Grand Prix 2013 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

After the excitement of Spain the GP circus moves on to the glamour of Monaco, the longest serving race on the F1 calendar. Monaco, I'm sure, is probably the most testing circuit of the season for the drivers. Hurtling millimetres from unforgiving armco barriers at speeds of up to 180 mph, trying to wrestle 700 plus horsepower engines through tight and twisty corners with no hint of a run off area and having to cope with going from broad daylight into a tunnel with your foot planted hard to the floor before bursting back into the sunlight metres from probably the tightest chicane on any track, anywhere.

It is, almost certainly, the most marmite race on the season. Many love the glamour, the history and the challenge for the drivers. Others feel it is an anachronism in 21st century sport, that it is dangerous and doesn't show F1 at it's best with virtually no opportunity to overtake anywhere on the circuit. Whatever your feelings toward Monaco it isn't going anywhere soon and, I believe, is the only race which can thumb it's nose at FOM when they come along asking for money to allow the race to run. As important to Formula One as Ferrari apparently.

The battle at the top of the WDC leader board has closed up post Spain. Fernando Alonso & Ferrari were outstanding in the Catalan race and the team chose exactly the right tactics to help him win on home ground. Red Bull looked out of sorts, third best behind the Ferrari's and the Lotus Renaults (in Kimi Raikkonen's hands at least).

The tyres should probably not have quite so much of an influence on the racing in Monaco as they have in other races so far this season and Pirelli are planning changes to the rubber to give a maximum of 3 pit stops. Maybe this will help Mercedes, who appear to suffer most of the top teams with decaying rubber. Either that or Ross Brawn should remove the cheese graters Adrian Newey screwed on next to the tyres on the Merc when no one was looking.

If Mercedes manage to show the one lap pace they have elsewhere this season this could be their best chance for a win as they can lead a train around the track. However, it's hard to see past Alonso and, without some mistakes and mechanical failures, you can imagine he would have a VERY healthy lead in the drivers race by now. Perhaps the better driveability of the Renault engines will allow Lotus and Red Bull to mount a more serious challenge to Ferrari. Could someone like Force India spring a surprise, or McLaren? Sorry Macca fans, a little joke there. I shouldn't get your hopes up.

Meanwhile, down at the back. Aww, who cares as long as they get out of the way when being lapped, or get in the way depending on which driver arrives behind them. No safety cars so far this year, some how I'll be shocked if Monaco doesn't give Bert Mylander his first outing.

So Monaco, remember FP1 and 2 are on the Thursday as Friday is a religious holiday for Monegasques. Who'd have thought all those millionaires were so religious. Hope you all enjoy the race, or doing the ironing or gardening if it get's too dull/exciting (delete as appropriate).
 
It has nothing to do with the race as those were not the tyres used for the grand prix

Did not think I would use but that ugly word " Conspiracy" has earthed in the ugly world of F1
 
i think Pirelli will have to shoulder the blame for this one and accept they should have informed the FIA and everyone
 
Jos the Boss

They cannot penalise Pirelli but Pirelli could say we asked them to test voluntarily without telling them that they were 2014 spec possibly

Also they could say they failed to conduct themselves in the right way with everyone which is a major embarassment for them and Bernie
 
Seb maybe thought he had got all info needed ....after his visit to the Pirelli factory....
RB do not like to be REDBULLED...
 
What a week-end for MONACO...
Yesterday GP2 Sprint winner Stefano Colleti....Monaco resident....
Today F1 winner Nico Rosberg ...Monaco resident.......
Must be a MEGA Party tonight......:cheers:
 
Presumably we're still waiting for the results of the Grosjean and Mercedes investigations?

Although how Mercedes can be under investigation for this race is beyond me as their car wasn't illegal.
 
Not a bad race.

Although, the top 4 was sorted after the first safety car which ruined everything, as it didn't let the Alonso and Raikkonen do something about Vettel's championship lead. Just shows, track position is key, Mercedes ran the race at their own pace while the others followed, the undercut or staying out longer won't work here due to the traffic. For me, Mercedes got lucky with the first safety car as it came out on time for them to pit, obviously Hamilton lost out, but he's admitted the blame for that.

Exclude the top 4, and you have a belter of a race, unfortunately, the race lacked something for me, and that was a fight for the win/podiums.

Anyway, flawless race by Nicorette patch Rosberg, dominant all weekend, could have played out differently if the first safety car didn't play into his hands, but didn't seem troubled at all, apart from the start. Gets his second win of his career, despite Mercedes' car troubles.

Vettel had a great start off the line, was quite anonymous really, seemed to be saving the tyres throughout the race, managed to push crucially to undercut Hamilton, but one must wonder what he and Red Bull were playing at why preserve the tyres on the last stint? He clearly had the pace judging by his fastest lap, puzzling...

Webber didn't have his usual dismal start unfortunately for us, just seemed to follow Vettel home, despite being hounded by Raikkonen for the first stint.

Hamilton didn't seem to be on the same pace as Rosberg, could have been him on the top spot if he was a bit more aggressive into Turn 1 as he had the momentum, but when it's your team-mate, you take less risks, unless you are Perez. Got caught out by the safety car and missed the podium. Must not be happy.

Sutil entertained us with some overtakes, inherits 5th place due to Perez ruining his and Raikkonens race, great move on Alonso though, his best finish since his return to F1.

Button, had several bangings with Perez at the start, I don't think Perez should have let him past, as we've seen before, drivers doing what Perez did against Button yet not yield and get away with it, Button was up and down in the race.

Alonso was nowhere, he only looked threatening at the restarts, don't think he should have let Perez past, as he couldn't continue on the race track and had to go straight on from the chicane. The debris that got stuck in his front wing was late on in the race, so I don't think that affected him throughout the race. Guess he's allowed one bad race as we expect much from him.

Vergne was solid and would have finished where he started from if it wasn't for Perez clashing with Raikkonen, beats his team-mate though and catches up with him on points making it 7-5 in favour of Ricciardo, still seeming unseperable these two, with Ricciardo just looking a little better, presumably from that extra half year at HRT.

Di Resta made a good recovery, helped along the way with a lot of the retirements ahead of him, points is points though, but he still managed to complain about it.

Raikkonen, had great race pace apparently from practice, but couldn't put that to use, had two incidents with Perez, the second one ruining both of their races, Perez's fault in my opinion, not sure why he didn't get a penalty. But Raikkonen comes back from 16th to 10th in 7 laps with a late charge, which the commentators and camera crew missed. Carries on his points and finish streak.

Perez, made the race exciting, but then just went too far, could have got his team valuable points, but just went overboard, surprised he didn't come out of that race with a penalty, deserved one in my opinion.

Grosjean, as Martin Brundle said "I worry about that boy", yeah, I think we all do!

The three idiots of F1 delivered in this race to make it entertaining, them being Grosjean, Maldonado and Perez, although hard to fault Maldonado for his incident.

A quick note on the safety car, I thought it was terrible today, especially the first one deployed. It was called 2 laps too late, picked up the wrong car had to do an extra lap, let Vettel & Webber go without letting Raikkonen & Alonso past who were right behind, then waited to let Van der Garde unlap himself until it was perfectly clear.

The race for me was ruined by the red flag, and too many start and stops. But it was still enjoyable :)
 
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