Monaco GP RACE **SPOILERS**

and 90% of qualifying is BS, the track to too small to get a decent timed lap in. Should rework it so each person gets equal shot instead of being held up.

 

I'm having serious doubts over Kimi clinching this title. He still has a decent chance, but something is amiss: He should be cleaning Massa's clock and he isn't (I made that comment after Bahrain already). Then he makes a rookie mistake in qualifying and little effort to make up for it in the race.

I still believe he is one of the top three talents on the grid (the other two driving for the competition), but it seems that he lacks motivation. He is driving as still being on the McLaren payroll...

I'm still not sold on Massa as a great driver, but at least he does his job and quite well at that.

And while we're struggling to understand what's up with Kimi the WDC gap widens.

 

very true. is the track too narrow for a modern F1 car? i pity those marshals waving those blue flags 10-20 times every lap...

 

The comments on live timing from F1.com said it was "obvious" from Kimi's in car camera that his car was understeering. This was early enough in the race that this perhaps could have been corrected in the pits.

A terrible qualifying performance and a mediocre race for Kimi.

by the way I love to watch Lewis "drift" through the turns. Amazing. Too bad he's on the evil McL team.

 

i really wish MS can jump back in the car and take the lead in the Championship...

 

Yep. The "wall" held up Kimi pretty badly, I'll admit.

 

The best team won today.

 

Congrats MB for 1,2

And congrats Ferrari and Massa for 3rd...

 

I haven't seen the post-race interviews but were the Ferraris maybe set up for rain? Could explain the difference with McLaren.

 

Too many damns chicanes, the one at the end of the tunnel is unnecessary and the one heading up the hill is bad too. The track is too narrow also, they need to widen it by 10 feet and put up softer barriers.

 

Another exciting Monaco race ... NOT. Unlike last year with some nice passing by Michael, today was a typical Monaco sleep inducer.

Honestly it was no more exciting to watch than the practice sessions - you get the same onboards, shots of oversteering cars, cars touching walls,etc in the practice sessions.

Qualifying is the most exciting bit of the Monaco weekend by far.

Having said that Hamilton's pass on Trulli was superb. I was expecting him to win but Alonso was peerless today. the McLarens were a class apart from the rest - virtually a second a lap quicker than the Ferraris and BMW.

I was surprised to see Massa pitting on the same lap as Alonso. My theory of him carrying more fuel was wrong! Nevertheless, he did a good workman like job today unlike his teammate

Kimi was pretty useless today. I expected him to overtake more people but it was not to be. He is 15 points behind the McLaren boys and needs to really stop making mistakes and get his head around the car and make it do what he wants so that he can lead from the front.

Good job by Fisi.

What happened to Rosberg - he suddenly went backwards?

 

Nico Rosberg - 12th: "Today was something of a disappointing race, really. I had a good start but then Fisichella really closed in at the first corner and I had to back up. My first thought was to be careful not to crash, but looking back maybe I shouldn't have and I might have had the chance to score points.

"I realised that my race was really compromised when I was stuck behind Heidfeld and had no chance to pass him. My strategy was right, but being in traffic ruined it all. Our pace was good here, and it's a shame we could not score more points."


Kimi vowes to keep on fighting - what else can he say?? Give him an R&R and put MS back in.

Carol

 

what's confusing is that Kimi looked so good in a bad car over the last two seasons. everyone and their brother was saying what he could do if he had a truly good car. well, last race not withstanding, i think he does.

massa was to play 2nd fiddle to Kimi. but what i see in him is a driver that is young, smart & hungry... exactly what i used to see in Kimi @ McLaren.


just my $0.02


joseph

 

Massa didn´t say anything about rain set-up. I suppose that Monaco doesn´t suit the Ferraris, even in those years when Ferrari won 14 of 16 GGPP they were lost in Monaco.

 

Agree. Both Ferrari drivers have one race to forget now. Let´s wait a few races before axing him. Unfortunately, I think that he already has lost the championship.

 

I agree with you on your comment on Michael. I wonder if Montezemelo is now feeling good about pushing Michael out.

Yes, Michael will make a mistake or two thru the season but he is devastating the rest of the year.

At least he should get in the car and test it a bit to give the engineers the feedback they need.

I am crushed as I am a big fan of Kimi's but his performance in the last three races have been pretty poor. No excuse for it.

 

Wait a minute . . . agreed on one of them but Felipe did a great job for Ferrari despite his tire situation and it wasn't his fault the McLarens were blazingly quick today - even he (Felipe) said that in the interview. Felipe will take today, expound on it and see what he can do to improve - he's that kind of team player. Kimi is 15 points behind with 12 races remaining and in reality the only way he can win is for Alonso or Lewis or even Felipe to DNF - not really in the realm of possibilities.

Carol

 

I'm going to go on record here as saying that Kimi will never live up to his potential at Ferrari. Not this season, not next season, not ever. Talented as he is he just doesn't have that final screw to keep it all together.

 

I'm going to start a list of all the 'excuses' I read about Kimi, Massa and Ferrari.

The bottom line is, no team stays on top forever, just ask Tyrrell in the early 70's, Ferrari in the mid-70's, Brabham in the early 80's, Williams in the late 80's, Bennetton in the early 90's. History speaks for itself, regardless of who the driver(s) are.

 

Well, both drivers made a big mistake so far: Massa in Malaysia and Raikkonen in Monaco.

After the Malaysian GP I thought that Kimi was the man: he managed to pick a podium with a sick engine while Massa wasted his pole position and finished 5th. Now the situation has changed. As I said, we have to wait... but we have to admit that both McLaren drivers are working better than our guys.

 

I had to wake up at 4:30 am to watch this "race" and I was out after an hour. After looking at the results, GREAT job by Scott. I was shocked to see his name ahead of Kimi's, who is driving a FERRARI wtf? I'm glad to see that Wurz finally picked up some points after all the bad luck. Webber though? Boy he must have pissed off the wrong witch doctor or something, it never ends!

 

I think you are spot on... but i do think it is totally possible for one of the McMB guys to DNF. There cars could finally get bit by the gremlins... or hamilton could make another mistake like he did this week in practice. They are human... there machines are often more reliable than they are. But i do understand your point that it isn't incredibly likely.

 

Statistically, most cars will have at least one DNF in a season, often more. And in addition to that, they will have a mistake here and there.

Kimi has had his mistake and his DNF. Massa has had his mistake too. I think it's highly likely that both Alonso and Hamilton are going to suffer some bad luck this season - it just happened to Ferrari first. The top 4 guys are still very much in the championship.

If things keep going how they have, the gap will only widen. But if we look back to last year, how many points down was MS at this time of year?

 

I think the comments on the Ferrari not being suited to Monaco is a good argument. Remember at the beginning of the season the talk of how the Ferrari wheelbase was longer than the rest of the field, not necessarily a good thing for the tight corners on the city streets.

Glad to see that Massa didn't slip back into the middle of the pack like some were predicting, however it was a bit disappointing that Kimi couldn't pick up another spot or two during the race. Hamilton was great today it's a shame that Alonso is on his team, otherwise I think we would have seen some great attempts to pass by Lewis today.

 

Why nobody is considering the fact that McLaren was using a new revision of their engine in both cars. Maybe that also had something to do with the difference?

Everybody is trying to justify that Ferrari was behind today, but nobody seems to want to consider the posibility that McLaren could have improved their cars significantly.

I guess we will know it on Canada.

- Julio.