Monaco Magic

Justin:

On a track which offers the ultimate test of a driver, Mark Webber has re-written the history books with his Monaco GP win. He becomes the only Aussie to win the flagship event twice in the history of the sport. He has also won the race in two of the last three years.

He also becomes the sixth winner in six races this year, which has never before happened in F1. Though he didn't seem to care for this particular stat afterwards, saying that the Monaco win would be special regardless of this record.

(image above is from BBC website - we ain't breaching no copyrights here)


And did he do it in some style or what!

His first win of the year catapaults him to joint second in the title race - he is firmly in it ala 2010. Welcome back mate.

At the end of the race he finished just half a second ahead of Rosberg, followed in a train of cars by Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and Massa. For most of the last twenty laps these guys were seperated by no more than 6 seconds. Fantastic stuff! At one point when the rain started falling, each was all over the back of the guy in front. At one point, they were all well under a second from each other.

Webber got a flyer (for once) at the start whilst Grosjean got in all sorts of bother, punting into Schumi and spinning himself off.

Maldonado had a horror weekend frankly. He used his car as an angry weapon on Perez in quali then crashed out in the race.

Webber, Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso (all on the softer compound) all stopped for harder styres around laps 29 and 30. By way of a mega in lap Alonso managed to jump Hamilton in the stops, and of course whilst all these guys pitted Vettel cruised by on his harder tyres that he had started on.

Good strategy by Red Bull saw Vettel eventually move from 9th on the grid to 4th at the end which represents a good day for Vettel really.

When Vettel pitted around lap 46 for the softer compound tyres when he was around 17 seconds ahead of Webber, but crucially 20-21 ahead of Hamilton. So, he re-emerged from the pits in 4th.

From lap 47 to the finish on lap 78 we were given Formula 1 racing of the highest order by guys who did not put a foot wrong all day.

It made my neck hairs stand on end watching the train of cars...Webber, Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton...Massa (sort of hanging on just about at the back), covered by so little time for so many laps.

Beautiful!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18228584

Just watch from 5 minutes onwards on this BBC highlights clip!

To race this hard, fast and close is absolutely magnificent. At Monaco you do not get away with mistakes as you would on other tracks - you hit a wall and thats that.

It was a pleasure watching these guys fight.

We truly are in a golden era for F1 - I don't care what negative remarks people have about tyres. F1 drivers adapt - thats a specific skill all the best guys have.

Time for a quick sub-heading feature!

Webber - Driver of the day, on a day when there were a fair few contenders. Faultless race and from pole too.

Schumi - Life in the old dog yet as proved by his blistering quali lap, only to be scuppered by yet again more mechanical issues in the race.

Vettel - Keeps picking up points - great drive from 9th to 4th.

Rosberg - Beautiful drive too - kept Webber honest throughout.

Hamilton - Picked up points again, but are Mclaren going backwards? He seemed to point the finger firmly at their door again, seemingly annoying Whitmarsh a little in the process.

Button - One to forget - now 31 points of the championship lead after 3 rubbish races.

Di Resta - Fantastic drive through to 7th. I doubt he will be at Force India next year.

Alonso - This is where my objectivity may take a battering from my co-blogger, but I have seen various reports from differing sources all saying that Alonso is essentially driving as well as he ever has, doing extraordinary things in an ordinary car (it was a dog at the start of the year, but Ferrari do seem to be turning it into something better. In the meantime Alono's driving ability alone is keeping him in the hunt. He is utterly relentless and never gives up and is always lurking in the points. DC himself called Alonso unbelievable and the BBC's Gary Anderson stated in his blog:

 "In Alonso's case, his position is simply down to the quality of the driver. He has done astounding things with that car. He's always good off the start, always gets stuck in, and then fights the battle from then on." 

 The more I read about people complaining about tyres (fans?) saying they want to know who the fastest guys in the fastest cars are, not have this apparent lottery we are having with six different winners in six races......I say to you, look at the title standings....and shut the fuck up!!!!!

The cream always rises to the top, no matter the conditions, rules etc.....

Alonso leads Webber and Vettel followed by Hamilton, Rosberg, Kimi and Button....

Five of those seven have been contesting the title for the past two years and keeping race wins amongst themselves exclusively (Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Button and Hamilton) and one of the others is a former world champion.

What we have is near enough to a level playing field for the golden generation of Formula One drivers.

Let them get on with it!

Belgium

Justin: I predicted before the race that, wet or dry, it would be a fantastic race. I theorised that if dry then the Ferrari of Alonso would pile forward as they are amongst the very fastest cars in warmer weather. Also, see Button in a much faster car a long way back! If wet, chaos would reign supreme.

What a race it was eh!!

Highlights for me and all F1 fans had to be the absolutely balls out overtake by Webber on Alonso side by side going into, and through, Eau Rouge. It was just insane. As Brundle pointed out, both are expert racers, but even Alonso had to yield on that one as Webber just said "I'm having this!"

Another highlight had to be Schumi coming through the field from last to claim a fantastic 5th on his 20th anniversary. It had looked like the wheel(s) came off his celebrations in quali yesterday, but he drove a fantastic race and even had a late squabble with Nico. The radio announcement to Nico was rather amusing "Ok Nico you are free to race but just be careful with each other". DC then interpreted that as "Michael's coming to get you!" Alas it wasn't much of a fight as Nico was on the harder rubber so Michael had more speed and grip on the soft tyres.

My co-blogger and I were texting throughout and even until very late on we couldnt predict a winner in this race at all. It was mighty interesting as different strategies played out....would Red Bull need one more stop than the rest, just when would Ferrari pit Alonso to change his first set of softs etc etc? In fact, the last I knew, both my colleague and I predicted either JB or FA for the win. Everyone looked strong at different stages and everyone from Vettel to Webber, Alonso to Button looked ripe for a win at some point. Even Lewis looked pretty handy until he shunted Koboyashi. From how it looked, I'd say he just thought he'd passed him when in fact the Sauber had pulled back alongside him and he just didnt look as he moved across to take the line into the corner. Ooopsss.

It has to be said that JB's drive was another mega highlight for me. How many overtakes did he do? Hasn't he done the most in F1 this year now? And people said he was boring compared to Lewis! At one point Jenson pulled a frankly stupendous move at the outside of La Source on a Force India and...Sabuer wasn't it??

From the start Webber got bogged down yet again and went backwards immediately.

It should be noted at this point that Red Bull tried to get a new set of tyres in use for the race, particularly for Vettel's car, as the quali set had blistered badly. It was found that it was the Red Bull car itself, the way it was setup, that had done a lot of the damage.

It was quite amusing seeing Vettel so...animated, talking to the tyre chief from Pirelli on the grid (snigger).

Anyway...from the start...

Rosberg got a flyer and drobe superbly, having to defend very well from Vettel and co.

As is usually the case there was chaos at La Source as people bumped into one another. Someone nerfed Alonso and he had to compensate by driving very wide at the exit. Button got nerfed from behind and a bit of rear wing broke off.

Hamilton also went quickly backwards as the Ferrari's swarmed all over him. At one point, when Alonso took Massa, Lewis also nabbed back 4th(?) from Massa. The Ferrari's, it has to be said, had a magnificent speed through Eau Rouge and you could visibly see how much faster they were than most others through there.

Vettel and Webber pitted quite early on. This left Webber in midfield, but on the harder rubber, which would benefit him later on.

During the safety car period, Vettel pitted whilst Alonso opted to stay out, hoping Vettel's tyre issues would continue. Webber had radio issues and didnt come in during the safety car period.

As it all settled down towards the end it was Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Button. Webber and Button quickly caught and passed Alonso as the Ferrari just doesnt perform well with harder rubber. For some reason, they struggle to get them up to temperature.

So, win number 7 for Vettel. It was amusing reading reports that because Hamilton crashed they say he is now out of the title race. Isn't everyone?!

Webber is the nearest challenger and he is 93 points behind Seb. As my mathmatically gifted colleague pointed out, he only need finish 4th in each race from now on to retain the title.

Onto Monza we go in 2 weeks!

(check out Martin Brundle's column here where he praises Webber somewhat for his overtake on Fernando, and too right frankly)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/14711653.stm

Turkey Quali

Justin: Well, I know as a professional blogger I am supposed to show little or no bias...but I was devastated when Alonso went out and didnt make the final qualifying round. I barely watched the top ten shootout. The Ferarri clearly isnt as quick this weekend as Massa was barely 8th. What usually happens is though that Massa is around 6th or so and Alonso is top 3 or 4 (when he isnt pranging the barrier of course). This time it was a case of driver error....but the two red cars didnt look too pacey anyway to be honest. In his interview Alonso said he was pushing to the limit, hence his error. Eddie Jordan spoke some sense finally when he said "the key is Alonso was pushing the car over its limit and the car just isnt good enough to compete".

Anyway, onto other matters. Schumi out does Nico yet again. Damn that man and his ability to get a team working for him alone! Lewis and Jenson did well to be up there with Red Bull.

The fantastically telling thing for me was in the top 3 press conference. Webber was reminded of some sort of issue Red Bull had with orders for leaving the pits (or something like that)...maybe it was pit stop order in final quali....anyway he looked vaguely awkward and answered the question saying "yeah, dunno what happened there, as this weekend it was my turn to go second".....thus Vettel would have had some small advantage given to him by pitting first.

Here is the key....those of you who were watching closely should have seen Vettel look rather disgusted and roll his eyes up to the sky at this point. Could be a few shennanigans in the Red Bull team me thinks soon enough. Vettel, whatever his problems with chasis, brakes..whatever...he just isnt happy in the car or out of it at the moment, as lets be honest...Webber is trashing him good and proper. 3 poles in a row and it could be 3 wins in a row tomorrow. Fair Dinkum Sport! :-)

PS - Martin Brundle described Alonso as a miserable little so and so in interviews...ouchie! I guess we will see what he means tomorrow. I am looking forward to Webber meeting EJ at his Bucks home.