F1 Madness

Tag: Monaco Grand Prix

  • 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.”

  • WATCH: Verstappen Grosjean Monaco GP crash

    WATCH: Verstappen Grosjean Monaco GP crash

    A nice collage from different camera angles, of the Monaco GP crash involving Toro Rosso rookie driver Max Verstappen, and Lotus driver Romain Grosjean.

    Verstappen has been handed a 5 place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix for causing the collision with Grosjean.

  • Max Verstappen gets penalty, blames Grosjean for crash

    Max Verstappen gets penalty, blames Grosjean for crash

    Max Verstappen has been handed a 5 place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix for causing a collision with Lotus driver Romain Grosjean.

    The Toro Rosso rookie started the Monaco Grand Prix from 9th place on the grid but lost a lot of time at his first stop. Verstappen was stationery for 31 seconds due to the right rear wheel not attaching properly.

    Toro Rosso opted for another pit stop and switched Verstappen to the Option tyres. He made quick work of passing team mate Carlos Sainz Jr. and Valteri Bottas in his Williams.

    The Dutch rookie announced over team radio that he was sticking to Vettel because the German lapping backmarkers was making it easy for him to pass his rivals on track. Something he should perhaps not have done since Lotus made quick work of warning Grosjean of the impending threat from Verstappen who by now was on the back of Vettel’s gearbox on a shoestring.

    Max Verstappen crash F1 Monaco Grand PrixYoung Max tried to pass Grosjean for 10th place but ran into the right rear of Grosjean’s Lotus under braking at Ste Devote and headed straight on into the barriers. Grosjean was sent into a spin and the Safety Car was deployed.

    The stewards judged that Verstappen was at fault and have handed in the grid penalty, as well as two points on his Super License.

    Despite being hit with the penalty, Verstappen blames Grosjean for braking too late.

    “The lap before I braked on the same spot as when I crashed,” Verstappen said.

    “But you could see when I braked the car ahead braked early and when you are going that speed and are quite close to each other you can’t do anything, you don’t expect them to brake early.”

    Verstappen will serve the 5 place grid penalty at the Canadian Grand Prix.

  • Niki Lauda orders investigation into “unnacceptable” strategy call

    Niki Lauda orders investigation into “unnacceptable” strategy call

    Mercedes team boss Niki Lauda has called on fellow big chief Toto Wolff to launch a full investigation into what he called an “unacceptable” strategy call by the Mercedes pit wall at the Monaco Grand Prix.

    Hamilton had dominated for the majority of the Monaco GP but lost victory as a direct result of a completely unnecessary pit stop under a late safety car. Changing tyres saw Hamilton drop back behind both Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg and Ferraris Sebastian Vettel. Lauda insisted that the mistake needs to be fully investigated by the team.

    Lauda apologised to Hamilton and his engineers, “Honestly, I really feel sorry,” he said. “I apologised, even to his engineers over there, because this is for me unacceptable.

    “Nevertheless, Toto, I gave him the order to analyse it properly and see where the mistake was made. But absolutely the decision to bring him in was completely wrong.”

    Lauda said that there was confusion between Hamilton and the pit wall just before he pitted.

    “I was listening to the talks – the talks were going forward and backwards – and there was too much confusion. In the end it was the wrong decision, no question about it.”

    Photo Credit: Niki Lauda, Toto Wolff – Mercedes AMG Petronas

  • Mercedes Apologises to Hamilton

    Mercedes Apologises to Hamilton

    Mercedes Head of Motorsport Toto Wolff has apologised to Lewis Hamilton on behalf of the team following the late pit stop mistake at the Monaco Grand Prix.

    Hamilton was leading the race when a late safety car was deployed because of Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen colliding with Lotus’ Romain Grosjean. Initially the virtual safety car was deployed which meant drivers are to stick to a delta lap time. A short while after that the Safety Car was deployed. This prompted Mercedes to ready their pit crew for a pit stop. Hamilton, who had built up a considerable gap to second place man, Nico Rosberg, pitted under instruction from the team. The gap, which was anticipated to be enough for Hamilton to rejoin back in the lead was not large enough and when he emerged from the pits he lost two positions and was running in 3rd.

    There was a bit of uncertainty between Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Hamilton as to who crossed the safety car line ahead at the exit of the pit lane. In the end, replay’s showed Vettel crossing the safety car line ahead of Hamilton by about half a car length.

    When the race ended Hamilton was distraught. He took his time returning to parc ferme and even pulled over at the Portier corner for a while. Supposedly to collect himself. He got going again and returned to parc ferme. On the podium he was visibly upset choosing not to say much in the podium interviews.

    Toto Wolff, after the race, apologised to Hamilton said that they had got their maths wrong by miscalculating the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg.

    “First of all, we must apologise to Lewis,” said Wolff

    “We win and we lose together and what I am proud of in this team is that we take collective responsibility,” he added.

    “But this is a day when we simply have to say sorry to our driver, because our mistake cost him the victory here.

    Toto Wolff_Pit Wall“What happened? In simple terms, we got our numbers wrong.

    “We thought we had the gap for Lewis to take fresh tyres and come back out in the lead behind the Safety Car, ahead of Nico and covering off any risk of another competitor taking fresh tyres.

    “But the calculation was incorrect and he came out in third place. It was our decision to call him in and our mistake, pure and simple; in these situations, a driver trusts his team.

     

    Wolff lauded Hamilton for the sportsmanship he showed after the race.

    “Lewis had driven flawlessly until then and really delivered a perfect weekend, with a stunning pole lap and a masterful race.

    There’s nothing more to say other than to highlight the grace with which he handled the situation; he was a leader and a true sportsman this afternoon.”

  • Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2015: Sunday Press Conference

    Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2015: Sunday Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1st Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    2nd Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    3rd Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    PODIUM INTERVIEWS

    (Conducted by Martin Brundle)

    Nico, congratulations, the first time in your career you’ve won two races on the bounce but more importantly three consecutive races here in Monaco. The last man to do that was the great Ayrton Senna. That was quite a race.

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, for sure, very, very happy of course. But I know also that it was just a lot of luck today. Lewis drove brilliantly and he would have also deserved the win for sure. But that’s the way it is in racing and definitely I’m extremely happy and going to make the most of it.

    Yeah, you spent most of your time looking in your rear view mirrors because Sebastian was coming at you and Lewis was down the road. Can you explain to us why your car wasn’t brought in for a pit stop and Lewis’ was under the safety car?

    NR: I have no idea, sorry. As always, we’re in the car and it’s very difficult to judge what decisions are being made and things like that. Of course it was extremely difficult to do the restart with those hard tyres and them being very cold but it worked out and I’m ecstatic.

    Sebastian, well, suddenly you were looking for and fighting for a victory when you had been struggling with Nico for the whole race. You must be pretty satisfied; it was a strong race for you.

    Sebastian VETTEL: Yeah, obviously a bit of a turnaround in the end, which was a bit of a surprise, but we were there in the moment when it mattered obviously we were able just to pip Lewis when we he came out of the pits. I think it was pretty close but I was pretty confident I was ahead. Yeah, I think we tried all race to put pressure on Nico but I think, first of all, he had the speed to respond and second, when we decided to pit we were probably a little bit too far back and the undercut didn’t really work. Nevertheless, P2 is a great result for the team, thanks for the hard work. It’s good to be always there and I think we were a lot closer in the race than in qualifying so hopefully we can keep up this trend.

    And you were saying on the radio ‘look, this is like swimming with weights on my legs and feet’. You were expecting a lot of trouble on the restart with cold tyres?

    SV: It was, it was. The thing is these tyres are not made for cooling down and then going again. I think Nico and myself we both kind of saved the tyre; we knew that it was difficult to catch Lewis and difficult to really attack each other. So I think we didn’t get it all out of the tyre before, which helped at the restart but it was incredibly difficult to warm the tyres up and obviously Lewis behind with a fresh set of supersoft was in much better shape. But I think for all of us it was, you know, like being handicapped for two or three laps. After it was starting to be OK, but Nico drove very well after the restart. No chance for me to stay close, so I had to make sure that I keep the guys behind.

    And the man you had to keep behind was Lewis Hamilton. I’m sure I speak for millions of people when I say I’m sorry for you Lewis, that didn’t work out today.

    Lewis HAMILTON: Yeah, it was not the easiest of races. But, you know, the team has done amazing all year long and we win and we lose together, so I’m just grateful for the job that I did and congratulations to Nico and Sebastian.

    Can you tell us why your car was brought in? You had quite a big gap didn’t you and then the safety car picked you up. Your car was pitted and your team-mate’s wasn’t.

    LH: I’m sure we’ll sit down afterwards and try and think of ways we can improve.

    How bad is it? How bad do you feel now? You’ve lost the Monaco Grand Prix, it has been taken away from you. What’s going through your mind?

    LH: Come back to win the next one.

    Some positive thoughts there from Lewis Hamilton. Finally, back to the man who won the race. You must love safety cars now and that’s helped you in the world championship and very much game on.

    NR: Yeah, but at the same time, you know, I know that I got lucky today. I’ll just enjoy the moment now but I need to work hard because Lewis was a little bit stronger this weekend, so I need to work hard for the next race for sure.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Nico, many congratulations, your third consecutive Monaco Grand Prix victory, a feat equalled before by Prost, Senna and Graham Hill, so you join a very elite group in having done that. I guess you take them how they come – but did you discuss a late pitstop behind the Virtual Safety Car that became then, obviously, a Safety Car? And how do you feel for Lewis now?

    NR: For sure that’s the best words to describe it: take it as it comes, y’know? So, just very, very happy to have won the race. On the other side though, of course, Lewis was stronger this weekend. He deserved it for sure and I got lucky in the end there. I don’t even know what happened. But, yeah, ecstatic about that anyways. No, we didn’t discuss pitting in the end. It was quite treacherous out there with those hard tyres because they were really stone cold. They were telling me the temperatures, we’ve never ever had those temperatures before I think in those tyres – but did the best I could and managed to bring them back up and push, so that worked out well in the end.

    Q: Sebastian, a couple of talking points for you really. Obviously you tried the undercut on Nico, it didn’t quite work out. Maybe you could tell us a bit about that. And also, behind the Safety Car you were on the radio saying that, exactly what Nico’s just said, that you were really concerned about how low the tyre temperatures were getting.

    SV: First of all, for the undercut, it was a shame. I had to lap a Manor, I think, and I lost about one second, otherwise I think we would have been closer to Nico. Whether it would have been enough, I don’t know. Probably not. Obviously we were trying everything to jump him but they reacted straight away. My approach to the pitbox, as well, was not spot on, so I lost a bit of time there as well. So, not perfect in terms of lining everything up. And then at the end there, it was quite clear on the radio it was… I mean the rules are the rules but it was ridiculous how slow we were going. Trying to let the lapped cars go. In the end they are, I don’t know, racing nowhere when we restart because they’re just 30 seconds down the road but nowhere near the back of the field. So, I don’t know what’s the point. And then obviously we go so slow the tyres cool down a lot. And for Nico, myself, we were on the harder compound. Extremely difficult to get them up to temperature and it’s just… yeah, you need to understand the tyres are not made for that. That’s why its extremely slippery and obviously I was under huge pressure at the restart. I think Nico was a bit more comfortable with the warm-up but for us it took two, three laps just to bring them up again. It was very much on the limit I would say.

    Q: Lewis, coming to you, obviously we all understand how difficult this must be for you. The crowd clearly sympathised with you, you got a huge cheer when you collected your trophy. Can you just tell us what part, if any, you played in the decision to make that late pitstop and how that unfolded.

    LH: To be honest it happened so fast I don’t really remember but it was a good race up until then and, still, we got good points there.

    Q: Did you think you had it won, obviously, at that point? Did you come into the pits full of confidence that you were doing the right thing at that time?

    LH: As I said, we will probably analyse and try to figure out what we did wrong – but we’ll collectively – together as a team – try to rectify it in the future.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Question for Lewis. First of all, can you gives us just some idea as to how you’re feeling right now. Obviously we see you’re very low, very down but just express in your own words how you’re feeling. And, secondly, when that Safety Car situation unfolded, did you not at all question whether to come in or not? Bearing in mind, regardless of the situation with the tyres, track position is ultimately king in Monaco.

    LH: I can’t really express the way I feel at the moment. So I won’t even attempt to. You rely on the team. I saw a screen, it looked like the team was out and I thought that Nico had pitted. Obviously I couldn’t see the guys behind so I thought the guys behind were pitting. The team said to stay out, I said “these tyres are going to drop in temperature,” and what I was assuming was that these guys would be on Options and I was on the harder tyre. So, they said to pit. Without thinking I came in with full confidence that the others had done the same.

    Q: (Barna Zsoldos – Nemzeti Sport) Lewis, after what happened today, will you have 100 per cent confidence in the team’s strategy decisions in the future?

    LH: Yes.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Lewis, can you imagine that maybe the strange situation of first having a virtual safety car and then all of a sudden a safety car could have added or contributed to the confusion?

    LH: I’ve no idea. I was just driving.

    Q: (Dan Knutson – Auto Action and Speedsport Magazines) Nico and Seb, this has probably happened to you in your past careers as well. Can you remember a time when you had the race won and it all went bad?

    NR: Not now, immediately, no but for sure it is an awful feeling, definitely, but that’s for sure, yeah.

    SV: Well, I think it’s normal that you have ups and downs. Probably the lowest low was in 2010 in Korea when I was in the lead and the engine blew up. Fernando, at the time, the biggest rival, three races to the end of the championship, won the race. That was pretty bad. We didn’t finish at all. I would have been happy at that time to finish third but I think today the circumstances for Lewis were totally different.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globosport.com) Lewis, did you know the gap between you and Nico at that moment?

    LH: Before the safety car came out I knew the gap. It didn’t worry me when we got behind the safety car. I didn’t know once we got behind the safety car.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globosport.com) Sebastian, what did you think when you were climbing up to the Casino and you had Lewis side-by-side with you?

    SV: Well, it was very close. I had something very similar back in 2008 here also, coming out of the pits with Jarno Trulli at the time. I was pretty confident that I was just ahead  – thanks for the design office for the long nose, it helped today. And obviously…  you’re quite emotional, I gestured to Lewis straight away to say I was ahead, you go back, but that’s the heat of the moment. I think we both waited for confirmation who ultimately was ahead. I think at the time we probably both thought we were in front.

    Q: Lewis, do you want to share your side of that story, coming out of the pits side-by-side with Seb after the pit stop?

    LH: I was behind.

    Q: (Ottavio Daviddi – Tuttosport) Sebastian, your race pace today was good, I think. Do you think that the Barcelona problem has been solved or it was due to the particularities of the track here in Monte Carlo?

    SV: Well, I think it’s natural that the gaps are smaller on this track. It’s a shorter track so that’s normal. I think in the race we were a lot closer than yesterday. Obviously there’s a lot of things that we still need to learn and understand. Taking the restart is similar more or less to what caught us out yesterday, so that’s something we need to work on quickly to try and understand, but in the race itself I think for the majority of the race we were on a very good pace. Obviously I knew that it was pointless really to put Nico under pressure too much, because I would just burn my tyres. You don’t know what might be coming at the end, a safety car etc, and at the end there was a safety car. There was a point when I was driving around thinking ‘we can’t be at Monaco without a safety car’ and then I think four or five laps later there was a safety car. Yuh, you obviously have to prepare a bit for the unknown, but I think the pace was good today. I was happy.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Sebastian, did you discuss with your engineers to go on supersoft for the last few laps when the safety car was out?

    SV: Not for the safety car. Obviously depending on the gaps behind to the car behind, we spoke about some things, some options, should the safety car come at various times but at that time it was clear that we stay out.

    Q: (Ian Parkes – Autosport) Lewis, you’ve suffered loads before, I can think of Monaco and Belgium last year, obviously, to name but two. When you’re involved in situations like this, when you walk away at the end of the Grand Prix, do you still think ‘well, I’ve got a ten point lead, I’ve still got the best car in the field?’ Are they the kind of positives that you have to cling to?

    LH: Sure, yeah. At the moment I can’t really think of anything else at the moment. Yeah, this is a race that has been very special… close to my heart for many years and so it was very important, it was a great feeling leading the race. I had so much pace as I have for many many years, including last year. I could have easily had that gap last year as well. Today, I didn’t really have to push too much, I could have doubled the lead if I needed it so on the one hand it’s a good thing that I had that pace and I’m grateful for that. You live to fight another day.

    Q: (Heikki Kulta- Turun Sanomat) Nico, how does it feel to win two races in a row for the first time in your career?

    NR: It’s not something I think about at all. I’m just thinking about today. I told you the emotions from today and that’s it, sorry, so I don’t think about two races in a row or three times here in Monaco. It’s not something that’s at the top of my mind.

    Q: (Luigi Perna – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Seb, there is a big difference in the performance of the car between qualifying and race; have you had some problems with tyre temperatures and the performance of the tyres in qualifying? In your opinion, is that due to the particular nature of your car or do you just have to adjust something in your set-up to try to improve in the next races?

    SV: Well, first of all, you are making a good point. If I had the answer than I would go down straight away and tell everyone what to do, so obviously it’s something we need to try and understand, whether there is something we can change with the approach we are taking with the set-up or there’s something we need to change with the approach of how the car is made. As I said, obviously there’s a key to understanding it, because some part of the race is decided on Saturday and if we struggle in cooler conditions it can happen once, twice but we need to make sure we get on top of it, so if it keeps happening it’s not an excuse, it’s a mistake and it’s bad for us so we need to work hard and make sure we fix it.

    Why didn’t we have any grid girls today. What was that?

  • Verstappen Given 5-Place Grid Penalty for Collision with Grosjean

    Verstappen Given 5-Place Grid Penalty for Collision with Grosjean

    Max Verstappen was given a 5-place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix after his collision with Lotus’ Romain Grosjean at the Monaco Grand Prix.

    The 17-year old Dutchman, in his first Monaco Grand Prix, was fighting for 10th place with Grosjean when he made contact with the right rear of the Lotus into Turn 1. The resultant contact broke the front suspension of the Toro Rosso and sent Verstappen’s car careening straight on into the tech pro barriers at Sainte Devote. Thankfully, Verstappen was able to walk away from the accident uninjured with just a little bit of pain in his arms. Grosjean meanwhile continued racing with little damage to his Lotus and finished the race in 12th position.

    After the race, Verstappen placed the blame on Grosjean claiming that the Frenchman braked too early into T1.

    “I braked in the same spot like the lap before but he clearly braked 10-15 metres earlier. When it is that close, you have no room. He caught me by surprise.

    “I realised at the moment he braked, but by then it is too late because you don’t expect someone to brake that early.”

    The stewards investigated the incident after the race and ruled that Verstappen was to blame for the collision. They decided to hand Verstappen a 5-place grid drop at the Canadian Grand Prix and penalised him with two penalty points on his F1 Super license.

    Grosjean, after the race, put it down to a learning experience for the rookie but he does feel that the collision cost Lotus some points.

    “I did not see much, just a car suddenly flying past me! I wasn’t so happy in the car afterwards, which is understandable,” said Grosjean

    “Unfortunately, I think he forgot the braking point” Romain continued.

    “The move was a bit optimistic, fortunately neither of us were hurt but it cost us a point today.

    “He is learning, of course I have made some mistakes in the past so I can understand.”

     

     

  • F1 2006 Monaco GP – Schumacher Chasing Barrichello

    F1 2006 Monaco GP – Schumacher Chasing Barrichello

    Enjoy 3 full minutes on board with Michael Schumacher as he chases down Rubens Barichello to the chequered flag of the 2006 Monaco GP. Turn your speakers right up! This is what Formula One should look and sound like! Be warned … You’re going to be watching this little 2006 Monaco GP clip a couple of times 🙂

  • Williams Lack of Pace Monaco Specific

    Williams Lack of Pace Monaco Specific

    The Williams F1 team say that their lack of pace at the Monaco circuit is specific to the nature of the track and they are almost certain that it will not affect them at other circuits.

    The 2015 Williams FW37, much like the 2014 car, suits tracks with long straights and fast corners. The Monaco circuit is the complete opposite to that which is why Williams have struggled for pace the entire weekend. Both Williams drivers also found it difficult to get temperature in the tyres which resulted in a lack of grip.

    Valtteri Bottas was eliminated at the end of Q1 after qualifying in 17th. He blamed the lack of grip and traffic but he also admitted that the Monaco circuit does not suit the Williams.

    “I had some traffic on my initial option run and couldn’t go at the sort of pace needed to keep the tyre temperatures correct, and on my timed lap I just lacked overall grip throughout the lap,” said Bottas after qualifying.

    “We knew this track was not going to suit our car and we’ve been struggling to get the tyres to work throughout the weekend.”

    Felipe Massa echoed Bottas’ sentiments: “There were no major issues during qualifying that caused us to be out of position; Monaco just isn’t a circuit that suits the characteristics of our car,” said Massa.

    “We struggled throughout the day and found it hard to set the lap times we wanted.”

    Head of Performance Engineering at Williams Rob Smedley called it a tough qualifying session for the team. He says that they’ve made changes to the setup to get more heat into the tyres but it was not enough.

    “It was clearly a tough qualifying session for us and we are out of our usual position,” commented Smedley

    “We have been pouring through the data all week to try and find ways to improve our pace here, and whilst we have made some in-roads, qualifying has just come too soon for us to recover everything.

     

    Photo credit: Williams Martini Racing Formula 1 Team 

  • Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2015: Saturday Press Conference

    Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2015: Saturday Press Conference

    DRIVERS

    1st Lewis HAMILTON (Mercedes)

    2nd Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes)

    3rd Sebastian VETTEL (Ferrari)

    TV UNILATERAL

    Lewis, it’s seems to strange that it’s your first pole at Monaco, what does it mean to you?

    Lewis HAMILTON: It does, it’s been a long, long time. I can’t express to you just how happy I am. It wasn’t the easiest session. I had a lot of things that kind of [would easily] throw you off your rhythm. Which it did. I didn’t have the rhythm until the last two laps. So I was really, really happy with it and coming across the line just hoping for once that you’ve got it. This is incredibly special for me and for my guys who have worked so hard this weekend, so I’m very, very happy.

    At one point, as you say, you weren’t terribly happy and you said to your engineer, and to yourself it seemed as well, ‘OK guys, we all just need to calm down here and refocus’. Can you just tell us a bit about what was going on and what was going on in your mind?

    LH: At this track it’s so hard. It’s difficult to express just how difficult this track is. We do it because we’ve been racing for years, but getting your head around it and improving… it’s important to get into a rhythm and it’s really important to continue to improve. It’s like climbing a ladder and every time you’ve got to be taking one step and if you slide back down it’s sometimes harder to get back up. In our session we had some problems with tyres and we had some problem with some wing and traffic, so, you know, it wasn’t easy. It makes it even more special, because normally if you just back-to-back good laps, good laps, good laps you can kind of expect it but we had some really bad laps, didn’t get the quickest laps in Q1 or Q2. So, anyways, I’m blabbing on, it was great; I’m really happy.

    Well done. Coming to you Nico, not your year this year, as far as qualifying is concerned anyway. A couple of lock-ups in Q2 at the end there and also it seemed at the end in Q3. What was going today?

    Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, probably a bit the opposite to Lewis. I had a good rhythm starting off qualifying, which I didn’t have all weekend, so it was good to get into it in qualifying and then just lost touch a little bit towards the end. Of course going for it, because I have to, because I know Lewis is going to be quick. So I needed to go for it and it didn’t work out. That’s it.

    That banker lap, that first run in Q3 is the important one isn’t it? You had it last year and obviously Lewis got it this time. How hard is the recovery if you don’t have it after that first run in Q3?

    NR: Recovery? I didn’t really see it as too much of a problem because it was very close and I was confident that I could improve on my lap time. I changed my balance also, because on the first run I had too much understeer so I went up on the front flap by a good step. I was confident it was going to come my way, but it didn’t.

    Well done anyway. Sebastian, coming to you, back up the front again in qualifying, third again. Did you get the most out of the car today?

    Sebastian VETTEL: Not really. Generally happy with the result but I think it was a bit too cool for us today. I think everyone was struggling a little bit with warming up the tyres. It sounds surprising because it’s the supersoft. It was a shame the sun was hiding behind the clouds. Nevertheless, I think it was a good session for us and P3 is a good place to start from tomorrow. Hopefully we can split the Mercedes and therefore have an exciting race tomorrow.

    Some of the midfield and backmarker cars were doing some quick laps on the supersoft in Q1, yet you and Kimi both chose to stay in the garage. Were you completely calm for those final few moments of Q1?

    SV: No, not completely calm! Obviously I knew roughly that the time should be fine with what we thought will be enough. But it was close and then when you see yourself dropping down and the time ticking away from you and you can’t really react and go out and have another run it’s not nice but in the end it was OK for both of us. So we did the right thing and targeted to prepare for the last part of qualifying. Unfortunately it was not enough to get really, really close to them and put them under pressure, but tomorrow is another day.

    Well done. Back to you Lewis, what percentage of the job is now done do you think, given the nature of this circuit and the way the race unfolds and how do you see the race unfolding tomorrow?

    LH: Oh, this is… not even half the job is done. There’s so much to do tomorrow. There’s a long, long way to go, many, many laps here. It’s going to be mentally and physically challenging. Again just so happy; nothing was able to get in my way today in this. I’m just sitting here thinking about all the previous years and things that kind of got in the way or that I wasn’t good enough or whatever it may be. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I think 2006 in GP2 was the last time I started on pole here. It’s a very special day and again just a big thank you to the team. The performance we have with our car is outstanding and the guys have been perfect all weekend, so I hope we can get a real result for them tomorrow.

    PRESS CONFERENCE

    Q: Lewis, can you tell us a little about bringing the tyres in and what was the ideal lap for these supersoft tyres. Because obviously you hadn’t done any running on them prior to this morning due to the rain on Thursday etcetera. There was various different teams with various messages about which was the ideal lap, how many timed laps etcetera. How did you find your way to the ideal moment to use them?

    LH: Well, I guess I’m going to have to choose my words carefully. These tyres, they take a quite a long time to bring in. We have to push quite a lot to get the tyres to start working. They’re very hard. Considering they’re the soft and supersoft, they’re incredibly hard. When I looked at the wear life yesterday, there’s a lot of laps you can do. A lot of laps, and so to bring the tyres in you… this morning was OK. The track was a bit grippier at one point so the tyres came in really nicely, quite soon. But this afternoon, being a little cooler perhaps, we had to do the two… kind of an out-lap, a warm-up lap and then the fast lap. Even on that fast lap, they were so-so. It’s interesting that you have to do that with both tyres.

    Q: Nico, Lewis just said a moment ago in the Unilateral that he doesn’t consider even half of the job is done yet with this pole position. What’s your view on what you can do from where you are? He feels there’s clearly a threat from you and from Sebastian. Can strategy help you?

    NR: I am very glad to hear Lewis’ opinion on that! Yeah, I’m going to try and keep the pressure up, of course. That’s all I can do tomorrow. Well, that’s what I need to do tomorrow. And I’ll do it.

    Q: Sebastian, the gap is again that stubborn three-quarters of a second between you and the Mercedes. It doesn’t seem to be changing too much at the moment. Obviously Lewis won from third on the grid, I think back in 2008, so it can be done. Drawing some encouragement from that?

    SV: Definitely. I think, y’know, so far nobody has scored any points so everything is possible tomorrow for sure. We know it’s Monaco, we know it’s difficult to pass, so if you start on pole you have a good chance of winning the race – but there’s 78 laps to do. The start will be important. I start on the inside which obviously gives me the possibility with a good start, yeah, to split them, and then we’ll see what happens. In terms of strategy it’s pretty straightforward: it’s statistically not the most exciting race but if you take 2008 as an example it was very exciting. I think there was some rain, I remember it was very slippery. I don’t know the forecast for tomorrow but who knows? Anything can happen around here.

    QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

    Q: (Ottavio Daviddi – Tuttosport) For Sebastian, you mentioned the weather forecast – do you prefer a wet race tomorrow or not?

    SV: Well, it’s very easy to look at it: if it’s wet there’s a lot more chances. Also, there’s higher risk. So, y’know, if you’re on the good side, you take the chance, if you get it wrong and hit the risk the wrong way then it goes, y’know, in the wrong direction. So, in the end the weather, thanks God, is something we cannot influence and we have to deal with it. Sometimes it makes things a lot more exciting. But we see tomorrow. I think nonetheless we should have a good car in the race. Obviously we weren’t really able to have a look in long runs, no-one was. But the car feels good around here and hopefully we can put some pressure onto these two guys tomorrow.

    Q: (Michael Schmidt – Auto Motor und Sport) Question to Sebastian. Do you think that today’s performance is confirmation of what we have seen in Barcelona or are you now back to where you have been in the first four races?

    SV: No, I don’t think you can compare this race to Barcelona. It’s a completely different track. I think today was significantly cooler. Probably it’s true with a little bit higher temperatures we could have been a little bit closer. As it stands today, obviously we were quite far away again but tomorrow we should be a bit closer to them.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Lewis, you finally achieved this pole position; you are a fan of Ayrton Senna. How did you miss this pole position? Do you feel that this is an important milestone in your career, to get this pole position on this track?

    LH: I don’t feel like it’s a milestone, but I definitely feel like it’s an important day for me because, as I was saying, since 2007 it wasn’t great, 2008 wasn’t great again, and every year, generally, it’s been quite poor. Some years I’ve had the car to do it, sometimes – at least once or twice – some things have got in the way. Sometimes I’ve not actually had the car to do so and if I have, I have not executed it. So yeah, I’ve got a long way to go to get anywhere near what Ayrton achieved here but this is kind of… maybe this is the first step in the sense of Monte Carlo. And as this is now my home for the past three or four years, it makes it even more special. I wake up here, I’ve never been so happy living here with the views and the way of life here. You get to drive the track every day when I’m here so it’s a very special day.

    Q: (Rodrigo Franca – VIP Magazine) Lewis, here in Monaco, we know that fans are really close to the drivers and sometimes maybe movie actors and even athletes don’t like this proximity. How do you feel about it, very close to the fans here in Monaco?

    LH: This is probably the best track… for me, this is the best track not only to drive on but because the fans get close. There’s a lot of races where we go to and the grandstand is 100 meters away from the side of the track. People are having to use binoculars to watch the cars. It’s so much more exciting when you can get close up. I was watching the Renault cars going round – the V6 is it, World series – and I was watching at Rascasse and I was standing right by the barrier and I’ve seen them come by and I’m thinking this is how racing should be, this is how spectating should be. Not that I can change anything but as a spectator, I think this is the best place to come and watch.

    Q: (Livio Oricchio – Globosport.com) Nico, I’m sorry to put it this way, but you have a first problem to start behind Lewis. The second is, two sets of tyres on which you’ve locked the front left tyre. Will it be a problem for the race condition?

    NR: First problem, you are right, to start behind Lewis. Second problem is not a problem because it’s one stop so I don’t have to use those tyres because we just start on soft(er) and then one stop and then the hard(er) tyre, so I don’t have to use the soft tyres that I flat-spotted. And the set that I’m starting the race with is my Q2 set which I did my lap time with in Q2 and there was no blocking there. That one’s fine.

    Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) Nico, in the last part of Q2 you had an exit at Ste Devote. Did you have any psychological handicap about it in Q3?

    NR: Well, of course it’s not ideal: better not to have such a thing of course in the middle of qualifying, but I had two shots in Q3 afterwards, so with two solid runs, it doesn’t have an influence, eventually then, so not really, no.