F1 Madness

Tag: mirabeau

  • F1 2017: Monaco Gp Qualifying Report – Raikkonen Reigns Supreme

    F1 2017: Monaco Gp Qualifying Report – Raikkonen Reigns Supreme

    Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen delivered a breathtaking lap to secure pole position for the 2017 Monaco grand prix.

    The Finnish driver took pole position with a quickest time of 1:12:178 ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel to secure Ferrari’s second front-row lock out in three races. Raikkonen’s pole position was the first in 128 races with his last coming ahead of the 2008 French grand prix.

    While it was celebrations for Ferrari the Mercedes garage was not as joyful. Though Valtteri Bottas delivered with a fine third place Lewis Hamilton will start 13th after failing to advance beyond the second part of qualifying. While the Mercedes driver was caught out by yellow flags in the final sector of his last flying lap in Q2 the Brit had been struggling with setup for the majority of the weekend.

    The two Red Bull’s of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top five while Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz underlined his credentials with the sixth quickest time. Force India’s Sergio Perez, seventh, Haas’ Romain Grosjean, eighth, Daniil Kvyat, ninth, and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg round out the top ten positions.

    While Stoffel Vandoorne was slated to start tenth despite clouting the barriers in Q2 the Belgian driver will drop three places on the grid thanks to a penalty incurred in the Spanish grand prix. Up until the trip into the barriers Vandoorne had delivered a wonderful performance in qualifying. And underlining the fact that the McLaren chassis is a handy one was stand-in driver Jenson Button who qualified in the top ten. Unfortunately, as has been the story of McLaren’s season the Brit will start from the back of the grid for penalties incurred due to changes to elements of the power unit.

  • Raikkonen believes Ricciardo should “obviously” have been penalised

    Raikkonen believes Ricciardo should “obviously” have been penalised

    Never one to mince his words, Kimi Raikkonen has said that he believes Daniel Ricciardo should have been penalised for his move to take fifth position nearer the end of the 2015 F1 Monaco Grand Prix.

    Ricciardo, on fresh tyres, attacked Raikkonen after a safety car period and passed the Finn on the inside at Mirabeau. Ricciardo made contact with the Ferrari and pushed Raikkonen wide to take the position off the Finn – a move which Raikkonen feels the Australian F1 driver should have penalised for.

    “It’s not very clear what you are allowed to do because sometimes you get a penalty for gaining advantage and other times you don’t,” he said. “There is usually a penalty for this kind of thing but this time there was not. In my mind it was pretty obvious, but the stewards think different.”

    And that’s about as much as you’ll hear from the Iceman about that.

    Speaking about his pace and Ferrari’s current position, Raikkonen said that the key to better results would be to qualify higher up the grid.

    “Obviously we have to go away and think as something wasn’t right in qualifying yesterday. Get the car working as best as we can and gain some places. Hopefully for the rest of the year we can do that and make the race a whole lot easier. On Sundays we seem to have the speed but starting in bad positions doesn’t help.”