Monaco Grand Prix debrief and race notes

Posted Sun May 27 2007 8:23 PM by Viknesh Vijayenthiran

Monaco Grand Prix debrief and race notes

Fernando Alonso on Sunday returned to the lead of the world championship by comfortably heading a dominant McLaren one-two ahead of his rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton on the streets of Monaco.

The back to back title winner's victory - the 150th for Woking based McLaren - is his second successive win from pole in the Principality, and he also set the fastest lap of the race.

Alonso's ten points draws him level with Hamilton in the drivers' points standings, but the Spaniard grabs top spot by virtue of his wins.

Felipe Massa, a full minute behind, completed the podium ahead of Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, who was lapped.

The closest Hamilton got to his Spanish rival was in the closing stages, when some observers expected that Alonso had deliberately dropped his pace. The final margin was four seconds, after Hamilton also cruised for the line.

True to form on the narrow Monte Carlo streets, which stayed dry despite the pre-race possibility of rain, the top four qualifiers finished in the same order after 78 laps.

A big mover, however, was Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who climbed through the field after his qualifying error to grab the final point. Scott Speed in the STR was another stand-out performer, finishing behind Raikkonen for ninth ahead of both Hondas after starting 18th.

Ferrari plays down Monaco defeat

Ferrari is not worried despite playing second fiddle in Monaco to its dominant championship rival, McLaren.

Sporting director Stefano Domenicali was disappointed with Felipe Massa's third place, a minute behind the silver clad Mercedes-powered duo.

But he told the German broadcaster Premiere: "It is necessary to not forget that we are in Monte Carlo, and races here are normally unusual.

"Qualifying well is so crucial, and we paid the price for that."

Massa confessed after Sunday's race that he was simply outpaced by Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, but Domenicali said the 26-year-old lost a lot of time in the "most important phase" behind Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson, who was penalised for not moving over for blue flags.

The Italian said: "That was crucial. Behind Davidson he lost two seconds per lap and he could do nothing about it."

Domenicali insisted that Ferrari was "content" with Kimi Raikkonen's single point, but added that - even with a one stop strategy - "more was not possible" following his qualifying error and lowly starting position.

"The season is still long," he said.

"Now we go to North America, where we must make a more positive result, but our deficit also should not be overstated.

"This is what it is like -- here McLaren dominated, but at the next race or in the next races the situation could look completely different again."

Race notes: Monaco GP

David Coulthard's Red Bull broke down at Tabac on the last lap.

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Christijan Albers retired his Spyker in the pits with four laps to go. His teammate Adrian Sutil crashed mid-race at Massanet, as did Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso) on the first lap.

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Anthony Davidson had to drive his Super Aguri slowly through pitlane as a penalty for ignoring blue flags.

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Mark Webber's retirement was another gearbox failure aboard his Red Bull. "I tried to drive around it but do that for too long and you'll end up in the barriers," he said.

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Ralf Schumacher's Toyota, in the company of Spykers, was lapped after just 13 laps of the 2.075-mile circuit.

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Fernando Alonso called his second successive Monaco grand prix win 'easy' on Sunday and confirmed that he took it easy in the closing stages.

"You don't want to unnecessarily risk anything when you are a minute in front of the car in third place," McLaren's Spaniard said.

Team boss Ron Dennis revealed that both Alonso and second placed teammate Lewis Hamilton could have driven quicker for most of the 78-lap race.

"Slowing them down was difficult and frustrating for the drivers, but that's my job," the Briton told ITV.

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Ferrari's Felipe Massa, the highest-placed non-McLaren, finished a minute behind the silver cars and said it was "impossible" to match their pace on Sunday.

"Now the (points) gap is a bit bigger, but five points is nothing in the championship," the Brazilian said.

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Hamilton said he glanced Monaco's famous arm-co barriers more than once on Sunday.

"Fortunately we have a solid car," the rookie smiled.

Source: GMM

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Reader Comments

  • Tue May 29 2007 10:50 AM

    Michael says

    Hi All,

    I love Autoblog and read it every day.

    However, I think that posting pictures with every story is not a good thing. If I miss an F1 race and still want to read Autoblog, the pictures always reveal something about the race, either the winner or something that gives up too much information.

    is it possible for all posters and reviewers of posts to eliminate these pictures on posts in favour of generic pictures that don't reveal anything about the race?

    It would be greatly appreciated!

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