The most exciting thing about the Monaco Grand Prix this year, is the abundance of young and relatively inexperienced drivers, attempting to avoid the rather solid barriers and walls. In Q1, it was already apparent that some of them would have problems with the circuit. Kvyat was one driver who had an extremely hairy moment as he exited the tunnel. Numerous times we've witnessed drivers hitting the bump on that hill in just such a way that they lose control and hurtle across the chicane. Too many times, that occurrence has left us in a state of shock, more recently when Sergio Perez did it. Kvyat was unhurt and actually managed to take the car back to the pits for a front wing change.
For some unfathomable reason there seemed to be at least Twenty extra cars on the circuit, during Q1, at least in comparison to the hundreds of previous Monaco Grand Prix qualifying sessions. Everybody was getting in everybody's way and it was quite amusing to see the number of incidents that the officials were going to have to pick their way through, after the session. I think it is slightly excessive to investigate a Caterham, accidentally colliding with a Williams. As if anybody would even begin to imagine that the Caterham team are in competition with Williams, let alone that Ericsson wanted to drive straight on and in to a barrier. But that appears to be the nature of Formula One, in 2014. Simple 'racing incidents' will soon be a distant memory; a thing of folklore, that we tell our grandchildren about as we roll back in our rocking chairs.
Magnussen was yet another young, new driver who almost parked his car in the barrier, making his tyres squeal as he struggled to slow his McLaren in to the first corner. Despite that hiccup, he managed to out-qualify his team mate, Jenson Button, who went out in Q2. Filipe Massa seems to be a magnet for Caterhams, since it was the second time one has ploughed in to him. Although I don't feel that Ericsson did anything malicious in the incident with Massa, it was a shame that, because of this incident, the Williams team didn't fair better in qualifying. I've been talking them up in previous blog posts, but they're really going to struggle to achieve much from their final qualifying positions.
Nico's antics are starting to look a little suspect, since this is yet another qualifying session in which he has made a 'mistake', that has either benefited him or his team. Previously, in China, Rosberg had a spin through the final corner, allowing Mercedes to lock out the front row of the grid. This time Rosberg happened to lock up in to the first Mirabeau corner, resulting in a yellow flag, which stopped anybody else from going faster than him and taking pole. To be fair, it wasn't quite as obvious a trick as Michael Schumacher, back in 2006, controversially stopping on the penultimate corner. I give Rosberg one more chance. Another move like this and I'll have to start questioning his integrity.
The Grid:
There were two big incidents, involving Force India and then Caterham. It seemed that some of the drivers were really struggling with the chicanes, during the session. Perez had his rookie head on in Q1, when he tried to plant his front left tyre in the mud, under braking, and understandably lost control of his Force India race car. Fortunately, for him, the spin was in open space and didn't take him in to a barrier or wall. Ericsson wasn't quite so lucky with his spin, and even more frustrating was the fact that he wasn't even on a fast lap, as he slammed in to the barrier at the end of Q1.