pressure issue this morning and a large accident in Q2, to still be tenth on the grid is positive for him! So I’m sure David will be fine in tomorrow’s race. Mark comfortably made it through the first two qualifying sessions and we think we’re reasonably placed for whatever the weather may throw at us tomorrow.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault, Principal Engineer, Track Support: “Fortunately David is okay after his accident and still got through to Q3. The performance of the car on this track is very good. For the engine it’s very difficult at this track with the new rules because we have a lot of over-revs with no driver aids. It’s going to be very difficult to keep the revs down and the car on the ground.”
