The 2017 Season

[Penfold]

Liking the orange; as you say it would benefit from a spot of finessing but I do just love that colour.  Oh, and the helmet is gorgeous... simple but striking.

Seems like Alonso had a solid start to proceedings.

[Penfold]

Pity Seb fluffed the final chicane, would've liked him to grab pole.  Still, all set up nicely for a great battle between the Mercs & Ferraris.

Alonso qualifying seventh, who saw that coming... and more importantly, was it his best ever lap?  Talking of laps, I wonder how many his car will last....

[Chrill]

I like that race. Sure, the lack of a Ferrari victory saddens me. Still, the racing was good. Vettel on Bottas was scary. Alonso actually passed cars on straights. Ericsson had some insanely bad luck, exiting the pits just meters behind Vandoorne who then caused a VSC which ruined his day. Despite it, Ericsson finished P11. Without it, I think Sauber could have had two cars in the points today.

Wehrlein was great, finishing P7 (P8 with the penalty). Hamilton did the very maximum of what his car was capable of. You could hear his breathing on the team radio, he was really exhausted. That never happened with the old cars.

I'm glad the updates introduced in Spain didn't change the pecking order too much. I feared Mercedes would speed away from Ferrari but they did not. It's still really close.

[Penfold]

What he (you) said.

Next up the annual beauty parade around the streets of Monte Carlo.

[Chrill]

Here's a list of all drivers scoring points in all 5 races this year:

Sebastian Vettel
Lewis Hamilton
Sergio Perez
Esteban Ocon

Them Indian forces are forces to be reckoned with.

[Penfold]

Yep, FI running well again, also glad to see Ocon living up to (my) expectations after last year.


Stroll's post-race comments: "It was not a great race. I have had better ones and I just found it frustrating...."

Better ones? Plural? In F1? Has he?

[Chrill]

Stroll's post-race comments: "It was not a great race. I have had better ones and I just found it frustrating...."

Better ones? Plural? In F1? Has he?

I'd label Australia a better race. He retired early. He should have done so in Spain.

[Chrill]

With the increased width of 2017 cars, and narrow streets of Monaco, won't that make some of the tight corners even tighter? I'm thinking exit onto main straight for example. They should be more difficult because you need to fit more car into there.

[Penfold]

Suppose so, but it's just back to how it was when I started watching F1 and I don't recall Senna et al struggling to navigate.


I see Alonso made it through to the pole shootout; and that Bourdais suffered a pretty nasty smash.

[Matt]

Alonso ultimately qualified fifth, making him only the third highest driver with F1 experience behind his teammates Rossi and Sato. Meanwhile, Dixon won the pole at over 232 mph, the fastest qualifying speed since 1996.

[Chrill]

How common is it for a rookie to reach the Top 9, let alone finish that shootout in the second row?

EDIT: I went for the Googles. In 2013, Carlos Muñoz qualified 2nd as rookie. That is the most recent visit to the front two rows for a rookie.

[Matt]

Munoz also finished second. He finished second again last season and probably should have won. Now he's stuck with Foyt though, so he has been nowhere this month. I still think he might do well in the race.

What really holds back rookies is that they're rarely with the top teams. No rookies have run for Penske recently. Chilton was with Ganassi last season, but he's generally underwhelming. Munoz was the last rookie with Andretti other than Rossi, who qualified well, just not in the fast nine.

[Penfold]

Good run for Button in FP2, just a few hundredths off Stoffel's best.  The Van Door needs to find some extra pace for quali lest he be bested by some retired bloke who's had just a few hours in the car.

[Penfold]

Kimi!  Now go on and win the race.

[Chrill]

So Button peed in Alonso's seat, flipped Wehrlein up on the side (impressive!) and then drove off with three wheels. Well done.

Button has a grid penalty for his next race. I assume it will not be served.

Ericsson crashed out when overtaking the safety car, but then again... no, no defending that. Worst move of his career, perhaps. Awful. It was a great race up to that point, pitting and emerging ahead of both Ocon and Wehrlein and Button.