2008 Grand Prix of Monaco

Lewis Hamilton recovered from an early brush with the barriers to take a remarkable victory in a rain-affected Monaco Grand Prix and move into the world championship lead.

BMW’s Robert Kubica beat pole-sitter Felipe Massa to second, despite the Ferrari driver dominating much of the race.

There was heartbreak for the hero of the race, though, as Adrian Sutil came within a few laps of taking an incredible fourth place for Force India, only to be taken out by world champion Kimi Raikkonen. Their collision allowed Mark Webber (Red Bull) and Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) to complete the top five.

Rain just before the start meant that the whole field started on intermediate tyres – although Ferrari left it too late to fit Raikkonen’s Bridgestones, subsequently earning the Finn a drive-through penalty because his mechanics had been on the grid too late…. (continue reading report here)

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  2h00:42.272
 2.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     3.069
 3.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +     4.811
 4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    19.264
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    24.657
 6.  Barrichello   Honda                 (B)  +    28.408
 7.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    30.180
 8.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    33.191
 9.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    33.793
10.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Button        Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    4 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:16.689

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)    67
Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)    58
Piquet        Renault               (B)    46
Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)    37
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)    13
Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    13

Where to begin! It’ll take some time to really review what happened in Monaco today. And to our disappointment after such an exciting race, which is what we hoped for, it wasn’t good at all for Kimi.

First things first – huge credit to McLaren and Hamilton who managed to pull off a great strategy for this wet and unpredictable chaos in Monaco and as unbearable as ITV, and James Allen in particular, made it to watch, their British wonder did do a great job. They played it safe in qualifying and were quick to benefit from pitting early and heavily, thus giving them the edge on Ferrari and Massa. Strange as it is, when Lewis made an error hitting the barrier it actually was an advantage, but for Kimi a little slip up by the team even before the race started meant nothing would follow too well.

Kimi’s accident wasn’t his fault though, no matter what Mike Gascoyne would like to think. He called Kimi ‘stupid’ after the race speaking to ITV and has complained to the race stewards for his actions. Well I doubt Kimi will be punished for it as it was unintended on a half wet track.

Update 18.05pm – The race stewards have just announced no action will be taken against Kimi on the incident.

Also, a stupid driver can not have such great car control like Kimi showed – turning aggressively left, right, left right and a final left to avoid a huge crash. Even David Coulthard, a very experienced old timer who crashed in the same place yesterday couldn’t control his car like Kimi did. That would actually be the highlight of the day from Kimi in my opinion, I was gobsmacked after the way he controlled that car. The world champion did everything he could to avoid crashing into Sutil, but unfortunatly as racing goes, shit happens and poor Sutil had to be the one infront. Kimi wasn’t even attempting to overtake Sutil at the swimming pool chicane, and the wet track made it a sad end.

For that accident, I won’t let anyone blame Kimi for it. He lost control under braking and almost corrected it but it was too late. It was not an attempt to pass Sutil and that’s the main point. I do hope that Kimi apologises for Sutil having to taste the harsh reality of motor sport, but like everyone else, he’ll hopefully move on and have better races.

What we have to accept though is Kimi’s true pace and strategy today wasn’t right, despite never being given the chance to see his actual strategy unfold. Ferrari messed up their tyre decision before the race started and were too late within in the 3 minute limit, and so deserved penatly. But as a team, Kimi had to suffer as well wasting a trip to the pits, and we never got to see when he would have really pitted. Then there was his start off the grid having too much wheel spin. Nearly everyone apart from Kubica had a little moment of their own and Kimi clipped his front wing in Sainte Devote and needed to pit for that too. It was an awful day from him, but hey, he somehow managed to get the fastest lap which was two full seconds faster than Hamilton’s fastest lap. This Iceman certainly is a wonder, and that’s probably why some of us love him so much. You can read Kimi’s comments on the race and accident further below in an interview.

Now, looking at the situation, Kimi scored no points today. This is infact worse on his performance last year, where he actually scored one point after qualifying 16th. Like last year though, Kimi looked fast but never managed to get everything right and the result shows. He’s only 3 points behind however – what was the situation last year at Monaco? Kimi was over 20 points behind the championship lead, but he still managed to win races later in the year and thus won the world championship. So I wouldn’t despair on his possibilities this year. The only despair I can relate to with the rest of his fans is that he scored no points and never had the chance to show his potential.

Infact, the potential of Ferrari was shown in qualifying yesterday and it was clear to me that McLaren were best prepared for today’s race as they fuelled in heavier for the race – they knew rain would cause problems and so if they pit, they won’t lose much as it won’t take long to fill their tank with Lewis to the top, being half more than half full already. The mere fact that Ferrari locked out the front row in qualifying shows they went aggressive as it was their only hope of winning the race. Their strategics in the race failed and McLaren performed better. Between Massa and Kimi though, the Brazilian done the better job – on a wet Monaco without traction control, who would have knew?! Felipe was always a quick driver throughout his career, but I always considered him to be a bit rough, needing to be smoothed around the edges. He’s made some silly mistakes in the past but like most drivers, he learns from then and thus his results improve. It’s a great feeling for him to come out of this race on the podium. He can certainly win it in the future!

A driver is his own harshest critic and for sure Kimi will be facing the music tonight. He’s had really bad races before, and like former world champion Fernando Alonso today, he failed. Failing is a part of racing and it will always be a part of a race driver. Kimi is a fighter, never ever forget that. And for good measure, because IT’S NOT OVER YET, I’ll still say Keep Flying Kimi!

 | Race Quotes – Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen – 9th: "A very poor race for me, right from the off. There was a problem with a wheel before the start and we broke the rules, which meant I was given a drive-through penalty. During the race, my main problem was trying to get the tyres to work as well as possible. Then we decided to change the strategy as we expected it to rain again, but it didn’t happen. Twice I had to change the nose after breaking the front wing.

"So, as you can see, a long run of things going wrong which explains the 0 points. I am sorry for Sutil, who I hit with just a few laps to go. I lost control of the car under braking coming out of the tunnel and I could do nothing to avoid him.

"It’s a shame how things went today, as we had the potential to do well. It’s true that I’ve lost the championship lead, but I always said the championship would be a very long one. Now we must prepare as well as possible for Canada where we will try to make up for this disappointment."

Post-Race Q&A with Kimi

Q. Has it been a bad grand prix for you from the start?

Kimi Raikkonen: Yes. It was not one of the best races, but that is racing – sometimes it goes right and sometimes it goes wrong. I made some mistakes and the team made some mistakes, and we paid the price. But we will go to the next race and hope to do better.

Q. What about the incident with Adrian Sutil?

KR: Basically I just think my brakes were a bit too cold and I locked the rear. I nearly lost the car but unfortunately I hit him – and it is sad for them because they are not very often in the position to finish in the points. So, I feel a bit sorry for him – but I could not do anything. I tried to slow down but there was nowhere to go and nowhere to slow down – and I lost fifth place.

Q. It was a bad race for Ferrari, in terms of finishing positions and the fact that Lewis Hamilton is now leading the championship once again…

KR: Yeah, I mean it has not been a perfect weekend for us, and we are not leading the championship any more. But we have been in much worse situations before and it is not the end of the world. There are so many races to go, and so many things can happen still. I think we have good speed in the car as long as we get everything right – and today everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It is a shame, but that is racing.

Q. Did you misjudge your braking distance with Adrian?

KR: I don’t think so. It was just a racing incident. I just locked the rear brakes on the bump and you cannot really slow the car after that. There was nowhere to go, and not enough space to try and avoid him.

Q. There was also the incident at the beginning of the race with your tyres. What happened there? Was it a late call?

KR: It wasn’t a late call. We started to put the tyres on earlier than the others, but unfortunately they had some problems with the wheel nut on one of the rear wheels and they could not get the wheel nut on. By the time they got the new one on it was under three minutes, so from that moment on it started to go wrong. And after that, everything went wrong. It was a shame that we lost four points, because it can make a big difference, but these things happen.

Q. Why was your race pace so far off today?

KR: I just couldn’t get the tyres working. After the safety cars, unfortunately we had the drive through and that made it difficult again. It just wasn’t a very easy day.

Q. Do you feel sorry for Adrian about what happened?

KR: It is the same in my career. I would also like to have had the four points but as I said, he is not often going to be in that position to score a fourth place and for sure it was more painful for him than it was for me, and I am sorry for it. But for sure if I could have, I would have preferred not to hit him.

Q. Was this one of the worst races of your life?

KR: Well, I don’t think it is the worst race. I did good races and others where I didn’t finish one lap. So today, many things happened and it went wrong already in the first part – but unfortunate things happen. I made a mistake and we made a mistake together.

It is not what we wanted, but it is not the end of my life. I am not going to start crying and shouting. This is an early part of the season and so far the season has been pretty good, and at some point you are going to have bad times. But at least we had a little bit of gap to the others so it didn’t hurt too much really – I am only a few points behind Lewis. It is the early season still and last year we were much further away.

Q. If you could say something to Adrian Sutil, what would you say?

KR: I said it already – I said I am sorry for him and his team because probably they are not going to be often in the position to score a fourth position. Plus it was in Monaco. So it was harder for him than for me, but it was a racing incident and I could not go anywhere. There wasn’t much space and I could not slow down.

Q. Have you spoken to Adrian?

KR: No, I haven’t seen him but when I see him I will say sorry. So probably a bit hard for him, but it is racing and you learn from it.

Q. Without traction control, how was it out there?

KR: It was difficult in wet conditions, but for me at least it was difficult to get the tyres working in the beginning. But you need to be careful, and unfortunately I made some mistakes.

 | Race Videos – Race Start Lap, Kimi Crashes into Sutil, Race Press Conference

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 | Saturday Qualifying – Surprise Massa Leads Ferrari 1-2, McLaren Take Second Row

Felipe Massa will start tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix from pole position after snatching the top spot from Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen by less than three hundredths of a second.

Ferrari locked out the front row, despite McLaren having looked quicker throughout the weekend so far. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen had to settle for sharing the second row of the grid.

Hamilton and Kovalainen began qualifying by trading quickest times in Q1, but Massa pulled a 1:15.1 out of the bag in the dying seconds. The Brazilian repeated the time with his first effort in Q2 and it remained unbeaten as he went on to top all three parts of qualifying.

Raikkonen seemed to have secured pole position when his last effort proved just out of reach of Hamilton, but Massa, last on track again, stole the top spot by the smallest of margins with the final lap of the session.

The McLarens were quickest in the first sector, but lost out ultimately because they weren’t able to match the pace of the Ferraris in the longer second sector of the lap.

Pos Driver        Team                     Q1        Q2        Q3
 1. Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:15.190  1:15.110  1:15.787
 2. Raikkonen     Ferrari             (B)  1:15.717  1:15.404  1:15.815
 3. Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.582  1:15.322  1:15.839
 4. Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.295  1:15.389  1:16.165
 5. Kubica        BMW Sauber          (B)  1:15.977  1:15.483  1:16.171
 6. Rosberg       Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:15.935  1:15.287  1:16.548
 7. Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:16.646  1:15.827  1:16.852
 8. Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.306  1:15.598  1:17.203
 9. Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.074  1:15.745  1:17.343
10. Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:16.086  1:15.839  No time
11. Glock         Toyota              (B)  1:16.285  1:15.907
12. Button        Honda               (B)  1:16.259  1:16.101
13. Heidfeld      BMW Sauber          (B)  1:16.650  1:16.455
14. Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:16.756  1:16.479
15. Barrichello   Honda               (B)  1:16.208  1:16.537
16. Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.806
17. Piquet        Renault             (B)  1:16.933
18. Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:16.955
19. Sutil         Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.225
20. Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:17.823

That was a brilliant qualifying session! Ironic that it was poor David Coulthard to have an accident in Monaco, he’s been quite critical about safety there especially in the wet. Looks like his nightmare will continue tomorrow as rain is predicted…

Kimi has definately improved his qualifying performance but it looked like he would take pole. My face completely dropped when Massa came in and took over the show, but that’s great news for Ferrari and Kimi anyway. Hamilton is not on the front row and that was Ferrari’s mission. We’re in for an exciting race tomorrow, and I think Kimi has a good shot to take the win. His qualifying time was impressive considering he had just fuelled for race fuel and since Felipe was indeed the quicker driver in Q2, Kimi probably opted for a heavier fuel strategy as usual. BMW’s Kubica did a solid job with his car, which isn’t as competitive as BMW hoped coming to Monaco, but Nico Rosberg has done the best job of them all managing to qualify just behind on the third row. It’s looking good, so don’t miss the race. Keep Flying Kimi ~

 | Saturday Quotes – Ferrari, Kimi ‘happy’ with car

Felipe Massa: "Incredible! I have got pole on a track where I have always struggled. Now I am beginning to like it a bit more… I managed to do a perfect lap with a great car: this result shows that, if you work hard and with attention to detail, you can do it everywhere. After finishing the lap, nobody said anything to me on the radio and then, unexpectedly, Rob (Smedley, Felipe’s race engineer) screamed, "incredible, you’re on pole!" and I was laughing all the way around my in lap as I just couldn’t stop. Now we have to maintain our concentration for the race tomorrow, which will be a very difficult one. It could rain which would complicate things even more. Starting at the front means I have the best possible conditions, but we will have to do everything perfectly. We worked a lot on the set-up to improve on the situation compared to past years and I think this decision has paid off."

Kimi Raikkonen: "Obviously, I would have preferred to be on pole and there’s no point denying it, but two Ferraris ahead of the rest is a great result for the team. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so the race could be a lottery and it might mean more overtaking opportunities, because in the dry the race risks turning into a boring procession. Overall, I am happy with the car: we just struggled a bit to get the best out of the tyres on the first timed lap, so that I was finding things a bit difficult through the first few corners on my second run in Q3. We had some doubts about our true potential on this track before the weekend, but this result confirms we have worked well and we have made a step forward compared to last year."

Stefano Domenicali: "An all-red front row: we could not have asked for more from this qualifying session. In the past few weeks, we have said we would tackle this race with a different approach to usual and, at least up until now, we have reaped the rewards of this work that has involved the whole team," said Team Principal of the Gestione Sportiva, Stefano Domenicali. "While we are well aware of the importance of qualifying at this track, the points only get allocated tomorrow. It will be a very tough race, which will be affected by the weather which is looking very uncertain. We will have to give of our best to build on this afternoon’s result."

Press Conference Quotes

Q. Kimi, congratulations on an all Ferrari front row. Talk us through Q3 from your point of view.

Kimi Raikkonen: It was okay the first run. The second run was also not too bad but I just took it a bit too easy in the first corner and lost some time compared to the first try. Then I managed to do a good lap apart from the first few corners but it was not enough and here it is not a good thing but tomorrow we will probably have really difficult conditions, so it is going to be good fun.

Q. What was the tyre situation like today?

KR: For me really the tyres have been working well. It is just a bit difficult to get the first lap out of them but apart from that they have worked really well.

Q. Ferrari have shown phenomenal pace and reliability over the last four races and you have always been very quick in slow corners. What was the feeling coming in to Monaco this year?

KR: For sure we didn’t really know what to expect as last year was difficult for us here and some other races. But we improved the car where we needed. Before we came here we were not 100 per cent sure how we were going to do. It looks like we made a good step and we are able to challenge for wins, so that is a good thing.

Q. Felipe, how much do you put this down to the preparation you did in Paul Ricard last week?

FM: Zero. No preparation in Ricard. It was raining all day long, so we didn’t do anything there.

Q. Not you necessarily but the team as a whole.

FM: Kimi did a good job in testing. He was pretty happy with the car. I trust him as he is a good driver, so we had a good car as well. The team did a great job on the preparation for Monaco and also finding the right set-up because we were always struggling a lot here.

Q. Kimi, you were very quick early on, in fact your Q3 time is only about a tenth slower than your Q1 time. How do you explain that?

KR: Usually we get the tyres working better when we put fuel in. It’s nothing surprising for us, at least. It seems to help the tyres to get in the right condition when we put fuel in and the car seems to get better, but still, it wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for. Anyhow, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

Q. You’re a former winner here, what chances tomorrow?

KR: I think it’s going to depend a lot on what kind of weather conditions we get tomorrow. If it’s raining, then nobody knows what’s going to happen, but in dry conditions, it’s very tricky to get past, so the race can get very boring. If it’s raining, there’s a much bigger chance to have many changes but I think we have a good car for the race, so we must see what we can do.

Q. To what extent does the weather, tyre choice – because some people did one stop last year, some did two – fuel load, etc, how much does that affect qualifying?

KR: Of course it always depends on how much fuel everyone is running, especially if it rains, probably you can do different things but it’s not much more different here than any other race. Usually at the front, everybody more or less has the same fuel, so I don’t think that we’re going to see any amazing differences.

Q. (Juha Paatalo – Financial Times Germany) Kimi, in Turkey, it was quite a big disadvantage to start on the dirty side of the track. How do you see it here?

KR: I think maybe it’s the same, maybe not. I don’t think it’s such a big difference here, because the cars go a bit everywhere on the main straight, so probably it will be more or less the same.

 | Qualifying Videos – Last Minutes & Pole, Onboard Kimi’s Lap, Coulthard’s Crash, Press Conference 

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