F1: Grand Prix Of Monaco

Race Notes:

• Race conditions are perfect
• I love this track. I am a big fan of street courses, too bad there isn't alot of room for passing.
• Kimi P2?! Massa P5. Is Ferrari finally getting its shit together?
• Lap 1 ... Clean start, Button keeps P1, Barichello to P2 Kimi down to P3.
• Brawns already putting distance between them and the Ferrari and lap one isn't even done.
• Lap 8 ... Massa all over Vettel. Vettel seems to be holding up everyone behind him. Massa too hot into the corner and has to blow through the chicane passing Vettel. Massa has to give back the position to Vettel and Rosberg squeezes past as well.
• Vettels tires are toast. Rosberg now all over his rear with Massa close behind.
• Lap 9 ... Rosberg gets by Vettel and Massa as well. Vettels dives to the pits.
• Buemi takes out Piquet into corner 1, both are done for the day. Local yellow comes out.
• Suddenly Kimi is on the charge, all over the back of Barichello in P2.
• Kimi in the pits, back out in P7
• Lap 15 ... Vettel slides into the barriers after taking the corner too wide, rear end is destroyed.
• Barichello in the pits, back out in 6.
• Lap 16 ... Button in the pits, back out in P2. Rosberg leads.
• Lap 17 ... Rosberg into the pits, lead back to Button. Nice job by Brawn.
• Lap 28 ... Button, Barichello, Raikkonen, Alonso, Massa.
• Race has become follow the leader as all passing being done in the pits.
• Lap 29 ... Alonso in the pits, out in P9, Massa up to P4 Another fine pit pass -- NOT.
• Announcers trying to explain how the drivers have to deal with this boredom in the middle of the race, tell me about it!
• Lap 36 ... For the second time this year, Button laps the reigning world champ, Hamilton who is running 16th.
• Lap 40 ... Massa cutting the chicanes. Gets a warning from the stewards, does it again, gets another warning. How many warnings does Ferrari get?!? McLaren would of been black flagged for sure, or any other team for that matter.
• Lap 56 Button pits, giving Kimi the lead.
• Kovalainen hits the wall, done for the day. Kimi pits, Button back to P1, Barichello P2, Massa P3 and Kimi P4.
• Hamilton into the pits for a new nose cone. Suddenly lap times start improving. Question; why didn't Lewis come in sooner if he knew he had a problem? Why wait to replace the nose at the end of the race when it was damaged sometime at the beginning?
• Talk of Alonso to Ferrari next year. Only question is who is he going to replace?
• Bourdais P8 and holding onto the last world cup point, but it will be a battle to the end. Must be tough to go from 4 time Champ Car hero to F1 zero.
• Final lap ... One, two for brawn and three, four for Ferrari; Button wins, Barichello second, Kimi third and Massa fourth.

Another typical F1 race, no real surprises from start to finish ... Ferrari is starting to come on strong, (the results of a 300 million plus budget) and McLaren keeps going backwards.

Full race results, here.

picture courtesy of www.planet-f1.com