McLaren's Monaco results in doubt?

The McLaren-Mercedes accomplished a one-two finish at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, with double World Champion Fernando Alonso taking victory ahead of rookie team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

When it appeared that both drivers had received instructions to avoid risks and not to attempt a change in positions, Team Principal Ron Dennis had to explain that the particular urban track characteristics of Monaco demanded such an approach.

"We do not favour anybody. There will be times and places when they are free to race, but this isn't one of them," declared Dennis, adding that he would have been considered an 'idiot' had he allowed his drivers to fight on the tight Monte Carlo streets.

The circuit is well-known for being the riskiest event on which to overtake, as such duels may often end up with at least one car in the barriers.

On Sunday, both McLarens were clearly at the head of the pack and Ron Dennis had no intention of losing precious Championship points for his team.

"I don't like to slow drivers down, I don't like them to be frustrated but it is the way you have to win the Monaco Grand Prix," he said.

Team orders are illegal in Formula One to avoid any interference in the sport and the spectacle. However, Ron Dennis was adamant: "We don't have team orders - we had a strategy to win this race."

But the turmoil over the interpretation of team orders is far from over, as governing authorities have decided to take a closer look.

"The FIA has launched an investigation into incidents involving the McLaren Mercedes team at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix in light of a possible breach of the International Sporting Code. The relevant evidence is under review and a further announcement will be made in due course," reads the press release.

It seems Ron Dennis still has some explaining to do...

Source

Raikkonen: I'm not the sort to give up

Kimi Raikkonen has said that despite a frustrating Monaco Grand Prix he is still as determined as ever that he is in the championship race. The Ferrari driver only managed to pick up a point after starting from 16th and McLaren's clean sweep means that the Finn is now 15 points behind Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in the standings.

Raikkonen insists that he could not do any better during the race with constant traffic issues holding him back.

Raikkonen said: "We knew we were facing an uphill battle and that's how things turned out. I got a good start, quickly moving up to twelfth, but from then on I was nearly always in traffic, never getting any chance to overtake. I never had a clear track ahead of me and it was only thanks to the strategy that I was able to make up some more places and get into the points, but I couldn't do any better.

"Obviously the situation in the classification is now a bit more complicated but there is still a long way to go in the championship and I am not the sort to give up."

Source

Raikkonen scares mechanics

Finnish TV commentators said that when Kimi arrived to the pits with the broken suspension, he shouted: “We need to get that thing fixed, NOW”. His pit his crew got scared because they had never known that Kimi could shout as loud as he just had. He had always talked in a normal voice. When it was revealed that there wasn’t enough time to fix the suspension, Kimi just sat in the car with his helmet on, went through what just happened and why, released his anger by cursing (that’s the reason why he usually keeps the helmet on when he is angry). Then he relaxed and headed straight to Ferrari’s Media Center, where he gave exceptional, long aswers to reporters.

Source

Massa praises 'incredible' McLaren pace

Felipe Massa has conceded that there was nothing he could have done to stop the McLarens from romping to victory. The Brazilian said he witnessed impressive dominance from the McLaren pair and all Ferrari could do was settle for fewer points.

Massa said: "Definitely McLaren showed incredible pace today. Even if I pushed with 150% it (the result) would have stayed the same. There was nothing we could do. All we could hope for was a retirement, but finishing third is ok, we still score points. We will have to work hard for the next race, but here it was impossible to catch them."

Source

McLaren duo dominate Monaco Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso won the Monaco Grand Prix just ahead of McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton as the pair eased to a dominant one-two during the 78-lap race. Over a minute adrift, Felipe Massa finished third as Ferrari struggled to match the pace of the McLarens. The result means that Alonso and Hamilton are tied on points with Alonso's two wins putting him top of the drivers' standings.

Giancarlo Fisichella was an impressive fourth for Renault with the two BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld tying up fifth and sixth respectively. Alexander Wurz of Williams finished seventh as Kimi Raikkonen salvaged a point in the second Ferrari after starting down in 16th.

At the start Alonso got away first whilst Lewis Hamilton played it defensive, cutting across the Ferrari of Felipe Massa to safeguard his second place. Meanwhile Kimi Raikkonen managed to gain four places upto 12th position, tucking in behind Jenson Button. Nick Hedifeld also got off to a strong start despite his BMW's heavier fuel load, passing Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber to take fifth place. Ralf Schumacher's weekend went from bad to worse when he dropped from 20th to last. The rest of the field avoided any accidents until the second lap saw the end of Vitantonio Liuzzi's race after sliding his Toro Rosso into the barriers on the exit of Massanet.

Alonso started to pull away from his team-mate as he lapped around 0.7s a lap quicker, albeit on a lighter fuel load. Hamilton then seemed to struggle to maintain a sizeable gap between himself and Massa until a sudden turn of pace saw him set the provisional fastest lap on lap 19 with a 1:16.374s. Meanwhile Mark Webber suffered his third retirement in a row as his Red Bull limped into the pits with a gearbox problem having been running 8th. On lap 22, having got past the first backmarkers, Alonso replied to Hamilton's improved pace with a time of 1:15.721s.

The first pitstops came on lap 23 with Giancarlo Fisichella and Nico Rosberg diving into the pits. Alonso pitted on lap 26 as did Massa, whilst Hamilton endeavoured to make a significant gap that would allow him to come out ahead of his team-mate after his pit-stop. He made the best of a clear track to set the next fastest lap on lap 28 with a 1:15.372s. However, the 15 second gap between him and Alonso was not enough and so Alonso retained the lead following Hamilton's pit-stop. Prior to the pit-stop, Hamilton had radioed to the team to say that he was not happy with the set-up and so the mechanics released some pressure from the rear tyres.

Midway through the race Alonso was maintaining a lead of around four seconds over Hamilton as Massa lagged 30 seconds behind the pair. On lap 36 Anthony Davidson served a stop-and-go penalty for ignoring a blue flag earlier in the race when being lapped by Hamilton. Meanwhile Raikkonen struggled to continue his early progress as he wrestled with understeer. David Coulthard came into the pits on lap 43 and changed his front wing, which had taken a knock, returning in 14th place. Alonso set the fastest lap a lap later as the gap to Hamilton increased to nine seconds. Robert Kubica's long first stint paid off as he came out ahead of his team-mate Heidfeld in fifth place after his pit-stop on lap 46. Another one-stop strategy to pay off was Alexander Wurz's who was upto seventh in the Williams after Raikkonen pitted. Going in the other direction was Wurz's team-mate Rosberg who was struggling with handling problems.

Alonso resumed the lead following the second round of pit-stops. Adrian Sutil retired on lap 56 after making the same mistake as Liuzzi around Massanet. Then with 20 laps to go Hamilton had closed within 0.7s of Alonso with the McLaren drivers running on the softer tyre compound. However, Hamilton backed off to secure McLaren's most convincing result of the season as the team go 20 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' championship. Unfortunately Spyker just failed to record a finish as Christijan Albers retired six laps from the end as the retirement toll increased to four.

Source

Worst qualifying of season for Ferrari

Ferrari endured a difficult qualifying session as its 100% qualifying record this season was broken as neither driver managed to claim pole position, nor even get onto the first row. Felipe Massa was pleased with himself for getting close to the McLaren drivers' times and securing third spot just behind the duo whereas Kimi Raikkonen was disappointed to have made a costly mistake around the swimming pool complex which ended his session. The Finn will consequently start from 15th in the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix where grid starting position is of paramount importance.

Felipe Massa commented: "I am happy as I did a good lap, without traffic and I am in a good position for tomorrow's race. I am confident and will try for a good result. The race here is very long and it is vital to maintain concentration. If it were to rain, it would make it even more of a lottery.

"It was very complicated today to choose the right moment to go out on track, both in terms of traffic and the weather, with the rain threatening to arrive at any moment. I had seen the yellow flags for Kimi and it was a bit of a tricky moment at Rascasse, when I found him stopped in front of me on the track, but somehow I managed to get by with damaging my car."

Kimi Raikkonen said: "There's little to say after this qualifying session. I was on my first run with soft tyres when, coming out of the Swimming Pool Chicane, I hit the barrier with the left front wheel. At first it seemed that everything was alright, but when I got to Rascasse, the car would not make the turn. I managed to get back to the pits and the mechanics tried to fix the car but we realized it could not be done in time.

"Here, the very slightest error costs you dear and it is a real shame because I think I could have fought for pole position. However, I will start from the seventh row so I am expecting a very tough race, but I will do all I can to get a good result for the team."

Source

Alonso denies Hamilton first pole

Wrong team!!

In the dying seconds of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso grabbed pole off Lewis Hamilton to deny the 22-year-old his first career pole. Felipe Massa secured third spot in his Ferrari as for the first time this season a Ferrari driver failed to take pole. Kimi Raikkonen damaged his car in the second phase and will start from 15th on the grid.

It started drizzling 15 minutes before the start of qualifying but the threat of a wet session disappeared quickly as the clouds held and the track dried quickly.

Lewis Hamilton dominated the first knockout phase setting continually faster laps as he endeavoured to raise the bar for his competitors. He posted a 1:15.685s, almost half a second quicker than his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso. Kimi Raikkonen was a further two tenths behind the Spaniard in third but the surprise performer was Vitantonio Liuzzi who set the fourth fastest time in his Toro Rosso. The six to drop out were the two Spykers, with Christijan Albers unable to go out due to hydraulic problems, the two Super Aguris, Toro Rosso's Scott Speed and Toyota's Ralf Schumacher as the German suffered yet another difficult qualifying session.

Nico Rosberg set the initial pace in the second knockout with a 1:16.100s until Hamilton responded by undercutting his first phase time by just over two tenths. Alonso then replied by snipping his team-mate's time by 0.048s with a 1:15.431. However, the most substantial moment was when Raikkonen hit the barriers around the swimming complex finally grinding to a halt at Rascasse, ironically where Michael Schumacher got in trouble for stopping in last season's qualifying and was penalised for deliberately sabotaging the session. This time however the Ferrari only blocked the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa, who was on a flying lap. The Finn managed to get the car back to the pits but the mechanics were unable to fix the car thus ending Raikkonen's qualifying. He had not set a flying lap so was stuck at 16th. The other five to drop out from 11th to 15th were Honda's Jenson Button, Williams' Alexander Wurz, Toro Rosso's Liuzzi, Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Renault's Heikki Kovalainen, who was held up by Red Bull's David Coutlhard. The Scot had qualified for the final knockout but was then told by stewards that he would not be allowed to participate for obstructing Kovalainen. Coutlhard had his second session times discounted and will start from 16th with Raikkonen moving upto 15th as Button was then promoted to the top ten, making both Honda drivers eligible for Q3 for the first time this season.

In the final phase, Hamilton had looked set for the top spot having dominated the session until Alonso pulled a stunning time of 1:15.726s out of the bag to beat his McLaren team-mate by just under two tenths. Hamilton had been three tenths up on his best lap but was held up by Mark Webber through the tunnel, preventing him from reinstating himself ahead of Alonso. Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella was a surprise fourth fastest ahead of Williams' Nico Rosberg, who put in a stunning performance to take fifth spot. Webber was sixth as Red Bull continued to improve with the BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica taking fourth row. Honda will also be pleased with ninth and tenth fastest from Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button respectively.

Source

Monte Carlo Practice Videos

Here are 2 videos of Raikkonen and Massa.

Raikkonen leads Ferrari at Monaco

Kimi Raikkonen led the Ferrari charge at Monaco on Thursday finishing the day's free practice second fastest overall while team mate Felipe Massa was sixth quickest.

"I am reasonably happy with how things went in free practice today," Raikkonen said. "We have found a good balance on the car right from the morning session and we have completed all the programme we had planned for the day. As usual, it is too early to draw conclusions as to how the rest of the weekend will go, because we don't know what our closest rivals have done and also because the track conditions change a lot from Thursday to Saturday. All in all, a good start to the weekend."

Felipe Massa commented, "I didn't manage to exploit all the car's potential, partly because I always had traffic when I was running in the second session with new tyres. Unfortunately, on this special track, traffic can cost you an awful lot of time. Over a long run, the situation seems good, but we still have work to do on finding the right balance of the car and that includes also on the first lap on new tyres. All the same, I am confident."

Team manager Luca Baldisserri added, "As always, it is difficult to judge the result of free practice, because there are too many unknown factors in our main rivals' work programme, as outright performance can be compromised by traffic on the track. As for ourselves, we can say we achieved everything we had put on the day's job list, without any particular problems. We worked on finding the best set-up on the car for Sunday's race and on the comparison between the two types of tyre on offer from Bridgestone. From what we have seen today, the choice seems less evident than usual. In the light of these three hours of practice, we think we will be competitive both in qualifying and in the race."

Source

Street tracks may make F1 boring

Kimi Raikkonen on Wednesday warned that the return of street circuits to the Formula One calendar could make the sport boring.

In the Monte Carlo paddock, the Ferrari driver said tight and twisty city layouts like Monaco are a good challenge for the drivers but often not conducive to exciting racing.

In addition to Monaco, the F1 calendar of the very near future will feature new street events in Valencia and Singapore. Abu Dhabi's maiden Grand Prix in 2009 is to be staged on a semi-street circuit course.

"I personally like circuits like this, because they are good fun for the drivers and a different challenge," Raikkonen said.
"But sometimes there is not much overtaking - even less than usual - so the races can be boring. It is easy to get stuck behind another car because it is so difficult to pass."

Source

Massa hopes to win at 'home'

Felipe Massa is looking forward to what is a bit of a home Grand Prix for the Brazilian. When Massa is in Europe he lives in Monaco and thus the young Ferrari driver is looking forward to race through his own streets in Monte Carlo.

Speaking about the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix Massa said: "This weekend is kind of like a second home race for me, as Monaco is my European base when I am not in Brazil and so that is an extra reason to look forward to what is such a special event.

"Even though I live in Monaco, I have not seen exactly where they have resurfaced the track. But I have seen all the work going on and it is amazing how quickly they build the circuit. It is very difficult in terms of logistics because there is so little space to do anything. I use some of the roads that make up the circuit on a regular basis: either I am going shopping or to a restaurant or to the supermarket, sometimes every day, so I know those bits particularly well, but it is very different once you are in a Formula 1. Even going round this track with my race engineer is a difficult job, so really, Thursday morning practice is the first chance to get a good understanding of any changes."

Massa is clear about Sunday's target: "Of course, my personal target is to win here and that would definitely be better than anything I have managed in Monaco before. My best result here is only a fifth place, but the word "only" is wrong because I was in a Sauber, when that team was still very new to F1 and at the time, that was not so bad. I also had a sixth with them, but last year I did not have a good weekend. I know that Monaco is a very unique race where there can be a lot of retirements, so the first thing is to try and finish the race."

Source

Kimi Raikkonen fired up for Monaco

The Monaco Grand Prix has always had a very particular spell for drivers, persons involved in the work and fans of Formula One. Even Kimi Raikkonen is not immune at all...

"If I had to follow Formula One as a spectator and had to choose one race, I would have no doubt: I would go to Monte Carlo," said Raikkonen, before leaving in the direction of the Principality.

"It is the most important amongst all the Grand Prix, with an extraordinary combination of the emotions during the race, the particularity of the place and the prestige, surrounding the event. It must be as wonderful to watch this race, as it is to participate in it. Not so much as far as the race is concerned but more in terms of the challenge: driving fast in a F1 car through these streets is biggest challenge of them all for sure. I love challenges: the more challenging they are the more I'm attracted. I really can't wait to race this GP."

Two years ago Raikkonen won the race through the streets of Monaco, while last year he was dictating the rhythm, when he was stopped by a technical problem.

"This is a very special place for me and I will never forget my success in 2005, in a race, which I think was one of my most beautiful ones. It will be the seventh time I am going to race here and the first time with Ferrari. As usual we will have lots of work to do, but I hope I can also pass some time with my friends and family."

It's obvious that here - more than anywhere else - the qualifying plays a crucial role for the final result.

"It is fundamental to have a good lap and I will give it all. Until now the qualifyings did not work out as I wanted it to be, but we did a lot of work to improve the situation. It would be wonderful to win with a red car and it would be much easier if I could start from the front row."

Source