Grand Prix 2011 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

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Well how about that then, in a similar case in 2010 the doom and gloom merchants have vanished with a cracking grand prix in Spain. With the champagne still flowing we move on to Monaco a week later.

Mclaren will be a lot happier after running Red Bull all the way to the finish at a circuit where Red Bull normally run out of sight and could be favourites going into the Monaco race. Red Bull, however, will be the team to beat after 4 wins out of 5 races with Vettel looking unbeatable at the front but Spain showed that he wouldn't have it all his own way with Hamilton chasing him all the way to the end, even if Vettel extended his ever growing lead at the top of the championship

Ferrari seemed to have dropped back again after a superb start in Spain and eventually Alonso wound up 5th. But no doubt the Scuderia will be challenging the Mclarens and Red Bulls come the Grand Prix on Sunday. Felipe Massa's early season promise has vanished and he's back to his 2010 level and his seat will be back under scrutiny if he continues this lack of speed

Michael Schumacher will have reason to be optimistic after a strong race, beating his team mate and finishing a strong 6th as he best of the rest behind the Ferraris,Mclarens and Red Bulls. Mercedes no doubt have become the 4th fastest team over Renault who are now fighting over the lower points with Sauber and Force India.

However the big question on everyones lips will be DRS which didnt help overtaking in Spain (which is better) but more importantly where it will be placed on a circuit where straight track is at a premium so safety is a concern.

HRT continue to improve and are taking the fight to Virgin which for them is a massive achievement and its not long before they overtake them while Team lotus's optimism on Saturday didn't replicate on Sunday with a DNF for Kovalainen. But on a track where they would be weak, to get into Q2 is a massive achievement.

Hope seems to have returned to F1 after a surprisingly exciting race in Spain and it seems as if the feared Red Bull domination has been alleviated by the charging Mclarens and while Monaco is never a classic due to the nature of the track, it's certainly a spectacle

For Galahad's superb write up see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-de-monaco/
 
No Liuzzi's crash scuppered those plans. Qualifying will be more of an unknown than normal
 
Hamilton did do a run on super-soft I think, he was 9 tenths off the pace though right? Or was that him coming out on the softs again?
 
Liuzzi will be lucky to make qualifiying full stop so it will be down to how fast he's been in the free practice sessions.
 
Has Liuzzi done any competitive times? I think any driver is more likely to be excluded here than anywhere else.
 
Might have been in traffic or something, it's hard to say with 24 cars going round in less than an hour
 
This is what Sarah Holt says in her FP3 round up:
"Neither Vettel nor his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, who was just over a second shy of Alonso's leading time, were able to run a lap on the supersoft tyres which the teams will use to set their fastest laps.
Hamilton, another former winner in Monaco, was also unable to complete a flying lap on the supersoft tyres, although that does not mean he has a set in hand for qualifying as he did do some laps on them."
 
This is what Sarah Holt says in her FP3 round up:
"Neither Vettel nor his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, who was just over a second shy of Alonso's leading time, were able to run a lap on the supersoft tyres which the teams will use to set their fastest laps.
Hamilton, another former winner in Monaco, was also unable to complete a flying lap on the supersoft tyres, although that does not mean he has a set in hand for qualifying as he did do some laps on them."

What Sarah seems to misunderstand is that irrelevant of whether he used the set of super-softs or not, he would still have to hand them back after the free practice session. I can't believe the BBC journalists and reporters can make such fundamental mistakes, not knowing very simple regulations. Yesterday (in FP2 I think), Natalie, got the prime and option tyre mixed up, she thought the soft was the option and the super-soft the prime and you could tell she genuinely didn't know which way round they were or what she was really talking about. Even Ted Kravitz, who is obviously quite a bit better than most, also seems to make quite a lot of mistakes, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but when he is reporting updates, he often gets things wrong.

These guys are doing what I classify as a dream job, I'd absolutely love to have the privilege to be taken around the world to all the F1 races and report to the fans on what is happening. The least they can do is learn a few basic rules and learn to report reliable facts to the viewer.
 
Hamilton and McLaren never seem to learn do they?

It is absolutely vital to get at least a banker lap in and as they waited until a few minutes to go in Q3, he was first held up slightly by Massa and then the session was stopped due to a crash.

When will McLaren ever learn from this?
 
I actually disagree with you Paul, you can't put in an early lap and waste tyres in case of a crash. Hamilton still has time to go out and set a fast lap with the tyres and thus saving a fresh set for tomorrow which will benefit him in the race as he has more options if he's in traffic
 
It's not looking good, hopefully Perez is OK.
It didn't seem as bad as it obviously is, at first.
 
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