Monaco Grand Prix '08

Last weekend saw an epic Monaco Grand Prix take place in the streets of Monte-Carlo. The Teams and Drivers faced changing weather conditions as the Monaco circuit once again proved its self to be the most challenging track and the Ultimate in street racing. Lets try to calm down enough to take a look at the whole weekend in detail.

Free Practice One
The first two practice sessions took place earlier than normal on Thursday. The Torro Rosso's were the first out, with Sebastain Bourdais beating his teammate time. The other teams began to join them and eventually the Ferrari's and McLaren's made their way out of the pit lane. The Ferrari's went strait to the top but didn't stay there long as Lewis Hamilton jumped up into first. Meanwhile, David Coulthard was halfway round his first full lap when he pulled to the side of the road, failing to set a time. Red flags brought a halt to the session with half an hour left. A drain cover had become loose on the circuit and was leaking. 17 minutes later the session restarted. The yellow flags were waved not long after, as Jarno Trulli became the first casualty of the Monte Carlo barriers. He broke his rear suspension. Nick Heidfeld also had to retire around the same time, due to a mechanical problem. At the front, Hamilton was still leading but with ten minutes remaining it was Kimi Raikkonen that stole his lead. Hamilton failed to respond and finished second. Kovalainen was third ahead of Massa and Rosberg.

Free Practice Two
Free Practice two got underway in slightly warmer conditions to FP1. The Williams drivers were first to set quick time, knocking BMW's Nick Heidfeld to third. Raikkonen and Hamilton continued their fight for the top from the Morning session. Hamilton's first lap was faster than the world champion's time. Nico Rosberg wasn't happy in third, however, and pushed his way back up to second in front of Kimi Raikkonen. Felipe Massa was trying hard to match his team mate's time. He ended up trying a little too hard, though, and collided with a bollard on the track. Then Nico Rosberg was pushed back down to third by Fernando Alonso. Rosberg switched to the super-soft tyres and forced his way past Hamilton into first. Trulli hit the wall for the again but his car was undamaged and he continued. Piquet spun into the barriers but, surprisingly, he also continued. His team mate then did exactly the same thing at exactly the same corner but he was going slightly faster and did damage his car. The rear wing was hanging of the car and he had to shake it off to get round the lap. The session was red flagged whilst the debris was cleared. When the session was restarted, most of the drivers had switched the the super-softs. Raikkonen pulled himself back up to third and Hamilton did one better than in Session one, finishing on top. Rosberg stayed in second with Massa and Kovalainen in fouth and fifth.

Free Practice Three
Heavy rain had fallen overnight and when Saturday dawned, the track was wet. The session was declared wet with more rain expected during FP3. Felipe Massa was first to set a time, with Rosberg behind in second. Raikkonen came out to go right up to first but Massa took the position back. The McLarens stole Ferrari's limelight, however. Hamilton went to the top, continuing his performance from Thursday. Kovalainen was going even faster and forced Lewis down to second. He continued his pace and just before he finished a second faster lap, he spun. The rear of the car was damaged but he was unharmed. The session was red flagged whilst the car was removed. Once the session was restarted, it had begun to rain heavier. Everyone stayed in the pit lane until the last few minutes but nobody could match Heikki's time. He finished first with Hamilton in second. Raikkonen, Rosberg and Kubica were third, fourth and fifth.

Qualifying
The track had dried between the morning practice session and quali one there was a 20% chance of rain throughout the whole of qualifying. The air temperature was slightly hotter.
Session One
Heikki Kovalainen was the first of the front-runners to set a time. The Ferrari's then came out and Massa stole first from Heikki. Kovalainen took the position back only to be again demoted to second by Nico Rosberg. Raikkonen and Hamilton both had brief apperances at the top but it was Heikki Kovalainen that took the lead towards the end of the session. Felipe Massa wasn't done though and proved that Ferrari were in with a chance by beating Heikki to first. Hamilton finished in third. Eliminated from the rest of qualifying were Bourdais, Piquet, Vettel, Sutil and Fisichella.
Session Two
With the threat of rain increasing, the drivers headed out earlier than normal to get some laps in. Fernando Alonso was the first out to set a time. He was beaten by Kimi Raikkonen who was in turn beaten by Felipe Massa. Nico Rosberg slotted into third. It looked like Lewis Hamilton was about to smash in first but he had a slight wobble and only managed third. Nico Rosberg moved up into first later on in the session, but most mid-field drivers left it to the last minute. Towards the end of the session, the drivers in danger of dropping out made their last chance flying laps. Before some of the could get round, however, a tyre was seen making its way along the track at speed. The yellow flags came out as David Coulthard had slamed into the barrier at the exit from the tunnel and flown down the exit road. He was unhurt. The top three were Massa, Rosberg and Hamilton. Glock, Button, Heidfeld, Nakajima and Barrichello failed to get to the top-ten knockout.
Session Three
David Coulthard would not take part in the third session of qualifying, despite setting a fast enough time, after his car was was wrecked during the high-speed accident in Quali two. Kovalainen was first to set a time which was pushed to second by Hamilton. It was Raikkonen that had set the fastest time, however, once all the drivers had been out. Both Massa and Kubica made small mistakes put they slotted in third and second. With nearly a minute of the session left, Kimi Raikkonen completed his lap of a 1:15.815. Then, to most peoples surprise, both McLarens failed to match that time. Perhaps even more surprising though, it was Felipe Massa that stole first from Raikkonen with a 1:15.787 to take pole position for the race. Kimi settled for second with the McLarens on row 2.
Race
After qualifying both Giancarlo Fisichella and David Coulthard joined Sebastian Vettel in the list of drivers with 5 place grid penalties. Coulthard started from 15th whilst Fisichella started from last. It had rained in the city streets overnight and just before the drivers headed of on their parade lap it began raining again. It didn't take long for the track to get wet. Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren stalled on the grid before the warm-up lap and was made to start from the pits. All the drivers made their way round the parade lap safely and lined up on the grid with a Kovalainen shaped gap at the back of row 2. Raikkonen didn't get the best of starts when the lights went out. His hesitation let Hamilton take his second place. Massa did get a good start and stayed in first. Rosberg lost his front wing by touching Alonso at the hairpin. Button and Glock also lost their front wings and all three dived into the pits. Hamilton was trying hard to keep up with Massa and he hit the barriers, deflating his right rear tyre. He also pitted by suprisingly came out in 5th. Alonso also damaged his tyre after hitting a barrier and pitted. David Coulthard ended his weekend after aquaplaining in to the same barriers and Sebastain Bourdais ended up copying him, slamming into the back of the Red Bull after aquaplaing himself. The saftey car came out whilst the car was retrived. Raikkonen was given a drive-through once the saftey car went back in the pits. He didn't have his tyres fitted before the three minutes prior to when the race began. Alonso had switched to extreme-wet tyres during his stop and was quickly making his way back up the order. He was being held up by Heidfeld until he had had enough. The Spainard tried to take Nick at the hairpin and got it badly wrong. He collided with the German causing traffic behind. Heidfeld escaped without damage but Alonso returned to the pits for another front wing. Meanwhile, at the front, Felipe Massa made a mistake going into turn one. He recovered quickly but not in time the stop Robert Kubica pass him, and take the lead of the race. Kubica pitted from second and would have come out behind Raikkonen, had the world champion not been distracted and, similar to his team mate, run strait ahead at turn one. Massa pitted from the lead and managed to get back past Kubica, taking second. Hamilton was now leading the race. Meanwhile, Adrain Sutil had stayed out of trouble and was up to fifth. He set the fastest lap of the race so far. Both Renaults pitted and switched to the dry tyres. The track was still wet but drying quickly. It seemed they switched too soon, though. Both drivers struggled and Piquet ended up in the wall and retired. As the track dried, more drivers switched to the dry compound and evantually the race leader, Lewis Hamilton, pitted and changed to the dries. He had enough of a lead to keep first. Massa then pitted but this time failed to stay in front of Kubica, dropping to third. Hamilton's massive lead was about to ruined as the Williams of Nico Rosberg crashed heavily into the barriers spreading debris all over the track. Rosberg was unhurt but the saftey car was released again. Once the race restarted, Adrain Sutil had managed to climb to fourth place in his Force India, leading Raikkonen. With eight laps left, Kimi lost control leving the tunnel. He managed to fight the car down the end of the strait but slammed into the back of Sutil. Both drivers made it round to the pits. Raikkonen rejoined outside the points in ninth but Sutil was forced to retire. Hamilton won the race with Kubica second and Massa third.
Championship
With Hamilton winning the race and Raikkonen failing to score points, Lewis regains control of the championship. McLaren pull ahead in the constructors championship, now ahead of BMW by two points. Montreal, Canada is the next stop on the calendar.