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!)

 

[Mephistopheles]

What like this one Kewee

or this one

or maybe you would prefer something like this

He he he, I'm a silly ol sausage aren't I

 

[Kewee]

Mephistopheles........Where did you find them. I love 'em all. Hahahah

 

[Mephistopheles]

Those I found on photobucket.com it is an image sharing website just type it into google although it may not be available on your side of the globe...

Edit

The girl looks a bit manic....

 

[Viscount]

RasputinLives

This photo shows how slow Hamilton's start was compared to the others. Despite it only being a short run into the first turn the front 2 had quite a gap to Hamilton and the 3 cars behind closed on him quickly. As someone previously mentioned, his slow start might have been the catalyst for the Grosjean incident, with them almost running 4 cars wide on a tight track.

 

[RasputinLives]

Sorry but still think Lewis has had far worse starts this season. I think what you're looking at in that picture is both Merc and Alonso having quick starts and people going defensive. Lets rememebr Rosberg, Schumie and Alonso have all been getting flyers this season.

I just think his problem at the start have been exaggerated as I don't think it would have made any difference to his race whatsoever.

 

[Quintessentially]

Despite Hamilton’s relatively bad start, I think Grosjean has no one to blame but himself. He moved to cover but Alonso had already occupied the spot after spotting Hamilton’s poor start. He then had the option of getting off the throttle because you can’t veer across wildly like that at the start of a race and not expect to head for an early shower. He got greedy and paid the price for the third time this season. Anyway, I think still pictures don’t always tell the whole story.

 

[Viscount]

If the closest 5 cars (4 teams) have a better start than you, I'd consider that a slow start. Speed is relative.

I don't really think it's being exaggerated, no-one's saying he would have won the race with a better start and neither did he lose any positions. Just acknowledging the fact that it was a slow start.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Viscount

Absolutely.

 

[Slyboogy]

I think Grosjean has no one to blame but himself. He moved to cover but Alonso had already occupied the spot after spotting Hamilton’s poor start. He then had the option of getting off the throttle because you can’t veer across wildly like that at the start of a race and not expect to head for an early shower. He got greedy and paid the price for the third time this season.

Although this is very off topic, you say that Grosjean is the one to blame and he veered wildly at the start, it was infact Alonso that veered into Alonso with Grosjean keeping his car straight after Grosjean made his intial move.

Watch from 0.03 - 0.06s, it was Alonso's car that moved into Grosjean's not the other way around.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

I don't understand what the issue is in discussing LHs bad start. He said it was a bad start, it looked like a bad start, ergo it probably was a bad start. Was it driver error or clutch settings

I don't think we need to think too hard for that answer

Did it mess his race up, only LH can say what the consequences were, I think he did

 

[Fenderman]

Slyboogy Seeing it from that angle one wonders what Schumi was thinking. He's been to Monaco often enough to know that trying to go four wide on the outside is going to hang yourself out to dry. He was lucky to get away with that, methinks.

Forgot what thread I was in

 

[Quintessentially]

Although this is very off topic, you say that Grosjean is the one to blame and he veered wildly at the start, it was infact Alonso that veered into Alonso with Grosjean keeping his car straight after Grosjean made his intial move.

Watch from 0.03 - 0.06s, it was Alonso's car that moved into Grosjean's not the other way around.

It's not clear cut and too far back looking at it from Vettel's car to pass accurate judgement. Shumi's on board footage paints a different picture but as you say it's off topic so we leave it here.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Sorry but still think Lewis has had far worse starts this season. I think what you're looking at in that picture is both Merc and Alonso having quick starts and people going defensive. Lets rememebr Rosberg, Schumie and Alonso have all been getting flyers this season.

I just think his problem at the start have been exaggerated as I don't think it would have made any difference to his race whatsoever.

That would be true if it were not for the fact that Lewis got on the radio and asked the team what happened to my start I went nowhere so obviously he felt his start was poor and he was blaming the team for it, which brings back to the clutch settings situation..

 

[Mephistopheles]

It's not clear cut and too far back looking at it from Vettel's car to pass accurate judgement. Shumi's on board footage paints a different picture but as you say it's off topic so we leave it here.

It was clear from the sky pad that Alonso went left due to Hamilton's bad start, to be honest I don't think he had any choice this pushed Romain left and so squeezed a very fast starting Schumacher into the wall.

I was just one of those nowhere for anyone to go type of incidents...

Actually I think that if Schumacher hadn't of had such a good start then both Alonso and Romain would have got past Hamilton before the first corner so in essence Hamilton benefited from his poor start..

Not quite sure what this has to do with Lewis V Button though.

 

[RasputinLives]

I don't really think it's being exaggerated, no-one's saying he would have won the race with a better start and neither did he lose any positions. Just acknowledging the fact that it was a slow start.

Viscount the reason I'm arguing that it wasn't too bad a start is because of this stuff

I don't understand what the issue is in discussing LHs bad start. He said it was a bad start, it looked like a bad start, ergo it probably was a bad start. Was it driver error or clutch settings

I don't think we need to think too hard for that answer

Did it mess his race up, only LH can say what the consequences were, I think he did

Basically the brigade that will come out and blame Mclaren making mistakes for Lewis not winning or finishing higher up where really he was just outpaced and probably outperformed by the guys that finished in front of him. Whether that was Lewis or the car we don't know but the whole "Mclaren told him to change his clutch settings and that led to a bad start that ruined his race" line thats being suggested is pure nonesense IMHO.

 

[The Artist.....]

Basically the brigade that will come out and blame Mclaren making mistakes for Lewis not winning or finishing higher up..

Lewis Hamilton started the race third. He was still third into the first corner. Had he got a better start, would he have finished any further up the field? Probably not - as he would STILL have been third into the first corner as Rosberg and Webber both made good starts! The only difference is that Grosjean might not have been eliminated, which would have meant that Kobayashi wasn't launched into Button, meaning that Button wouldn't have spent all race behind Kovalainen.

Disclaimer: Before anyone suggests it, I am not blaming Hamilton for Grosjean's accident. Nor am I suggesting that it is the McLaren team's fault that Button spent the race behind Kovi. These are just accidents, and part of the nature of riding a motorbike round your granny's bathroom! (Sorry, driving an f1 car at Monaco)

 

[Viscount]

Ah, I get you now RasputinLives, pretty much agree with everything you said there. Didn't realise anyone was implying that his start affected his eventual finish. In my opinion his race came down to not taking the initiative or just copying Alonso and saving his tyres early in the race.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

I don't think we can say circumstances at the start caused Button to be stuck behind Kov

His getting out qualified by 13 guys caused that

 

[The Artist.....]

I don't think we can say circumstances at the start caused Button to be stuck behind Kov

His getting out qualified by 13 guys caused that

JB started 12th Kovalainen started 17th. Yes, he had a bad qualifying, but had it not been for the Grosjean accident, there is no way that Kovalainen would have been ahead of Button into turn 1. Yes, it is true that if you have a bad qualifying, then you're more likely to get caught up in someone else's problem, but trying to deny that circumstances played a part is just trying to wind people up. - or was that what you were trying to achieve?

 

[Bill Boddy]

@The Artist had Hamilton got a better start leading to the Grosjean accident no happening it is quite possible that Vettel, who moved up the field at least partially by cutting the first corner, would not have passed Raikonnen. This would have led to him being severely held up and not able to get back into the field in front of Hamilton once he (Vettel) pitted.