[DOF_power]

Hamilton takes title lead with Monaco win.
25 May 2008







Lewis Hamilton recovered from an early contact with the barriers to win a frantic Monaco Grand Prix and take the lead in the drivers' championship. Robert Kubica drove a clean race to take second ahead of Felipe Massa.

Kovalainen had a problem on the grid for the formation lap and was forced to start from the pit lane, at the back of the field. As the cars lined up on the grid, shod with intermediate tyres, the race began. Massa led into the first corner while Hamilton jumped ahead of Raikkonen to take second. Kubica maintained fourth while Alonso moved ahead of Rosberg for fifth.

Jenson Button was the first driver to come unstuck, clipping Heidfeld's rear wing in the swimming pool section and having to pit for a new front wing. Meanwhile Massa led Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica, Alonso, Rosberg, Trulli and Glock as track conditions showed little improvement.

Rosberg pitted soon after having damaged his front wing, and Timo Glock made it a hat-trick of front wings when he spun his Toyota in the final corner, taking his nose out in the barriers.

Lewis Hamilton fell foul of worsening conditions on lap six, damaging his right rear tyre as he clipped the barrier, but after a quick trip to the pits, rejoined in fifth. Alonso was next, aquaplaning into the barriers and having to pit for a new tyres. At that moment, in the midfield, Coulthard ran into the barrier at Massanet, followed into retirement soon after by Bourdais causing the safety car to be deployed.

The race resumed on lap 10 and there was more bad news for Kimi Raikkonen as he was given a drive-through penalty for not having his tyres fully fitted at the requisite three minutes before the start of the race. Fernando Alonso was on a charge to fight back from his unscheduled stop - forcing his way past Webber down the inside of Mirabeau to take sixth.

Alonso was soon all over the rear wing of Nick Heidfeld, clearly faster, but struggling to find a way past. A feint move down the inside of the hairpin on lap 14 lost Alonso his front wing, and forced him into another pit stop.

Just when it looked like Massa had it all in his grasp, he ran off at Sainte Devote on lap 15, letting Kubica through into the lead before rejoining in second. On lap 18 Kubica led Massa, Hamilton, Raikkoen, Webber, Sutil, Trulli and Barrichello.

Kubica led a calm phase in the race until lap 26 when he made his first pit stop. Just as he rejoined behind Raikkonen, the Finn ran off at Ste Devote, damaging his front wing and having to pit for a replacement.

Felipe Massa pitted on lap 32, rejoining ahead of Kubica, but releasing Hamilton into the lead. With conditions beginning to dry out, it was a question of if he could just hold on until dry tyres could be fitted in his final pit stop of the day.

There was no answer still on lap 46, as a dry line was clearly emerging, Fernando Alonso was the first to take the risk and take on full dry weather tyres. His team mate followed a couple of laps later, but could not handle it and put his Renault in the wall at Sainte Devote on lap 49.

It took a little while, but on lap 53, the dry tyres began to come into their own and Alonso set a new fastest lap of the race, prompting the rest of the field to start pitting, including race leader Lewis Hamilton and third placed Kubica. Massa meanwhile held on until lap 56 before switching to dry tyres but it was too late and he lost second place to Kubica.

On lap 59 Hamilton led Kubica, Massa, Sutil, Raikkonen and Webber as the race entered its final stages. Just when it looked like a procession to the flag, Nico Rosberg put his Williams into the wall at the swimming pool causing a second safety car deployment on lap 61.

The race resumed on lap 67 with Hamilton leading Kubica and Massa into the first corner. Meanwhile Raikkonen was right behind Sutil fighting for fourth, and lost control under braking, running into the back of the Force India at the chicane, losing his front wing and putting Sutil out of the race.

Hamilton kept his cool to take his second win of the season and the lead in the championship. Kubica brought his BMW home in second ahead of Massa, Webber, Vettel, Barrichello, Nakajima and Kovalainen the final point.

Formula One news: Hamilton takes title lead with Monaco win - GPUpdate.net Formula One

[Bob Tanner]

A wet, messy race. Not F1 at its best.

How about Sutil and Force India? It looked as though they would have a points finish.

Question, DOF... Isn't it mandatory that all the cars have working rain lights at the start of the race? When the flag dropped, in a replay from a camera at the rear one car's lights never came on and blinked? Shouldn't that car have been blacked flagged?

[DOF_power]

Originally Posted by Bob Tanner

A wet, messy race. Not F1 at its best.

On the contrary a wet messy race is what the fans and spectators wanted.
These cars and the Monaco circuit are totally unsuited one for another, and add to that the dry weather setup and the fact that they were running on intermediates not rain tires and you have an unpredictable and demanding race.

How about Sutil and Force India? It looked as though they would have a points finish.

Shame really but it's racing. Raikkonen lost it completely, but at Monaco many greats lost it particularily on wet (Prost, Senna, Schumacher, Brabham, Rosemeyer)
Sutil was consistent and fast, others were fast but also made mistakes.

Question, DOF... Isn't it mandatory that all the cars have working rain lights at the start of the race? When the flag dropped, in a replay from a camera at the rear one car's lights never came on and blinked? Shouldn't that car have been blacked flagged?

I honestly have no idea. I'll look into it.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

On the contrary a wet messy race is what the fans and spectators wanted.
These cars and the Monaco circuit are totally unsuited one for another, and add to that the dry weather setup and the fact that they were running on intermediates not rain tires and you have an unpredictable and demanding race.
.

I really find it hard to rationalize why any spectator would actually desire to attend or watch a race run in inclement weather. It is uncomfortable (in cold it is beyond uncomfortable, it's absolute frigid Hell) I'll give you the unpredictability factor but... Figure 8 racing is also unpredictable but...? I won't go there.

Maybe it's just my conservative, Yank upbringing but I believe to the bottom of the demented little soul, that there are two major outdoor sports which should NEVER be done in inclement weather, baseball and automobile racing.

But, it's long been a Grand Prix tradition and besides, no one from the FIA has ever asked for my personal opinion so I'll go with the status quo.

As a city (municipality actually) Monte Carlo is OK. The food and drink are expensive but the bar I was in (just down the hill from the hair pin on the right just before the right turn) was friendly. Overall I liked Ville France and Cannes better.

[DOF_power]

>
^ What you just witnessed is typical wet Monaco at it's finest.

Regardless how great the driver, Monaco has a way of either taming the greatness of bringing out the best and the worse out of the drivers.
The high difficulty/great demand on the drivers is what a race like this has showcased.
Martin Brundle was mentioning that the wheels have to be turning to get grip and if your wheels are not turning even for a slight split second
on the wet, the amount of grip loss is exponential.
When Steve Matchett & David Hobbs were discussing the timing of when to flip to the dry tires, the comment by Hobbs that if you're even slightly off the dry racing line, it can do you in (prophetic for Kimi) that shows you just how hard the drivers were working today to slow the cars down and keep them in between the Armcos at speed.
Add to that the more unstable cars with less driveable engines of today and the ban on changing setup after qualification (meaning dry weather setup) and you can understand what truly amazing driving many drivers putted.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

>
^ What you just witnessed is typical wet Monaco at it's finest.

Regardless how great the driver, Monaco has a way of either taming the greatness of bringing out the best and the worse out of the drivers.
The high difficulty/great demand on the drivers is what a race like this has showcased.
Martin Brundle was mentioning that the wheels have to be turning to get grip and if your wheels are not turning even for a slight split second
on the wet, the amount of grip loss is exponential.
When Steve Matchett & David Hobbs were discussing the timing of when to flip to the dry tires, the comment by Hobbs that if you're even slightly off the dry racing line, it can do you in (prophetic for Kimi) that shows you just how hard the drivers were working today to slow the cars down and keep them in between the Armcos at speed.
Add to that the more unstable cars with less driveable engines of today and the ban on changing setup after qualification (meaning dry weather setup) and you can understand what truly amazing driving many drivers putted.

As with liover, one's love of raining in the rain is a matter of taste. Plus, Bob Varsha needs to get a haircut.

[DOF_power]

So you don't like something like this ?!

YouTube - Felipe Massa & Robert Kubica


I know a very different circuit.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

So you don't like something like this ?!

YouTube - Felipe Massa & Robert Kubica


I know a very different circuit.

Which circuit? Belgium?

No, on two counts.

I wouldn't want to be cold, wet and shivering in the stands, and I definitely wouldn't want to be driving virtually blind in a vehicle which has the sensation to going 100KPH on a skateboard tied to your ass.

Different strokes..., and all that rot.

[DOF_power]

Fuji Speedway the 2007 Grand Prix of Japan.
And Bob that high mounted camera creates a wrong sensation. It's even worse in reality, a lot worse as the spray is much longer and the cars a lot faster that they appear. Also the narrow cockpits means visibility is more reduced that it seems.
And they weren't doing 100 km/h but 300 to 310 km/h on straight followed by heavy braking 5G at Fuji.

[Bob Tanner]

Originally Posted by DOF_power

And they weren't doing 100 km/h but 300 to 310 km/h on straight followed by heavy braking 5G at Fuji.

<slap!> My bad. I got confused in translating to KMH. I multiplied by .6 (KMH/MPH) instead of 1.6 (MPH/KMH). 100 Kliks is only 62 MPH.