the times | Saturday May 28 2022 1GS 5
Monaco Grand Prix Sport
Race 7 Monaco,
Circuit de Monaco
Laps 78
Circuit length
3.337km
Race distance
260.286km
Lap record 1min 12.909sec
Lewis Hamilton (2021)
Tomorrow
TV Live on Sky Sports
F1/Main event from 1.55pm
Race starts 2pm
Highlights Channel 4,
6.30pm
DRS zone
Drivers Team Points
Constructors
1 2 3 4 5 6
Points
M Verstappen Red Bull 110
C Leclerc Ferrari 104
S Pérez Red Bull 85
G Russell Mercedes 74
C Sainz Ferrari 65
L Hamilton Mercedes 46
L Norris McLaren 39
V Bottas Alfa Romeo 38
E Ocon Alpine 30
K Magnussen Haas 15
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10
Red Bull 195
Ferrari 169
Mercedes 120
McLaren 50
Alfa Romeo 39
Alpine 34
>>>
Azerbaijan (Baku City
Circuit), June 12
Canada (Circuit
Gilles-Villeneuve),
June 19
Great Britain
(Silverstone Circuit),
July 3
Next three races
drivers’ standings, was quicker than the
Red Bulls of Max Verstappen — the
championship leader and the winner of
the past three races — and Sergio Pérez,
who were nearly fourth tenths back in
the second session. Leclerc will be
looking to keep that momentum going
into today and be on pole at his home
race for the second consecutive year.
A win for Leclerc would help him to
regain the lead in the championship,
and the best chance he has of that is to
start from the front.
Then, for the first time, he just needs
to do the easy bit — finish the race.
Hamilton, who finished 12th in the second practice session, struggled to cope on what he found to be a very bouncy track
CLIVE ROSE/GETTY IMAGES
time I’ve been out in the car. I think
we’ve all worn jewellery our whole
careers in F1 and it’s never been a
problem in the past and there’s no
reason for it to necessarily be a
problem now.”
Hamilton described the talks, which
will also include the race directors, as
“positive” but said that they were taking
away the focus from more important
issues within the sport.
“It is positive we are working with
them and they are accommodating a
little bit at the moment but we
shouldn’t have to keep on revisiting
this thing every weekend,” he said.
“We have definitely got bigger fish
to fry.”
Hamilton is not alone in expressing
his dismay at the FIA’s move to enforce
the ban on jewellery. While wedding
rings have been exempt, Kevin
Magnussen, of Haas, said he would
have worn his anyway and that it
should be up to the driver to take
responsibility.
“I’ll take a little bit of extra burn on
my finger to race in my wedding ring,”
the Danish driver said. “And if
something was going to happen,
something bad, I would want to wear
my wedding ring. It kind of feels bad to
take it off.
“With something like that, like
your wedding ring, let us take that
responsibility. There must be some way
to remove liability.”
CONTINUED FROM FRONT
have these super heavy cars and the
braking zones are different.
“It is crazy — it is 2022 and the tracks
aren’t as smooth when they are
resurfaced. Technology is still against
us, but I think we made some improve-
ments going into that session and when
you do put a lap together the grip
doesn’t feel too bad.
“It just [feels like] eyeballs coming out
[of] the sockets so we have some work to
do overnight and as I anticipated, we
are not as quick as the Ferraris or the
Red Bulls.”
Leclerc, who is second in the world
Hamilton: I
need elbow
pads on this
bumpy track
Rebecca
Clancy
Motor Racing
Correspondent,
Monte Carlo
Monaco is the ultimate test of a driver’s
skill. The tight, twisty track through the
streets of Monte Carlo is unforgiving of
even the smallest mistake. The differ-
ence between pole position and the
mechanics having to spend the night
rebuilding the car is mere millimetres.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc knows this
all too well. The 24-year-old, who was
born in Monaco, claimed pole last year
with his first run in the final qualifying
session only to crash moments later on
his second. He did not even start the
race on the Sunday.
Leclerc has, in fact, never finished a
race at his home grand prix. Crashes
and a lack of reliability have cursed him
since his first race in 2018 but he is
adamant that there is no such thing as
bad luck. He was impressive in practice
yesterday, when he topped the time
sheets in both sessions,, though per-
haps it would be wise to avoid telling
him that no driver has won a race this
season after leading at first practice.
Monaco, however, is unlike any other
grand prix on the calendar. For a start,
the race is not the most important part
of the weekend. Yes, that is when the
points are awarded, but it is the
qualifying session that really matters
because pure racing and overtaking is
almost impossible on such a narrow
track. With the cars this season bigger
and heavier than ever, racing has
become even more difficult.
When Lewis Hamilton was asked
what he expected from this weekend,
the Mercedes driver did not sugar-coat
his answer.
“We all know what kind of race it
is, the actual Sunday... it’s all about
qualifying,” the seven-times world
champion said. “Saturday is the day.”
Hamilton said teams needed luck
with strategy on race day, because
of the lack of opportunities for
overtaking.
Daniel Ricciardo, of
McLaren, who has been
on pole twice in Monaco
and won the race in
2018, described today
as “probably the
biggest day in F1 over
the year, if you get
it right”.
“Every circuit
requires full
commitment, but
this is another
[thing],” the
Australian said.
“There’s more
variables, there’s more factors, there’s
just something else. And you also don’t
really have time to think: there’s no real
long straights; there’s no fresh air
coming through because it’s so tight
and twisty through the streets.
“You feed off each corner. Every cor-
ner you do well, you link the next one
up, and it’s a pretty beautiful feeling. It’s
a privilege for us to race these cars
around here. It’s ridiculous. In the best
way possible.”
Ricciardo did not get it right yester-
day and crashed into the wall at the
swimming pool complex during the
second practice session, adding further
pressure to the 32-year-old’s position at
McLaren. Speculation is growing that
he could leave at the end of his season,
despite having a contract through to
the end of 2023.
His woes are being magnified by the
fact that his team-mate, Lando Norris,
is consistently outperforming him,
even when he has tonsillitis. The
22-year-old Briton is still recovering
from the virus and was excused from all
media duties on Thursday and yester-
day morning, to allow him more time to
recover. It certainly did not seem to
affect him as he was fifth-quickest in
both sessions. Ricciardo was last in the
second session, having completed only
two laps before his crash.
Hamilton also struggled. After a
strong outing last weekend in
Barcelona, the hope was that Mercedes’s
progress would continue but that was
not the case as the 37-year-old was only
12th-fastest in the second session.
Bouncing has been an issue for
Mercedes all season, but having seem-
ingly fixed their “porpoising” issue in
Spain, they yesterday struggled to get to
grips with the street circuit, which tends
to be bumpier than a traditional track.
“It’s so bouncy out here man, I am
losing my f***ing mind,” Hamilton said
over the radio during second practice.
“I need elbow pads in this cockpit it is
bouncing so much.”
“It is the bumpiest track I have ever
driven,” Hamilton said afterwards. “So,
one, that makes it difficult and, two,
our car bounces a lot. It is different
bouncing to what we have expe-
rienced in the past.
“It is in the low speed, and the
bumps in the track are mak-
ing it worse, so it is not a case
of learning how to drive the
track, it is just fighting
the car. Putting the lap
together is, wow, holy
crap... I have not experi-
enced it like that before.”
Hamilton said he did
not expect to be fight-
ing it out at the front
this weekend and said
his “battle” would be
to “try to stay ahead
of the McLarens”.
“I remember back in
the day, my first years here, a
light nimble car was so much
better,” he added. “But now we
Leclerc is yet to
finish a Monaco
Grand Prix