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A week is a long time in Formula 1 and to
prove it, just seven days on from a very
disappointing Spanish Grand Prix, yesterday,
Fernando Alonso secured his and the team’s
best finish of the season, standing in
second place on the unusual trackside podium
in Monaco. As for Felipe Massa, he too
appeared to be heading for a good finish,
but after Hamilton drove into him, maiming
the 150º Italia, he crashed out in the
tunnel and his race was over. |
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A week is a long time in
Formula 1 and to prove it, just seven days on from a
very disappointing Spanish Grand Prix, yesterday,
Fernando Alonso secured his and the team’s best finish
of the season, standing in second place on the unusual
trackside podium in Monaco. The podium was not the only
unusual thing about this street circuit on a day that
produced yet another brilliant motor race. Sebastian
Vettel took his fifth win of the year for Red Bull
Racing, but he was pushed very hard by Fernando and
third placed Jenson Button in the McLaren. The top three
all adopted different strategies, changing tyres once,
twice and three times respectively and at the chequered
flag, just 2.3 seconds covered them. As for Felipe
Massa, he too appeared to be heading for a good finish,
but after Hamilton drove into him, maiming the 150º
Italia, he crashed out in the tunnel and his race was
over.
When the lights went out, Fernando nearly repeated his
Spanish start, this time managing to move up just one
place to third, by getting ahead of Webber. Felipe got
caught out by Rosberg and this would cause him problems,
stuck behind the slower Mercedes for too long to stay in
touch with the leaders. In fact, it was Felipe’s
misfortune which changed the character of the race:
Having pitted on la 26, he dropped to 11th and found
Hamilton on his tail and a few laps later, the
Brazilian’s 150º Italia was damaged when the Englishman
tried a totally impossible move as he attempted to pass
the Ferrari man at the hairpin. With a damaged car,
Felipe was powerless and the McLaren man forced him wide
in the tunnel, onto the dirt and into the barrier. The
Safety Car came out and the field bunched up with Button
and Fernando chasing Vettel. On lap 48, Button pitted
for a third time, which left Fernando 6.2 seconds behind
Alonso. From then on the gap diminished until it reached
0.2 seconds on lap 61 of the 78 lap race. In other
words, the Ferrari was all over the Red Bull, but
Fernando was also having to watch his mirrors for
Button.
Fernando was closing and attacking whenever he could,
principally down the pit straight, but then, with just a
few laps remaining a multiple shunt brought out the
Safety Car again. There were concerns for Petrov who was
still in his car and apparently in pain, therefore
wisely, the race was actually red flagged. The cars
formed up on the grid for what would effectively be a
six lap sprint to the flag, but the conditions of the
restart would not suit Fernando, as teams were free to
work on their cars. This meant that Vettel, who had done
a very long stint on the Prime tyre, which was fitted by
mistake by his team at his only stop, was able to defend
his lead on nice fresh tyres. Fernando’s chances
effectively ended there, but nevertheless, a second
place at Monaco is a wonderful result.
Behind the podium trio, Webber was fourth, ahead of
Kobayashi, the Japanese Sauber driver thus taking his
best ever F1 result. Hamilton was sixth, even though he
was given a 20 second penalty for causing the accident
with Felipe, but this did not change his position, as
seventh placed Sutil was a lap down. Behind the Force
India driver came Heidfeld eighth for Renault, with
Barrichello and Buemi taking the final points.
Canada beckons in two weeks time and from the technical
side, there will be some updates on the car which it is
hoped will produce a further improvement in car
performance and there is no denying that being able to
use the Pirelli soft and supersoft tyres is a plus
point.
Stefano Domenicali:
“Going into this weekend, if we’d been told that we
would finish second, eleven tenths off the winner, I
would have signed up for it on the spot, but now there’s
no denying there is a slight feeling of regret. Fernando
was fantastic all weekend long and today he fought for
the win, right down to the final metre. The race had a
deserving winner, but there’s no doubt the red flag
towards the end deprived our driver of the opportunity
to attack in the final laps, making the most of having
tyres with slightly less degradation. At the restart,
with everyone on new tyres, there was not much more we
could do. There’s much regret for Felipe too, who was
also capable of getting a good finish: the collision
with Hamilton pretty much put him out of the running and
then he immediately ended up in the barriers. It is only
a week on from when we were lapped at the Catalunya
Circuit and we have seen how quickly things can change,
depending on the track characteristics and the type of
tyre we are using. Clearly, the situation in both
championships is getting ever more difficult, but we are
not giving up: we are coming up to two races where, on
paper, we should be competitive and then, before the
summer break, we will see where we stand.”
Fernando Alonso: “This is my best
result of the year and I think it is very important,
especially for the team. A podium was needed, we needed
to be fighting to the end for the win. Sure, this is not
a typical circuit and we should not draw conclusions
from a race that always produces its own story. We must
close down the distance that separates us from the best:
in Canada, we will have some updates on the car and we
hope they will prove useful. I got a good start: if
there had been a bit more room, maybe I could have done
the same as in Spain. Then I tried to look after the
tyres, before attacking Vettel at the very end, but then
came the red flag and that meant it was over, because on
new tyres, he was impossible to beat. Unfortunately,
these sort of things can always happen here and they are
part of the character of this Grand Prix. We must be
pleased with this result and look to Montreal and
Valencia, two races where we went well last year, with
confidence. The gap in the championship is very big, but
there is still a long way to go.”
Felipe Massa: “I am very disappointed
with the way my race ended. After Hamilton had tried to
pass me at Loews, which is an impossible place to do it,
hitting me and pushing me into Webber, the car was no
longer right and I could not drive it properly, which is
why he got on the inside of me inside the tunnel. That
put me on the dirt and then I ended up in the barrier.
At the start, I got away well, but at the first corner I
found Webber and Fernando in front of me: I was on the
outside and Rosberg managed to get inside me. That meant
I missed out on the train that would have kept me up
with the leaders, as I spent too much time behind the
German’s Mercedes. We were competitive and, given how
things went, I could have finished fourth. Now, we head
for Canada, where we hope to have a car capable of
fighting, as was the case here. The fact we will have
the same two types of tyre, the soft and supersoft, is
definitely positive for us.”
Pat Fry: “It was an incredibly close
race from the first to the last lap. After we managed to
sort out Fernando’s car, which had not been as quick in
yesterday’s qualifying as it had been in free practice,
today we showed a good race pace on both types of tyre.
I think we took the right decisions at the right time at
every point in the race, making the most of our
opportunities. When the race was neutralised after
Felipe’s accident, we chose to change tyres on
Fernando’s car, so as to put him in the right condition
to attack in the final stages. Unfortunately, there was
a red flag which meant the Spaniard could not try all
the way to the end, but that’s Monaco for you and you
have to accept that anything can happen. As for Felipe,
we have to work out why his DRS was not enabled by the
FIA electronic control in the first part of the race,
because maybe, if everything had worked properly, he
would have managed to get past Rosberg sooner and not
lose so much ground to the leaders. A shame, because I
think he also had the potential to run a good race all
the way to the end. Now we go to Canada, wanting to
continue to improve our performance. There will be some
new parts on the car: we must continue to push on the
development front in order to reduce the gap which still
separates us from the best.”
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