The 2006 Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix

[Ed]

Alonso wins a thrilling race in Monaco. It looked easy for him but had Raikkonen and Webber not retired, we would have had a fight until the end.
Montoya seems to have settled for second and finished nearly 15 seconds behind Alonso.
Coulthard benefiting from Trulli's retirement and Barrichello's penalty to finish 3rd.
Barrichello ended up 4th on a single stop strategy (+ a drive through penalty).
Michael Schumacher starting from the pitlane stormed through the field and finished 5th.
Fisichella was 6th, he was matching Michael for a while but then appeared to settle for his postiion.
Heidfeld managed 2 points after holding up many cars for most of the race!
Ralf Schumacher salvaged a point for Toyota after Trulli retired from 3rd place.

And who said overtaking was impossible in Monaco ? There was a fair bit of that today!

Your thoughts and driver of the day ?

[Julian Mayo]

Alonso wins a thrilling race in Monaco. It looked easy for him but had Raikkonen and Webber not retired, we would have had a fight until the end.
Montoya seems to have settled for second and finished nearly 15 seconds behind Alonso.
Coulthard benefiting from Trulli's retirement and Barrichello's penalty to finish 3rd.
Barrichello ended up 4th on a single stop strategy (+ a drive through penalty).
Michael Schumacher starting from the pitlane stormed through the field and finished 5th.
Fisichella was 6th, he was matching Michael for a while but then appeared to settle for his postiion.
Heidfeld managed 2 points after holding up many cars for most of the race!
Ralf Schumacher salvaged a point for Toyota after Trulli retired from 3rd place.

And who said overtaking was impossible in Monaco ? There was a fair bit of that today!

Your thoughts and driver of the day ?

See the thread " THE RING"

[Ed]

Selected Driver and Team quotes following the race

Drivers

Fernando Alonso - Winner

This is a special place for any driver to win a race, for the history, for what it represents to Formula 1 and because it is such a big challenge to get through the race with no mistakes. We have been trying since 2003, and Renault had a good car here every year, but now we have done it. To be honest, I was quite surprised by Raikkonen's speed but I knew that I had to control my pace as well to look after the tyres. We seemed to have more problems with the rear wear than our competitors, but I managed the situation to keep the tyres fresh for the end of the stints, and to build a gap when I needed it. Michelin did a fantastic job for this race, and I want to say thank-you to all their employees for their work. Looking at the championship, I am in a great position, and the consistency is the best part of it. We know that podium finishes are the key to winning the title, and so far this year we have had seven from seven races.

Juan Pablo Montoya - 2nd

I'm pleased with today's result as it?s a reward for everybody at McLaren and Mercedes who have been working hard for the past couple of weeks to improve our competitiveness. As is often the case in Monaco I really struggled with traffic and lost too much time to Fernando to be able to mount a challenge when I had a clear track ahead of me. The car was good, and I think we could have won today if things had gone our way. However Monaco is such an unpredictable race where you have to be in the right place at the right time. We now want to work hard to continue our progress. There is still some way to go, but I'm really looking forward to the British Grand Prix.

David Coulthard - 3rd

It's so great, fantastic. It's been a couple of years since I was on the podium, so it's especially great to finish on it here in Monaco. It's the first podium for Red Bull Racing too and a great reward for all the team's hard work. Monaco's always a tough race. Once you get into it, you think you've done about fifty laps, but then you see that you've only done about twelve. It's such a hard, physical race and takes a lot out of you

Rubens Barrichello - 4th

4th is a good points finish and my best so far this season but I'm disappointed because I was looking good for 3rd today. It was a tough race and I didn't feel competitive at all. I was carrying a lot of fuel but I did a good job to keep pace because I was really struggling with the balance of the car. It was obviously a huge blow to be called in for the drive-through penalty because I was sure the limiter light was on. I'm really very upset for the team and for myself because it would have been an extra point, but more than that, my first podium of the year. The guys did a great job all weekend, especially for us to qualify well on such a lot of fuel and I thank them for that.

Michael Schumacher - 5th

I am happy to have got up to fifth in the end, even though I started from pit lane. But I am still disappointed about what happened yesterday, especially in the light of today's performance. I was amazed at how tough the Stewards' decision was. I can understand that, from the outside, things might seem a bit strange, but if you don't have all the information you cannot give an appropriate judgement. The facts have to be examined in an open manner. I am sorry that Fernando's lap was ruined and it was definitely not my intention to do that. At the time, I did not know where his car was because I had been told nothing over the radio. I have been in Formula 1 for sixteen years and I have got used to living with this sort of situation. We are only in the seventh round of the championship and there is still everything to play for. Everyone could see today that I am not the sort to give up.

Giancarlo Fisichella - 6th

I lost my chance of a good finish yesterday after the penalty in qualifying. With the strategy we had for the car, it was almost impossible to do anything from ninth position. So I just had to go out there and push to the maximum. I was behind a lot of traffic for most of the race, but still managed to overtake some people on the track ? Rosberg, Villeneuve and Coulthard. I was able to do a good pace at the end, and managed to get sixth position, which is good for the team along with Fernando's victory. Renault is in really good shape at the moment, and we are very optimistic that we can be quick at Silverstone after a very strong test there. We will certainly be trying to get both cars on the podium.

Nick Heidfeld - 7th

I am extremely happy with today. Before the race not everyone was optimistic, but you should never give up. It could have turned out completely differently, but we were lucky with the circumstances and also made the most of what we had. At the start I gained four positions, but then I slowed as I thought I had damaged the car. It turned out I just used the tyres too hard, especially the rears. I pitted earlier than planned and after the safety car I just looked after the rear tyres. I was not sure about getting points here, but in Monaco the most important thing is not to make mistakes and that way you can get the car to the finish.

Ralf Schumacher - 8th

To come away with a point is something, but it could have been so much more for Toyota today. We lost too many places at the start and I spent the first half of the race behind Heidfeld. We were quicker but as usual here it was impossible to overtake and our strategy did not allow us to break out of the traffic. That put paid to our chances of getting a better result. Still, the car went well and I kept pushing and we ended the race in the final points-scoring position. It was a hard day's work out there but at least we have shown stronger pace this weekend and we must now look to build on that in the coming races.

Kimi Raikkonen - Retired

Things just didn't go my way today. Our strategy would probably have meant that I would have been able to take the lead after the second series of pitstops, but we really lost out when the Safety Car came out. Then there was a small fire caused by a heat shield which damaged a wiring loom and that was the end of the race for me. It's always disappointing to retire both for me and the team, but it's particularly hard when you all know that you are in with a good chance to win. However we have made progress, and the car was really competitive today, and we aim to do well at Silverstone.

Mark Webber - Retired

I am very disappointed of course, it felt like we deserved something today, but reliability has let us down. There is no rewind button and all the hard work we did over the last few days is invisible now. We were quick here, I was going a lot longer than Fernando in the second stint and Juan-Pablo wasn?t really a threat, so the podium was there. Aside from the start, when I got on the brakes a sniff late into Ste Devote and lost the place to Kimi ? who was on new tyres - it was an hour of running at qualifying pace and I just had a bit more to go and it would have been a great result.

Jarno Trulli - Retired

Once again it's a tale of woe for me! It's frustrating because I am giving my best, doing everything I can in qualifying and the race and yet things are just not going right for me. Our pace was good today and the tyres were consistent. I could have gone quicker but I spent most of the afternoon in traffic so I never had a clear lap to really push. When I came into the pits with Barrichello I could tell that he had forgotten to hit the pit limiter. At the end I was just bringing the car home and everything was under control until the sudden hydraulic problem. It's obviously a pity to miss out on a podium here for the second year in a row. But at least we showed better pace at times and we must now build on that. I still believe that the team is doing a good job and working really hard but there is still work to do.

Teams

Renault - Pat Symonds

Congratulations to Fernando. He took a fantastic win on the ultimate driver's circuit. There is not much to say about his race, apart from the fact that he had it perfectly under control. He was very deliberately taking it easy after each pit-stop because this circuit is so demanding for the rear tyres, owing to the heavy traction demands. Throughout the race, though, Fernando had the ability to increase his pace when he needed to. As for Giancarlo, it was a true pleasure to watch him race today. His overtaking manoeuvres were daring and well-judged, and I cannot remember a driver working so aggressively in many years to move through the field here at Monaco. In spite of this, his race was effectively controlled by traffic, and the Safety Car prevented his strategy from playing out fully, but we could not have asked much more of him today. Our thoughts are also with Michelin today. They brought tyres that struck the perfect balance between first-lap performance and long run consistency, and we are proud to have taken their fifth consecutive Monaco victory, all the more so in such poignant circumstances.

McLaren - Ron Dennis

A good result for Juan Pablo whose challenge for the lead was hampered by the traffic between him and Fernando following his last stop which took place during the Safety Car period. After the first round of pitstops it was clear to us that Kimi had seven laps more fuel than Fernando. Kimi was just saving his tyres and engine but then the deployment of the Safety Car following Webber's on-track retirement caused us to lose this advantage. During Kimi's stop the exhaust temperature rose significantly and failed to cool sufficiently following his return to the track behind the Safety Car. The excessive heat burnt a wiring loom which finished his race. At least we were very competitive, and our target is to maintain the momentum into Silverstone.

Red Bull - Christian Horner

It's a fantastic result for the whole team. David's driven well all weekend and was desperately unlucky in qualifying, but now he's got the result he deserved. It was a great strategy from the team, when we decided to change from a two-stop to a one-stop race and David did really well. But, let's not forget Christian in all this. He was looking really strong here and was very unfortunate to suffer a loss of drive in his car. We're sure that, without that problem, he would have been right up there too today

Honda - Gil de Ferran

An extremely tough afternoon full of highs and lows. Both drivers were struggling with the balance of the car throughout the race, nevertheless due to Rubens' good grid position, he eventually found himself in a podium position. Of course we were devastated with Rubens' drive-through penalty, although 4th place is his best result with our team so far. Jenson was unable to recover from the low grid position, especially given the handling difficulties we were having.

Ferrari - Jean Todt

Obviously we are very disappointed. Fifth place for Michael and ninth for Felipe are definitely not up to the ability level of our package: a very competitive car, running on really strong Bridgestone tyres. However, the four points Michael has brought home are important. He fought from start to finish, putting on a good performance. Felipe was always in traffic, held up by slower cars and he just missed out on points. Even though today we have lost precious ground in the fight for both championships, our motivation is still very high and we will give our all to tackle the remaining eleven rounds as well as possible.

BMW Sauber - Mario Theissen

If you start on the streets of Monaco 14th and 15th on the grid and still collect two points you can't complain. Of course we benefited from retirements in front of us, but Nick deserved his two points. His start was excellent and his race performance good. Jacques didn?t get the chance to be so far up the field and then was delayed by a drive through penalty.

Toyota - Tsutomu Tomita

We have to be pleased about getting a point from Ralf, who battled hard throughout the race. But to say we are disappointed about what happened to Jarno is an understatement. He had raced hard from the start in heavy traffic and for him to suffer a hydraulic problem so close to the flag was a cruel blow. So it was a bitter finish, but at least we can say that the team performed better over the course of the weekend. It was a correct decision to go for a one-stop strategy and it worked well. We will have to investigate our poor starts but at least our pace was good on the heavy tanks. We brought Ralf in earlier than we had to because he was stuck behind Heidfeld, who we expected so stay out longer. Unfortunately they both came in at the same time but it was the only thing we could try. Jarno similarly spent most of his race behind Barrichello so we can only congratulate the drivers on doing such a good job today. It was a bad day for us in terms of the race results but the gap to the top teams is closing and we will continue developing and fighting in order to achieve a podium as soon as possible.

Toro Rosso - Franz Tost

It was a disappointing race for us, because for example, if you look where the two Ferraris ended the race, having started behind us, then you can see that we put in a weak performance today. We now have to work on all the areas where we are losing out.

MF1 Racing - James Key

A busy and eventful afternoon, to say the least. Both drivers had extremely good pace during the race. Obviously, the situation at the beginning really messed up the afternoon because it resulted in Tiago losing a lot of time with a nose change and Christijan got a drive-through penalty. That was really unfortunate because they were both on the pace. In fact, they were quicker than the cars ahead of them and caught them up very quickly afterward. So that was a real shame because everything else today was quite positive. The cars were reliable, the Bridgestone tyres were very good and the performance was encouraging. It's just a shame that wasn't reflected in the final result.

Super Aguri

All in all it was a very tough race for us. Takuma was doing well until he suffered with an electrical problem and Franck did a great job to finish his first race for the team. It is a difficult track and he said that the car was very hard to handle. We have not achieved our goal of another two-car finish once again, but I would like to thank the team for all their hard work this weekend.

Williams F1 - Sam Michael

It was a shame that both drivers had to stop the race due to exhaust failures that then allowed hot exhaust gas to burn through wiring looms. Up until then Mark was doing really well and he was in line for a strong second place. The car was really competitive and had a lot of fuel on board. The qualifying pace of the car was clearly good as well if you look at the lengths of the first stints compared to the other front running cars, so it?s a shame we didn?t come away with more points from this circuit. Nico?s race suffered from the result of poor qualifying which left him stuck in traffic right from the beginning. We now must get to the bottom of the exhaust problems that have affected us today and ensure they are fixed.

[Southernman]

For me this was the best race of the year so far.

I voted for MS as the driver of the day for his performance in the race and not what has happened during the race weekend. Honourable drives also from Coulthard and Alonso.

[BlinkyBill]

Out of the driver of the day choices above - Definitely DC. That was by far the most convincing drive he has done in the Red Bull - set up by such an awesome qualifying session.

If I had a rewind button, my first re-run of the race would have barramundi fail to get off the line on his installation lap. I would like to have seen how DC went without the hold up.

But true driver of the day for mine is MW.

If I had a second rewind button, that damn engine would have held it together for another hour, as would Kimi's - that would have been a hot ending.

MW's stock definitely rose again, and he proved that he can keep up with the big names with the right machinery under him. I just hope and pray that the team he chooses next year can give him the car he deserves.

And final thoughts? With every ounce of cornyness I can muster - We are all winners! Monaco has a reputation of being the most boring race of the year, but I couldnt turn it off. . . . even after throwing my popcorn bowl at the burning Williams.

[Julian Mayo]

Out of the driver of the day choices above - Definitely DC. That was by far the most convincing drive he has done in the Red Bull - set up by such an awesome qualifying session.

If I had a rewind button, my first re-run of the race would have barramundi fail to get off the line on his installation lap. I would like to have seen how DC went without the hold up.

But true driver of the day for mine is MW.

If I had a second rewind button, that damn engine would have held it together for another hour, as would Kimi's - that would have been a hot ending.

MW's stock definitely rose again, and he proved that he can keep up with the big names with the right machinery under him. I just hope and pray that the team he chooses next year can give him the car he deserves.

And final thoughts? With every ounce of cornyness I can muster - We are all winners! Monaco has a reputation of being the most boring race of the year, but I couldnt turn it off. . . . even after throwing my popcorn bowl at the burning Williams.

I threw my TV at the popcorn bowl, it assures a result

[F1greyhound]

FERNANDO - a great win, looked almost lazy...

JUAN PABLO - lazy II, profitted from conspiracy and retirements...

DAVID - fabulous in this car, profitted from conspiracy and retirements...

RUBENS - his drive was pretty supreme to JENSONs, a few more people on this forum might notice they are no geniouses...

MICHAEL - penalized for an error, hardly a deliberate one(dont believe in suicidal tendencies here..), but easily the driver of the day, having passed 6 cars in lap 1 and going from 22nd to 5th in Monaco.

GIANCARLO - great for a few laps, so so for the rest

KIMI - a brilliant and determined drive, a luckless end

MARK - almost more impressive than anything during qualifying and race, would have deserved a podium here..

FIA - a bunch of trousersh1tters


CHEERS!

[Bundy]

Out of the driver of the day choices above - Definitely DC. That was by far the most convincing drive he has done in the Red Bull - set up by such an awesome qualifying session.

If I had a rewind button, my first re-run of the race would have barramundi fail to get off the line on his installation lap. I would like to have seen how DC went without the hold up.

But true driver of the day for mine is MW.

If I had a second rewind button, that damn engine would have held it together for another hour, as would Kimi's - that would have been a hot ending.

MW's stock definitely rose again, and he proved that he can keep up with the big names with the right machinery under him. I just hope and pray that the team he chooses next year can give him the car he deserves.

And final thoughts? With every ounce of cornyness I can muster - We are all winners! Monaco has a reputation of being the most boring race of the year, but I couldnt turn it off. . . . even after throwing my popcorn bowl at the burning Williams.

I threw my TV at the popcorn bowl, it assures a result

I threw the kitchen sink at the TV

[Julian Mayo]

Out of the driver of the day choices above - Definitely DC. That was by far the most convincing drive he has done in the Red Bull - set up by such an awesome qualifying session.

If I had a rewind button, my first re-run of the race would have barramundi fail to get off the line on his installation lap. I would like to have seen how DC went without the hold up.

But true driver of the day for mine is MW.

If I had a second rewind button, that damn engine would have held it together for another hour, as would Kimi's - that would have been a hot ending.

MW's stock definitely rose again, and he proved that he can keep up with the big names with the right machinery under him. I just hope and pray that the team he chooses next year can give him the car he deserves.

And final thoughts? With every ounce of cornyness I can muster - We are all winners! Monaco has a reputation of being the most boring race of the year, but I couldnt turn it off. . . . even after throwing my popcorn bowl at the burning Williams.

I threw my TV at the popcorn bowl, it assures a result

I threw the kitchen sink at the TV

You eat popcorn from a kitchen sink ?

[Bundy]

You eat popcorn from a kitchen sink ?

I was hungry

[JayVee]

Great win by Alonso The Cute
He controlled the pace, kept his cool and won by a huge margin!
Sorry to see Raikkonen and Webber out. It would have been an interesting fight but I think the order wouldn't have changed.

As for the rest, well some were stuck behind Barrichello and the others behind Heidfeld. Single stop worked better and the safety car helped and that is why Barrichello, Trulli and Klien had a shot at the podium. Coulthard got it and he too was on a single stop.

Michael did well but to finish 5th was down to just being there in the end benefiting from the 4 retirements of Webber, Raikkonen, Trulli and Klien who were in front and uncatchable.
Perhaps he'll learn not to make seemingly deliberate mistakes in the future. Doubt it though It would have been a nice fight between him and Alonso

Driver of the day Alonso of course. I was also impressed by Webber. I hope he keeps up this good form and doesn't go back to sleep again. It must be so frustrating retiring while in such a good position.
Raikkonen was amazing, retiring from second yet being calm enough to get the fire extinguished then driving the car away from the racing line. Very professional unlike that other guy

7 races, 21 point lead, didn't I say Alonso will dominate in 2006

[Andre_Brasil]

Too many undeserved kudos for Michael in my opinion....

First of all: the way Massa let him overtake was A SHAME!!! Worse than Austria 2002. I know he is a superb driver, but I'd like to see him competing against a team mate.

The Super-Aguris were also too "respectful" and the 5th place was the result of the retirements + SC + one-stop strategy. He had the pace though and we could have lived without the whole Saturday soap opera... Had he started from the 2 first rows and he would have challenged Alonso and Kimi.

Alonso was flawless.
Montoya was... well, I've just noticed him at the podium ceremony.
Coulthard was where he should be and profit form other people's misfortunes.
Barrichello had his second drive-through penalty of the year. Too bad! Hope he will push the right buttoms next time. Anyway, Honda's track control sucks big time!!! JB was unnoticed!
Fisichella made some brave moves but his performance is pale when compared to Alonso's.

The rest was the rest... but this race was much better than the last two.

[F1greyhound]

Hi Andre, as said in the other post, FELIPE was going nowhere in this race and therefore to let MICHAEL go for points was sensible, especially since he had originally been on pole.

Imagine you were part of a team and your teammate got penalised (wrongly?, too hard?), would you have obstructed him even if he was faster? And would that have been clever in any way?


Other than that, I agree.

What I find frappening is the huge gap this year between the teammates, even though JARNO and RUBENS managed to turn things around in Monaco.

[Julian Mayo]

Hi Andre, as said in the other post, FELIPE was going nowhere in this race and therefore to let MICHAEL go for points was sensible, especially since he had originally been on pole.

Imagine you were part of a team and your teammate got penalised (wrongly?, too hard?), would you have obstructed him even if he was faster? And would that have been clever in any way?


Other than that, I agree.

What I find frappening is the huge gap this year between the teammates, even though JARNO and RUBENS managed to turn things around in Monaco.

The next two races are vital for those two.

[Amjad]

GREAT race, in all respect, and we see more overtaking than barca.
Well done Alonso, but in the middle period I think he had a problem when he was 2 sec. slower than JPM, so MW blowing engine maybe safe Alonso from drop back to 2nd or 4th place that he made short first stop (9 sec.) Compared to others (10.5 sec). All in All, from 2nd up to 8 places are made by extreme luck.
We will wait Silverstone to re-estimate the strength of teams