2005 F1 Monaco GP

shravan316 · 22nd May 2005, 13:13

The street circuit is back! The narrowest, slowest and the most unforgiving track in the F1 calender is back. And it has already lived up to its reputation in the first qualification round itself!

As of now, Kimi has set the pace in the first qualifying round. He drove an awesome, blisering lap, stamping his authority over the Renault of Alonso and the remaining grid. Alonso is currently second. He was quick, but, not as quick as the Flying Finn. Third on the grid is the Williams of Mark Webber.

The Renault of Fisichella is fourth on the grid, followed by the McLaren of Montoya. Well, thats set to change, because the Stewards have penalised Montoya for being the cause of a 4 car pileup in the streets of Monaco, involving, Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard and Villeneuve. As of now, Montoya will be starting from the back of the grid. For more on this click here

Ralf Schumacher, has had a terrrible weekend so far, first the 0.25 seconds penalty for using the wrong set of tyres, then the horrific crash in the second practice session and first qualifying round. His toyota was completely wrecked, and it puts him towards the back of the grid. The other Toyota of Jarno Trulli is currently standing in a respectable 7th position, behind Hiedfeld's Williams and ahead of David Coulthard's RedBull.

Villenueve is currently in 9th position, ahead of the two Ferraris of Barrichello
and Micheal Schumacher. The Ferraris have been struggling through out the weekend, and it looks like it'll continue.

Massa in the second of the Saubers is in 12th position, ahead of the two Minardis of Friesacher and Albers. The Minardis looked good, and their car seemed to handle better than the Jordans and for the first time in the past couple of years, Minardi have been better than the Jordan.

The two Jordans bring up the tail end of the grid for the first qualifying round. The Jordan cars looked to be really a handful in the track. Both NK and Monteiro were struggling big time. Monteiro at the moment being better his teammate Narain.

Next up... Second qualifying round. I can't wait for that to start and that too most probably for the last time.

The race is going to be action packed...... without doubt. The narrow streets of Monaco offers a great deal of challenge for the drivers and excitment for the spectator back home. My money is going to be on Kimi winning the race. He looked supreme in the first qualifying round, and i'm hoping his machinery doesn't give way.. Alonso is my second bet. But, the run into the first corner is very important. It going to be tough to beat the Renault with its awesome traction, if it is on the first row of the grid.

GrimReaper · 22nd May 2005, 13:19

McLaren Mercedes just seem to be on a dream roll right now. I know they've only won one race upto now, but everything just seems to be working. With the Mercedes engine producing blistering power and reliability (?) to the McLaren chassis making use of every single hp of the engine to its fullest.
After saying all this, I'm bound to be pessimistic in thinking that something just has to go wrong. Hopefully nothing will and McLaren can pull it through.
This in the end will be the first real test of the reliability of the new Mercedes engine as this is the engines only second race upto now.

shravan316 · 22nd May 2005, 20:44

What an amazing race! Kimi simply dominated the entire race distance! McLaren are back and they are looking deadly. They are currently standing second in both the constructors championship and the drivers championship. Kimi was absolutely flying through Monaco at devastating pace. He had clearly demoralised all of his opponent by his sheer pace, putting in some absolutely stunning lap times back to back.
Heidfeld and Webber did really well to finish second and third after an awesome overtaking move on Fernando Alonso by both Webber and Heidfeld.
The other McLaren of Montoya did very well to finish in 5th place. Ralf Schumacher's rotten weekend had some silverlining at the end of it finishing 6th ahead of big brother Micheal Schumacher....
Alonso had a real tough in the Renault, his rear tyres giving all sorts of problems. He finished fourth, but, looked well settled in second at the beginning of the race.
The Ferraris too finished in the points, thanks to some really good stratergy and some good driving by both Schumi and Barrichello.
Sauber Petronas of Felipe Massa finished behind the two Ferraris, in 9th, thanks to his teammate Villeneuve's outrageous overtaking move which made both of them lose some track positions. The Toyota of Trulli was sandwiched by the Sauber Petronas. Trulli again a victim of an outrageous overtaking move on Fisichella at the hairpin turn, wherein he damaged the underside of his car and started losing time.
Narain karthikeyan had a terrible time at the GP having changed his tyres twice(??) and ultimately retiring from the race. His teammate Tiago Monteiro finished 14th, ahead of the last of the finishers Christijan Albers in his Minardi.

An amazing Monaco GP, living upto its reputation of producing some fantastic racing and a classic result.
The day clearly belonged to the Iceman Kimi Raikkonen.
At the end of it all i can say is McLaren are back, Kimi is looking supreme... i wouldnt be surprised to see a McLaren 1-2 finish at the European GP next weekend.

gr8guzzler · 22nd May 2005, 22:22

Yeah it was a great race right from the start.....3 Cheers to McLaren ...Kimi...Montoya...

Also it's nice to see the williams too getting competetive.....the rest of the season is gonna be real good....

Cheers!!!

X-Machine · 23rd May 2005, 02:17

It was certainly the most exciting race of the season so far.Loved the way McLarens performed.Even Ferrari's were good and held up to thier positions well.But the major setback was for the Alonso who ended up losing two positions in the last few laps of the race.I expected him on the podium.
But nevertheless,exciting stuff.

X

Shrikar · 23rd May 2005, 06:55

MCLAREN rocks.......and this wasnt a spurt of luck but i am dead sure its going to continue for the rest of the season.....KIMI rulz...michael is going down people

SCARLET · 23rd May 2005, 09:57

It was a good race , great pace from KIMI great stratergy from mclaren also
Nice to see the teams being so much more competitive in F1
Michael and the ferrari did not have any problems this race, so thats one positive note for ferrari fans

overtaking was cool , truli thought he was riding a autorickshaw the way he went over the curve.

looking forward to europe with the new qualifying format

Dippy · 23rd May 2005, 10:15

A great race and a fantastix performance by the flying Finn. Sheer domination is what I would call it. The Mclaren Michelin combo seems to be working well and the season is getting very excting. First it was Alonso and now Kimi seems to be right up there for the Championship.

I was very happy to see the Williams duo doing so well. I always knew Mark was a great driver and he got to show his potential. Overtaking moves at Monte Carlo are not easy and they really pulled it off in some amazing fashion.

Ferrari finished in the points in this race and even though it looks that the title is going away from them I dont think they have still given up. A broken front wing caused Schumi some probs or else he was sure to get some more points. Great car control from Montoya to stop just in time at that traffic jam.

The season is getting more exciting. I'm a Ferrari and Schumi fan and though I am disappointed that they arent doing well, its really good to see that there is lots of racing to see this season and every race is worth looking forward to since we do get good wheel to wheel racing.

This season is sure to go to the wire and is as exciting as ever and the icing on the cake would be Schumi and Ferrari suddenly notching up a few wins , that would really got things up. A difficult task but who knows .. 13 races to go

Dippy

raihan · 23rd May 2005, 10:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dippy

A difficult task but who knows .. 16 races to go

Dippy

Make that 13.
cheers,

Dippy · 23rd May 2005, 10:33

Thanks for pointing it out raihan . Had it in my mind. typo error

Dippy

prasadee · 23rd May 2005, 11:20

Mixed feelings........
The good..........The streets of Monaco are awesome. I was in Monaco this friday, too bad I could not stay for the weekend. The hotels were too freakin expensive, even in a city like Nice. I did drive up to Monaco before this weekend. It was filled with Ferraris and Lamborghinis from all over Europe. My Hotel in Nice had 2 Ferraris, the Valet park guy should have had a ball.

The bad....... The residents of Monaco usually rentout their Patios and Balconies for more than 300 Euros, forget a real good seat where you can see a lot of action.

Being a sports fan in Europe can prove to be real expensive. I am back in the US and they don't even cover the F1 circuits on Expanded cable. I have to get some super expanded cable to get the Speed channel to get any of this action.......

I saw a couple desi families (fromDelhi) in Monaco, they were coming to Monaco after seeing the Cannes film festival, I guess there are still a lot of people who can afford to be there, so I will quit the bitching.
-Prasadee

aveek · 23rd May 2005, 15:18

What can I say...? How bout:
MUHUHOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!!
McLaren are back!!!!!! And with such style! They just took out the 'competition' like flies in the land of the Venus flytrap... I'm, more than ever, betting on Kimi to become WDC this year. Die, disbelievers!!!!
MUHUHOHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Oh, yeah, and the move(s) on Alonso by the Williamss were great too!! What is quite interesting to see is that despite being no-where in terms of competitiveness, Ferrari are still getting results consistently... gotta feel sorry for Red Bll though... all the planning and marketing left them in the barriers at the end...!

Can't wait till next weekend, where Kimi is gonna slay Alonso and Schumi...!!!
MUHUHOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

johnjacob · 23rd May 2005, 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by shravan316

The Ferraris too finished in the points, thanks to some really good stratergy and some good driving by both Schumi and Barrichello.

Upto nearly the penultimate lap, Ralf was ahead of Barrichello who was ahead of (Michael) Schumacher. But in the last lap, Michael leaped ahead of Barrichello and nearly passed Ralf too. Does anybody know how Michael got ahead of Barrichello? Was it a genuine overtaking maneuver or was it plain old team orders (again)?

nitinbhag · 23rd May 2005, 18:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnjacob

Does anybody know how Michael got ahead of Barrichello? Was it a genuine overtaking maneuver or was it plain old team orders (again)?

What I think I saw was plain old Michael tactic of diving into any space he could find, so he took Barrichello and then tried Ralf.. In fact he clipped Ralf on the wheel on the finish line..

Guess he believes in 'We hurt most, the ones we love', brother & teammate here ;-)

Have been a Ferrari and Michael fan for decades now, but this season Bridgestone have been simple disappointing..

shravan316 · 23rd May 2005, 19:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitinbhag

Guess he believes in 'We hurt most, the ones we love', brother & teammate here ;-)

Yeah nice principle! thrash the living day lights out of a person and then say.. "i love you a lot"

But, there wasn't the coverage of Micheal overtaking Barrichello. I hope it was a legitimate move.. i dont want to see more of that Ferrari tactics.

22nd May 2005, 13:13	#1
shravan316 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,029 Thanked: 10 Times	2005 F1 Monaco GP The street circuit is back! The narrowest, slowest and the most unforgiving track in the F1 calender is back. And it has already lived up to its reputation in the first qualification round itself! As of now, Kimi has set the pace in the first qualifying round. He drove an awesome, blisering lap, stamping his authority over the Renault of Alonso and the remaining grid. Alonso is currently second. He was quick, but, not as quick as the Flying Finn. Third on the grid is the Williams of Mark Webber. The Renault of Fisichella is fourth on the grid, followed by the McLaren of Montoya. Well, thats set to change, because the Stewards have penalised Montoya for being the cause of a 4 car pileup in the streets of Monaco, involving, Ralf Schumacher, David Coulthard and Villeneuve. As of now, Montoya will be starting from the back of the grid. For more on this click here Ralf Schumacher, has had a terrrible weekend so far, first the 0.25 seconds penalty for using the wrong set of tyres, then the horrific crash in the second practice session and first qualifying round. His toyota was completely wrecked, and it puts him towards the back of the grid. The other Toyota of Jarno Trulli is currently standing in a respectable 7th position, behind Hiedfeld's Williams and ahead of David Coulthard's RedBull. Villenueve is currently in 9th position, ahead of the two Ferraris of Barrichello and Micheal Schumacher. The Ferraris have been struggling through out the weekend, and it looks like it'll continue. Massa in the second of the Saubers is in 12th position, ahead of the two Minardis of Friesacher and Albers. The Minardis looked good, and their car seemed to handle better than the Jordans and for the first time in the past couple of years, Minardi have been better than the Jordan. The two Jordans bring up the tail end of the grid for the first qualifying round. The Jordan cars looked to be really a handful in the track. Both NK and Monteiro were struggling big time. Monteiro at the moment being better his teammate Narain. Next up... Second qualifying round. I can't wait for that to start and that too most probably for the last time. The race is going to be action packed...... without doubt. The narrow streets of Monaco offers a great deal of challenge for the drivers and excitment for the spectator back home. My money is going to be on Kimi winning the race. He looked supreme in the first qualifying round, and i'm hoping his machinery doesn't give way.. Alonso is my second bet. But, the run into the first corner is very important. It going to be tough to beat the Renault with its awesome traction, if it is on the first row of the grid. Last edited by shravan316 : 22nd May 2005 at 13:17. Reason: addition of text
	() Thanks

22nd May 2005, 13:19	#2
GrimReaper BHPian Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Mumbai, India Posts: 261 Thanked: 0 Times	McLaren Mercedes just seem to be on a dream roll right now. I know they've only won one race upto now, but everything just seems to be working. With the Mercedes engine producing blistering power and reliability (?) to the McLaren chassis making use of every single hp of the engine to its fullest. After saying all this, I'm bound to be pessimistic in thinking that something just has to go wrong. Hopefully nothing will and McLaren can pull it through. This in the end will be the first real test of the reliability of the new Mercedes engine as this is the engines only second race upto now.
	() Thanks

22nd May 2005, 20:44	#3
shravan316 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 1,029 Thanked: 10 Times	Mclaren Are Back!! What an amazing race! Kimi simply dominated the entire race distance! McLaren are back and they are looking deadly. They are currently standing second in both the constructors championship and the drivers championship. Kimi was absolutely flying through Monaco at devastating pace. He had clearly demoralised all of his opponent by his sheer pace, putting in some absolutely stunning lap times back to back. Heidfeld and Webber did really well to finish second and third after an awesome overtaking move on Fernando Alonso by both Webber and Heidfeld. The other McLaren of Montoya did very well to finish in 5th place. Ralf Schumacher's rotten weekend had some silverlining at the end of it finishing 6th ahead of big brother Micheal Schumacher.... Alonso had a real tough in the Renault, his rear tyres giving all sorts of problems. He finished fourth, but, looked well settled in second at the beginning of the race. The Ferraris too finished in the points, thanks to some really good stratergy and some good driving by both Schumi and Barrichello. Sauber Petronas of Felipe Massa finished behind the two Ferraris, in 9th, thanks to his teammate Villeneuve's outrageous overtaking move which made both of them lose some track positions. The Toyota of Trulli was sandwiched by the Sauber Petronas. Trulli again a victim of an outrageous overtaking move on Fisichella at the hairpin turn, wherein he damaged the underside of his car and started losing time. Narain karthikeyan had a terrible time at the GP having changed his tyres twice(??) and ultimately retiring from the race. His teammate Tiago Monteiro finished 14th, ahead of the last of the finishers Christijan Albers in his Minardi. An amazing Monaco GP, living upto its reputation of producing some fantastic racing and a classic result. The day clearly belonged to the Iceman Kimi Raikkonen. At the end of it all i can say is McLaren are back, Kimi is looking supreme... i wouldnt be surprised to see a McLaren 1-2 finish at the European GP next weekend.
	() Thanks

22nd May 2005, 22:22	#4
gr8guzzler BHPian Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Navi Mumbai Posts: 653 Thanked: 87 Times View My Garage	Yeah it was a great race right from the start.....3 Cheers to McLaren ...Kimi...Montoya... Also it's nice to see the williams too getting competetive.....the rest of the season is gonna be real good.... Cheers!!!
	() Thanks

23rd May 2005, 02:17	#5
X-Machine Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Mumbai/Tokyo Posts: 1,475 Thanked: 29 Times	It was certainly the most exciting race of the season so far.Loved the way McLarens performed.Even Ferrari's were good and held up to thier positions well.But the major setback was for the Alonso who ended up losing two positions in the last few laps of the race.I expected him on the podium. But nevertheless,exciting stuff. X
	() Thanks

23rd May 2005, 06:55	#6
Shrikar BHPian Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: New Delhi Posts: 71 Thanked: 0 Times	MCLAREN rocks.......and this wasnt a spurt of luck but i am dead sure its going to continue for the rest of the season.....KIMI rulz...michael is going down people
	() Thanks

23rd May 2005, 09:57	#7
SCARLET Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 219 Thanked: 3 Times	It was a good race , great pace from KIMI great stratergy from mclaren also Nice to see the teams being so much more competitive in F1 Michael and the ferrari did not have any problems this race, so thats one positive note for ferrari fans overtaking was cool , truli thought he was riding a autorickshaw the way he went over the curve. looking forward to europe with the new qualifying format
	() Thanks

23rd May 2005, 10:15	#8
Dippy Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Mumbai, India Posts: 7,767 Thanked: 4,267 Times	A great race and a fantastix performance by the flying Finn. Sheer domination is what I would call it. The Mclaren Michelin combo seems to be working well and the season is getting very excting. First it was Alonso and now Kimi seems to be right up there for the Championship. I was very happy to see the Williams duo doing so well. I always knew Mark was a great driver and he got to show his potential. Overtaking moves at Monte Carlo are not easy and they really pulled it off in some amazing fashion. Ferrari finished in the points in this race and even though it looks that the title is going away from them I dont think they have still given up. A broken front wing caused Schumi some probs or else he was sure to get some more points. Great car control from Montoya to stop just in time at that traffic jam. The season is getting more exciting. I'm a Ferrari and Schumi fan and though I am disappointed that they arent doing well, its really good to see that there is lots of racing to see this season and every race is worth looking forward to since we do get good wheel to wheel racing. This season is sure to go to the wire and is as exciting as ever and the icing on the cake would be Schumi and Ferrari suddenly notching up a few wins , that would really got things up. A difficult task but who knows .. 13 races to go Dippy Last edited by Dippy : 23rd May 2005 at 10:32.
	() Thanks

23rd May 2005, 10:33	#10
Dippy Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Mumbai, India Posts: 7,767 Thanked: 4,267 Times	Thanks for pointing it out raihan . Had it in my mind. typo error Dippy
	() Thanks

23rd May 2005, 11:20	#11
prasadee BANNED Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 568 Thanked: 266 Times View My Garage	Mixed feelings........ The good..........The streets of Monaco are awesome. I was in Monaco this friday, too bad I could not stay for the weekend. The hotels were too freakin expensive, even in a city like Nice. I did drive up to Monaco before this weekend. It was filled with Ferraris and Lamborghinis from all over Europe. My Hotel in Nice had 2 Ferraris, the Valet park guy should have had a ball. The bad....... The residents of Monaco usually rentout their Patios and Balconies for more than 300 Euros, forget a real good seat where you can see a lot of action. Being a sports fan in Europe can prove to be real expensive. I am back in the US and they don't even cover the F1 circuits on Expanded cable. I have to get some super expanded cable to get the Speed channel to get any of this action....... I saw a couple desi families (fromDelhi) in Monaco, they were coming to Monaco after seeing the Cannes film festival, I guess there are still a lot of people who can afford to be there, so I will quit the bitching. -Prasadee
	() Thanks

23rd May 2005, 15:18	#12
aveek BHPian Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 294 Thanked: 2 Times	What can I say...? How bout: MUHUHOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!! McLaren are back!!!!!! And with such style! They just took out the 'competition' like flies in the land of the Venus flytrap... I'm, more than ever, betting on Kimi to become WDC this year. Die, disbelievers!!!! MUHUHOHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh, yeah, and the move(s) on Alonso by the Williamss were great too!! What is quite interesting to see is that despite being no-where in terms of competitiveness, Ferrari are still getting results consistently... gotta feel sorry for Red Bll though... all the planning and marketing left them in the barriers at the end...! Can't wait till next weekend, where Kimi is gonna slay Alonso and Schumi...!!! MUHUHOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
	() Thanks