Disappointed Albon “was licking my lips but my lips went dry”

In brief

Albon left dry-lipped by rain

The Williams driver started the race on the medium compound tyre but felt the circumstances of the late rain fell into the hands of those who left the grid on hards.

“It felt like a lot of people started on the hard tyre and then a lot of people changed the hard tyre as early as they could,” he said. “We tried to hang it out on the mediums, but when that many guys are on hard tyres so early on, there was a train.

“We actually had good pace midway through the race, catching the hard guys, but we were just waiting for them to pit. And it rained so it worked out for them.

“It is a shame because I think we were on the fringes of points until the rain happened and then it basically went in all the hard starters’ favour. It rained, I thought that was going to spice things up a bit, but somehow it didn’t, at least for me. So everyone stayed stagnant. I was licking my lips, but my lips went dry.”

Martins given three penalty points

“Under Safety Car, full course yellow and double waved yellow flags at turns two and three, car six passed through the incident area at turn three where firemen were attending to a fire on car 14 from exposed positions on the track,” the stewards ruled.

“Car six’s speed was significantly higher than that of other cars going through the area. Because of his excessive speed, the driver of car six had to make a very quick, last minute change of direction to avoid the incident and the firemen, thereby creating an unsafe situation.”

Merhi to make Formula E debut

Formula Manor Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi will make his Formula E debut in Jakarta next week. Merhi will take Oliver Rowland’s place in Mahindra’s line-up.

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Race recap (Haas)

Team principal Guenther Steiner: 'There’s no point in finishing twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth so we decided to take a gamble at the end staying out and then pitting for full wets as you never know what can happen, but it didn’t work out. The race was lost yesterday in qualifying, and we knew that if something special doesn’t happen, we cannot get into the points.'

Race (AlphaTauri)

Technical director Jody Egginton: 'Yuki immediately struggled with his brakes even with multiple adjustments to try and bring them in. They remained inconsistent, meaning he could not push the braking phases, hence his lap times suffered, both McLarens got past and he went off. Nyck was less affected by this issue and could achieve a good lap time progression on the Inter tyre, but even with the rain it was not possible to get him into the points today – it’s never easy in Monaco.'

Report: A slippery Sunday on Monte-Carlo's streets (Williams)

Head of performance engineering Dave Robson: 'A tricky race with some graining on the slicks early in the race for both cars. This was worse than we expected, and so we need to understand why that was.'

Automobile Club's Boeri may be sidelined in future F1 talks (Monaco Daily News)

'In 2025 there will be a new evaluation and then it will mainly be about sponsorship, TV production and merchandising. Both parties have an interest in this. But I also know that the Monaco GP holds a very special place in the season’s racing calendar'

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Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

#F3 – It's been a first all-female #FIA @Formula3 Stewards room for the #MonacoGP weekend #WomenInMotorsport pic.twitter.com/2AK9l6E15R

— FIA (@fia) May 28, 2023

The drive-through penalty for @VictorMartinsFR is totally deserved, that replay is a horror show. Went into the yellow flag far too hot and had to swerve to miss a marshal and a smouldering wreck. Frankly a black flag wouldn't have seemed harsh. #F2

— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) May 28, 2023

Comms box view for this afternoon’s entertainment #F1TV #MonacoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/njydqfMXeg

— Allan McNish (@allanmcnish) May 28, 2023

Here’s where that flying tire impacted in turn 2
⁦@IMS⁩ #indy500 pic.twitter.com/MLexGcUu5q

— Andrew Kossack (@AndrewKossack) May 28, 2023

IndyCar confirms no one was injured by the tire that flew out of the track. However, one person was injured by the debris from that incident; they were seen at the infield care center and released, IndyCar says.

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) May 28, 2023

Really don’t like the big dragon moves off of T2 & T4, to a degree it’s fine, but they’ve gotten way out of hand. Going ‘off track’ on exit of T2, then skimming the pit lane attenuator off of T4 is just adding a lot of risk for cars following behind trying to stay in the draft

— Stefan Wilson (@stef_wilson) May 28, 2023

You watch older 500s (obviously I do! 😂), and it never used to get that out of hand.

Why? It wasn’t as easy for them to run close and the danger was much higher.

I suspect (fear?) we’re now going to see Indy 500s end like this far too often.

— Glenn Freeman (@glennfreeman39) May 28, 2023

…In both scenarios a desire for “entertainment value” can impact race control’s decisions. And when this results in abnormal calls, if even slightly, this *does* demand a deeper analysis for the future, bc entertainment can be fleeting while competition results last forever. 2/2

— JR Hildebrand (@JRHildebrand) May 28, 2023

Fought our way forward slowly but surely. Spent most of day in the top 10. Our car on long green flag runs was outstanding. We had a couple struggles that hurt us at the end. Hope to have a chance to come back again next year and compete at the front 🙏 P8 @ECRIndy @ToddAultIII

— Conor Daly (@ConorDaly22) May 28, 2023

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Comment of the day

After last year’s Monaco Grand Prix start was postponed merely because rain was on its way, seeing yesterday’s race run Safety Car-free was an encouraging sight:

What this race showed beyond doubt is that it is still possible to race in the rain. There were a few drivers who out-braked themselves, but no big accidents and no need for the race to be interrupted. If they can do it at Monaco, they can do it anywhere.

This race should be remembered whenever there is the instinct to deploy a safety car or throw a red flag at the merest hint of rain. No doubt if those had been the conditions at the start, we wouldn’t have got going – but today shows that such caution isn’t necessary.
@Red-Andy

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Chris, Hughes, Silverkeg and Danny11!

On this day in motorsport

• 35 years ago today Alain Prost won the Mexican Grand Prix after beating Ayrton Senna away from the line