The Monaco Grand Prix – Welcome to the McLaren Party

Over this season it has always been the McLarens which have challenged the Ferrari for domination with the BMW providing the backup whenever the top two failed. Well the Monaco round of the F1 championship has to be different and in most ways it was, right down to the presentation ceremony. McLaren looked like the cars to beat the whole of this weekend except for the minor blimp when rain came down. And that was the only time that a McLaren was not on the top of the time sheets. Pretty much everywhere else they dominated. The question on everyone’s mind was if it was going to be the seasoned pro Alonso or the find of the season – Lewis Hamilton. I believe this decision was taken the moment Alonso went faster than his teammate in qualifying. In the streets of Monaco, track position is worth giving your life for and once you have it, you protect it with all you have got. So once that was out of the way, I think the McLaren team had pretty much decided that this was Alonso’s race and Hamilton’s job was to ensure the 1-2 finish to make it the grand 150th McLaren win. This was pretty evident the moment the race got off to a start. Like the perfect team-mate Hamilton got right behind Alonso’s wheels and hence blocked off any moves which Massa might have been planning. I would even go as far as saying that Hamilton allowed Alonso some breathing space to open up his lead while he tied down Massa and the rest of the pack behind him. Only later did he realize that the Ferrari’s didn’t really have anything to show. From the start Massa lagged behind both the McLarens and realizing that he was no match to them and with his team-mate way down among the back markers, he was the only real points hopeful, he got down to keeping his 3rd position and praying for one of the McLaren engines to blow up. Not that he had much trouble doing that. Fisichella behind him was not exactly the fastest of the lot. It definitely surprised me that the Renault could even manage a 4th position but full points to them for making it there. Behind him there was a lot of churning going on. Rosberg who had put in such an awesome qualifying lap and that too when he could do only one of them, seemed to fade out as the race progressed. Meanwhile his teammate Wurz was finally able to outclass his partner and being on a one-stop really did wonders for him. He had qualified in 12th but was able to make his way around the field while all the others kept pitting in front of him.

The BMW looked totally outclassed and again the one-stop payed off for Kubica finishing ahead of his teammate Heidfield. This seemed to be the race for the backbenchers per se. Most of the team’s second drivers who had been eclipsed earlier were now showing their colors. BMW meanwhile have gone ahead and garnered a very comfortable 3rd position in the constructors championship with the rest of the field fighting it out behind them.

The Red Bulls looked really quick in qualifying but nothing seemed to go to their way from there on. Localite Coulthard looked fast as usual but was given a penalty because he blocked Kovalainen on his flying lap and he was not even allowed to compete in Q3. And after much churning his position around the stewards finally landed him at P13, ahead of Kovalainen whom he had blocked in the first place. His teammate, Mark Webber though made good of Q3 and ended up in P6 which was pretty good for him. But as the race progressed, he like many others before him crashed into the barriers and his race was also over. Coulthard meanwhile finished behind his nemesis in qualifying. Overall Red Bull seemed to have a good race going which they squandered away.

And talking of squandering away a race, one has to hand it to Kimi Raikonnen to do that. His one mistake in Q2 proved too costly. He graced his tires on one of the barriers and broke his front steering. This landed him the last place on Q2. Starting from 16th he made good progress before the 1st lap ending up at 12th place before the first lap was over. But Ferrari seemed to have left behind the ponies at home as he simply didn’t have an answer to overtaking Button in front of him. Having spent more than half the race behind the wheels of the Honda, Kimi was only going to get further frustrated when Heidfield slotted in exactly behind Button and right in front of him as he came out of his first pit stop. After this not only did Button fly ahead but now Kimi had to deal with a much better car and on Monaco’s tight streets, he did not have any answer. The most frustrating point would have been when Alonso, the champion came thundering by in the car which Kimi drove till last season. It must have been such an ironic feeling sitting there in the Scuderia Ferrari watching the silver arrows go by. A really disappointing race for him but one which he brought upon himself.

The Honda’s as usual brought around the rear of the front bunch. Having got a lucky deal in qualification, they were not really able to bring the advantage home. Like their counterparts in MotoGP, the Honda factory team seems to have made a horrible mistake this season. I don’t expect anything out of them this season and with that goes the hope of the erstwhile British hope – Button down the drain.

Heikki Kovalainen, Renault’s answer to Hamilton is proving to be grossly inadequate and is looking totally outclassed by his GP2 rival. He was rudely shunted down while on his qualifying and his eagerness to overtake the Scot cost him even further. Then following a one-stop, he was able to make some good of the race but where his team-mate finished in 4th, he finished a lowly 13th. Overall I believe Fisichella’s win would bring some confidence to the Renault team, they still don’t have the drivers or the package like last year and look a very dull shadow of the Renault team of 2006.

Monaco has always been McLaren’s happy hunting ground with some of my favorite drivers winning here right from David Coulthard to the now NASCAR happy Montoya. Alonso and Hamilton just reinforced that, leaving Massa, 3rd placed a very far 69 seconds behind and lapping up to 4th placed Fisichella as well. Ferrari were the only team thought to match the McLarens but they seem to have been slapped in the face by McLaren today.

Overall it was a boring race to watch. I even managed to get in a wink of sleep in between. The traditional Monaco highlights of celebrities were always there, but the desperate overtaking maneuvers, the locking of brakes and sliding into the fencing and huge crashes were sorely missed. And the McLarens just outclassed everyone else. What was interesting was the duel between Alonso and Hamilton. Even though Alonso had opened up a huge 8 second lead, after the second round of pit stops the race looked to be heading for a routine finish which was when Hamilton woke up. He banged in 3 laps which wiped of nearly 3 seconds of Alonso’s time. And Alonso also seemed to have drifted. Coming into the Tunnel, the gap between them was down to 0.6 seconds and finally the race seemed to get some life. But Hamilton’s aggression got the better of him and saw him slipping and sliding over the corners which lost him time and seeing these mistakes and the fright of having Hamilton breathe down your neck, Alonso banged in some really smooth laps himself bringing the difference back to 4 seconds which was to remain till the end of the race.

I believe McLaren has achieved the awesome combination of aggression in Hamilton and experience and smoothness in Alonso and Ron Dennis is doing a good job of playing them off each other. How far is this game going to go is the question. The traditional way of celebrating on the podium was this time given over to a more gentlemanly way of walking up to the royal box and receiving the trophies from the Prince and Princess. But of course what is an F1 win without champagne and I am sure that lots of it must have flown in McLaren’s 150th win parties that followed.