Grand Prix 2016 Monaco Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

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After the excitement of Spain, with a new Grand Prix winner added to the list, we now move to the French Riviera for the jewel in F1's crown. It would appear that Ferrari's place as the next best team after Mercedes has been taken by Red Bull. I suspect we will see a reaction from the red team but do they have the capacity move back ahead?

Monaco hasn't been a happy hunting ground for Lewis Hamilton with only a single win back in his McLaren days. Nico Rosberg has won the last three races at what is, in truth, his home race. Sebastian Vettel has only won here once as well which shows what a lottery this race can sometimes be. Kimi Raikkonen hasn't won since 2005, also in a McLaren.

Mercedes will continue to be the class of the field but Monaco can be a great leveler where fractions of an inch can be the difference between winning and sitting in a pile of carbon fibre wondering what happened.

Max Verstappen must be on cloud nine, can he take this confidence in to the race around the principality? Daniel Ricciardo will have something to prove after his teenage teammate's achievement in Spain. The Toro Rosso boys will also have something to prove; Carlos Sainz that he deserves a drive in the senior team and Daniil Kvyat to show he should have kept in place at Red Bull.

I'm sure Force India will be hoping for some serious points, Williams will continue to be poor and will probably be even worse round the twists on Monaco. Haas will have their first experience of French sunshine, Renault will have something to prove at the closest thing to a home race for the French team. They could well be battling it out for the minor points places.

At the back Manor and Sauber will battle for the wooden spoon. Sauber look to be working hard to ensure they get this as they continue struggle financially. Manor, at least in Wehrlein's hands, hasn't look too bad given their budget. I wonder if Haryanto will have to ask for a special dispensation as he hasn't got within the 107% time.

Fun in the sun? Monaco is always more exciting in the wet, I wonder if we will see a sprinkling of rain just to spice things up?
 
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A massive number of empty grandstand seats around the track and especially around the swimming pool section. I wonder if they will also be empty on race day?
 
Ideal Lap (sum best sectors) in the Qual:
Qual – No – Driver – Qual Result – Ideal Lap – Flaw
1 - 3 - D.RICCIARDO - 01:13,622 - 01:13,622 - 00,000
3 - 44 - L.HAMILTON - 01:13,942 - 01:13,780 - 00,162
2 - 6 - N.ROSBERG - 01:13,791 - 01:13,791 - 00,000
4 - 5 - S.VETTEL - 01:14,552 - 01:14,282 - 00,270
6 - 7 - K.RAIKKONEN - 01:14,732 - 01:14,555 - 00,177
9 - 26 - D.KVYAT - 01:15,273 - 01:14,615 - 00,658
7 - 55 - C.SAINZ - 01:14,749 - 01:14,672 - 00,077
5 - 27 - N.HULKENBERG - 01:14,726 - 01:14,726 - 00,000
8 - 11 - S.PEREZ - 01:14,902 - 01:14,833 - 00,069
10 - 14 - F.ALONSO - 01:15,363 - 01:14,992 - 00,371
 
Surprised we didn't see record breaking pace today, although we got within a tenth of it.

Ricciardo and Kvyat have looked absolutely on it all through the weekend, in the end Kvyat bottled it in Q3 while Ricciardo nailed it.

McLaren's 3rd best chassis on the grid is working wonders for them, although to be fair this is the closest (in percentage terms) they've been to pole since Honda returned to the sport - 2% off pole and 1.8% off Mercedes (although they were only 1% off Mercedes in Singapore they were 2.4% off pole on that occasion).
 
if Ricciardo gets off the line cleanly barring bad luck the race is his to lose

Hulkenberg I did not see that 5th on the grid so we will probably see him performing for a series of races then so he can put himself in the shop window for a drive
 
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