In the days before the race, a few stories came up. Spyker's road car division had mortgaged their name – apparently the only unsecured asset they have title to – for cash. With the heritage behind their name this must surely be worth at least a new set of tyres... I stopped laughing when I read a release about Ferrari's new paint job. The Scuderia has reverted to a red similar to that used around twenty years ago, before Marlboro came on board, but with a metallic sheen. It looks quite good, but here's what a Spokesperson said: “It's part of the part of the refreshment process. We waited until we could introduce the new paint without impacting on the weight of the car.”

Now, there are two things which arise here. First is “refreshment”. This sounds to me like re branding, which is what you do to companies like BNFL, Ratners, British Leyland or the Post Office, and not to an icon of performance motoring with 60 years of heritage. And as for the paint, there were a few more important issues for the Scuderia, because the next pre-qualifying story was Lewis Hamilton. His early laps around Monaco were stunning. The times were great and Lewis was catching the car from slides as if he had been driving at Monaco for 20 years. Ferrari fans were already discounting any chance of a win.

At the time I thought that Hamilton's performance was the sign of a genius, even though he later put the car into the barrier at St Devote, but as the weekend progressed I changed my mind. I recall being told some years ago by an F3 team owner that he believed virtually any one of the top ten F3 Championship drivers could get into a Grand Prix car and, with adequate acclimatization, be competitive, and we seem now to be in a position in F1 where all the drivers are not just good, they're all “very good”.

Hamilton is obviously a highly talented driver, with more ability than most. But he is being hyped as a World Champion Elect after only 4 races. Yet it seems that every year we have a “startling talent”, a “new Schumacher/Senna/Fangio” (depending on the age of the writer) appearing on the scene. Last year we began to be excited about Rosberg, later in the season Sebastian Vettel, and although it was 2001, do you remember the buzz with which Raikkonen's debut was greeted?

Hamilton is, I suspect, just the latest of a long line who will be good, possibly verging on great, but whose initial flair will fade slightly. When some of the outrageously exciting moves which he's got away with so far result in a bent car, I think he will settle down and decide to play the percentages. Not that the British press will notice, because for them he's currently the Mansell of the 21st century, apart of course from the added talent, added looks, added charm, and without the Brummie accent. I hasten to add that his driving has certainly brightened up F1 over the early races, but being in what is currently (sadly for Tifosi) the best car, and being a favoured son of Ron must help.

Having spent part of Saturday watching a club single seater race at Anglesey, it was impossible not to compare it with Monaco. Both tracks are tight, with low average speeds, there's a strong likelihood of immediate damage if you put a wheel out of line, and if the racing's not good, the sea views are worth watching. But there was little chance to take in sea views at Anglesey. It was a cracking race with overtaking galore, spins, lapping, dicing, everything you could wish for . By way of contrast Monaco was a terminally dull, boring race. Why should there be such a difference? The answer is, of course, twofold: professionalism, and the unique nature of Monaco.

There was a huge difference in the lap times of the amateurs but at Monaco just over 2 seconds covered the best laps of the whole field in the race, ignoring Webber's misfiring Red Bull. If you exclude the McLarens, the spread is close to a second and a half, compared with a spread of 4 seconds a year ago. With performance this close, simple physics makes passing unlikely, if not impossible, without relying on “mind games” as Schuey did last year. And here, professionalism strikes again, because not only are the drivers, without exception, very good at the technical driving side of their job, they're probably better than some of their predecessors at handling the pressures in a race because of the additional coaching they get.

The second reason for the dull race is, of course, Monaco itself. I am not referring just to the track width and tightness of the course, though that does have an influence, but to the less than billiard table smooth surface. Any in-car coverage shows suspension movement galore, unlike at normal circuits The aerodynamics have much less of a chance to work when the ground clearance is both raised and constantly changing, and the edge of most of the leading cars is in the aero department. So with the aero edge gone, there's inevitably less difference between the cars, as outlined above, and we don't get the paired grid seen so often.

The grid is to a large extent dependent on whether the driver's style suits Monaco. For example, Fisichella was fourth on the grid but fellow Renault driver Kovalainen was fifteenth; Rosberg fifth, the other Williams of Wurz twelfth, albeit with under a second difference. This has always been a track which has favoured drivers at the expense of cars – one can't help thinking of Villeneuve winning here, or further back Moss, in cars which shouldn't have stood a chance. Montoya (another winner) gave further evidence for he was reported as saying an F3000 car could win from pole with the right driver.

There is, of course, another traditional Monaco element: luck. Räikkönen ran out of it at the Swimming Pool Chicane and caught the right front wheel on the barrier. All seemed fine to him at first until at Rascasse the car failed to turn in and, with a supreme irony, he temporarily parked up close to the barrier, within inches of Schumacher's 2006 incident. Massa narrowly avoided him. I suspect I could retire comfortably on the price those hoardings at Rascasse now command. Despite showing great delicacy in getting the car back to the pits, Kimi was out of the next session – sixteenth.

Massa captured third, and was justifiably pleased, as the McLarens looked un-catchable. The on-board showed Alonso driving a sublime lap, seemingly faultless. Whilst his team mate may catch the tabloid headlines, I must smugly if regretfully refer to my last year's report. Alonso was then one of the two most complete drivers in the world – Schuey has now retired and he's now the best. One can only wish Alonso had chosen his 2007 destination differently. The two McLarens were superbly driven, and I particularly enjoyed a couple of laps before their pit stop when Alonso threw caution to the wind and starting sliding the car around. There was no real need, and my own view is that this was for the benefit of Hamilton to show that the “old man” can not only turn on the fireworks when he wants to, but can do it in safety.

Before the race, the experts commented that the race isn't won at the first corner. Don't believe experts. Team orders or not, Hamilton tucked in neatly behind Alonso as his wing man, and there was little Massa could do. There wasn't a moment when Massa looked set to challenge the McLarens, but nor did he ever look likely to lose third, though there were a couple of minor scares. When the super-soft tyres went on, the car seemed to be slower rather than quicker, and there was also a bit of a panic at the second pit stop when the car dropped prematurely. This is what passed for tension in this dull race.

Räikkönen, meanwhile, took Kovalainen, Trulli, Coolthud and Liuzzi on lap one. The last was hit by persons unknown and retired on the first lap. In a replay of Schumacher's race last year Kimi spent lap after lap (40 to be accurate) behind Button who was having his best race this year. Unlike Schumacher though, there wasn't much breath held waiting for the overtaking manoeuvre. Was this lack of flair, an inability to rattle the man in front, or just the professionalism of the grid when they know a move isn't going to work? Despite tyre chunking, Räikkönen ended eighth, thanks to an intelligent one-stop pit strategy at Ferrari and an unfathomable strategy from Honda which dropped Button to eleventh at the flag.

With the race over, there was of course the “McLaren team orders” controversy. I believe one has to be fair to McLaren [You're fired - Ed] and if the team orders were along the lines of “It might be a good idea to finish rather than take each other out” then they weren't doing much more than stating what should be obvious. The fun part of the FIA “investigation” mini-saga was when Bernie's impish sense of humour came to the fore and he announced that if there were team orders, then McLaren should have points deducted rather than (or as well as) a fine. Unalloyed joy from the tabloids, until they realised that “our Lew”, would lose rather than gain from the proposal. Exit confused tabloid reader, or indeed editor.

Finally, an explanation of why I got that last minute call. Ron Dennis was ranting against the Red Bulletin, a paddock scandal sheet. Leaving aside the irony of Red Bull making fun of anybody, Ron went on to say “Ferrari could spend a lot of time and energy writing humorous things about other teams.” My belief is that Winston saw that report, and declined writing the report so that he could concentrate on sending his CV and application to Maranello.....

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The author thinks that Hamilton is being over-hyped

He binned the McLaren in practice

It was another rookie - Sutil who was quickest in the wet P3

Michael does a bit of leaning on the fence at "his" corner

Kimi parks it there after clipping a front corner

Lap 1 and the race is over

The only excitement was Alonso asserting his authority over his team mate

Wurz finished seventh a place ahead of Kimi

Fisichella was fourth for Renault

Massa was a lonely third, but the last un lapped...

...by the dominant McLarens. Alonso taking the win the the consternation of the British Meeja

Click for FIA lap chart

Meanwhile...

Bernie's girls were amongst the Glitterati present

Red BS floats!

pics by Ferrari Media, FIA, Reuters, XPB, LAT & Sutton