First, in free practice,
Nico Rosberg had a frightening high speed crash when he
lost control of his Mercedes coming out of the tunnel,
avoiding the wall outside the chicane, but hitting the
barrier further down the track. Then Vitantonio Liuzzi
also crashed in the Hispania. And, with only a few
minutes remaining of this afternoon’s Q3 grid decider,
Sergio Perez had a sickening high impact crash at the
chicane. Fortunately, or perhaps more accurately, due to
all the work done in the name of safety by the teams and
the FIA, the Sauber team was able to announce that the
Mexican has concussion and some bruising, but nothing is
broken. The 21 year old, who is on the books as a
student at the Ferrari Driver Academy, will not take
part in today’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Inevitably in these situations, it was difficult for
anyone to lap faster once the track reopened for
business for the final few minutes. This meant the
places remained the same to the flag, which worked out
in favour of Sebastian Vettel, who will remember this as
the day he took his twentieth Formula 1 pole position,
all bar one of them with Red Bull Racing. The German,
who has a comfortable lead in the world championship did
not actually look so dominant yesterday and, as Fernando
Alonso pointed out, the McLarens seemed very fast and
Jenson Button ended the day in second spot, ahead of the
other Red Bull of Mark Webber. In their 150º Italias,
the Scuderia Ferrari drivers had hoped to squeeze in two
runs in Q3, but the red flag had scuppered that
particular strategy: a shame as it looked as though
Fernando and Felipe might record their best ever
individual qualifying performances of the year. Overall
as a team, that’s what they did with the Spaniard on the
second row in fourth place and the Brazilian right
behind him in sixth, on the outside of Michael
Schumacher in the Mercedes, but it might have been even
better.
After an opening quintet of races that suggests a new
order in Formula 1, it seems that in Monaco, this most
traditional of venues might indeed produce a more
traditional race. The arrival of the Soft and Supersoft
tyres has led to less degradation than has seen so far
this year and there is even talk of some drivers
attempting a one-stop strategy today. Combine this with
the fact that, on the slowest track of the year, the DRS
and to a lesser extent, the KERS will be less effective
than at other circuits and we might have an old style
race where a good start and choosing the best moment to
change tyres will see the race decided earlier than
usual. One thing’s for sure, the Monaco GP is bound to
be as unpredictable as ever.
Stefano Domenicali: “First of all, our
thoughts are with Sergio Perez, his family and everyone
at Sauber. We got a real fright when he crashed into the
barriers but, fortunately, we can now breathe a sigh of
relief at the news that his condition is not serious. As
for the actual qualifying, we cannot deny that, given
how things had gone up to the end of Q2, we could have
hoped for a bit more. The red flag in the final part of
Q3 definitely played a role in the strategy we adopted,
putting us in a difficult position as we were unable to
properly exploit the second set of option tyres. That’s
Monaco and one has to accept that things like this can
happen. Tomorrow’s race will very long and full of
traps: we must try and make the most of any opportunity.
The start will play a crucial role, but above all it
will be vital not to make any mistakes. Who makes the
least mistakes will emerge as the winner.”
Fernando Alonso: “In qualifying I did
not have as good a feeling from the car as I got in free
practice and we need to work out exactly why. Today,
McLaren were very quick and I think Hamilton was
probably favourite to get pole. I don’t think the result
of Q3 represents the true order because the red flag
mixed up plans for many of the drivers. For Hamilton it
went badly, while everything was fine for Red Bull, with
us at a halfway point: we should have done two runs of
two timed laps each without refuelling and therefore, we
did not get the most out of the tyres. I reckon that
tomorrow, overtaking will be pretty much impossible,
despite the KERS, DRS and whatever else. The start will
be very important and our race pace is good, so I hope I
can make up some places, also making the most of any
unpredictable situations and of our strategy. I expect
some drivers will try for two stops and maybe others
will risk doing only one. The car is handling better
than a week ago at the Catalunya circuit: the balance is
fine and the supersofts are working well. Perez’s
accident? From inside my car I had no information as to
his condition. Frightening accidents like this do make
for a bit of tension, but then you try and stay focussed
and do your best.”
Felipe Massa: “A mixture of
satisfaction and regret for me after this qualifying.
Along with the team, we managed to improve the handling
of the car compared to free practice, reducing the
oversteer, but a mistake at Rascasse in Q3 cost me one
or two places. A shame, as I was on a good lap. Starting
sixth is not brilliant at Monaco but here you need to
use your head in the race: we will have to concentrate
throughout as anything can happen. The start will be
very important, but so too will be staying calm and
cool-headed, lap after lap, because any mistake can cost
you dear. Tyre degradation is less than we have seen
before, so I don’t think there will be so many pit
stops. I hope Sergio is okay: it was a frightening
accident and the impact was really heavy. That part of
the track is very tricky and accidents are very common
there.”
Pat Fry: “We were hoping for a better
result today because our car had the potential to secure
a front row placing. Vettel’s time was not within our
reach, but we could have been up there at the front. We
opted to do two timed laps on each of the two sets of
options available in Q3, but that meant not refuelling
in the pits: the red flag complicated matters for us and
then, when the session restarted, the conditions did not
lend themselves to improving our times. From what we saw
in Thursday’s free practice, our race pace is not too
bad, so we should be in with a chance. Strategy will be
very important: tyre degradation is not very high,
therefore I don’t think we will see as many pit stops as
we had in the last two races. We will have to do a good
job of managing any unpredictable scenarios, to try and
make up some places.”
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