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!)
 
Like we place faith in your predictions! He'll stick it in the wall on lap 37 after being frustrated by a back marker, De La Rosa. He'll then blame everybody other than himself and after deliberations by the stewards be exonerated. The forum will then go mad.
That's a prediction, Jos.
 
I've been watching the FIA season review of 2008 and after seeing a wet Monaco and wet British GP won by Lewis Hamilton on there I am so excited for Monaco and I would absolutely love it'd to be wet. In fact...

I'm going out on a limp here and putting my 5-0 record on the line by telling you we will see wet tyres in Monaco on Sunday. See, you get my predictions 6 days before the race. I bet Jos hasn't got a clue what the weather is going to be on Sunday. :p
 
Looking at the race winner odds, I'm seriously considering backing Kimi at 6/1 and Grosjean at 10/1. That team's cars have been consistently quick at Monaco down the years.

Interestingly Hamilton is 11/4 favourite, and yet Button is priced at 10/1.
 
Very interesting as Button's odds at the start of the season were converging on Lewis'. Is it a case of normality restored? The big problem for Jenson - and the reason above all else that I think he won't win the championship - is he is consistently 0.2-0.3+ seconds behind Lewis in Quali. In the past that could mean just 1 place, but looking back over last few races it has meant 4-5. Grid penalties has evened things out a bit in last couple of races, but when you look at Jenson's relative race pace since Australia he has to be concerned.
 
Not sure if I should post this in 'ask the apex or not' here goes..

You know how at Monaco the F1 practice is on Thursday and the F1 has Friday off ? Well I thought this is because Friday is a day of rest or something. So how come the GP2 and GP3 series are doing qually and races on Friday ?????
 
Day of rest is the wrong term. Basically all the big sponsors have charity bashes etc etc of on the Friday so they've never had any racing on that day whilst the drivers go party. I'm guess they don't care if the GP2 or GP3 drivers turn up or not.
 
Apparantly Williams are bring further updates to Monaco and they will be ready for the race despite the fire in Spain. If these updates work you really would have to consider Williams challenging for a large points haul, and maybe even the win with a bit of luck. I just hope Senna gets his act together so we can have a decent yardstick against Maldonado, even if it still is Bruno Senna...
 
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