Monaco Grand Prix round-up

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A quick round-up of other interesting points from the Monaco Grand Prix I haven’t covered elsewhere.

If you’ve spotted anything else of interest I’ve missed, please post it in the comments…

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton said the part of his front wing he damaged agaisnt Nick Heidfeld’s BMW was a ‘footplate’. Never heard it called that before!

Heikki Kovalainen reckoned without his crash he’d have beaten Nico Rosberg for sixth.

Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen made his first pit stop ahead of schedule as Ferrari were trying to get him ahead of the struggling Rubens Barrichello.

BMW

Claimed their poor performance was simply an inability to get their tyres working. Double-decker diffuser to arrive at Turkey.

Renault

Fernando Alonso revealed the team are bringing a new front wing for the Turkish Grand Prix.

Toro Rosso

Sebastien Buemi apologised to Nelson Piquet Jnr after shunting him out of the race.

As rumours gather around Sebastien Bourdais’ future with the team, Franz Tost singled him out for praise after the race:

I am really happy for Bourdais, who drove a fantastically good race, picking up a point that is very important for him and the team. This result is good for his self-confidence for the next few races.

Toyota

Offered little by way of explanation for an utterly dismal weekend.

Williams

Nico Rosberg was another driver who claimed his lap time in the final part of qualifying was compromised by traffic.

Brawn

Barrichello struggled with loose seat belt straps during his race. However he said in the post-race press conference that since the Barcelona upgrade he feels the car suits him better.

Ross Brawn praised Jenson Button’s awareness behind the wheel during the race:

There was a bit in the race where Jenson was coming up to a group that were racing each other and we were talking on the pit wall and saying maybe he should ease the pace back a bit and not get mixed up in it and he came on the radio almost simultaneously and said ‘look guys, I don’t want to get involved in that, what’s going on in front, I’m going to ease back a bit’. So he’s gaining in that mental capacity to do things as well as driving the car.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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4 comments on “Monaco Grand Prix round-up”

  1. The footplate is the horizontal piece (parallel to the ground) at the bottom of the endplate.

  2. And a big pat on the back to especially Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella and of course Torro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais…

  3. Surprised you missed Force India. They got 1st time in Q2 with both drivers and Fisichello finished 9th 1.2s behind Bourdais. Remember entire week they were quicker than BMW Sauber and Toyota. You have to give them credit that they are not way down. 1.5s down in Spain and 1.1s down in Monaco from top runners.

  4. Bigbadderboom
    26th May 2009, 13:31

    Agreed! Good showing from Force India, I think circuit types are really highlighting a cars shortfall this year. Only the Brawn is consistant, although not always the fastest.
    Nick fry said over the weekend that teams are still making “Big Step” developments, and that the cars are still very much under-developed. It wouldn’t take much for Toyota and BMW to pull it right back in Turkey.

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