Monaco Grand Prix – Qualifying 2
(JM penalised after being adjudged to have caused an accident in practice yesterday. Official site says “Montoya’s Saturday time of 1:14.858 deleted as punishment for role in earlier practice accident.”)
Batch 1: RS – no time, just an “installation” lap for his rebuilt Toyota
NK – 2:43.442 = pP1
TM – 2:43.078 = pP1
CA – 2:42.206 = pP1
PF – 2:40.810 = pP1
Batch 2: VL – 2:37.152 = pP1 by over 3s
FM – locking up through the chicane – 2:35.120 = pP1 by 2s
MS – slower than FM in S1! 2:34.736 = pP1
RB – lost time in S2 – 2:34.983 = pP2
JV – (who’s announced he’s going to be on the podium today!) – 2:34.936 = pP2
Batch 3: DC – ahead in S2 – 2:33.867 = pP2, 0.869s ahead of MS
JT – 0.373s up in S1; 1.071 up in S2; 2:32.590 = pP1 by 1.137s
NH – 0.04s up in S1; 0.27 down in S2; 2:32.883 = pP2 though
JM – (see note above re: penalty) – didn’t leave the pits, so no time
GF – 0.338 up in S1; 0.389 up in S2; 2:32.100 =pP1 by 0.490s
Batch 4: MW – 0.323s up in S1; 0.392s up in S2; 2:31.656 = pP1 by 0.444s
FA – 0.868s up in S1; 1.130s up in S2; 2:30.406 = pP1 by 1.250s!
KR – 0.195s up in S1; 0.164s up in S2; 2:30.323 = P1
- K. Raikkonen (McLaren) 2:30.323
- F. Alonso (Renault)
- M.Webber (Williams)
- G. Fisichella (Renault)
- J. Trulli (Toyota)
- N. Heidfeld (Williams)
- D. Coulthard (Red Bull Racing)
- M. Schumacher (Ferrari)
- J. Villeneuve (Sauber)
- R. Barrichello (Ferrari)
- F. Massa (Sauber)
- V. Liuzzi (Red Bull Racing)
- P. Friesacher (Minardi)
- C. Albers (Minardi)
- T. Monteiro (Jordan)
- N. Karthikeyan (Jordan)
- R. Schumacher (Toyota)
- J. Montoya (McLaren)
[Weekend schedule] [F1 calendar, 2005]
Monaco Grand Prix – Qualifying #1
Still no BAR of course – they’re back for the next race (European GP).
This is the last GP with Sunday Qualifying, as noted yesterday.
Liuzzi is first out, complete with Star Wars livery – 1:16.817 – about 2s slower than he was in practice earlier
Friesacher – 1:18.574 = pP2
Albers – 1:19.229 = pP3, 0.7s slower than his teammate
M.Schumacher – 1:16.186 =pP1, as expected, but not as qiuick
(TSN’s commentators are such idiots – they’re going on about how Montoya “ran into the back of Schumacher” in the tunnel last year … no, if you remember correctly, MS “brake-tested” JPM behind the safety car and caused the accident)
Villeneuve – he’s ahead in S1 … and S2 … and takes provsional pole! 1:15.921 = pP1 by 0.2s
Batch 2: Karthikeyan – 1:19.474 = pP6, slower than even the Minardis
Monteiro, NK’s Jordan teammate – 1:19.408 = pP6 – another poor time
(TSN’s clueless commentators talk about Eddie Irvine possibly taking over/working with the Jordan team & Russian Alex Schnaider … except more than once they call him Eddie Jordan!) [note: Jordan owner denies plan to sell]
Massa – 1:16.218 = pP3 – Villeneuve is still on provisional pole
Heidfeld – ahead in S2; 1:5.128 = pP1 by 0.8s!
Barrichello – 0.114s down in S1; 0.475s down in S2! 1:16.142 = pP3, between JV and MS
Coulthard leads out Batch 3 – ahead 0.131s in S1; just ahead in S2; 1:15.329 = pP2
(I just spotted it says “Powered by the Dark Side” on his side pod!)
Montoya (wait for the TSN idiots to mention him causing MS’s accident last year!) – just ahead in S1 (0.1s); 0.339s up in S2; 1:14.858 = pP1 by 0.270s
Webber – 0.117s up in S1; 0.116s up in S2; 1:14.584 = pP1 by 0.274s
Fisichella – 0.069s down in S1; 0.183s up in S2 (quite an improvement); 1:14.783 = pP2 by 0.2s
R.Schumacher – he’s got a 0.5s penalty waiting for him for the tyre mistake on Thursday (see notes) – he’s wrecked it at Tabac! – red flag! – He’s out of (what’s left of) the car – he’s OK but that’s going to mean a major rebuild for his team!
The replay shows he clipped the barrier with his front left, which pushed the car wide, into the right-hand barrier, and that’s the end of his right-front and right-rear wheels.
“Restart time unknown – clearing oil from track” — they’re done.
Batch 1 is just Trulli, Alonso & Raikkonen (no BARs)
Trulli’s out lap shows the cement dust put down over RS’s oil is mostly off-line; 0.167s down in S1; 0.467s down in S2; 1:15.189 = pP5
Alonso – 0.134s up in S1; 0.448s up in S2; 1:14.145 = pP1 by 0.459s!
Raikkonen – 0.226s up in S1; (294.1 km/h through the tunnel) 0.379s up in S2; 1:13.644 = pP1 by 0.481s!
- K.Raikkonen (McLaren) 1:13.644
- F.Alonso (Renault)
- M.Webber (Williams)
- G. Fisichella (Renault)
- J. Montoya (McLaren)
- N. Heidfeld (Williams)
- J. Trulli (Toyota)
- D. Coulthard (Red Bull Racing)
- J. Villeneuve (Sauber)
- R. Barrichello (Ferrari)
- M. Schumacher (Ferrari)
- F. Massa (Sauber)
- V. Liuzzi (Red Bull Racing)
- P. Friesacher (Minardi)
- C. Albers (Minardi)
- T. Monteiro (Jordan)
- N. Karthikeyan (Jordan)
- R. Schumacher (Toyota)
Is it any wonder people (me, especially) despise the poison dwarf aka Bernie Ecclestone? BBC reports:
“Schumacher can win the title, there are still 140 points at stake,” Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper quoted Ecclestone as saying.
What a … … … no, can’t think of a suitable term for the little man.
[Weekend schedule] [F1 calendar, 2005]
Update: “Jacques Villeneuve has claimed he and spectators could have been killed
Montoya was dropped to the back of the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix after a three-way accident between Villeneuve, David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher.” [BBC]
(Montoya was in P5 after the first qualifying session.)
Sunday qualifying to be dropped
Formula One’s Sunday qualifying is likely to be discontinued after this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix in favour of a single Saturday session.The International Automobile Federation (FIA) said the 10 teams had unanimously agreed to change qualifying procedure.
The proposal is for a single qualifying session on Saturday afternoon with drivers each having a single timed lap.
The new format could be in place for the European Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring in Germany on 29 May.
I still think we should go back to the one hour, 12-lap limit, go-out-and-set-a-time-when-you-like qualifying we had a few years ago.
Monaco Grand Prix weekend
OK, so I forgot it was the Monaco GP weekend, which also means the first practice sessions were today (because Monaco’s “Friday” sessions are run on Thursday and instead they have Friday off … because they’re special).
First, the good news: “Bernie Ecclestone is considering giving up his role as Formula One’s commercial rights holder for a post with the sport’s governing body, the FIA” according to the BBC. We can only hope.
The bad news: “FIA president Max Mosley has offered Ecclestone a role in the organisation and sees ‘every possibility’ of the 74-year-old Briton accepting his offer” (same BBC article) so we may not be shot of the little man just yet.
The good news if you’re an Alonso/Renault fan: “Championship leader Fernando Alonso was fastest in the second free practice session on Thursday ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix. The Spanish Renault driver clocked one minute 15.835 around the famous street circuit to edge out McLaren test driver Alexander Wurz by 0.077 seconds.” [BBC]
The bad news if you’re a Ralf/Toyota fan: “Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher has been given a time penalty after a tyre error in free practice at the Monaco Grand Prix. The Formula One driver was found to have used a left front tyre that had not been officially allocated to him in the session on Thursday. The German, who was ninth fastest on the timesheets, will have half a second added to his aggregate qualifying time ahead of Sunday’s race.” [BBC]
The good news is that the points tables are unchanged from the end of the Spanish Grand Prix.
This weekend’s schedule:
Monaco time
EDT (GMT -4hrs)
TV coverage
Thursday Practice 1 1100-1200
0500-0600
x
Thursday Practice 2 1400-1500
0800-0900
Live on Speed
Saturday Practice 1
0900-0945
0300-0345
x
Saturday Practice 2
1015-1100
0415-0500
x
Saturday Qualifying
1300-1400
0700-0800
Live on TSN & Speed
Sunday Qualifying
1000-1100
0400-0500
Recapped on TSN @ 0700
Race
1400-1600
0800-1000
Live on TSN; delayed until 1130 on Speed
No penalty for Toyota?
BBC reports “Toyota escape rap after oversight” – escape? It’s not like they did it deliberately – it was an administrative error on the part of both Toyota and the FIA.
Toyota had a valid super licence but competed at the Australian, Malaysian, Bahrain and San Marino Grands Prix without the right competitive licence.The error raised fears that Toyota, second in championship, could be stripped of some of points.
But FIA president Max Moseley said: “There won’t be any penalties.”
FIA sources said the matter was likely to be referred to the next World Motor Sport Council meeting in June but would be treated as nothing more serious than an oversight.
I wonder if the FIA will make sure all the teams have all the correct paperwork, so this doesn’t happen again?
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