| ||||
 | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
'Obviously, a disappointing qualifying for us. Things became difficult right from the pre-qualifying. Michael found he had practically no grip on his lap, possibly because some cars were out after free practice and put some dust and oil on the track. The cars went well in qualifying but another factor that did not help was the fact that when the cars making their run after ours were doing their lap, the sun had gone in and the track became quicker. In any case, this race always throws up surprises from start to finish. We will have to be as well prepared as possible to make the most of any opportunity that comes our way.' 'Neither of our two cars achieved their expected performance level in
the race. Rubens was not happy with the balance of his car and was struggling
with it all race long. Michael was making progress after a difficult initial
phase, but was not as quick as we had hoped. Unfortunately, when the accident
happened, he was in the lead and had a good chance to fight for the win.
We decided to leave both drivers out on track during the safety car period
as they had a lot of fuel on board. Michael could have put in some quick
laps with a clear track ahead of him, building up a big enough lead to
stay ahead of the others. The Stewards have ruled that the collision between
Michael and Montoya was a racing incident and we respect their decision.
What I can say is that our driver was going through the normal procedure
prior to a re-start and this was definitely not a nice way to end the
race. All in all, this was certainly not our weekend.' Monaco is still the "Jewel in the Crown" of the GP season, as far as sponsors and spectators are concerned. Sipping a glass of fizz as the cars are released onto the track for practice and the spine-tingling sounds echo round the harbour is truly one of life's best experiences. Unfortunately, Monaco has little or nothing to do with racing, it's all about qualifying and luck as overtaking is almost impossible - although most of the other circuits seem to be doing their best to catch up - whilst offering none of the Principality's other advantages! It was clear that Schuey was going to struggle from his poor pre-qualifying onwards and yet Ross Brawn says that he was in a position to win when the incident with Montoya happened. Given the Scuderia's mastery of race strategy and Schuey's sublime driving this season, who can doubt him? Credit must be given to Jarno Trulli and the Renault team for a fantastic result and to Jenson Button for qualifying well and racing hard to the end. The surprise of the event was Kimi Raikkonen's qualifying performance, fifth, just 0.076 seconds behind Schuey; clearly, this is still one circuit where the driver can make up for deficiencies in the car, but it was "situation normal" when his Ilmor engine blew up early in the race. Takumo Sato had a storming start from seventh on the grid up to fourth, clipping MS's front wheel on the way! He was another to suffer the most spectacular of engine failures, when his Honda let go big-time on lap three. Smoke totally obscured the circuit and an unsighted Fisichella was launched over the back of Coulthard's McLaren into a horrifying roll which ended when he hit the safety barrier. Blessedly, he was unhurt, which speaks volumes for the strength and integrity of modern F1 cars. The safety car was deployed and was needed again on lap 42 when Ralf Schumacher allegedly moved on Alonso when he was trying to pass him in the tunnel. Whoever's fault it was, the pundits all agreed that this was a move which was never going to come off. This led to the controversial incident when Schuey was in the lead and Montoya, who was a lap down, shunted him up the rear. Just why MS decided to carry out violent tyre and brake warming manoeuvres in the tunnel is not clear. However, this was the end of his race and with it his chance to beat Nigel Mansell's record of five consecutive wins from the start of the season; Mansell's run finished in Monaco too. This left the race to Trulli and Button, with Rubens soldiering on to third, a slight reward for perseverance if nothing else. Montoya survived to finish fourth, in what is fast becoming an awful season for Williams. Felipe Massa brought the Ferrari-powered Sauber home fifth, Da Matta was sixth and Nick Heidfeld scored Jordan's first points of the year with seventh; previous Monaco winner Olivier Panis took the final point for Toyota. Some measure of the degree of attrition is that Zsolt Baumgartner brought the Minardi home next! This race so often goes against ultimate form, I am sure this year is
no exception.
Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
