2006 Monaco F1 GP

[allen_the_great]

updates:
1. schumacher penalised for what was deemed by race stewards as an intentional move to prevent the other drivers (alonso, kimi, and webber) from beating his pole position time in the qualifying session. schumacher starts the Monaco Grand Prix from the back of the grid.
2. massa starts in 21st place when he damaged his ferrari 248 and not setting a timed lap in the first session of qualifying.
3. fisichella penalised 10 places on the grid for holding up David coulthard in qualifying. he drops from 5th place to 14th place.

the starting order of the grid (from f1.com)
FIRST ROW
1. Fernando Alonso (Renault)
2. Mark Webber (Williams-Cosworth)
SECOND ROW
3. Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren-Mercedes)
4. Juan Pablo Montoya (McLaren-Mercedes)
THIRD ROW
5. Rubens Barrichello (Honda)
6. Jarno Trulli (Toyota)
FOURTH ROW
7. David Coulthard (RBR-Ferrari)
8. Nico Rosberg (Williams-Cosworth)
FIFTH ROW
9. Ralf Schumacher (Toyota)
10. Christian Klien (RBR-Ferrari)
SIXTH ROW
11. Vitantonio Liuzzi (STR)
12. Jenson Button (Honda)
SEVENTH ROW
13. Jacques Villeneuve (Sauber-BMW)
14. Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault)
EIGHTH ROW
15. Nick Heidfeld (Sauber-BMW)
16. Christijan Albers (Midland F1)
NINTH ROW
17. Tiago Monteiro (Midland F1)
18. Scott Speed (STR)
TENTH ROW
19. Takuma Sato (Super Aguri-Honda)
20. Frank Montagny (Super Aguri-Honda)
ELEVENTH ROW
21. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
22. Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)

[BoyFerrari]

First of all, those who keep preaching that Monaco is boring since you can't overtake here, obviously have not watched Monaco GP races that much before.

Michael Schumacher's superb driving on Race Day climbing from 22nd to 5th makes it the more convincing that his driving error during Qualifying was intentional. Well, you can't expect superstars to be angelic role models. Even Michael Jordan throws a wayward elbow once in a while.

After his Mercedes engine blew up, Raikkonen walked a mile to his yacht and was shown on widescreen TV naked and drinking beer. He wasn't even interested in watching the race. That's the Iceman for you. That should tell you that he is definitely leaving McLaren at the end of the season. He is fed up with all the engine blowouts that have been ruining his career.

Mark Webber was too ambitious. He probably forgot that his Williams was running on Cosworth engines. Game over. But it was a good run while it lasted.

And finally, you can't make David Coulthard wear that stupid Superman cape on the podium unless the movie producers shell out $50 million for the publicity stunt. There you go.

[mazdamazda]

22nd to 5th place... now that was some fantastic driving and a good 1 stop strategy from Scuderia Ferrari. I am still not convinced that Schumi deliberately blocked the track during qualifying since during the post-qualifying interview he was surprised to be even there and when his team informed him of his provisional P1 status.

Massa also made good progress, finishing 9th from the 21st pole position.

Webber & Kimi made the same fatal mistake... they pushed their engines too hard trying to keep up with Alonso (damn that bulletproof Renault). Both of them could have settled into a nice pace and content themselves on the 2nd and 3rd place in the podium.

What a shame also for Rosberg and Trulli! Seems that a lot of teams were using the same engines from the Spanish GP.

And oh... DC looked cool in the Superman cape. Hehe.

[allen_the_great]

22nd to 5th place... now that was some fantastic driving and a good 1 stop strategy from Scuderia Ferrari. I am still not convinced that Schumi deliberately blocked the track during qualifying since during the post-qualifying interview he was surprised to be even there and when his team informed him of his provisional P1 status.

Massa also made good progress, finishing 9th from the 21st pole position.

Webber & Kimi made the same fatal mistake... they pushed their engines too hard trying to keep up with Alonso (damn that bulletproof Renault). Both of them could have settled into a nice pace and content themselves on the 2nd and 3rd place in the podium.

What a shame also for Rosberg and Trulli! Seems that a lot of teams were using the same engines from the Spanish GP.

And oh... DC looked cool in the Superman cape. Hehe.

other drivers also deserve some credit for MS' fifth place finish namely:
Webber, Raikkonen, Trulli, Rosberg for retiring during the race.

Red Bull should've let DC wear the SUPERMAN racing gear instead of Klien. DC wouldve looked awesome with the BIG S in his chest coupled with the cape.

alonso and renault marching towards back to back championships!

alonso has currently scored 64 out of a possible 70. just fantastic!

[BoyFerrari]

other drivers also deserve some credit for MS' fifth place finish namely:
Webber, Raikkonen, Trulli, Rosberg for retiring during the race.

Car reliability is part of the game, so you can't make it appear that Schumacher has to be thankful that these guys retired. F1 is a team sport.

[mazdamazda]

alonso and renault marching towards back to back championships!

I wouldn't discount McLaren & Ferrari this early... they still have 11 races to go...

Remember last year when Kimi made a mad last minute dash for the driver's championship (and winning more GP than Alonso if I remember correctly)?

Though kudos to the Renault & Michelin also for having a more complete package (at least for now) than Ferrari & McLaren.

[niky]

Note that Schumi made up a hell of a lot of places in that time. He was setting fastest laps left and right.

He's comfortable with the car, he drove it on the ragged edge, past the limits of adhesion (can you imagine driving that aggressively on worn rubber? On one pit stop... wow!) and engine endurance.

He's still the same Schumacher as 2004... and the same as the Schumacher of 2005. The only difference is that in 2005, pushing this hard caused things to break. He's got a much better package now than last year.

Kimi's misfortunes are truly sad. He seemed to almost have enough pace this time... but consider... JPM knew exactly how far he could push his McLaren... and he hasn't suffered as many blowouts as Kimi in recent weeks. Pure aggression and speed aren't all that win races (take a cue from Fernando also).

In the absence of any more stupid shunts or stunts (and I'm still pissed that the stewards were very selective in the punishments they meted out), Schumi is within spitting distance of Fernando in the championship race. All it takes is one or two wins and maybe a stupid mistake or two from Fernando to set up a race to the wire for the driver's crown.

But, as we've seen in the past two seasons, Fernando isn't one to commit too many silly mistakes.

[allen_the_great]

I wouldn't discount McLaren & Ferrari this early... they still have 11 races to go...

Remember last year when Kimi made a mad last minute dash for the driver's championship (and winning more GP than Alonso if I remember correctly)?

Though kudos to the Renault & Michelin also for having a more complete package (at least for now) than Ferrari & McLaren.

Alonso and Raikkonen each had 7 wins last season.

if renault continues to be reliable and alonso continues to be this good (fast and not the type to commit mistakes), it will be hard for either ferrari or mclaren to stage a comeback even if they win a few GPs.

[hagiber]

Yup, according to the current points system.. even if Schumi wins all the races from now on with Alonso finishing second each time, Schumi would not be in the lead points wise until the last race of the season.