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McLarens rule in Monaco
Fernando Alonso won the F1 Monaco Grand Prix after starting from pole and leading all way to the finish with Lewis Hamilton coming a close second in what is slowly becoming a familiar position for him this season.
This was the fifth race of the season and so far the podium has comprised McLaren and Ferrari drivers only and the only driver to feature on all podiums so far is Hamilton.
I think Hamilton was disappointed that he did not get pole on Saturday because he knows that had he got it he would have won the race. I think he is no longer satisfied with breaking records ( this time first rookie driver to finish on podium in first five races) and finishing on the podium but would like to win a race and that is what counts more. Felipe Massa finished a distant third and his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen scrapped into the points points grabbing eight position having started the race in 16th position.
It was good to see Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella finish fourth and I wonder if this marks a change of fortune for the team. However it was good not all that rosy for Fisichella's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen who finished thirteenth.
BMW sauber continue to be consistent but I think they still lack the cutting edge to challenge the top two teams. I still think that the day when we see a driver outside McLaren and Ferrari on the podium it will be one from BMW Sauber.
Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished fifth and sixth respectively with Williams' Alexander Wurz finishing seventh. Last time it was Nico Rosberg who finished in the points for Williams and this is a positive result for they have managed to score points in two successive races.
Mark Webber did not finish the race once again and it doesn't look good for him so far this season. I thought Webber had a chance this time of scoring points after qualifying sixth but car problems continue to trouble him and it is increasingly looking like last season already. This time it was a gearbox problem.
The next two races will be in North America starting with the race in Montreal, Canada.
I am happy to see that Hamilton now realises that he can also win races in his own right rather than being contend on being on the podium or finishing second to the two time world champion. I agree with you that he was disappointed in not getting pole because with that chances of winning went through the window unless Alonso retired or something.
But I also feel that McLaren should create conditions that are fair to both drivers and not prepare Hamilton's race strategy in such a way that he will finish at least behind Alonso. Each race is now getting interesting and lets see what will happen in Canada.
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Duncan, you may be interested to hear that according to a BBC article the FIA are investigating McLaren's win for a possible breach of the rules because they suspect that Alonso pushed Hamilton to come second.
I also think that McLaren should let their drivers race at least at this early stage of the season and that may give Hamilton his maiden win. Drivers tend to be remembered by how many races they won rather than how many they finished second and I think Hamilton now realise as you say that he is capable of finishing first whereas before maybe he would have been contend on just being on the podium especially in his first year.
No team admits to the existence of 'team orders' although I suspect that they do exist.
I would be following with interest these investigations by the FIA.
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Update: The FIA have cleared McLaren of any wrong doing at the Monaco grand prix. Thats good news for McLaren and its good the investigations finished so quickly.
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How unlucky can someone be? Webber seems to be the unluckiest driver in F1 at the moment. After a 2006 characterised by breakdowns, I thought by moving on to Red Bull he would enjoy better luck but alas nothing seems to have changed in the lucky department for him.
Cheers, Ricky.
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Thanks Ricky for the comment. I also felt that had Webber continued to the finish he could possibly have collected his first points for the season and he seems to be so unlucky. His team-mate David Coultard doesn't seem to have the problems Webber is having at the moment. Looking at it positively, its only the fifth race and there are twelve more to go and so lets hope he will enjoy better luck in dozen races still to come.
I think Hamilton blew his chances when his run to qualifying first was disturbed by Webber....its really difficult to overtake in that old fashioned street racing circuit of Monaco without causing crashes or something like that....
While McLaren may have been cleared, I believe they gave the orders because Hamilton was pushing Alonso to the limit and in all honesty Hamilton looked like he was going to crash out with the way he was moving the car, hitting those kerbs and at one point he looked like he had shaved the wall, McLaren didn't want to lose a car....
In Monaco you can move from 20th to fifth with a faster car, but its difficult to move from say fifth to first, moreso if your cars are doing more or less the same lap times..
Webber should have moved to a better team...Red Bull is the old Jaguar team where he was before, with the only change being a few more capital budget dollars..
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When Webber went to Redbull I actually thought that was a good move on his part and in a way I still think it could still be a good move despite the early problems - maybe better than Williams. But I think that the next two North American races are going to defining because if he cannot finish them both, then that will leave him with just 10 races to salvage the season.
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yeah....you are right Wes,...we all thought it was a good move basically because of the prestige of the Red Bull logo...but as it shows, these guys are still unproven in F1, and F1 is about tradition...it takes years to build the infrastructure, technical team etc...the Red Bull technical team is the old setup and Webber has worked with those guys before...I think Webber didn't want to gamble much given that he had been disappointed by the prospects at Williams...and as it is turning out, Williams are no worse than Red Bull...F1 is about the total package..the dollars, the technical team, the driver, the machine, and the coordination
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