Vindication at Monaco

A hysterical Lewis took the checkered flag in the 66^th GP at Monaco one of the oldest tracks in F1. The race was nothing short-of excitement. Lewis was busy planning the evening celebration party on his slowdown lap even as he was trying to catch his breath.

Ron Dennis would have felt vindicated after a win at Monaco just to the fact that after a win in Australian GP, the first step of podium some how eluded the silver car. Lewis now leads the Drivers’ Championship

A 1-2 starting for Ferrari team meant they had the best shot at the podium. A perfect qualifying lap by Kimi saw him on pole position surprising the McLaren. But his joy was short lived as Massa pulled out another stunner to steal pole from his teammate by 87 thousands of a second.

If the narrow street circuit with a lot of down force was not enough, then rain made it just that much more interesting. So a wet start was inevitable. It could mean that any one or anything could happen. So it did. Hekki’s car stalled due to some technical failure in his steering wheel. He was forced to start from pits despite qualifying in top 4.

Kimi did not have a very good start which meant Lewis grabbed the opportunity with both hands and took P2. The order seemed to stabilize by the end of lap 2 but not for long as Lewis ran close to the walls & punctured his tyre. But luck seemed to be on Lewis’ side as a safety car scenario saw him in P7 & close to the front runners.

The winner of the last 2 GPs at Monaco had a very ordinary race first having a brush with the barriers & a busted tyre & then came very close to BMW’s Nick Hiedfeld & had to pit to change his front nose. His team mate the man under severe pressure at Renault team, Nelson Jr drove a very inspired race till he had to retire. That wouldn’t help his cause3 in the team. There are rumors that the Renault team are looking to replace him half way into the season.

Red Bull Racing Team had a mixed weekend with Mark Webber finishing 4^th but his team mate the more experienced David Coultard crash tested the car not once but twice. DC had a decent start to the weekend qualifying into Q3, but in Q3 all he could manage was to crash test the car at the exit of the unique tunnel at Monaco. Luckily there are a plenty of escape routes now which saw him get out of the car unscratched. The crash caused him to change his gear box & hence a 5 place penalty. But the race was nothing much different for Dc as he again went into the barriers near one of the casinos.

Monaco GP saw the debut of long due STR3 chassis. Just as the chassis seemed to be performing very well for the STR Ferrari team, Bourdias ran into the already stalled DC near a casino making look like a car park. Luckily DC hadn’t yet attempted to get out of his car. The young German, Sebastian Vettel on the other hand had a wonderful race finishing 5^th ahead the experienced Rubens & just behind Webber. Vettel also kicked off his championship with the first points of the season.

Honda team had a great weekend with both their drivers finishing & Rubens kicking off his championship campaign. A strong 6^th place for Rubens. He just showed that in a very low down force circuit why he is so highly rated.

A totally pointless day for Toyota despite a double finish. They will be hoping to better their fortunes in the coming races.

The highlight of the weekend was the chip-of-the-old-block, Nico Rosberg putting in stunning laps all weekend & qualifying 6^th in the qualifiers. Nico in the Williams Toyota team was one of the drivers who could have changed the results, but was not to be. Nico was putting in stunning laps despite setbacks of having to change his nose. He kept driving that so close to the barriers throughout the weekend & if there was a title for on-the-limit-driving then he would have been the winner. He seemed to push his luck a bit too far; as he entered the swimming pool complex he had a scary accident that ended his race & changed the race for quite a few.

Fisichella in the Force India F1 car became the second most experienced active Formula 1 driver with 200 starts. An incredible achievement regarding that only 6 others have managed to go past 200 start mark. His record weekend was not so record s he had to change his gearbox causing him to start at the back of the grid & finally retire.

One driver who had impregnable determination & concentration was Adrian Sutil in the Force India car. He had driven the race of his life in his short stint in F1 till he was forced to retire 7 mins to checkered flag. He was totally inconsolable in the pits when his race had ended so tamely. At the start when everyone was concentrated at the front of the order, Adrian had a fantastic start overtaking 7 cars! & in Monaco where overtaking is almost impossible. He was on a single stop strategy making up places others around him pitted. What would have boosted his morale was the voice from pits telling him to race the two scarlet red Ferraris he was splitting.

The safety car after Nico’s crash meant that Kimi was ever so near to overtaking him. Both drivers were pushing very hard. As luck would have it, Kimi lost control of his car at the very same point where DC had crash tested his Red Bull car on Saturday. The car snaked around & wound up into the back of Adrian’s Force India car. It was in the pits where he came to change his tail they found that his rear suspension had broken & ended his race.

Ferrari’s fortunes changed faster than a roulette wheel in any of the many casinos decorating the street circuit in Monaco. They had a wonderful & dream start to the weekend with a 1-2 start on the grid. Then after Lewis’ brush with barriers a 1-2 seemed to be destined but was not to be. The Ferrari party was stopped by not any car but by race stewards who found that the reigning world champion’s car didn’t have all its wheels fitted within the stipulated time before start of race. Kimi was slapped a stop & drive penalty. After this the Scarlet team seemed to play one wrong card after the other on the table. Kimi clipped his nose after the penalty so had to pit again unexpectedly. Massa who was leading the pack with impeccable driving delayed his breaking by a split second. Consequence he ran off into one of the escape routes conceding race lead to Robert Kubica in BMW. After that it was a catch up game throughout…

As Kimi joined back with the third new nose to his car after ending Adrian’s race, he raced Hekki who had managed to come up to the last point scoring position. Both Finns were trading fastest laps & Kimi almost managed to overtake but Hekki defended pretty well in turn helping his teammate.

The race at Monaco was an extended race which lasted 2 full hours. At the end of which the checkered flag was waved giving Lewis his second win ahead of Massa & Kubica.

Now the points table show Lewis 3 ahead of Kimi & Massa fast catching up just a point behind his teammate. Ferrari still lead the constructors championship.

In fifteen days time is the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal which like Monaco has not been a favorite hunting ground for Ferrari. F1 getting more interesting as the season progresses.

Till then drive safely.

Sultan of Istanbul – Massa!!!

Massa has made a habit of winning the Turkish GP. On Sunday Massa drove a perfect race from pole to make it three in a row at Istanbul Park, Turkey. After Schumacher, it is Massa who has registered 3 wins in a row in a circuit.

The build-up to the Turkish GP was not all rosy 15 day gap between Barcelona & Istanbul races saw a lot of action go on off the track. There was sad news from Japanese team, Super Aguri as they announced their retirement. They would be missed as a racing outfit by new, upcoming drivers & engineers if not by the podium. Anyway, as is said in Japan Sayonara Super Aguri!!!

Coming back to the race, it was an eventful one. Not in terms of yellow flags or crashes, most of the drivers made it thru to the chequered flag. Massa as expected made a clean start but his team mate did not have such a good one.

Kimi choose to take the inside line to turn one. Hekki on P2 also choose the same. Both came close to their comfort zones & had a slight bump. While Kimi lost a bit of his front wing, Hekki suffered a puncher to his left rear tyre which meant his race was ruined & had to finish at a poor 12^th. Kimi choose not to change his nose so drove the race a bit subdued.

While characteristically most teams choose a 2 pit stop at Istanbul Park, Lewis went in with an aggressive 3 stop strategy. Thou it didn’t pay him much; he was satisfied & found his way back to the podium.

The only other big incident of the race was of Fisi in the force India car crashing into the back of Kazuki in the Williams car. DC for a change gave way to a much stronger & faster McLaren car of Hekki to pass him from the inside. Thanks a lot DC. We had a better race. Maintain this throughout.

BMW seemed to have a mixed day as they struggled to get the tyres to optimum temperatures. Both BMW drivers finished with points against their names. It was really good to hear the BMW engineers tell Kubica that they are racing Lewis, but so happened the BMWs finished 17+ seconds behind the podium finishers. Says something about their confidence in the car & driver! Nick on the other hand qualified on Saturday in 9^th so he did well to get up to 5^th.

Renault as always had a good race in comparison to the car they are having, courtesy Fernando Alonso. He too finished in points in 6^th place. His team mate had an average race & that is where the car actually belongs.

A great weekend for the RBR Renault team, both Webber & DC finishing 7^th & 9^th respectively. First time this season they managed to qualify to Q3. A good day for the Toyota team, they managed a double finish too.

A special day for Rubens Barrichello as he recorded most starts in F1 history, 257!! What an achievement. He has come a long way since he started racing 1993. 15 Yrs of F1 what a legend. Take a bow Rubens. Honda like all other teams had a good outing today with double finish.

STR Ferrari team had a not so good day. Bourdais caught one of the bumps at a turn & saw his race ending in a tame way. His teammate Vettel didn’t have a good day either as he finished last.

So the points tally at the end of the day show Ferrari 19 points clear of BMW & a further 2 points off McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship. In the Drivers’ standings it is still Kimi 7 points off Massa & Hamilton. Kubica & Nick are in strong 4^th & 5^th positions.

All in all a great race to watch out for at Monaco in 15 days time. Till then & now Drive safely.