LEWIS CONQUERS MONACO
The Monaco Grand Prix. Do I need to say anything else? Not really. It's been described as like "riding a bicycle round your living room" but it's also recognised as one of the biggest challenges in Formula 1. It's got the class, and also the chaos. It's impossible to overtake on, but even Bernie has no plans to remove it from the calender. For some it's the event that defines Formula 1 and Lewis Hamilton loves it! All the great drivers have made their mark here(and some not-so-great drivers have gotten lucky). Lewis came here in desperate need of a win to put his World Championship chances back on track. It is traditionally a McLaren stronghold.
Well all three Brits made it through to Q1 smoothly enough with Piquet the biggest name to bite the dust early. Q2 was a lot messier though. Jenson was nver seriously in contention for it in the latter stages and would start P12. DC made it through to Q3 but only by the skin of his teeth, a crash in the back end of Q2 putting paid to his chances of competing in Q3, forcing him to start P10. Rosberg was the first man out in Q3 though he was soon beaten by Kovalainen. Lewis then took provision pole only to be outdone by Raikonen! Then late on Massa went fastest to take his second pole of the season. Raikonen completed an unexpected Ferrari front-row lockout by grabbing P2 with Lewis having to settle for P3. Not ideal.
Well race day itself turned out to be wet. Monaco + rain = insanity! With no one starting on wet tyres it was only going to be a matter of time before someone had an accident and one of the early exchanges involved DC. The safety car came out as result of these early clashes but it was too late for the Scotsman as he was one of three cars that ran into the barriers on lap 7. Game over. And so DC's race finished with him having yet to pick up any world championship points this season. Bummer for a guy who did win this race in style back in '02 but it was the sort of accident that could have happened to anyone. From here on it, DC can only hope his season improves.
Jenson also got caught up in the insanity of the early laps of the race and wound up needing an early pitstop after a clash with Heidfeld. Changing your nosecone is usually garunteed to be a virtual scratch. However combine a safety car with even more insanity(the classic one being Piquet putting on dry tyres on a still wet track...and going straight off!) and managing to keep his car on the road(despite a nudge from Kovalainenfor two hours(after which the clock ran out rather than the cars be allowed to complete full distance) and the Brit actually managed to get a credible, quiet result, namely 11th. That wasn't what he had in mind, he was thinking he could get some points out of the weekend. However giving the circumstaces, it could have been worse and he'll do better.
Lewis wasn't immune from the insanity either. OK he had a good start, taking Raikonen to move up to second. However he then lost a tyre after running into the barriers. This would normally be a disaster but credit to the McLaren strategists they gave him some extra fuel during the unscheduled pitstop. Lewis was then able to take advantage of a Raikonen stop go but was still having trouble getting back in contention...untill everyone else had to pit which put him back in the lead! Cue hot lap after hot lap and he retained the lead even after pitting! That was as close as the opposition got though and the resty of the insanity happened behind him. Lewis kept his head to score his second win of the season!
So, going into the Canadian Grand Prix, we find Lewis surging into the lead of the World Championship with 38 points, three points clear of everyone else. Jenson's down to 13th place with 3 points(including a sixth place and a further top ten finish). DC has still yet to get off the mark(best results two ninth places).
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