RayInTorontoCanada
Banned
Going into this weekend there was genuine talk of a McLaren victory at Monaco, a place where they'd won an amazing 14 times.
McLarens, having sorted-out their two race worth of upgrades, were the fastest cars in the Monaco-like Sector 3 in Spain ... and were barely beaten by Vettel who soaked up the pressure from Hamilton inspite of an intermittent KERS.
McLaren's race pace was there for all to see in Spain...and they have the best KERS hybrid in F1 .
Further, Hamilton was in supreme form in Q1 and Q2 and he looked like he could take Pole at Monaco.
Then it all started to unravell...
* * * * *
As per my thread here yesterday, Hamilton's McLaren race team as well as Lewis himself left their Q3 run way too late ... and then Lewis himself decided to abort his flying lap when he could easily have put in a lap time good enough for at least 4th on the grid.
[Vettel had stuck in a awsome lap, inspite of over-coming traffic of his own.]
Hamilton, meanwhile, decided to abort his flyer in the hope of a clear road eventhough there's almost no such thing at Monaco.
So...Mclaren's/Lewis' joint error of not putting in a banker was compounded by Lewis not completing that flyer.
[M Brundle during today's BBC telecast echoed what I wrote here yesterday: Massa really wasn't in his way on that Q3 Flyer of Hamilton's.]
Scratch, then, Hamilton's race win chances right there and then.
Hamilton was never going to be on the cards to win after posting 7th fastest time, which became 9th on the grid for chicane-cutting.
Some would say the above is hindsight...but I wrote in that thread that Hamilton had to get past Schumacher, Rosberg, Webber, Alonso, Vettel...a rather tough group to pass. And I didn't even mention Massa or Button!
* * * * *
This left it up to Button to take victory...but "The Button Myth" - the one about Jenson being the 'best Tyre manager' in F1 - went up in tyre smoke in Monte Carlo when he ate away his Super-Softs and had to make THREE stops while Vettel had the confidence in himself and his ability to manage his singular set of Softs for what he imagined would have to be an unheard of 60+ laps!
Not only did Vettel manage his tyres much, much better than Button...but he had to over-come a pit crew error that cost him 4 or 5 extra seconds...and then had to manage his rubber under the immense pressure of a genuine Predator like Alonso on significantly newer Super-Softs! For lap after lap!
AND...it was HIS call!
It was Vettel's own call to go all the way.
Vettel wanted the win...and he took the risk and had the confidence in himself to make it happen.
It was "A Champion's Drive"!
McLarens, having sorted-out their two race worth of upgrades, were the fastest cars in the Monaco-like Sector 3 in Spain ... and were barely beaten by Vettel who soaked up the pressure from Hamilton inspite of an intermittent KERS.
McLaren's race pace was there for all to see in Spain...and they have the best KERS hybrid in F1 .
Further, Hamilton was in supreme form in Q1 and Q2 and he looked like he could take Pole at Monaco.
Then it all started to unravell...
* * * * *
As per my thread here yesterday, Hamilton's McLaren race team as well as Lewis himself left their Q3 run way too late ... and then Lewis himself decided to abort his flying lap when he could easily have put in a lap time good enough for at least 4th on the grid.
[Vettel had stuck in a awsome lap, inspite of over-coming traffic of his own.]
Hamilton, meanwhile, decided to abort his flyer in the hope of a clear road eventhough there's almost no such thing at Monaco.
So...Mclaren's/Lewis' joint error of not putting in a banker was compounded by Lewis not completing that flyer.
[M Brundle during today's BBC telecast echoed what I wrote here yesterday: Massa really wasn't in his way on that Q3 Flyer of Hamilton's.]
Scratch, then, Hamilton's race win chances right there and then.
Hamilton was never going to be on the cards to win after posting 7th fastest time, which became 9th on the grid for chicane-cutting.
Some would say the above is hindsight...but I wrote in that thread that Hamilton had to get past Schumacher, Rosberg, Webber, Alonso, Vettel...a rather tough group to pass. And I didn't even mention Massa or Button!
* * * * *
This left it up to Button to take victory...but "The Button Myth" - the one about Jenson being the 'best Tyre manager' in F1 - went up in tyre smoke in Monte Carlo when he ate away his Super-Softs and had to make THREE stops while Vettel had the confidence in himself and his ability to manage his singular set of Softs for what he imagined would have to be an unheard of 60+ laps!
Not only did Vettel manage his tyres much, much better than Button...but he had to over-come a pit crew error that cost him 4 or 5 extra seconds...and then had to manage his rubber under the immense pressure of a genuine Predator like Alonso on significantly newer Super-Softs! For lap after lap!
AND...it was HIS call!
It was Vettel's own call to go all the way.
Vettel wanted the win...and he took the risk and had the confidence in himself to make it happen.
It was "A Champion's Drive"!