FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2011 (Monte Carlo)

What an exciting Monaco race! It's been a while since a Monaco race could be described as exciting, but this certainly was one of it. Perhaps the new 2011 race regulations have some part in this & there were some very good racing which, once again, not something you'll expect in Monaco.

Nevertheless, all the good racing was effectively made null & void towards the end of the race when it was red flagged due to the scary visit to the tire walls by Petrov. Fortunately he was ok but the race was effectively over when the cars were all reset at the grid based on the current race positions, and making it worst, according to the regulations, there are actually allowed to work on the cars & change tires!!!

By allowing this, all cars were effectively 'new' & any chance of overtaking would certainly have been nullified. In any case, SV deserves the win for essentially holding off the challenge from the charging FA in the tight streets of Monaco. JB also did a very good job of staying near the top despite losing a position from qualifying. And what is going on in LH's head??!! As much as I do admire his skills, he seems be behaving like a street racer (which perhaps may not be inappropriate given that this is a street race!) bumping into both F.Massa and Pastor Maldonado earning a drive-thru for the first one and a 20second penalty for the 2nd as the race was coming to an end. He does appear to be more desperate and aggressive, although I suppose this is expected of any racer to some degree.

Anyway, here are the results for the race:

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	78	Winner	1	25
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	78	+1.1 secs	4	18
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	78	+2.3 secs	2	15
4	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	78	+23.1 secs	3	12
5	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	78	+26.9 secs	12	10
6	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	78	+27.2 secs	9	8
7	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	77	+1 Lap	14	6
8	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	77	+1 Lap	15	4
9	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	77	+1 Lap	11	2
10	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	77	+1 Lap	16	1
11	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	76	+2 Lap	7
12	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	76	+2 Lap	13
13	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	76	+2 Lap	18
14	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	76	+2 Lap	17
15	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	75	+3 Lap	21
16	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	75	+3 Lap	23
17	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	74	+4 Lap	22
18	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	73	+5 Lap	8
Ret	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	67	+11 Lap	10
Ret	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	66	+12 Lap	19
Ret	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	32	+46 Laps	6
Ret	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	32	+46 Laps	5
Ret	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	30	+48 Laps	20
DNS	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2011 (Monte Carlo)
	Choice						Points	Previous	Total	Pos
TC	SV	25	JB	15	MW	12	52	255	307	1
DF	SV	25	FA	18	MS	0	43	261	304	2
C&AL	SV	25	JB	15	LH	8	48	248	296	3
NF	SV	25	JB	15	FA	18	58	238	296	4
R&SW	SV	25	JB	15	FA	18	58	223	281	5
VF	SV	25	MW	12	FA	18	55	221	276	6
EDS	SV	25	JB	15	MW	12	52	219	271	7
CCK	SV	25	JB	15	FA	18	58	209	267	8

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2011 (Catalunya)

Barcelona is usually a fairly straight forward race especially when you consider that this is one of the test track used by the whole F1 community. This would imply setting up a car is not completely difficult & that the drivers do know the track at the back of their hands.

Even then, it was quite a race. Fernando made a fantastic start & while he did lead the race for a while, it was not a surprise that he was unable to maintain it. Ferrari has once again taken a step back & was only able to get 5th.

Perhaps also, in part, since this is the country where bull fighters reign, the bulls have something to prove to them! And reign they did, with both the bulls locking out the front row but with SV eventually taking the chequered flag (no surprise there!). Schumi made some progress by taking 6th, finally being ahead of his teammate.

In any case, with this race, we too see a new leader in our little league.

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	66	39:03.3	2	25
2	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	66	+0.6 secs	3	18
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	66	+35.6 secs	5	15
4	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	66	+47.9 secs	1	12
5	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	4	10
6	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	10	8
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	7	6
8	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	65	+1 Lap	24	4
9	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	12	2
10	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	14	1
11	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	65	+1 Lap	6
12	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	16
13	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	65	+1 Lap	17
14	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	65	+1 Lap	11
15	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	65	+1 Lap	9
16	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	64	+2 Laps	13
17	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	64	+2 Laps	19
18	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	64	+2 Laps	18
19	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	63	+3 Laps	20
20	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	62	+4 Laps	23
21	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	61	+5 Laps	22
Ret	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	Gearbox	8
Ret	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	48	Accident	15
Ret	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	28	Gearbox	21

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2011 (Catalunya)
	Choice						Points	Previous	Total	Pos
DF	SV	25	LH	18	FA	10	53	208	261	1
TC	MW	12	SV	25	LH	18	55	200	255	2
C&AL	MW	12	LH	18	FA	10	40	208	248	3
NF	MW	12	SV	25	FA	10	47	191	238	4
R&SW	SV	25	LH	18	FA	10	53	170	223	5
VF	MW	12	SV	25	FA	10	47	174	221	6
EDS	MW	12	SV	25	FA	10	47	172	219	7
CCK	MW	12	LH	18	FA	10	40	169	209	8

2011 FORMULA 1 DHL TURKISH GRAND PRIX (Istanbul)

While my significantly better & super fit spouse & I were at around 10,728 feet (nursing some sore muscles), I thought that perhaps being closer to the heavens, it might give me some divine help with my prediction based on the qualification results which I was able get via my mobile at Laban Rata (phone signal was great!)

Alas it was not to be. The bulls continue to charge & charge they did, 1-2, no less. However, all is not lost (at least for me!) as the Ferrari is coming through albeit a bit slowly. The first podium for the year! It's a bit odd that it's taking the Prancing Horses some time to start prancing!

I actually did have a chance to watch the race. We managed to get back down all the way from 13,435ft, take a drive back to Kota Kinabalu, had a foot massage & still got back to the house, had a shower & still had time before the race! I did watched it a bit (in HD no less!) but decided to spent time catching up with family instead.

Anyway..... following are the results...

2011 FORMULA 1 TURKISH GRAND PRIX (Istanbul)
Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	58	30:17.6	1	25
2	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	58	+8.8 secs	2	18
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	58	+10.0 secs	5	15
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+40.2 secs	4	12
5	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	58	+47.5 secs	3	10
6	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+59.4 secs	6	8
7	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	58	+60.8 secs	9	6
8	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	58	+68.1 secs	7	4
9	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	58	+69.3 secs	16	2
10	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	58	+78.0 secs	24	1
11	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	+79.8 secs	10
12	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	58	+85.4 secs	8
13	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	12
14	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	15
15	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	57	+1 Lap	11
16	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	17
17	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	57	+1 Lap	14
18	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	57	+1 Lap	19
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	56	+2 Laps	18
20	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	56	+2 Laps	23
21	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	55	+3 Laps	22
22	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	53	+5 Laps	20
Ret	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	44	Retired	13
DNS	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	0	Gearbox	21

2011 FORMULA 1 TURKISH GRAND PRIX (Istanbul)
	Choice						Points	Previous	Total	Pos
C&AL	SV	25	MW	18	LH	12	55	153	208	1
DF	SV	25	MW	18	LH	12	55	153	208	2
TC	SV	25	MW	18	LH	12	55	145	200	3
NF	SV	25	MW	18	LH	12	55	136	191	4
VF	SV	25	MW	18	NR	10	53	121	174	5
EDS	SV	25	LH	12	FA	15	52	120	172	6
R&SW	SV	25	NR	10	FA	15	50	120	170	7
CCK	SV	25	NR	10	JB	8	43	126	169	8