If ever there was a qualifying session this season that seemed to define what is really happening between the teams, Monaco, of all places, seems to have done it.
As seen in the last couple of races, McLaren and Ferrari are still climbing back. Ferrari looked particularly good. It was all the more frustrating that with both McLaren and Ferrari climbing back, Jenson Button again got the pole. Wouldn’t it have been nice to see Kimi Raikkonen - of all people - take pole? And he misses it by 2 hundredths of a second! But bravo Button, who yet again, has shown just how on top of his game he is at the moment.
The other let down, of course, was Lewis Hamilton. Skidding into the wall in the first qualifying period. He did this at precisely the spot I mentioned in a comment on an earlier post is a fabulous place to watch the drivers fly over the crest of the hill down into Mirabeau…. Interestingly, having just returned a few minutes ago from the McLaren motor home where Hamilton spoke to the media, I found him looking much less down than he had during the same press meeting on Saturday in Barcelona. But I think the key to that is that in Barcelona his mind was still elsewhere as he tried to figure out what was going on with the car, whereas here in Monaco, he knew exactly what happened.
“I made a mistake, that’s all,” he said. He apologized to the team, and regretted the error, but there was no one to blame but himself. He also said he did not consider himself in the running for the championship, with 32 points behind Button. But he also said he had not given up on the idea of winning the championship. His and his team’s goals are simply elsewhere at the moment - in improving the car.
But naturally, the most surprising and painful part of the qualifying - and the whole weekend, in fact - was certainly the last four spots on the grid occupied by BMW Sauber drivers and Toyota drivers.
Mario Theissen, in his press meeting an hour ago, looked almost as glum as Hamilton had in Barcelona. And that, for Theissen, is rare. Still, when someone asked if results such as this might make BMW question its commitment to the sport, he said not at all. That it was a one-time thing.
Of course, it’s been going on progressively now, it seems, these poor results for BMW Sauber, since the beginning of the season.
Still, forecasts say there could be rain tomorrow during the race. And if that happens, just about anything could happen here in Monaco. Remember Olivier Panis’s victory in 1996 climbing from midfield or beyond to win? Let’s keep our eyes on Hamilton anyway….
Comente