Main Menu This Week     Grand Prix Driver Pos Team Pos Austria Monaco Canadian European French British GGG		| GGG Home   | Index   | Info   | This Week   | Diary   | News   | Email GGG  Monaco Grand Prix Preview 24/05/2001   Thursday Practice Friday Off  Saturday Qualifying    Monaco View : The 59th Grand Prix from a country that is smaller (1.5 sq. miles) than London's Hyde Park and most other Grand Prix circuits. The track layout remains unchanged other than a few minor corner alterations and a gradually lengthening tunnel. The Loews Hotel changed its name to the Grand and so Loews hairpin has become the Grand Hotel hairpin which just doesn't seem the same. Still though, the Rascasse Bar (where Rascasse corner gets its name) is the best place to drink beer on a sultry summer night. Senna won here 6 times, 5 of those in a row from '89 to '93, helping McLaren to go way out in the lead here with 11 victories. Graham Hills five victories (the last at age 40) helped Ferrari into second place with 7 wins and Lotus into third with 5 wins. Prost and Schumacher have four each. Last Year's Result 1 David Coulthard McLaren 1 hr 49:28.21 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari + 17.89 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Benetton + 18.52 4 Eddie Irvine Jaguar + 1:05.92 5 Mika Salo Sauber + 1:20.78 6 Mika Hakkinen McLaren + 1 laps 78 laps x 2.092 miles = 163.176miles Info : There have been several regulation changes since last year. Traction control should really help at Monaco, because of the slow lap, and it should come into place in most of Monaco's corners. That won't be a pleasant sound, the misfiring engine noise bouncing off the buildings. But the tyre war will make the cars faster as well. Michelin have a new soft tyre for Monaco. What will slow them down again are the substantial reductions to aerodynamics. This is the highest of high downforce circuits, but since last year, the front wings have been raised and the rear wings have been limited to just three elements, whereas in the past, one has seen as many as nine rear wing elements! So the rear ends of the cars are going to be very skittish, and traction control is going to be kicking in all the time. The last two years have seen single figure finishers and twice in 1960s there not enough people to claim all the points. In 1996, the wet race resulted in only 7 cars crossing the line but it is not expected to rain this year. Having said that, Verstappen at 300-1 in a car that will make to the end seems a good bet. Weather : Prediction of clear skies for Sunday Team Stats To Date: Ferrari Schumacher has out-qualified Barrichello 6 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.295 Schumacher's average qualifying position 1st, Barrichello's 4th From 12 starts, Ferrari have finished 9 times (75%) and in the points 9 times (75%) McLaren Hakkinen has out-qualified Coulthard 4 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.182s Hakkinen's average qualifying position 3rd, Coulthard's 5th From 12 starts, McLaren have finished 9 times (75%) and in the points 8 times (67%) Williams Schumacher has out-qualified Montoya 5 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.524s Schumacher's average qualifying position 2nd, Montoya's 7th From 12 starts, Williams have finished 3 times (25%) and in the points 3 times (25%) Benetton Fisichella has out-qualified Button 5 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.429s Fisichella's average qualifying position 19th, Button's 21st From 12 starts, Benetton have finished 8 times (67%) and in the points 1 time (8%) BAR Villeneuve has out-qualified Panis 3 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.098s Villeneuve's average qualifying position 9th, Panis' 11th From 12 starts, BAR have finished 8 times (67%) and in the points 3 times (25%) Jordan Trulli has out-qualified Frentzen 5 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.206s Frentzen's average qualifying position 8th, Trulli's 6th From 12 starts, Jordan have finished 8 times (67%) and in the points 6 times (50%) Arrows Bernoldi has out-qualified Verstappen 4 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.024 Verstappen's average qualifying position 16th, Bernoldi's 17th From 12 starts, Arrows have finished 5 times (42%) and in the points 1 times (8%) Sauber Heidfeld has out-qualified Raikkonen 4 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.192s Heidfeld's average qualifying position 10th, Raikkonen's 12th From 12 starts, Sauber have finished 8 times (67%) and in the points 5 times (42%) Jaguar Irvine has out-qualified de la Rosa 2 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.566s Irvine's average qualifying position 13th, de la Rosa's 18th From 12 starts, Jaguar have finished 5 times (42%) and in the points 0 times (0%) Minardi Alonso has out-qualified Marques 5 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 1.082s Marques' average qualifying position 22nd, Alonso's 20th From 12 starts, Minardi have finished 6 times (50%) and in the points 0 times (0%) Prost Burti has out-qualified Alesi 2 times this season Average gap between drivers in qualifying: 0.360s Burti's average qualifying position 15th, Alesi's 14th From 12 starts, Prost have finished 9 times (75%) and in the points 0 times (0%) Thursday Practice 1 HAKKINEN McLaren 1:19.853 2 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari + 0.463 3 R.SCHUMACHER Williams + 1.085 4 BARRICHELLO Ferrari + 1.106 5 TRULLI Jordan + 1.195 6 COULTHARD McLaren + 1.238 78 laps x 2.092 miles = 163.176miles Thursday Practice It was an eventful morning in Monaco, with a number of drivers hitting the barriers of the tight street circuit. Juan-Pablo Montoya brought out the red flags with just fifteen minutes of the day's action remaining, when he hit the barriers and was forced to leave his car stranded at La Rascasse. Marshals cleared the stricken Williams quickly, and the session was interrupted for less than five minutes. The Colombian finished 10th fastest. Almost all the teams are fielding new aerodynamics packages this weekend. A number of drivers took the opportunity to practice starts this morning, as teams decide whether or not to use launch control on Sunday Friday Off Only the boys in the paddock are working today. The drivers are all doing their sponsor bit by hosting parties all over Monaco. Eddie Irvine is taking the helicopter to Milan, just over a coulple of mountains, to do the same. Saturday Qualifying 1 COULTHARD McLaren 1:17.430 2 M.SCHUMACHER Ferrari + 0.201 3 HAKKINEN McLaren + 0.319 4 BARRICHELLO Ferrari + 0.426 5 R.SCHUMACHER Williams + 0.599 6 IRVINE Jaguar + 1.002 7 Montoya Williams + 1.321 8 Trulli Jordan + 1.491 9 Villeneuve BAR + 1.656 10 Fisichella Benetton + 1.790 78 laps x 2.092 miles = 163.176miles Saturday Qualifying David Coulthard took a dramatic last minute pole for the Monaco GP. The McLaren star stole the top spot from Ferrari rival Michael Schumacher in the final minute of the qualifying hour, and the duo take the front row with team mates Hakkinen and Barrichello behind. Eddie Irvine was an impressive sixth fastest, the Jaguar star delighted to finally break his pattern of qualifying 13th! After an incident packed weekend of practice accidents, the qualifying session was reasonably uneventful, with most drivers keeping their cars on the road. Heinz-Harald Frentzen was a noticeable exception however, the Jordan driver spinning out at the end of the hour and ending the day 13th. Team mate Trulli was eighth. Eddie Irvine said: “That is about as good as it gets. The car ran perfectly, the team did a great job and I got four clear laps. The new aerodynamic package has given us the edge that we needed to get closer to the front runners. I love this place. This circuit has always been good to me and to have put the car on the third row is absolutely fantastic. "