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Archive: Circuit de Monaco

Spanish Grand Prix thoughts

10 May 2009 23:42

Categories: Report

It’s sad to say, but it’s true. The Spanish Grand Prix is now one of the most important events on the calendar since the emergence of Fernando Alonso. But the circuit that hosts it simply does not produce a good F1 race. I can’t remember the last time there was an exciting Spanish Grand Prix, and 2009 won’t exactly stick in the memory for long either. But while the on-track action left something to be desired, there were still a few interesting aspects of the grand prix, and there are a few talking points to be considered.

First of all there is the controversy surrounding the strategy of the two Brawn cars. According to Ross Brawn, Rubens Barrichello’s three-stop strategy was the optimal one. But the driver just couldn’t put in the laps. It’s strange because one of the things that leapt out at me while watching the live timing during the race was the fact that at one point he was lapping around a second faster than anyone else on the circuit.

Jenson Button was always going to be favourite for the win since he grabbed pole position in spectacular fashion on Saturday. But that all changed when Barrichello had an amazing start, and passed his team mate on the outside going into turn 1. Barrichello’s race unravelled during his third stint though, and it became clear that the strategy just wasn’t working for him. I wonder why it was expected to. No-one else opted for a three-stop strategy apart from Kazuki Nakajima way back in 13th place.

There is an excellent analysis of the Brawns’ strategy over at F1 Fanatic.

Putting that aside, you have to applaud Jenson Button for putting in the good lap times when it counted. Brawn were dominant in this race, and this circuit was always expected to suit their car. I sense that Brawn’s advantage will not be so large in Monaco, where I feel Red Bull will have the edge. It is certainly a circuit that Red Bull have tended to do well at in the past.

As for this race, the Red Bull team must have mixed emotions. Mark Webber pulled off the surprise of the race by managing to climb to third largely through pitstop strategy. In the end he was very close to Barrichello at the finish line, so he did a great job.

Sebastian Vettel was more disappointing. For the second race in a row, Vettel’s race has been ruined by being stuck behind a slower car. In Bahrain it was Hamilton, but just for the first stint. His luck worsened further in Spain when he was stuck behind Massa. It transpired that both drivers had identical strategies, so Vettel had no chance to “overtake him in the pitlane”.

Does the fact that this has happened two races in a row raise a question mark over Vettel’s abilities? I certainly find it disappointing that Vettel has been unable to overtake these drivers for two races in a row. It is true that both of these cars were kers-equipped, making it particularly difficult to overtake. But Button managed it in Bahrain. Perhaps Vettel needs to work on this aspect of his racing, and certainly he could do with starting a bit better because in both cases he qualified ahead only to get “kersed” (as Anthony Davidson put it during this weekend’s Chequered Flag podcast) at the start.

It must have been all the more bitter for Sebastian Vettel when it ended up that he was being held up for nothing. Felipe Massa’s fuel rig was seemingly faulty, and he didn’t get enough fuel in his car. The Brazilian had nothing to do but lift off and wait to be overtaken first be Vettel and then by Alonso.

At least Massa was running well in 3rd or 4th for the majority of the race. Räikkönen, hindered by his poor decision to stay in the garage at the end of Q1, never made much progress through the midfield and eventually had to retire with a hydraulics problem. Yet more reliability woes for the Scuderia. I find it difficult to imagine how Ferrari’s season can get worse in any more ways.

Congratulations to Fernando Alonso for driving a good home race and finishing 5th. His fans will be hoping that this is a sign of more to come from the Renault package, and I have no doubt that the team will be able to develop that car well, just as they did last season.

Toyota, who came close to winning in Bahrain, seemed well off the pace in Spain. Jarno Trulli wasn’t helped by his awful start, which left him in the midfield cluster which resulted in him going onto the grass and starting a collision that ended the race of four cars. Timo Glock also got bogged down at the start and never looked close to being that high up the order again.

BMW have improved a little, but not enough. Their car now looks radically different to the one that finished last in Bahrain. Two points for Nick Heidfeld is undoubtedly an improvement. But increasingly BMW’s decision to divert their focus from 2008 seems like the wrong one. Robert Kubica remains pointless.

It’s a similar story for Williams. Although we have become accustomed to seeing them stuck in the lower midfield over the past few years, they appeared to promise a lot during pre-season testing. Nico Rosberg must be disappointed to only be scoring a point in what was actually a pretty good race for him.

McLaren were expected to do badly here, and so it proved to be. Lewis Hamilton finished in 9th. That is not good. For the first few races, Hamilton impressed me with his ability to squeeze good results out of what is undoubtedly a poor car, including a fabulous fourth in Bahrain. He was unable to do that in Spain, and seemed pretty tetchy in the post-race interviews. Heikki Kovalainen retired with gearbox issues. Another one to add to McLaren’s reliability problems, but at least their list is not as long as Ferrari’s.

So another race passes, and Brawn look more dominant than they have done since Australia. But as I say, I have a feeling that Monaco will be a rather different matter, and I look forward to seeing how the teams perform there.

7 comments

The disappointment of Valencia shows that fans have been forgotten

2 September 2008 10:47

Categories: Opinion

I’ve been thinking a bit about the recent European Grand Prix. Almost universally, Formula 1 fans have expressed their disappointment in what was — even by F1′s standards — an incredibly boring race. However, equally universally, those who are lucky enough to live in the Formula 1 bubble were effusive in their praise of the venue in Valencia.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis even went as far as to say that the European Grand Prix was so slick and cosy for the likes of him that it made him “ashamed to be English” because Silverstone was so poor in comparison. Moreover, he called for the government to get involved in the effort to create a British Grand Prix venue as good as the Valencia Street Circuit.

Quite why Ron Dennis expects that the government should subsidise a hugely rich sport which thrives better in Britain than it does in any other country in the world is unclear. The notion that it might ever be politically acceptable demonstrates that Ron Dennis is somewhat out of touch with reality. And the fact that he used the most boring race of the season to justify his idea suggests that he is well and truly off his rocker.

Alianora La Canta has hit on the problem that F1 currently faces in one in a post that ponders on the discrepancy between the views of those in F1′s ivory tower and the views of the fans on the ground.

I have a fairly simple theory on this; the discrepancy is evidence that F1′s business model is too heavily skewed towards the rich rather than the majority of people.

The fact is that despite the millions that have been spent by governments to ensure that the European Grand Prix in Valencia went without a hitch, fans were left disappointed on all manner of fronts.

Alarm bells began ringing pretty quickly during coverage of Friday Practice 1 when many television viewers noted that the circuit had very few landmarks with the exception of the bridge. Most sections of the circuit looked the same, lined with concrete walls all around. It looked grey and drab. Valencia Grand Prix? It might as well have been the Cumbernauld Grand Prix as far as viewers could see. (Is this the pit buliding?)

The people at FOM obviously noticed because as the weekend progressed, more and more aerial shots were used during the coverage. It was the only way viewers could see the harbour. Albert Park would have a similar problem, but they cleverly painted their walls green so that it did not look grey and dull. Hopefully this is on the list of improvements to be made for next year.

But the list of improvements must surely be a long one. There have been complaints from people who shelled out for tickets for the European Grand Prix that they couldn’t even see any of the action from the grandstands. Incredibly, this is a repeat of the problem from last year’s Japanese Grand Prix! How difficult can it be to build a grandstand facing the right direction?

Most importantly, though, the circuit was scandalously difficult to overtake on. In fact, I counted just one overtaking move all race, made by David Coulthard very early on in the race. He later tried to overtake someone else, but pathetically crashed instead.

The circuit was well hyped-up. It was meant to be great for a street circuit — wide and with run-off areas that would encourage overtaking. We were told there were at least three overtaking spots in the circuit.

This later transpired to be an out-and-out lie. Ferrari revealed that they knew that it would be very difficult to overtake. They were so certain of this that they actually based decision on Kimi Räikkönen’s engine on the basis that it was impossible to overtake. During last week’s Renault podcast, the Enstone-based team echoed Ferrari’s sentiments, revealing that their simulations too told them that it would be impossible to overtake in Valencia.

I can understand why it would be impossible to overtake on an ancient circuit like Monaco which was not built with today’s cars in mind. But the Valencia Street Circuit is practically purpose-built for modern F1 cars — at least it ought to be. And it was a complete failure.

Hermann Tilke gets a lot of stick for his circuit designs. However, we know that Tilke can design a great circuit. Just look at Istanbul Park. Shanghai International Circuit isn’t too bad either. But Valencia Street Circuit is a proper turkey. I think Hermann Tilke needs to save up some cash to buy himself a simulator of his own so that he can tell in advance, just like the teams, which designs will facilitate overtaking more than others.

What bugs me, though, is the prospect that the priority of the European Grand Prix wasn’t even the fans. We know that street circuits do not always lend themselves to the best racing. Yet, Bernie Ecclestone only seems to be interested in street circuits at the moment. The other new circuit on this year’s calendar is the Singapore Street Circuit. If you ask me, the Singapore Grand Prix has disaster written all over it, and the European Grand Prix was an ominous sign of things to come as far as I’m concerned.

All of this leads me to suspect that Bernie Ecclestone’s current priority is not to provide paying fans with some decent entertainment. But it is to provide the rich inhabitants of F1′s inner circle with some nice holiday destinations.

A couple of years ago there was a whisper that the Paul Ricard Circuit could play host to a grand prix where fans were kept out — a grand prix especially for F1′s VIPs and no-one else. The idea was widely ridiculed at the time. But you can believe that Bernie Ecclestone would actually go ahead with it.

It seems that the problem with F1 at the moment is that it doesn’t matter how bad the racing is. As long as the circuit comes equipped with superloos, that’s all the likes of Ron Dennis care about.

13 comments

Does Montreal belong in today's F1 calendar?

12 June 2008 18:56

Categories: History, Opinion

The main talking point in the run-up to this year’s Canadian Grand Prix was the disintegrating track. Throughout qualifying the circuit was breaking up, leaving marbles and other debris off the racing line.

This isn’t the first time the Montreal surface has caused problems — but this year it came earlier. The organisers blamed this year’s problems on the evolution of the cars. But that is a poor excuse. Every year the track breaks up more and more, so the organisers should be prepared for this eventuality every year. If they can’t lay tarmac that can cope with what an F1 car will give it, they shouldn’t be holding an F1 Grand Prix.

Another point, as noted by Keith at F1Fanatic last week, is that F1 is beginning to look too fast for the tight confines of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Of course, Canada isn’t the only race to be held on a street circuit — Monaco being the obvious example.

However, the Circuit de Monaco is the slowest on the calendar so the likelihood of a Robert Kubica-style horror-smash is pretty low. Meanwhile, the Albert Park circuit has plenty of space for run-off areas, gravel traps and the like.

Canada has the close, punishing walls of Monaco with the dizzying speeds of Monza. So when a car leaves the track, it can spell disaster, just as it did with Robert Kubica last year.

Another problem with the Montreal circuit is the tight space requirements. The whole circuit is built on a man-made island. As such, there is little scope for altering the circuit or increasing the run-off areas. The best the organisers could do to mitigate against another Kubica-style crash in the run-up to the hairpin was to move the wall forward in an attempt to change the angle of impact. Is that enough for today’s safety-conscious F1 standards?

In part, it is these characteristics that make the Canadian Grand Prix such an exciting event year-in, year-out. There is so much history at the circuit as well. Not many circuits stay on the calendar for 30 years running. Today the Canadian Grand Prix is significant as the only F1 event in North America, and one of just two in the Americas as a whole.

But no-one likes to see a driver involved in a big accident. It could have been so much worse for Robert Kubica who escaped uninjured, but whose feet were sticking out of the monocoque by the time the wreck came to a stand-still.

If the circuit cannot improve its standards in terms of safety and tarmac break-up, it has to be concluded that F1 has now outgrown the narrow confines of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. If the Canadian Grand Prix had to be dropped, it would be the ideal time to bring back the United States Grand Prix — an event that is conspicuous by its absence from the F1 calendar.

5 comments

When is a mistake not a mistake? When your name's Lewis Hamilton

10 June 2008 19:44

Categories: Opinion

Once again I have found myself becoming more annoyed with Lewis Hamilton because of his interviews following a controversial on-track incident. The first time this happened was during the Brazilian Grand Prix — ironically following another incident with Kimi Räikkönen.

This time round in Canada, Lewis Hamilton pulled off the distinctly un-Senna-esque feat of crashing himself out in the pitlane after failing to observe a red light. Even though I’m not a fan of Lewis Hamilton, and am a vocal critic of the mad unjustified hype that surrounds him, I didn’t feel too much schadenfreude.

The thing is, the British media’s plan of convincing us all the Hamilton is one of the best drivers there has ever been — an equal to Senna — is blatantly beginning to backfire now. And when it comes to the British press, that can mean only one thing: the backlash. And that’s not pretty to see, and it would be a real shame for Hamilton to suffer this.

The thing is that he is a genuinely talented driver, but the British media built him up so much that he couldn’t realistically achieve what the public would inevitably expect from him. So just because he is a very good driver rather than a great driver, he is going to face some horrific treatment from the media soon.

Indeed, the post-Canada backlash was pretty bad, as summarised by Axis of Oversteer. The Daily Star even went as far as to suggest that an ‘L’ plate should be affixed to Hamilton’s McLaren in future.

Others — still trying to push the ‘Hamilton is the new Senna’ myth — looked to blame the team, particularly on ITV. Nothing is ever Hamilton’s fault, it seems. If he presses the wrong button on the steering wheel, it’s McLaren’s fault for having the button there in the first place. If he crashes into someone it’s the cars fault for losing its bridge wing. And now that he failed to observe a red light, it’s the team’s fault for not telling him about the red light.

The thing about McLaren is that, partly because of the team’s culture and partly because it is also in their interest to present Hamilton as the greatest driver alive, McLaren will happily absorb all of the blame in these situations. So it’s a win-win — the media gets to blame McLaren and McLaren happily take the blame to support their driver.

But should McLaren be warning their drivers about things like red lights? I remember a few years back the F1 world dissolved into fits of laughter when it was revealed on the FOM world feed one race that Takuma Sato was being told over the radio when to move left or right. That, of course, is meant to be the driver’s judgement call.

So what is it to be? Should the driver’s hand be held throughout the race by a committee of “spotters”? Isn’t the driver paid to make these judgements for himself? This isn’t mickey mouse IndyCar or Nascar — this is Formula 1, which is supposed to contain the 20 best drivers in the world.

The fact is that Lewis Hamilton shouldn’t have needed any kind of notification or signal from his team that there was a red light at the end of the pitlane. There was already a very clear signal: the actual red light. He should have seen this. It is his job to see it. He failed. Game over.

The thing is, Hamilton made a silly mistake. Or at least, it sounds like a silly mistake. He failed to observe a red light. The right light is a classic obstacle; one that millions of road drivers every day manage to navigate with ease. As such, Hamilton’s incident is perfect for tabloid ridicule.

But the red light problem is relatively uncommon in Formula 1. Even though the presence of the red light during Safety Car periods has been around for yonks, for various reasons drivers in the past normally encountered this light as green and it was rarely an issue.

However, the red light is a particular problem at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve because the pitlane is so short compared with the actual race circuit that runs along next to it. The pitlane is basically a continuation of the long straight whereas the start / finish straight has a chicane at one end of it and a tricky ‘S’ bend at the other. Juan Pablo Montoya was disqualified a few years ago in Canada for running the red light. Fisichella and Massa were disqualified last year. The problem has become more common at other circuits now partly due to the new Safety Car rules.

Anyway, Hamilton fell foul of a rule that he should have known about. But it is still a relatively uncommon incident, so perhaps it is not much of a surprise that checking for the red light slipped his mind. After all, Nico Rosberg slammed straight into the back of Hamilton having also failed to spot the red light. I saw Hamilton’s incident as a silly but understandable mistake.

However, Lewis Hamilton’s post-race interviews made sure that any sympathy I had for him drained away pretty quickly. Here he exhibited all of the characteristics that rub me up the wrong way about Lewis Hamilton.

First of all there is the refusal to accept he made a mistake. You can tell he knows he was in the wrong. Even as he got out of the car his body language said it all. He looked simultaneously embarrassed and angry. But he just can’t bring himself to actually say it. This week’s Chequered Flag podcast has an interview that demonstrates his evasion of responsibility (it’s 13 minutes in if you want to look for it):

Lewis Hamilton: You can’t even call it a racing incident really, can you? I mean, what is it?
Holly Samos: Just one of those mistakes?
LH: I don’t… I don’t call it one of those either. I don’t know what I’d call it.

I would definitely agree with him that it was not a racing incident. A racing incident is what happens when two people are racing for position and it’s a 50/50 situation and both end up colliding and it’s no-one’s fault in particular. This certainly wasn’t the case here. Kimi Räikkönen was just minding his own business and the whole incident can be put down to Hamilton’s brainfade.

So it must have been a mistake, right? Not according to Lewis Hamilton. He can’t even bring himself to use the word ‘mistake’ in his response, calling it instead “one of those”. But the fact that he doesn’t know what to call it other than a mistake says it all. Listening to him duck responsibility like this is as painful and embarrassing as listening to a politician evade a pressing question.

The interview also encapsulates Hamilton’s rather misplaced confidence. You might call it cocky or even out-and-out arrogance. In his interview with ITV he asserted that he was “breezing it” during the race. In the BBC interview he said, “We were the best this weekend. No-one could touch us this weekend.” But you certainly aren’t the best — you definitely aren’t untouchable — if you are prone to a silly brainfade moment like that.

Moreover, it’s not clear that Hamilton would automatically have won the Canadian Grand Prix without the pitlane incident. He looked good in qualifying, but we don’t really know how much fuel Kimi Räikkönen had. Filling up at that stage of the race, almost certainly both cars would have needed to stop again, in which case Räikkönen probably had the advantage because he had got out in front of Hamilton. And, having fuelled lighter, Kimi may have been able to pull out a decent lead.

McLaren really needed to win in Canada. The circuit is known to suit the McLaren in particular. Coming off the back of Monaco — another McLaren-friendly circuit — meant that these were two vital races for McLaren and they really needed to maximise their points haul to make much of this year’s championships.

As it was, Ferrari looked surprisingly good in Monaco and Hamilton needed a dash of luck to take victory there. Meanwhile, Kovalainen could only manage one point in Monaco. In Canada, McLaren came away with a big fat zilch. Make no mistake — this is a major blow to McLaren’s chances. The next few circuits suit Ferrari better and this could be the red team’s opportunity to pull out a serious lead.

Canada was probably McLaren’s best chance to grab 18 points in a weekend but instead BMW took the 1-2. And now McLaren lie 3rd in the Championship. They can’t have been planning for that. Furthermore, the fact that the McLaren underneath Kovalainen did not perform in Canada must be ringing alarm bells in Woking. Far from “breezing it”, I think McLaren will now be bricking it.

19 comments

Kubica excels, but where is Kimi?

26 May 2008 18:46

Categories: Opinion

Well thank goodness for that — the second good race in a row. Just what the doctor ordered to let us forget about all the politics going on in F1 at the moment. So where to start?

First of all, hats off to Lewis Hamilton who drove a great race despite banging into the barrier early on in the race. I was a bit worried about McLaren’s prospects following qualifying. Ferrari are usually poor at Monaco and the fact that they had a 1-2 in qualifying (seemingly with reasonable fuel loads as well) spelled potential bad news for McLaren. So far most of the tracks can be reasonably considered ‘Ferrari tracks’. But if McLaren can’t win at Monaco, it will be difficult for them to win anywhere.

But while qualifying was bad, the race turned out to be fine. Despite Hamilton’s bang, he otherwise drove a pretty flawless race to take the chequered flag. Hamilton has described it as the best win of his career, and it’s hard to argue with that.

But he was helped out by some good luck. He was lucky that his bash on the barrier didn’t cause any long-term damage to his car. And after the race there was the revelation that he had developed a slow puncture on his slow-down lap. Had the race gone full distance (instead of hitting the 2 hour limit), it might have been a very different story.

Hamilton was also helped out by Ferrari’s lacklustre race. Felipe Massa was surprisingly solid early on. He dislikes the Monaco circuit and he is known to be poor in the wet. But somehow Felipe Massa has just started to make it all click, and he has been performing superbly well after his embarrassing first two races of the year.

At the start of the race he built up a pretty dominant lead representing an astonishing two seconds per lap! But eventually the conditions got the better of him. An off at Ste Devote meant he had to pass the lead on to Kubica. A late change to dry tyres put an end to his race. Not Ferrari’s finest strategic moments.

Ferrari also made a major error by not having Kimi Räikkönen’s tyres on in time before the start. Immediately the Finn had a drive-through penalty. His start was also incredibly poor, as though he wasn’t paying attention to the lights. He gifted Hamilton second place before even reaching the first corner.

During the race Kimi had a big off at Ste Devote, damaging his front wing in the process. He was also completely off the pace for the duration of the race, and never looked in contention for the win. The final nail in the coffin came after the safety car period where he failed to account for his cold brakes towards the Nouvelle chicane (the fastest part of the circuit), lost control and ploughed into the back of poor Adrian Sutil.

Is this really the 2007 World Champion? Räikkönen has been distinctly patchy all season. It really makes you wonder. Since winning the Championship has he lost motivation? He has been known to have off weekends before, but they are now coming at a rather alarming frequency. I think if he had been driving like this while he was at McLaren, he would never have got a drive at Ferrari. No wonder the red team has supposedly signed up Fernando Alonso for 2010.

As for the victim of Kimi Räikkönen’s poor form, Adrian Sutil, you have to feel sorry for him. I’m not the greatest fan of Sutil. He’s never really shown before why he deserves the hype that some people give him. But his Monaco GP was a stormer, and he was running on 4th on merit, in between the two Ferraris. No wonder he was in floods of tears after Räikkönen drove up his backside.

However, had that not happened the story could well be different. After the race it transpired that he overtook three drivers under yellow flags. In the event he was warned as to his future conduct, but had he finished the race he could well have been penalised.

I also thought it was a bit much for Mike Gascoyne to complain to the stewards about Räikkönen. He said:

as I said if that had been someone at the back, a young guy doing it, they would get a penalty. But it doesn’t seem to happen the other way around.

Of course, a lot of people were saying the same thing about Fisichella’s tangle with Nakajima in Turkey. Had it been Nakajima flying over the top of Fisichella, I am sure the Japanese driver would have faced a ban. Ho hum.

In Monaco, Fisichella himself was celebrating his 200th race. But apart from that he had little to celebrate. He was thoroughly outclassed by his team mate and ended up having to retire in the pits.

Heikki Kovalainen’s run of bad luck continued. A stall on the grid at the start of the formation lap meant he had to start from the pitlane. He spent the entire race in the midfield, but I suppose he should be given credit for managing to finish 8th after gaining two positions right at the end due to Räikkönen’s tangle with Sutil.

Apart from Sutil, one other driver stood out as flawless — Robert Kubica. At one point, after Massa’s off, Kubica looked quite good for the win. It was not to be though as Hamilton ultimately had the pace to outclass him. But this is yet more evidence of Kubica’s talent behind the wheel. Not many drivers can say they didn’t make a mistake yesterday, but Kubica is one of them.

Nick Heidfeld must be wondering just what has hit him. Quick Nick does not look so quick any more compared with his team mate. Sure, he wasn’t helped by a hit from Alonso. But the German was off the pace all weekend, and it’s continuing a disappointing season. Kubica, meanwhile, appears to be ultra-committed with his seemingly extreme diet. I hope soon he is in a car good enough to win a race, because he certainly deserves it now.

Sebastian Vettel had a storming drive. At first it was not looking so great. They were all at sea during practice, unable to make head nor tail of their new car. And because of that new car he started 19th on the grid thanks to a gearbox penalty. But all this did not deter him as he moved up to eventually finish 5th. Great result for the Toro Rosso team.

Mark Webber had a fantastic race. He excels at Monaco but has not always had the luck. But this marks his fifth consecutive points finish — a personal best for Webber. After a career tainted by bad luck, his patience is finally paying off and he sits pretty in 7th in the Championship.

The team mates of those two Red Bull drivers both had to retire within seconds of each other on the same spot of the track. Seemingly a river had formed at Massenet, Coulthard lost control and hit the barriers. Yet another poor showing from David Coulthard, whose appearance should actually be applauded following his scary accident in qualifying which he described as the hardest hit he’s had in his entire career.

Toro Rosso driver Sébastien Bourdais followed Coulthard into the barrier after hitting the same river. We are now waiting for Bourdais to show what he is made of. I don’t follow American motor racing too closely, but I thought they had a few street circuits over there, so I was hoping that Bourdais would be able to show what he’s made of at Monaco. It wasn’t to be. After a strong showing in Australia, he has done little to impress since.

Fernando Alonso was another victim of that river at Massenet. He got away just like Hamilton did though and recovered following a tyre change. He was looking good for a period and made a stunning move on Mark Webber at Mirabeau. Unfortunately Alonso must have become too confident after that because a few laps later he tried to pass Heidfeld at Lowes in a move that was never really on the cards. That only had one conclusion: crunch. Alonso never recovered from that.

At least Alonso doesn’t have the heat on him like his team mate Nelsinho “Junior” Piquet Jnr. Clearly the team have lost confidence in him because they would not let him change to dry tyres until they saw what Alonso could do on dries. But the time they let him come in, his extreme wets were well past their sell-by date and he had a swarm of cars all over the back of him and beginning to get past. However, Piquet didn’t help his case by binning it almost as soon as he got onto dry tyres. More ammunition for his critics.

Another rookie who disappointed was Timo Glock. He had no fewer than three spins during the race and I have to say that it increasingly looks like he is not F1 material. Trulli wasn’t much better, it has to be said, with an anonymous race at a circuit he’s supposed to be good at.

Barrichello finally broke his duck. A points position has been beckoning for a while, and he has finally got it. Button should have done more. He excels in the wet, but was unable to show it in Monaco this year. An early tap with Nick Heidfeld basically put paid to his chances.

Kazuki Nakajima provided yet more evidence that he is not just another crash-happy kamikaze pilot from Japan. Monaco will have provided ample opportunity for him to stuff it in the barriers or something, but he had a solid, if fairly anonymous, drive to 7th. Meanwhile, his much-hyped team mate, Nico Rosberg, was not so impressive. He looked set to score some points until getting it all wrong through the Swimming Pool. A big crash resulted.

All-in-all, a great race at Monaco with plenty of talking points. What a relief — the Monaco GP is often a boring procession, but the wet-dry nature of the race ensured much mayhem.

Next up is Canada which is often a good race. The track suits the McLaren and Hamilton won there last year, so they will be hoping to capitalise on their Championship lead. It’s a surprise that Hamilton leads the Championship. Thanks to the patchy form of both Massa and Räikkönen, Hamilton might be able to grab an authoritative lead. Don’t underestimate Robert Kubica as well, who remains just six points away from the head of the table.

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