Fernando Alonso admitted that the Monaco GP 2007 was the easiest victory of his so far illustrious F1 career. His team mate Lewis Hamilton agreed that the race weekend couldn’t have gone better for the team while Mclaren team boss Ron Dennis disclosed that he had asked his drivers to slow down on only lap 10. Quite frankly, Mclaren steam rolled everybody into submission on the streets of Monte Carlo.
It was clear from the Thursday practice itself that the Silver Arrows team was the one to beat this weekend. The only challenge would have come from either Ferrari or BMW. But since third placed Felippe Massa took almost a minute to reach the finish line after the Mclaren cars had taken the chequered flag, it was clear that they were a class apart from the rest of the field. Another fact is that only the third placed Ferrari escaped being relegated a lap down displayed the sheer tenacity and ruthlessness of the two Mclaren drivers.
Inspite of the predictions of a wet race, the sun shone brightly over the street circuit and when the lights went off, Alonso was followed in the first corner by Hamilton who closed off the possibility of any start-of-the-race challenge from Massa. The other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonnen, whose race had already been compromised in qualifying due to his incident, jumped four places in the first lap, from 16th to 12th. But then that was about all the headway he could make. He started on the harder compounds with a heavy load and was clearly on a one stop strategy.
There were a few incidents on the first lap as Coulthard clipped Vittantonio Liuzzi’s car, Anthony Davidson clashed with Scott Speed and Takuma Sato drove his car into the Renault of Heiki Kovalainnen. Then came the consecutive run of fast laps from Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard reduced his lap times on a per lap basis. Hamilton too responded to Alonso’s speed and by the time the tenth lap was over, the Mclarens were way beyond the reach of any body else.
Monaco is a track where the qualifying matters a lot as the cars tend to stay in the position in which they qualify, due to lack of overtaking opportunities. Even if one doesn’t have a good car, in Monaco, he can still fend off any challenges from the better cars trying to get in front, probably for the whole of the race. That is what makes this grand prix the lottery it is. And Nick Heidfeld in his BMW & Barrichello in his Honda realized this to their immense pleasure. Heidfeld had made a good start, leapfrogging Nico Rosberg’s Williams and Barrichello too had managed to break in to the points places in the initial parts of the race. But as the race went on, the two began to struggle as well as hold faster cars behind them. Wurz, Button, Rosberg all were suffering behind the two with faster cars, but the biggest loss was that of Raikkonen. The Finn just could not get his Ferrari past any of the slower cars, so narrow are the roads of Monte Carlo.
By the time the pit stops came, the Mclarens were well ahead and were never going to be challenged even once. Even though the battle from outsiders was non existent, the battle from within was very much on. Even though Alonso came out in front after the first round of stops, Hamilton never relaxed for a minute. Actually not even for a second. On lap 20 to 22, when faced with back markers, Alonso had lost 3 seconds to Hamilton in one lap only. The world champion replied with his personal best, scorching the streets with 1.15.721. Such was the dominance of their cars that Hamilton replied with his best, 1.16.085.
One can go on and on as to how the two cars in the front just continued with their domination over the rest, but again, this was again not one of those classic races you get to see in Monaco. It was pretty much the same as in Spain two weeks ago, a sleepy race. But unlike Spain, Alonso took the Chequered Flag with Hamilton making a fifth consecutive podium appearance. The only other point worth mentioning here is that the rookie driver, in the post race conference, admitted he had been asked by the team not to push Alonso further. Team orders, weren’t they banned by the FIA?
Ron Dennis has laid down the gauntlet to Ferrari by claiming that Mclaren have found more speed and it seems so too. More so when, Felippe Massa finished a distant third, a full 1 minute 9 seconds behind. The point is that Mclaren have historically done well at Monaco as this is a high down force circuit. Plus the Ferrari’s design having a longer wheel base seemed to have caught up with them. If Ferrari had hoped to challenge Mclaren here, it was all on Kimi who has an impressive record at Monaco. But that was with the team that ultimately won. With Ferrari his record reads a fouled qualifying and a wasted weekend with just one point. Add Massa’s six, and that’s 7 for Ferrari this Sunday. Not good as their rivals collected 18 opening a 20 point gap in the constructor’s championship.
Alonso set the fastest lap with 1.15.284 and Hamilton was a close behind, 1.15.372. But this was where their cars were indeed very quick. If their claim of having gotten more speed is true, then they will repeat it at the next two races in Indianapolis and Montreal, two low down force circuits. Then we will know for sure. Until then expect Ferrari to bounce back, hard.
Via: Planet-F1
