After two years we finally got to see Formula One cars around the streets of Monaco again and what a joy it was. People will talk about how Monaco is boring because there is very little chance to overtake but watching the cars at full pace around those streets is exhilarating and I don’t care what anyone says it is a real test of skill. How anyone can be bored watching it is beyond me. So although it wasn’t the best of races in terms of action I still thoroughly enjoyed it and championship wise it was great be cause after Max’s win and only a seventh for Lewis there is just four points between them heading to Baku.
We may have seen a closer contest if Charles LeClerc had been able to start from the pole that he had earned the day before but unfortunately for us that was not to be as the Monagasque realized on the lap to the grid that there was a problem and the team duly detected a drive shaft failure on the left hand side. Although it was the opposite side to that which had taken the impact after his Q3 shunt it seems likely that the problem was a result of that shunt. It is quite rare nowadays that driveshafts fail after all.
At the start Verstappen, the defacto pole sitter, shot into the lead after closing the door on the fast starting Bottas and never really looked troubled for the rest of the afternoon. After the stops Sainz, promoted to second after Bottas’s nightmare pit stop, started to close on the leading RedBull briefly but Max was really just managing the gap and had everything under complete control.
The aforementioned pit stop for Valterri Bottas pretty much summed up Mercedes weekend. They never had the pace of RedBull or Ferrari and at all and appeared to be chasing themselves all the time. Bottas was consistently the faster of the two drivers, not something you would expect at Monaco of all places and Lewis quali position of seventh meant he was never going to be in good shape for the race. Seventh and fastest lap at the end of Sunday was not what was expected and Lewis was unsurprisingly not happy.
For Bottas himself he must seem like it never rains but it poors, he has had a horrible start to the year, is always facing questions about his future and ten when a good result beckons he has the incredible misfortune of not beinh able to male out from his pit stop because the team couldn’t remove a crossed threaded wheel nut from the front right. As the team left the circuit the wheel was apparently still attached to the car. You have to feel for the Finn on this one. Mercedes will have some homework to do before the next race, this is a weekend they will not want to repeat.
Two teams that came away very pleased with the weekend were Ferrari and McLaren. Ferrari were strong with both drivers straight out of the box pole position for Charles at his home event was a real suprise. Sainz has found his feet at the team now and is also bamg on the pace and matching his team mate. Second place for him on Sunday was a great result and a just reward for a well driven race.
McLaren and Lando Norris are the others that came away with big smiles after Norris earned his third podium finish and second this year. The Brit said that the team didn’t have high hopes coming into the weekend but the one off Gulf livery proved to the lucky for the British side of the garage at least. Lando is really riding high at the moment his new multi year contract will have given him plenty of confidence.
The same cannot be said though of the other side of the garage as Ricciardo, after showing signs of improvement in Spain, had a horrible time. Qualifying a second off of his team mate and being lapped by him in the race would have felt vert tough and he must now dig deep to turn his season around. We all know he is better than that but for some reason it just isn’t clicking with the McLaren for him.
Praise must go to Sebastian Vettel who finally put a good weekend together and weraned his first points with his new team with a fine firth place finish. After qualifying in the top ten as well it seemed like he may have found his magic again and hopefully this will drive him on to further good weekends. His joy on the radio after the race tells how much of a relief it must have been for him to finally bring home a result.
That about sums up the race really. As mentioned it wasn’t thriller but it was still enjoyable to watch and sets up the title race perfectly. Here’s looking forward to Baku in two weeks time.
My F1 talk 