Monaco 2010 Race Review

By Bigpip
May 24 2010

First off, apologies to the faithful, I've been very naughty not updating the site for a while and as such, I need to say sorry to all the guys that have been keeping the message board ticking over!

We've had one of the best Force India races for quite a while.  Made a bit more interesting by an on track scrap between two former World Champions and one of those who should know better by now not to tick off Damon Hill!

 Monaco is the jewel in the crown for Formula One.  Every driver dreams of standing on the steps outside the royal box holding aloft what is according to David Coulthard, the cheapest trophy in F1!  Less drivers dream of being dunked into the harbour in celebration of their win. (Mark Webber being the exception!)

Most teams have a thing about Monaco.  The tight twisting track gives very little opportunity for movement in any direction other than forward and the paddock is the same.  So bad that the teams can't get the trucks anywhere near it and they have to hike to the car park to get any essentials that they don't have room for.  Fernando Alonso found this out to his cost when he stuffed it into a barrier and even Ferrari didn't have the room to fix it.  I'd suggest that Ferrari will turn up with an extra truck at next years event with a complete chassis in it, just in case!

Anyway, with a further package of modifications Force India arrived in Monaco boyed by a reasonable step with performance made in previous races.  Adrian was looking back 12 months when in a superb fourth place he was rather rudely shunted out of the way by a very reckless Kimi Raikonnen.  Still, we haven't got to worry about a Ferrari charging through the field this year...  Er... Ok!

Saturday's qualifying was an eventful hour.  Both cars made it easily into Q2 making sure that they both left the garage at the optimum time for clear laps as it's possible in the Principality.  Adrian suffered on his final lap when Vitaly Petrov managed to tump the barriers bringing out the yellow flags.  Liuzzi was a bit luckier surviving the cut in Q2 and qualifying 10th and in the top 13 for the fourth time this season!  Adrian qualified two places behind Liuzzi in 12th.

Monaco is a very unpredictable race.  It's also a car breaker.  Hulkenberg, Barrichello and Button were some of the names that weren't going to see the chequered flag.  Luckily, the names Sutil and Liuzzi weren't amongst the ranks of those drivers who failed to tame the streets.

Adrian was able to secure two places on the first lap of the race and a further place during the stops.  The safety car was deployed three times whilst debris was being cleared and Manholes being closed.  Finishing 9th and securing a couple of points for the team was very pleasing but not only did Adrian pick up point, Liuzzi also finished in the points finishing 10th.

On the last lap of the race, Schumacher illegally overtook Fernando Alonso for 6th.  The stewards deemed it an illegal move and gave him a 20 second time penalty.  This earned the team extra points as both drivers were promoted an extra place! 

A good result for the team who now press on towards Turkey for next weekend.