F1 - Monaco Qualifying ONE HD 21:30 AEST 25 May 2013

[gary]

Coverage of the qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix
is on this Saturday 25 May on ONE HD starting at 21:30 AEST.

Note that coverage of the race itself is on TEN on Sunday starting at 21:30 AEST.

The weather is predicted to be clear both for qualifying and the race.

After Ecclestone said in Spain that "The tyres are wrong, not what we intended when we
asked Pirelli to produce something which did half a race", Pirelli announced on May 14th
that they would make changes to the tyres starting from Canada next month.
Pirelli said that the pressure to make changes had come from the fans, not Ecclestone.

However, the FIA rejected a proposal from Pirelli to go back to last year's tyres
stating it would be against the technical regulations. Ferrari, for one, don't
favour a change but Red Bull and Mercedes do. Pirelli announced they are
looking at what they can do to prevent the tyres delaminating.

What the fans obviously want are the cars and drivers to be pushed to the max.
It was telling in Spain when the fastest race lap time was a full 5.5 seconds
slower than the P1 qualifying time.

[04Stefan07]

Looking forward to one of my favourite races of the season. Be sure to have your tips in by FP1 if you have an account on my brothers tipping website :)

[goober]

Walked this track in 2005 (in October) - in fact my current avatar is me at the Grand Hotel Hairpin, uploaded onto Seb's car at last year's Wings For Life promo at the British GP.

Stunning backdrop, and hard to believe they can thump a F1 car around it. Just soooo narrow.

[simmo]

Easy to see why Ferrari would not want to change :P and why would you while your winning? I don't think Pirelli needs to stop the tyres delaminating they just need to make them last more than a couple of laps. :rolleyes:

Been a good track for Webber in the past so hopefully he comes through alright this time. He made up some ground last time after a bad start. Not sure what he's done to annoy fate but bad luck seems to follow him like cloud of fly's in the bush?

Simmo

[gary]

Grosjean has been given a 10-place grid penalty to be served in Canada for crashing into the back
of Ricciardo.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/5/14609.html

[multiweb]

Watched it live when imaging last night on and off. Great race. Eventful. Lots of cars didn't make it to the end. Very hard to take over anywhere. I bet Hamilton wasn't to happy. The blokes in the safety car had a ball though. You could tell by the third timeout. They had more driving fun than the racers. How many times did they lap the circuit hey? :lol:

Grosjean needs to apply himself. He's got a one of the best cars but man, how many mistakes is he pilling up lately... He shredded that guy's back wing.

[simmo]

Yeah great race, probably best for the season so far.
Good to see Rosberg finally get a race win after so many pole positions.

I reckon if f1 was a demo derby then Grosjean would be number one. :lol: Thought he had settled down after last year but you can't keep a good man down 'eh.

Any word on how Massa is doing after his crash?

Simmo ;)

[gary]

Hi Simmo,

It certainly wasn't a good weekend for Ferrari.

Ferrari's Stefano Domenicali is reported as saying -



Thank goodness for the HANS device. Even then it was worrying to see him holding
the ice pack on the side of his neck when they were attending to him atop the
safety barrier.

When I watched the replay, it looked like a failure on the left rear but apparently
it has been attributed to the left front.

[gary]

Hi Marc,



There were seven cars that were DNF. With 22 cars total, that's close to a one in three
chance that any one car would not finish the race.



I'm still going through the forensics of how Hamilton lost the place.
Unfortunately TEN had an ad break at a vital time.

Massa crashes at Sainte Devote.
Waved double yellows.
Rosberg and Hamilton pass the pits.
Vettel pits straight away.
Safety car deployed.
Webber is running 5th behind Suttil. Suttil pits.
Webber now 4th again.
Vettel comes out in front of Webber.
Safety car comes out in front of Vettel.
Hamilton is about +2.945 behind Rosberg but preparing for a double pit stop, slows to +6.649.
Rosberg pits.
Hamilton pits.
The safety car apparently releases Vettel and Webber.
Rosberg exits pits in front of Vettel.
Vettel and Webber go past the pit exit just as Hamilton is coming out. Ad break on TEN!

So when the Safety Car released Vettel and Webber and presumably the rest of the
pack to pick up Rosberg, Vettel and Webber were able to hoof it around fast enough
to pass Hamilton in the pits. When the Safety Car is deployed, there is a maximum
speed at which cars are permitted to run (Kimi Raikkonen in fact received an official
reprimand for exceeding it, but with no penalty).

So what I gather is the double pit stop for Mercedes didn't work out for Hamilton.



I was wondering if they have a Safety Car for the Safety Car just in case they
themselves became unstuck at somewhere like Rasscasse. :lol:

As you know, they don't muck about and they are an impressive car in their own
right when they roar past.

[mithrandir]

You don't know how lucky you are in Australia. Here in a 5 star hotel in Geneva with about a hundred TV channels none had it live. I had to "watch" on my iPad. BBC had a replay hours later - as we were leaving for dinner.

[simmo]

Good news on Massa Gary. I like him, he's kind of an underdog racer and has the potential to surprise.



You poor old bugger Andrew slumming it over there and all. :lol:

Simmo ;)

[gary]

Hi Andrew,

With the thrills of Monaco only five hours away from where you are,
IceInSpace F1 fans will probably want to know why you didn't surprise your wife
with the treat of a really nice day spa and sneak off "down the road" for the day :lol:

With Vettel, Raikonnen and Buemi all living in Switzerland, you would think the
television coverage would be good there, but perhaps with them all too busy driving cars,
none of them have lodged a complaint with the broadcasters :)

Hope you are having a relaxing time! :thumbsup:

[fornax]

How can Merc & Pirelli be so dumb??! (http://www.planet-f1.com/news/3213/8737410/FIA-Furious-With-Merc-Pirelli) Wouldn't be surprised if Merc get stripped for this ...

[mithrandir]

Gary, I've already missed one Monaco F1 by hours. We had to leave on the Saturday night after practice. Yesterday we were travelling from Lucerne and didn't get here until the race had started.

If you wanted football or the giro d'italia you had a choice of languages. :shrug:

Relaxing here (even scored a room upgrade) for a few days before heading to Denmark Sweden and Norway.
Today we have a guided tour of the UN.
Tomorrow, guided tour of CERN. :D

This is not a pano. Just a crop.

[gary]

Hi Andrew,

Fantastic!!!

Best Regards

Gary