Formula One 2014

[ocred]

Olivier Panis drove in Formula One for ten seasons, scoring only one win, at the eventful 1996 Monaco Grand Prix for the Ligier team.

Mad race if I recall correctly. Only 3 cars saw the chequered flag!

[SteveB]

Monaco FIRST PRACTICE RESULTS
1) Hamilton
2) Rosberg
3) Ricciardo
4) Alonso
5) Vettel
6) Raikkonen
7) Bottas
8) Perez
9) Magnussen
10) Hulkenberg
11) Button
12) Gutierrez
13) Grosjean
14) Maldonado
15) Vergne
16) Massa
17) Sutil
18) Kvyat
19) Bianchi
20) Ericsson
21) Kobayashi
22) Chilton
Next Practice 13:00
Practice 3 Sat 10:00
Qualifying Sat 13:00
Race Sun 13:00

[SteveB]

Second practice session likely to be wet.
Mercedes one-two as to be expected, but Daniel Ricciardo looks quick, even quicker than Mercedes in some sectors.

[SteveB]

Second Practice
1) 14 Fernando Alonso Ferrari
2) 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
3) 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault
4) 25 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Renault
5) 77 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes
6) 11 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes
7) 27 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes
8) 22 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes
9) 3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-Renault
10) 20 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes
11) 19 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes
12) 26 Daniil Kvyat STR-Renault
13) 99 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari
14) 13 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault
15) 21 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari
16) 8 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault
17) 10 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault
18) 17 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari
19) 4 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari
20) 6 Nico Rosberg Mercedes
21) 9 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault
22) 7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari

Difficult conditions.
Good and brave drive from Fernando Alonso at the end on a drying but still treacherous track.
Jenson Button fastest when the track was wet.
Can’t read too much into the positions because all the teams were cautious and did not want to incur damage.

[NoBrain2]

Anyone else starting to like how the new engines sound? Its starting to grow on me

[SteveB]

Monaco Grand Prix Final practice just finished.

Final Practice Result.

1) Hamilton
2) Ricciardo
3) Rosberg
4) Vettel
5) Alonso
6) Raikkonen
7) Perez
8) Hulkenberg
9) Vergne
10) Kvyat
11) Magnussen
12) Button
13) Bottas
14) Massa
15) Sutil
16) Grosjean
17) Bianchi
18) Maldonado
19) Gutierrez
20) Kobayashi
21) Chilton
22) Ericsson

Monaco Grand prix Qualifying at 13:00 today.

Hard to predict qualifying or the race at Monaco.

Daniel Ricciardo is second quickest, 0.05 seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg made mistakes. Similar mistakes in qualifying could put a Red Bull or Fernando Alonso on pole.

Also the speed of the Mercedes could be nullified by safety cars, and safety cars are almost certain at Monaco.

My own opinion is that the Mercedes are just too quick, and that Lewis Hamilton just has the edge on Nico Rosberg. Even at Monaco, possible Mercedes one-two, with a Lewis Hamilton win.

[SteveB]

Is Lewis Hamilton about to become a Monaco multiple winner? (He won in 2008, a win tomorrow would give him two)
Nico Rosberg won last year. Win tomorrow would put him in with the multiple winners

Or, less likely, can Fernando Alonso win tomorrow to give him three? That would put him in with the legends Moss and Stewart.
Sebastian Vettel has not been particularly good at Monaco. He did win in 2011, in an accident packed race which saw two drivers hospitalised. A win tomorrow would also see him join the multiple winners.

Monaco Multiple Winners
6 Ayrton Senna 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993
5 Graham Hill 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969
5 Michael Schumacher 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001
4 Alain Prost 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988
3 Stirling Moss 1956, 1960, 1961
3 Jackie Stewart 1966, 1971, 1973
2 Juan Manuel Fangio 1950, 1957
2 Maurice Trintignant 1955, 1958
2 Niki Lauda 1975, 1976
2 Jody Scheckter 1977, 1979
2 David Coulthard 2000, 2002
2 Fernando Alonso 2006, 2007
2 Mark Webber 2010, 2012

[SteveB]

There are six previous Monaco winners who will be racing tomorrow.

Nico Rosberg, 2013

Sebastian Vettel, 2011

Jenson Button, 2009

Lewis Hamilton. 2008

Fernando Alonso, 2007, 2006

Kimi Räikkönen, 2005

[SteveB]

Monaco Qualifying
1 6 Nico Rosberg
2 44 Lewis Hamilton
3 3 Daniel Ricciardo
4 1 Sebastian Vettel
5 14 Fernando Alonso
6 7 Kimi Räikkönen
7 25 Jean-Eric Vergne
8 20 Kevin Magnussen
9 26 Daniil Kvyat
10 11 Sergio Perez
11 27 Nico Hulkenberg
12 22 Jenson Button
13 77 Valtteri Bottas
14 8 Romain Grosjean
15 13 Pastor Maldonado
16 19 Felipe Massa
17 21 Esteban Gutierrez
18 99 Adrian Sutil
19 17 Jules Bianchi
20 4 Max Chilton
21 10 Kamui Kobayashi
22 9 Marcus Ericsson

Nico Rosberg is being investigated after an incident in Q3, where he inadvertently protected his pole position by an error at Mirabeau on his final run, sliding up the escape road and bringing out the yellow flags. Everyone behind Rosberg - including Hamilton who had just set a personal best first sector - were thus unable to improve.
[Eight years ago, Michael Schumacher was stripped of pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix after race stewards decided the German deliberately stopped on the track after running wide, stopping rivals setting a faster time. The inquiry took EIGHT hours.]

Daniel Ricciardo again out qualifies reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel.

The top six positions are locked out by Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, in that order.
Should be good race tomorrow (Race tomorrow 13:00). All the top drivers up front, and Monaco usually throws up a few surprises.

[SteveB]

Stewards meeting now regarding the Nico Rosberg incident.
Rumours that Lewis Hamilton is not too happy with his team-mate.

There was a meeting on Thursday where Mercedes bosses and the two drivers attempted to sort out future policy regarding competition between them. Alain Prost's advice was sought because of his experience of the rivalry between him and Ayrton Senna.

Yet another thing that could make tomorrow's race interesting!