Monaco GP Thread **SPOILERS**

Locke Cole Wrote:
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> He even managed a great race, so no sign
> of a mistake!

At one point he only just had enough lock to get around La Rasscasse. I counted 3 times he went into that corner crossed up, losing time.

I think what separated Alonso from Hamilton today was Hamilton's little mistakes. As Red Sam said, there's absolutely no shame in that though. It's been 16 full seasons since a driver put up a decent fight to his reigning World Champion teammate, and it's no coincidence they were both driving McLaren's then either.

Bigbrother Wrote:
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> Nothing poor at all for kimi he did it himself 100
> % >>> overrated !!! 16th place towards 7th,
> Michael went from 22th place towards 5th, The
> master !!!


if u have bothered to watch that race,u would have known that the safty car did MS a big favor

==============================

I felt Honda had a poor strategy too. I felt sorrty for Lewis, I think he needs to be on the lighter fuel strategy to give him a chance, but if you put it in perspective, he's done in five races what many drivers never do. Also, he's great for F1 and everyone on the gridwalk was supporting him. I think the disappointment of the day was Kimi. I feel that he only got points due to the poor strategy of Honda.

chet Wrote:
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> tbf no1 n00bed up today.


Sutil did, and Luizzi too (altho he said somebody hit him).

gav Wrote:
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> Locke Cole Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > He even managed a great race, so no sign
> > of a mistake!
>
> At one point he only just had enough lock to get
> around La Rasscasse. I counted 3 times he went
> into that corner crossed up, losing time.
>
> I think what separated Alonso from Hamilton today
> was Hamilton's little mistakes. As Red Sam said,
> there's absolutely no shame in that though. It's
> been 16 full seasons since a driver put up a
> decent fight to his reigning World Champion
> teammate, and it's no coincidence they were both
> driving McLaren's then either.

To me that just showed he was pushing alot, but more so showed Alonso didn't quite need to go to the limit as often, but watching him going through the swimming pool before one of his stops was awsome! the rear moving out a tad.

of all the cameras in f1, that IS the best placed... watching them do the quick left right is one of the most amazing sights imo. if i ever go Monaco (lol) i would want to get as close as possible to there because when a drivers really on it, it must be the most amazing things to see!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

vesuvius Wrote:
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> "I was quite surprised, because I was fuelled to
> do five, nearly six laps longer than Fernando, and
> they stopped me with three laps," Hamilton said.
>
> "So the time where I was really able to bridge the
> gap, I wasn't really given much time. I came in
> two or three laps after. So that's unfortunate,
> but that's the way it goes.
>
>
> so McLaren stopped Hamilton to win ? looks like
> it...


Possibly yes, but it was clear that Hamilton would have pushed extremely hard in them extra laps to try and make up the deficit. And this would have made Alonso push just as hard, as we saw them both do at the 1st stops. One of them could have put it in the wall in this period, especially Hamilton. Hamilton drove an outstanding race today, and watching him drive like he was just before his first pitstop was amazing stuff but he was on the limit and not leaving any margin for error. I'm not saying he would have made a mistake, but it's not worth McLaren risking one of their cars or drivers when it really isn't necessary at this stage of the season.

And watching Hamilton and Alonso pushing so hard around the first pitstops was what made the race for me. Who needs overtaking when you have driving like that! The last time I remember seeing a driver so on the limit was Schumacher at Monaco in 2004, when he was trying to catch the Renault's.

_____________________________________________________________________________

i thought it was a bit boring, so was flicking over then rejoining after a few laps, and James wold say "no change to the order", so i knew i hadn't really missed anything. it was the final show of the "Search for the Next Pussycat Doll" on channel 4, so was watching them bitching.

solid race for Lewis, well done, but Alonso had him covered from the start. Lewis' failure to stick to Alonso' gearbox in the first stint showed Alonso had the race won from there, he had that little bit extra that could counteract anyting Lewis could throw at him.

and DC said he hit Liuzzi, thus damaging his wing, and possibly causing Liuzzi to crash.

and Trulli messed up while being lapped. He slowed down at Mirabeau to let Alonso through, and pretty much stopped letting Sato past. his team must have shouted at him to say 2 McLarens are coming through, so when he saw Alonso go through he stayed slow to let the other through, but Sato was behind Alonso, not Lewis.

and a good observation was that no one passed anyone into the chicane after the tunnel, the rev rules messed up the one good opportunity to pass at this track.

I was a bit disappointed in Lewis' attitude in the pre-race interview when he called the backmarkers "the monkeys at the back". he shouldn't forget that he didn't join a crap team to get into F1, he's been very lucky to be where he is, so should show a bit of respect to those who are in the slower teams. it's the first sign i've seen of him being a bit big-headed, normally he's so humble. i hope this is just a one-off incident.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

I was a bit disappointed in Lewis' attitude in the pre-race interview when he called the backmarkers "the monkeys at the back". he shouldn't forget that he didn't join a crap team to get into F1, he's been very lucky to be where he is, so should show a bit of respect to those who are in the slower teams. it's the first sign i've seen of him being a bit big-headed, normally he's so humble. i hope this is just a one-off incident.

Was waiting for someone else to post this..

I fully agree Muks, I thought it was abit rude, he has to realize its not the easiest thing to do to let people past and not ruin your race... ie Sato got past a TF once, it let the two Mclarens through.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

I think it was said very tongue in cheek - he did acknowledge how hard it is to move over at MOnaco.



RedSam
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Bigbrother

Man, I agree with you B.B I said thats where Kimi would come in and that's were he did .... also Alonso putting strong manners on Hamilton.

But it won't matter a bit. For those who think that kimi is the best thing since the Vikings ...... if he comes in last, to them he would have done a good job.

He is quick but so are so many others. I've said it before and I'll say it again, he has not the right mentallity to be a 'Great' Champion or even win the Champion ship for that matter. Massa is quicker and improving all the time be cause he is willing to learn .... my opinion he will cream kimi this year.

.... overated for sure. And soon Ferrari will learn that to thier detriment!


Hamilton is doing okay about what you'd expect from some one with magical powers
.... well that's what the Brits would have you believe and I'm a Brit myself.

Maybe Alonso should get the Kryptonite out for Super Lew, altough I think as far as us Brits are concerned Hype normally turns into 'Tripe!'

I'm amazed at the pace of Alonso and Hamilton today. As a McLaren fan myself, it was gratifying, but shocking nontheless.

When was the last time the gap between 1st and 3rd at the end of the race was more than 1 minute?

2005 French gp, Alonso first, kimi + 11 seconds, michael + 80 seconds, and the gp before the french gp to, american gp, monteiro 3rd +1 lap. And before that the 2004 monaco gp, barrichello +75 seconds, more info i wont give ya

Diax F1 Wrote:
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> I'm amazed at the pace of Alonso and Hamilton
> today. As a McLaren fan myself, it was gratifying,
> but shocking nontheless.
>
> When was the last time the gap between 1st and 3rd
> at the end of the race was more than 1 minute?


Do you really think after the first pitstops when massa was already 25 seconds behind that he drove as fast as he could ??? I don't think so, he was aware that 3rd place would be the best result he could achieve so he drove always the same tempo to save car and engine for next grandprix cause it was a new engine he had for this grandprix!

Dennis: We decided Alonso would win
28 May 2007

Ron Dennis admitted that the McLaren team decided in advance that Fernando Alonso would win the Monaco Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren boss said that it was frustrating having to make the call but claims that the possibility of the safety car coming out demanded a change of strategy.
Click here

"An outstanding result for the team. Both Fernando and Lewis drove so well and responded excellently to the team's wishes of bringing both cars home safely in what was a memorable one-two result and McLaren's 14th victory in the Principality," Dennis said.

"However there is some disappointment because of the different strategies we needed to follow to cope with a potential deployment of the Safety Car which has happened four times in the last five years. Consequently you virtually have to decide in advance which one of the team's two drivers will claim the victory."

Lewis Hamilton fought hard through out the race to allow his one-stop strategy to give him the lead only for his team to change him to a two stop programme.

"Once the first round of pitstops had taken place we reverted Lewis from a one-stop strategy to the faster two-stop strategy and at the same time slowed both cars down to conserve the brakes. As a team we would like to race but this circuit requires a disciplined approach and as a result we can leave Monte Carlo with the maximum amount of points," Dennis added.


And then alonso says that this was the easiest win in his career. Yeah, it is, when your team "disables" your opponents. He still is an arrogant ass...

that i call teamorders and isn't that forbidden?

Nah, bigbrother, team orders are only forbidden for Ferrari. Over at McLaren its called a Tactical Strategy Revision.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

"Once the first round of pitstops had taken place we reverted Lewis from a one-stop strategy to the faster two-stop strategy and at the same time slowed both cars down to conserve the brakes. As a team we would like to race but this circuit requires a disciplined approach and as a result we can leave Monte Carlo with the maximum amount of points," Dennis added.

That's just Ron's way of out pscyching the opposition(ie Ferrari) by implying that both their drivers were taking it easy. I mean come on, you could blatently tell that both Fernando and Lewis were pushing like crazy to beat each other in the race, it was obvious to see how hard Lewis was driving in the last stint and Fernando set his fastest lap on lap 44, over the half way point.

This is from ITV.com:

"Then after the race Ron Dennis said to ITV that he had told his drivers to conserve their cars from as early as lap 10!

And he said that they could have gone much faster.

He confirmed this to me after the race, but it rather contradicts what Hamilton was saying, that he hit the barriers several times, so hard was he pushing.

I don’t know why Ron wants this message to go out."

I dont think lewis was on a 1 stop due to the fact he was in the pits the same time as alonso both times and if he was 1 stopping he would not have had that pace after each stop.

The only time lewis got close enough to race alonso was after the final stop, if he wanted to beat alonso he should have been under his rear wing before the 1st stop and he was not.

I can not blame Ron for slowing them down in Monaco even though I dont like it but lewis was never going to pass him on track.

Both lewis and alonso and mclaren pulled further away from ferrari and thats the aim.

Kimi is probably now out of the championship and will have to help massa.

Aww, bless, The Ferrari fans.


Straws, clutching, at, you're

lol @ Covfan.

I think Lewis did pretty good in the circumstances, having to drive second the whole race. Fernando was on the better strategy - just - and if lewis had been told to pit a lap or two later, he would have won.