Grand Prix 2012 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

For the first time in 3 decades there have been 5 different winners in 5 races and it's not exactly been the status quo winning races as not many people would have had Rosberg and Maldanado winning this early in the season and after Australia not many people would have bet on Alonso winning before the start of the European season. This is also when drivers like Hamilton, Webber, Raikkonnen and Schumacher havent won this season and the way things are going there could be 8 winners after 8 races which could almost be unprecedented.

Indeed, one thing that 2012 has shown is that no one team has been consistently fighting for the win at all five 5 races, while Lotus have possibly had the most consistent pace of the top teams, problems in the first two races meant they were unable to be competing for the win while Kimi might have been unlucky to not come away with at least one win in Bahrain and Barcelona where strategy troubles robbed him the top step but two podiums have shown that he still has the pace despite being away from the sport for 2 years.

The big surprise of the weekend was a first victory for Maldonado and a first victory for Williams since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, a win which was merited with no outside help apart from the disqualification of Hamilton from qualifying and the effect of this is unknown as to how the race would have been different but in the race Pastor drove the wheels off the car and did extremely well to keep a rejuvenated Fernando Alonso behind in an updated Ferrari on home soil. Considering Ferrari's early season struggles, for Alonso to be joint leading the Championship with Vettel is no mean feat at all.

The field is very tightly packed as well with the top 7 drivers being separated by 20 points, this time last year it was nearly 100 with Vettel claiming 4 of the first 5 races. This year that is not the case and for once Barcelona served up a classic which in my opinion was the best race of the season, finally there was close racing from 1st down to last with the outcome not being decided until the last few laps.

Going into Monaco there is no point prediction what the running order will be as the likelihood is it'll change again, for all we know the Force India's could suddenly be at the front and Lotus might only be fighting for points, it certainly makes for extremely fascinating viewing as no-one is dominating the Championship, in the city of the high rollers and casinos, it remains who will strike lucky in Monte Carlo and claim the big win, it will certainly not be boring, after all, if even Barcelona can provide an entertaining race, surely most places can (with the exception of Valencia!)
 
For what it's worth, Maldonado claims that the incident with Perez was just a mistake due to too much throttle exiting the previous corner on cold tyres. If you watch Perez's onboard cam, Maldonado has opposite lock as he clips Perez which kind of fits with his claim that he was just trying to recover his car after a moment of oversteer.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26052012/66/maldonado-says-penalties-inconsistent.html

As I asked earlier, I still haven't heard what reason Maldonado had to want to retaliate against Perez if it was intentional.
 
The reason it is turning into a rant against Hamilton is because it is the Hamilton fans who are vilifying Maldonado simply because of the incident at Spa last year...
That's not entirely fair. As an example, I'm one of Hamilton's biggest fans but I'm not afraid to criticise him when necessary (I believe I have voted for him as Chump of the Weekend in the past, when that particular feature was being run), yet I've been sticking up for Maldonado in this thread. While I think what he did to Hamilton at Spa was dangerous and deliberate (simply because it was, not because of who I support), I happen to believe Maldonado's claim that yesterday's shunt was an accident.

Anyway.
I've just watched the F3 race and there was a massive accident coming out of the tunnel the lotus car darn near cleared the catchment fence due to the car in front weaving, it was horrendous. I do not want to see something like that in tomorrows F1 race...
Yes, I was going to post something similar myself (It was the GP3 race btw, not F3). There were a number of heavy shunts in that race and the GP2 race. In each one, there was a crash on the first lap where there were three cars abreast going into Ste Devote, the middle one being squeezed and the outside one being punted off. The GP3 crash resulted in a car being flipped over, and it was lucky that the car ended up against the Armco barrier rather than on top of it; and the GP2 one was followed by a multiple pile-up going up the hill as one car spun in the middle of the track. Here again, one car rode straight over the top of another. Fortunately I think every driver was ok, but it does highlight what a potentially dangerous place this still is. Let's hope for a safe Grand Prix.
 
We know with Button if the car is not to his liking the gap between him and Hamilton gets bigger...unfortunately 0.5 seconds per lap can cost him about 10 places now where as previously might be 3 or 4

Vettel

I am surprised this is one of the biggest gaps between him and Webber and he just does not seem to have it in unlike last


I think the problem with Jenson is more to do with tyres than car. As for Vettel, like Alonso suggested - when the car is not great he tends to go the same way i.e not great
 
Ok... So let's have a little bit of reflection.

Maldonado's been given a 10 place penalty for turning into Perez.... Was it deserved- possibly- it would be interesting to know hw much attention the stewards paid to the telemetry- if they did spend a long time over it, the it will certainly have been deserved, if not, then probably not. (although given there was less than an hour from incident to penaltyz, it was likely that it was a case if "he has form, therefore he's guilty)

Then comes Schumacher-- who was already carrying a penalty for this race... However, I would question whether the 5 place grid penalty is completely equal to the 10 second penalty he would likely have received if he had completed the race at Barcelona.... Howev, again we do have to stand by steward's decisions...

No matter how ridiculous they may seem, they are the judge and jury- and as such we need to respect them...

However, even if we respect their decision, doesn't mean we always have to vilify the driver that's punished.

Does maldonado deserve all the flak he's received- especially from ex-drivers like coulthard? Probably not!
 
I haven't seen the wording of the steward's report from the Maldonado incident but it probably would've been along the lines of causing an avoidable collision. He's creating a bit of reputation for himself whether deserved or not and was almost certainly still on high after Barcelona. I think he's a a very a solid fiercely competitive driver but with a very questionable temperament. It's a shame because he comes across as humble and level headed in his interviews
 
Absolutey agree. The definition of a non incident. As a Jenson fan you might not agree with this, but I doubt someone with Button's reputation would get such a harsh penalty and widespread condemnation. No objectivity from the stewards or fans on this one in my opinion.
On the other hand If it was Hamilton he would have to start from the pitlane with all his tyres thrown into the sea for his mechanics to go fish for.
 
Interesting points coming out from McLaren on why they weren't so competitive in qualifying. It seems they do not think it was a weakness of the car but more that they couldn't switch the tyres on. I guess this is somewhat justified by Lotus' problems on the super-soft tyre. I think Lotus were easily quickest on the soft but couldn't get the super-soft working properly.

Whitmarsh:- "Our car is reasonably good on the few high-speed corners there are here at Monaco, and it’s pretty decent in terms of traction too. Under braking, however, we’re slightly struggling because it would appear that we aren’t managing to get quite enough energy into the tyres"

I wonder if this has anything to do with the adjustable brake system they're running.

Lewis also eluded to it:- "We struggled a little today, particularly with the very low-speed stuff. It was difficult to get the tyres to ‘switch on’ and give us the grip we needed."

What im wondering though is that this could possibly give them an advantage in the race as they may be kinder on their tyres.
 
I'm interested on what an "enclosed hole" is? But yeah I saw this too. Jennie Gow of BBC tweeted:-

Jennie Gow
"Could be a protest looming after the race as the Red Bull floor comes under scrutiny from the other teams. Interesting times ahead"
 
I've been having a look about and there is a few rumours but nothing on any serious sites. Apparently (according to Twitter) Mclaren, Ferrari and Mercedes aren't happy. There's a surprise...
 
Old man Schumacher LOL

Just watched qualifying this morning, working all weekend, will miss the race too *sigh*

The penaltys a shame, not had much luck this season has he? Would love it if he wins.

Think Ferrari should have done two runs in Q3, especially how Massa looked quite strong, if you've got the confidence just after a session then you're best of going out first, as his first lap was 4 tenths down, and he wasn't in the zone.

Maldonado starting at the back of the grid after wasting all his tyres :snigger: I shouldn't be laughing as I activated him as a reserve for the fantasy F1 :(

Not the grid I would have wanted,
Webber
Rosberg
Hamilton
Grosjean

Meh.
 
Good to see a few drivers who people are writing off doing well this weekend - Schumi, Massa, Webber.

My first reaction to the Maldonado incident was that it was deliberate. I can't take his protestations of innocence seriously since he would claim that anyway. But I've yet to see any onboard footage and that may, possibly, change my mind if he really did lose control of the car. An odd place for that to happen, I'd have thought. Plus I suppose the stewards will have seen and analysed it all before coming to their decision.

Button is getting a bit like DC in 2003. If the grid is going to stay this close he'll have to find a way to improve his qualifying.
 
Does anyone know the reason for Hulkenberg's reprimand?

I heard a reference to it yesterday but they didn't say why.
 
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