Monaco F1 GP 2011

Alfasto was the greatest today...he made Ferrari shine again. If it was not for the SC, the results would most probably been better for him. What a fighter, what a show, what a race to remember. Congratulations to Vettel & Button for the great show

hmltn-1 wrote:

<quoted text>
No..No..No Gaz that was a terrible idea for Lewis not to contest the idea from his engineers of a one stop stint during Q3 especially, at a place like Monaco.
Lewis had a very realistic chance for pole position, and even Alonso agreed when he said, " Today, Mclaren were very quick and I think Hamilton was probably favorite to get pole ".

Lawrence,bad day or weekend at the office for Hamilton, he shouldn't have put a joke line like that in, he could have put himself in serious trouble with the FIA. He should be blaming the team and not the stewards but I do understand him being angry with his race and robbed of a win and when thinks go wrong at Monaco it is normally big time.

what a race!! i hope petrov is okay. man o man what a drive for Vettel!! Alonso i think almost had him.. but hamilton. other than nearly taking out MS which was a nice pass but he caused alot of accidents i think.

what a race weekend though!! man o man!

..anyways Lewis should consider himself lucky ..after all the mess he caused and the penalties given he kept P6 ..good damage limitation ...

In this case I agree with Brundle:

BBC Sport's F1 commentator Martin Brundle said Hamilton might have to adjust his thinking to stop frustration getting the better of him.

"The problem with Lewis is that it's always someone's fault," Brundle said. "You wonder if he needs a bit of a mindset change on that.

"To make the overtakes as he does you've got to be pretty adventurous. Lewis had to take some risks today, and he's been so unlucky all weekend. There was some frustration in his driving - but it can't always be the other guy's fault."

Gazzuk wrote:

<quoted text>Lawrence,bad day or weekend at the office for Hamilton, he shouldn't have put a joke line like that in, he could have put himself in serious trouble with the FIA. He should be blaming the team and not the stewards but I do understand him being angry with his race and robbed of a win and when thinks go wrong at Monaco it is normally big time.

Terrible Gaz.....terrible day at the office today for Lewis, and one I know that he would like to forget. I can understand why he should have received a penalty for Maldanado, because he put him out of the race, but not Massa. Last year at Monaco, when Yarno Trull nearly took off the head of Karun Chandhok in an ill advised passing attempt, I may be wrong, but Trulli I believe may never had received a penalty. All in all, it still was a very exciting race.

4Mil wrote:

what a race!! i hope petrov is okay. man o man what a drive for Vettel!! Alonso i think almost had him.. but hamilton. other than nearly taking out MS which was a nice pass but he caused alot of accidents i think.
what a race weekend though!! man o man!

Congratulations 4Mil, your boy put together today an excellent performance, and also may have dodged a bullet when the race was red flagged. Alonso, not Button even though he was in the faster car at the time, but Alonso stood a chance of getting the win.

hey sportsfans sorry i've been away, I know Luis was getting very nervous because he had not heard from me for a few days ... ha ha it's ok Luis I'm fine and I'm back ... hey what a race, it had it all, boy we even saw a little of crash flash coming back ... ha ha Lawrence, what the hell was lewis doing. Vettel showed the world today that he is a great driver and a fantastic champion, he took that race by the scruff of the neck and while it might be argued the ferrari and the macca were right on his ass in the final few laps, I never saw any indication they would get past the german ... fortune favours the brave, what RBR and vettel did to day was very brave, and it worked.

Now Alonso was fantastic, but before the worshitters start thinking it's all wine and roses from here on out (umm Sam), keep in mind it's Monaco, not exactly the type of track where the drivers can stretch their machines, and Ferrari has superb low down grunt, it's when they hit the fast tracks that they are left wanting badly.

Ok so I had a good laugh when Schumie parked the Merc coming out of Rascasse right in front of Alonso, come on Schumie haters, don't you guys think that was done on purpose, the last time it happened there was total condemnation for the bloke ... ha ha ha what is it with the corner and the great man ... glad all the crash victims are ok, Perez was scary, Rosberg dodged that bullet by about 2 ft the day before thank goodness, petrov seems ok, the silly ruskie cost me huge points in my fantasy league ... dufus ...

Well .. well .. well .. I have to confess I read a post from the South African ...

Montoya4ever wrote:

Well .. well .. well .. I have to confess I read a post from the South African ...

Luis, carefull, it works two ways, so remember please.

hmltn-1 wrote:

<quoted text>
Terrible Gaz.....terrible day at the office today for Lewis, and one I know that he would like to forget. I can understand why he should have received a penalty for Maldanado, because he put him out of the race, but not Massa. Last year at Monaco, when Yarno Trull nearly took off the head of Karun Chandhok in an ill advised passing attempt, I may be wrong, but Trulli I believe may never had received a penalty. All in all, it still was a very exciting race.

Lawrence, I think all the drivers this year said, play hard to the stewards in the driver's meeting at the beginning of the year. I think Hamilton had forgot and lost his cool a little today. I hope the stewards prove the point and they play hard to every driver that makes simular errors but I agree, Maldanado was 50/50 in my book, but as a driver it must feel like it is only you at the time seeing the stewards when the weekend goes wrong.

redneck Bob from Atlanta wrote:

hey sportsfans sorry i've been away, I know Luis was getting very nervous because he had not heard from me for a few days ... ha ha it's ok Luis I'm fine and I'm back ... hey what a race, it had it all, boy we even saw a little of crash flash coming back ... ha ha Lawrence, what the hell was lewis doing. Vettel showed the world today that he is a great driver and a fantastic champion, he took that race by the scruff of the neck and while it might be argued the ferrari and the macca were right on his ass in the final few laps, I never saw any indication they would get past the german ... fortune favours the brave, what RBR and vettel did to day was very brave, and it worked.
Now Alonso was fantastic, but before the worshitters start thinking it's all wine and roses from here on out (umm Sam), keep in mind it's Monaco, not exactly the type of track where the drivers can stretch their machines, and Ferrari has superb low down grunt, it's when they hit the fast tracks that they are left wanting badly.
Ok so I had a good laugh when Schumie parked the Merc coming out of Rascasse right in front of Alonso, come on Schumie haters, don't you guys think that was done on purpose, the last time it happened there was total condemnation for the bloke ... ha ha ha what is it with the corner and the great man ... glad all the crash victims are ok, Perez was scary, Rosberg dodged that bullet by about 2 ft the day before thank goodness, petrov seems ok, the silly ruskie cost me huge points in my fantasy league ... dufus ...

Bob,very funny, I don't think Shumie wanted the car to stop or to get hit in the rear end lol, and he was running in 6th or 5th at the time, so it was looking good for him. Not sure he would have liked Barrichello passing him but maybe he was all ready in trouble with the car. I can't believe Robert Kubica could return before the end of the season, that would be something else.

As if the Monaco Grand Prix had not already been dramatic enough, Lewis Hamilton's controversial comments afterwards will ensure it makes even bigger headlines across the world.

The McLaren driver quoted Ali G, the original spoof character dreamt up by Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen, as he railed against the decision by race stewards to call him to explain his part in two separate incidents during Sunday's event.

Hamilton pointed out to BBC F1 pit-lane reporter Lee McKenzie that it was the fifth time in six races this year he had been called to account for his actions, and she asked him why he thought that was.

"Maybe it's because I'm black," he said, laughing. "That's what Ali G said. I dunno."

"People want to see overtaking and racing and you get done for trying to put on a show and make a move," he continued. "Fair play. If I really feel I've gone too late and hit someone, I'll put my hand up and say I've caused the incident and been the stupid one."

Hamilton described his being called to account for incidents for which he felt was blameless as "a joke", and described the rivals in question - Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Williams novice Pastor Maldonado - as "stupid".

What was he going to do about the situation? "I'll just try and keep my mouth shut," he said.

It is too late for that, though, even though McLaren went into damage-limitation mode after the race.

"Immediately after the race he was very down," team principal Martin Whitmarsh said, "and during a post-race TV interview he made a poor joke about his penalties that referenced Ali G. However, I'm pleased to say that he chose to return to the track a little while later to speak to the stewards about the joke. They accepted his explanation."

Hamilton's remarks came at the end of a weekend when nothing seemed to go right for him.

Gazzuk wrote:

<quoted text>Bob,very funny, I don't think Shumie wanted the car to stop or to get hit in the rear end lol, and he was running in 6th or 5th at the time, so it was looking good for him. Not sure he would have liked Barrichello passing him but maybe he was all ready in trouble with the car. I can't believe Robert Kubica could return before the end of the season, that would be something else.

ha ha Gazza glad you got the humour .... if Kubica does return it will be a miracle. I hear Schumie had a suspension malfunction. hey when the big accident went down with Petrov, I was amazed at how close the 3 leaders came to getting all tangled up in it, Vettel missed those blokes by a ball hair, and Alonso and Button were right behind, thank goodness they were all cool during the chaos, it would have been a crime if any of them had been taken out in the mess ... what's your take on the drive through penalties for "causing an accident" surely those types of passes, especially at Monaco, are freaking racing incidents, shite happens surely, but now if you try pass and bump the bloke because he doesn't leave half the door open, you get screwed .. it's dumb in my opinion ..

redneck Bob from Atlanta wrote:

<quoted text>
ha ha Gazza glad you got the humour .... if Kubica does return it will be a miracle. I hear Schumie had a suspension malfunction. hey when the big accident went down with Petrov, I was amazed at how close the 3 leaders came to getting all tangled up in it, Vettel missed those blokes by a ball hair, and Alonso and Button were right behind, thank goodness they were all cool during the chaos, it would have been a crime if any of them had been taken out in the mess ... what's your take on the drive through penalties for "causing an accident" surely those types of passes, especially at Monaco, are freaking racing incidents, shite happens surely, but now if you try pass and bump the bloke because he doesn't leave half the door open, you get screwed .. it's dumb in my opinion ..

Bob, on the Massa incident, I don't know, Hamilton wasn't ever going to get passed there but if you look at it in slow motion, Massa was at a funny angle and left the door wide open and then did make sure Hamilton wasn't going to overtake him, but as we all know it is nearly impossible to overtake at that circuit, but Hamilton was always going to try and Massa is having his own fight with this years car, hard to call. I can only agree with you but I think Hamilton was trying a bit too hard to make up places because of the teams earlier mistakes and paid the price.

In Monaco's rodeo

F1, 29.5.2011, heikki.kulta

What do you remember best from this race? The answers come from the international press room and the paddock.

I open the game with my own opinion. I remember best how Vettel got his career's toughest victory with two drivers right behind him who both had better tyres. Lets see how much more this strenghtens the young German.

Michael Schmidt, Germany:
– Don't ask about one thing. This was the best ever Monte Carlo. It was a real rodeo where something happened all the time - during the whole weekend. If I would highlight one detail it would have to be one of these several accidents. I mean they weren't any small crashes, they tore up everything.

Achim Schlang, Germany:
– This was like in Donald Duck back in the times where the racing cars got lost during rush hour on the city streets. I guess it's the three top cars coming into Loew-corner in the rush hour behind the lapped cars that this race will be remembered by.

Giorgio Piola, Italy:
– Hamilton's Casino. He was raging like a lion. It wasn't enough that he pushed Massa out of his way, he did it a second time to Maldonado. Maldonado's misfortune again is another detail which will be well remembered from this race.

Peter Nygaard, Denmark:
– Definitely Hamilton overtaking Schumacher in the first corner. It was the last proof that nobody respects the old champion anymore. Also it showed that you can really overtake in Monaco with these new rules.

Masahiro Owari, Japan:
– Two ambulances in two days and then Kamui Kobayashi's great counterstrike in the race are the things that I remember best from this weekend.

Jonathan Noble, UK:
– The equal victory battle between three drivers where we could have seen a real Grande Finale. It was good as it was this way but the great climax in the end would surely have been the most memorable thing from this race.

Mark Hughes, UK:
– Button's misfortune is the thing that of course comes to the top of my mind. He would have won without the SC. Vettel already seemed to be in difficulties and Alonso couldn't have matched Button. Of course a lot of things happened there. I'm sure everybody has something they remember about this race.

Luis Vasconcelos, Portugal:
– This race will in my mind register as the first race where Vettel led his team. He decided what to do and the team acted accordingly.

Livio Oricchio, Brazil:
– In a year like this when tyres don't last anywhere, I will certainly remember this Monaco as the race where the winner drove 60 laps with the same set of tyres and won with a one-stop-strategy.

Aki Hintsa, Finland:
– I will remember this weekend as the most stressful weekend since I didn't have much time to follow the race. The food poisonings gave me most work in addition to my routine jobs.

Marco Evangelisti, Italy:
– There were a lot of tensions and great racing in this race, yet what I remember best is Hamilton's behaviour. Apparently the man doesn't learn patience at all and this race is especially about patience.