The most prestigious race of the Formula One calendar came upon us over the weekend, the Monaco Grand Prix proving to be a test of concentration, speed and mental strength, all rolled into one.
Mercedes proved dominant yet again, locking out the front row, with Nico Rosberg winning his ‘home’ grand prix (as he lives in Monaco), but there were plenty of other talking points to take out of the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix.
Hamilton compares himself to Senna… again
Many people knew the battle between Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton might eventually reach the heights of that between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
Although, it seems to some media outlets that Lewis is trying to speed up that process himself.
Qualifying on Saturday saw Rosberg get the early upper-hand on the first run of Q3, when drivers tend to set ‘banker’ laps, which as seen in qualifying itself in Monaco, are very, very important.
Rosberg out-braked himself into Mirabeau on his late flying lap, heading down the escape road, which brought out the yellow flag, effectively ending the qualifying session, as drivers were forced to slow down on their qualifying laps, including Hamilton, who says he was on target for pole.
“I was on the pole lap. But it doesn’t really matter, I guess I should have done it earlier,” Hamilton said after qualifying.
Many compared the incident to Michael Schumacher’s infamous valet parking impression at Rascasse during qualifying for the 2006 Grand Prix, stopping Fernando Alonso from earning pole.
After investigation by the stewards, Rosberg was cleared of any wrong-doing. He duly won the race from pole position, leading every lap of the race, just like he did in 2013.
BBC spoke to Hamilton after qualifying, and asked if relationship between the two Silver Arrows drivers was reaching a level akin to Prost and Senna’s, Hamilton responded with, “Essentially.”
“I don’t know if Senna and Prost sat down and talked it out. I quite like the way Senna dealt with it so I’m going to take a page out of his book.”
It’s not the first time that Hamilton has compared himself to the great Ayrton Senna, once saying: “I’ve always felt I had a connection with [Senna], that we’re somehow similar. I do crazy things that others wouldn’t do and I feel like I have an edge, too. I feel I share something with him.”
Marussia scores first points
Jules Bianchi may have started from pitlane, due to a late gearbox change after qualifying on Saturday, but he did what has been the unthinkable over the last three and a half years and score points for the Marussia outfit.
Bianchi benefited from a lot of luck on route to the historic result, with eight drivers retiring from the race, as well as Kimi Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen coming to a halt at the hairpin, allowing the Marussia driver to finish eighth in his second outing at Monaco.
However, Bianchi was relegated to ninth with the addition of a five second penalty, for taking a previous five second penalty for being in the wrong grid spot; a penalty also awarded to Max Chilton and Esteban Gutierrez, when they decided to fill in the vacant spot left by Pastor Maldonado on the warm-up lap.
The result sees Marussia now jump Sauber in the Constructors’ standings, in ninth place.
Mixed fortunes for Red Bull Racing
Sebastian Vettel faced issues with his RB10 all weekend, akin to his outings in Melbourne at the opening round of the season.
He was amazingly able to qualify fourth on Saturday, even though his ERS was facing problems all session, and thanks to a poor start for Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, was up to third on the first lap.
However, his afternoon immediately started heading south, as he started losing power in his Renault unit, and hit the pits, only to be stuck in first gear, retiring from the race early.
There were much better fortunes for Ricciardo though, who finished the race in third.
After Kimi Raikkonen got the jump on him in the first corner, they were in third and fourth place before the Safety Car was deployed for Adrian Sutil’s accident coming out of the tunnel.
Raikkonen suffered a puncture from contact with Marussia’s Max Chilton, and was forced to pit from third, allowing Ricciardo the opportunity to grace the steps outside the Royal box.
Ricciardo almost snatched second place late in the Grand Prix, after Hamilton was slowing due to dirt being in his eye, but Hamilton was able to hold him off.
Looking for great odds on racing and sport? Get into the action with PlayUp today. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
Team Penske is under the same umbrella of ownership as the IndyCar Series itself, so it was imperative for to drop the hammer and protect their integrity—which, thankfully, they did.
Red Bull can’t rest on its laurels and if Perez can’t provide them with cover on the rare days that Verstappen is having trouble, it's time to look elsewhere.
The absolute vitriol against the Canadian that has come from the incident is beyond reprehensible.
The Long Beach Grand Prix is the Monaco of American motorsport, and this past weekend, the IndyCar Series reminded everyone exactly why. We witnessed…
New Zealand made a triumphant return to the Supercars championship calendar since the demise of the much-loved Pukekohe Park Raceway – as Taupō delivered…
It’s time that serious questions are asked of his Lance Stroll and his future in the team.
