[jfxavier]

Although the start of the race did not create any pileups that could spice things up at Monaco, the ending had all that a classic monaco race could offer but all for a bizarre reason. A car on fresh rubber, much faster than the car ahead unable to pass as the driver ahead puts the car in the right position on track even as the car behind tries all the tricks in the book. Reminded me of Senna blocking Mansel.
Alonso's penalty for contact with Hulkenberg’s car seems a bit harsh when you see that Ricciardo was let off after he practically pushed Kimi out. The stewarding did not seem consistent.
Anyway the McLaren cooling issues with Honda's tight packaging continues even as they score the seasons first points.

The Merc. team has clearly shot themselves on their foot with this one. Lots of growing up to do in a couple of week's time.

Some of the reactions to the tweet was quite funny.

[D33-PAC]

I can't recall events from the last 6 years properly but Red Bull seems to have taken way more care about race strategies and avoiding silly mistakes. I mean their actions can remind you of Hitler's core propaganda team who executed orders like it was a message from God. Sometimes you got the feeling Helmut Marko was a motivational coach for Vettel who pushed him even more.

Merc has everything going for them but I don't see the kind of hardcore brutal attitude in them that Red Bull had. They seem more - relaxed. Or maybe because Toto and Niki Lauda are more friendly and not as serious looking as Christian Horner and Helmut Marko duo who were almost like German WW2 commanders.

[deetjohn]

Amazing composure by Lewis on the press conference. That needs to be appreciated given the fact that he is a very emotional person and this was Monaco and that two of his biggest rivals gained from this big blunder of a call.

Did Lewis park the W06 just before the tunnel to gather his thoughts? If so, it worked very well.

[mayankk]

God awful crash ,verstappan's. It's the most violent one I've seen Schumacher broke his leg, and this one owing to the closet like nature of the circuit looked a 1000 times more dramatic, but it was amazing to hear him answer the radio.

The elephant, now.
That was utterly, maddeningly, stupid. The worst bit was Lewis stopping before the tunnel and then moving at a snail's pace to avoid Nico celebrating as if it was a deserved win.
Nico did not win today. Mercedes lost.

[anachronix]

The Joke of the race has to be the Pirelli and the debut of the SuperSoft tires, they were so hard they could last more than half the race distance and most drivers had trouble getting them up to temperature, even the faster Mercedes had problems!

As always, nothing special about the Monaco GP except for the Mercedes screw up which I hope was not intentional!

[D33-PAC]

Originally Posted by anachronix

As always, nothing special about the Monaco GP except for the Mercedes screw up which I hope was not intentional!

Even if it was intentional what would Merc gain ? Conspiracies make sense when you take a look at what's to be gained.

[Hatari]

I think this is the first race I havent watched from start to finish for the past 18 years.. right after Alonso pulled over, switched off to watch again right when Max crashed.
Then ofcourse came the shocking call..

Here's what Lewis had to say during the post race conference :

Q: (Ian Parkes - Autosport) Question for Lewis. First of all, can you gives us just some idea as to how you're feeling right now..........

LH: I can't really express the way I feel at the moment. So I won't even attempt to. You rely on the team. I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn't see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting. The team said to stay out, I said “these tyres are going to drop in temperature,” and what I was assuming was that these guys would be on Options and I was on the harder tyre. So, they said to pit. Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.

Shame.. but no harm done really.. he's still going to be WDC this year.

Originally Posted by ecenandu

Tell me one thing, when was the last time we had multiple guys going for the championship? Vettel's first championship in 2010 was down to the wire and also in 2012.

F1 always has been like this, don't you think so?

2002 was worse. But this year its a 2 two horse race.
Ferrari are closer than before, but Vettel has no realistic chance.

[gtonsing]

Verstappan's crash was horrific!! Very very glad indeed he walked away from it. The car was properly mangled!

Very unfortunate mistake by the mercedes team with Lewis. But he did make his disappointment felt. He was stationary for more than 3/4 minutes there. He should have finished the race at P1, not Nico.

What was the magic with SFI? Points! Nice error free drive by Perez and also by Hulkenberg. I am beginning to think Perez is a better driver.

Last point: Boring race, again!

[jfxavier]

Had Hamilton simply obeyed the original instructions from the team to “stay out”, the pit stop would never have taken place.
Of course it was Mercedes pit wall who ultimately failed to correctly asses at the last corner that Lewis no longer had a sufficient gap to get in and get out and remain in the lead.

Lewis said in the post race press conference “I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn't see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting”. The TV screen, which Lewis referred to, was on the way up the hill after St Devote. However, there was a crucial misunderstanding because Lewis did not tell the team that he was concerned about Rosberg being on fresh options. Instead he challenged the decision which had been made that he should ‘stay out’, and told the team, “these tyres are going to drop in temperature”. This may have been a reason to switch Hamilton’s tyres, as Wolff confirms Hamilton’s comments “He made a call saying the tyre temperatures have dropped and there is no grip anymore.” The ball was thus set rolling and Ferrari pitting Vettel for new super soft tyres was now a concern. Given the gap to Vettel, Mercedes had to make the decision to stop Lewis quickly as it would have been too late if they waited to see the Ferrari team making a dash to the pit box.
What happened at Monaco in 2014 could also have been in the minds of the team strategists. Lewis was unhappy with the team’s strategy which failed to pit him last year, and so he added an element of doubt into the confusion over whether Lewis should receive a change of tyres. Suddenly the team were faced with a similar prospect were they to ignore Lewis’ concerns of the low tyre temp.

Wonder what would have happened if someone realized after he entered the pitlane that they don't have time in hand and instructed Lewis to drive through the pit lane instead of stopping at the box.

[aim120]

Originally Posted by D33-PAC

Even if it was intentional what would Merc gain ? Conspiracies make sense when you take a look at what's to be gained.

Well because of this Rosberg has equaled Graham hill,Alain Prost record of winning three times consequently. So may be there is some truth here.

[jfxavier]

Originally Posted by aim120

Well because of this Rosberg has equaled Graham hill,Alain Prost record of winning three times consequently. So may be there is some truth here.

The VSC was used for the first time in a grand prix on Sunday and the decision to then introduce the actual safety car got many people thinking.

“It changes the amount of time loss that you’ll have,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said afterwards. “The virtual safety car freezes the race, the real safety car bunches it all up and maybe Lewis caught the safety car.
“It’s a different decision to the virtual safety car, so it’s quite confusing. It’s the kind of thing we try and rehearse.”

What if some evil minds wanted to bunch the cars up so that "Zhe Zermenz" could have a go at Lewis, since he was already complaining about brakes earlier in the race.
Just to add some fuel to the fire.

[iamendangered]

Disclaimer : I am a Ferrari fan, and I particularly dislike Lewis Hamilton

Lewis' reaction seemed over dramatic, the waiting at the hairpin, the hitting of the #3 placard.
Even though his words were politically correct, his demeanor was not something one likes to see in a reigning world champion.
I know that a Monaco GP victory being snatched away from him, by his own team's error no less, is a difficult pill to swallow, but the team did not do it on purpose.

The same race saw Alonso being given a 5 second penalty, and all he did was ask on team radio why he got the penalty, the team replied saying it was because of the collision with Hulkenberg but our pace is fast so no time loss, then he forgot about it and continued racing, how a champion should have, in my opinion.

Nico could have celebrated with less enthusiasm, but he kind of made it ok by admitting he was lucky and it was lewis' race that he won.

Just a few days ago I saw a video of Hamilton sitting next to Thierry Henry and they were discussing winning mentality.
Lewis said that he did not understand what people meant when they said that one should be a good/gentleman loser

"Whoever is like that [a good loser] is never going to be a champion," declares Hamilton

Article link : http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12...uss-bad-losers

I know lewis hamilton does not care if I become his fan or support him, but such things make sure that that will never happen.

[ACM]

Monaco needs rain for it to be any fun. A dry race at Monte Carlo is boring and this one sure was. Mercedes blunder cost Lewis the race and Nico would definitely have seemed more dignified by accepting that Lewis deserved the win more than him.

[sgiitk]

I really feel sorry for Lewis, denied a victory by his own team. How can Mercedes be so silly? I may not like him, but still feel hurt.

[D33-PAC]

Originally Posted by iamendangered

Even though his words were politically correct, his demeanor was not something one likes to see in a reigning world champion.

Lewis is the most emotionally weak driver, and I say this as a fan. We're talking about the guy whose performance went down due to a rocky phase with his popstar diva girlfriend.

But hey, at least you can appreciate he's a human being. Guys like Alonso would rather die than seem weak, and I can't remember how many times Alonso put on a poker face during his saddest days to look strong. Or maybe he is strong. Once or twice can be a poker face but Alonso is easily the most lion hearted thick skinned guy of all drivers.

This is Alonso after losing the WDC in 2010. I remember watching this race and it was something I could never forget. Forget Lewis if I was in Alonso's shoes I would be crying a river.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-JZFPSgR7A

Whether the chinks in his armor are good or bad is subjective. I certainly think it's bad. Mind games played by guys like Nico can get to him!