F1 Monaco Grand Prix

[bennythedip2]

F1 Monaco Grand Prix ..

Nico Rosberg is threatening to claim a third successive pole position after twice emerging the quickest man in practice for this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

Rosberg is certainly giving Lewis Hamilton plenty of food for thought as the Briton again trailed his Mercedes team-mate around the streets of Monte-Carlo, as in the last two qualifying sessions in Bahrain and Spain.

Rosberg is currently the man to beat over one lap, and that will be the case again on Saturday once Formula One has enjoyed its historic rest day here on Friday.

On both the soft tyre used in the opening 90-minute session, and then the super soft in FP2, Rosberg was quickest, finishing with a lap of one minute 14.759secs around the barrier-lined 3.340km circuit.

Hamilton, only fifth quickest in the morning run, managed second to Rosberg in the afternoon by 0.318secs, with Mercedes suggesting the prospect of another front-row lock-out is on the cards, as in Spain 11 days ago.

Unlike at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya where aggressive tyre wear resulted in Rosberg and Hamilton going backwards in the race to wind up sixth and 12th respectively, Monaco should be a different story.

If both are on the front row again, and in whatever order, victory should follow given the difficulties in overtaking.

As Mark Webber conceded yesterday following his win here last year, it is easy enough to "create a train" behind when tyre management is of the essence.

Behind the Mercedes duo were Ferrari pair Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, both around half a second off of Rosberg's pace, with Webber sixth quickest in his Red Bull.

The 36-year-old Australian was then followed by Lotus team-mates Kimi Raikkonen, four points behind championship leader Sebastian Vettel going into this race, and Romain Grosjean.

The Frenchman's practice, however, came to an end with almost an hour to run after he smacked a barrier on the exit of Ste Devote at the bottom of the hill, dismantling his front-left wheel.

The marshals, as is customary in Monaco, performed wonders in lifting the car off track and clearing away the debris as cars continued to flash by.

With the circuit clear, the session was red-flagged moments later as kerb damage was detected at turn 13, on entry to the swimming pool complex, that required a four-minute repair.

Both incidents came at a point when the teams were putting the cars through their qualifying-run paces having switched to the quicker of the two Pirelli compounds available this weekend, the super-soft.

McLaren's Jenson Button was eighth on the timesheet, 1.2secs adrift, with Red Bull star Vettel and Force India's Paul Di Resta completing the top 10, the Scot 1.287secs down.

Given the pace of the Mercedes, there may be issues for the likes of Marussia and Caterham come qualifying and the 107% rule as British rookie Max Chilton and Dutch new-boy Giedo van der Garde were both over four seconds back.


update btd

[Tony2005]

My fav F1 race of the season ....

Usually very difficult to pass so one of the front three should win...

[bennythedip2]

With the new tyre reglations, that will make for more pit stops, there could be a surprise, but it won't come from Hamilton .
I'd be thinking Alonso for a bet

[bennythedip2]

Tyres spicing up the sport
Alain Prost believes Formula One should count itself lucky to have such captivating racing these days.
Alain Prost: Sport lucky to have captivating racing

The sport has hit the headlines this season given the influence of the Pirelli tyres, most notably just a fortnight ago following the race in Spain where there were 79 pit stops.

It prompted widespread criticism and Pirelli are now set to modify their tyres from next month's race in Canada, primarily on safety grounds given the number of incidents in which the tread has delaminated.

Four-time world champion Prost, currently serving as ambassador and strategy advisor to engine supplier Renault, feels the complaints are unjustified as the on-track action has been spiced up.

"In the past, and very recently, F1 was very much criticised for its lack of a show," said Prost.

"So we should feel very lucky we have the kind of races we do these days, with the result not known until late.

"Looking ahead to next year, when we have the new engine coming, we will maybe talk a little more about that with the technology much closer to the product of the automotive industry.

"But we still need to keep the show, to keep the indecision in races, so it's going to be even better balanced.

"But at the moment I wouldn't criticise what we have today."

A considerable number of complaints have come from the drivers who bemoan the fact they are unable to push themselves or the car to the limit as they are conserving the tyres.

Prost, however, has reminded them that even during his day, if not the tyres, then there was always another part of the car he had to occasionally nurse to ensure he achieved the best result.

"It's difficult to compare my time to today because the cars are so advanced," added Prost.

"In my time, if you want to compare, we had to take care of the brakes, gearbox, fuel consumption and obviously also tyres.

"But the regulations were also very different. At one stage we had three types of rubber and we could make changes.

"I very often ran hard tyres on the left and soft tyres on the front. I even raced in Las Vegas in '81 with qualifying tyres on the front.

"It shows you cannot compare, but it also proves you need to adapt yourself, as a driver, as an engineer, to the regulations.

"It's typically Formula One."

[Tony2005]

ALONSO to be the fastest qualifier at 8/1 BET 365 is very tempting....


Also Paul Di Resta E/W @ 300/1 could be a decent outside bet for a top three place on the grid..