After the enforced break caused by the cancellation of the Imola race due to the tragic floods in Italy, F1 is back as we get to the most motorsport-y weekend of the year - the Monaco GP and the Indy 500.
But that one’s covered elsewhere, we’re all about the most exciting qualifying session of the year as we idly wonder who is going to be bin it first in practice. I say it every year, but when that happens, the real stars of the show, thre marshals are going to be there and they are amazing. All our marshals are heroes, giving their time for free so the whole thing can happen but the Monaco marshals take things to a crazy level in terms of their focussed, practiced speedy track clearing. It’s like some kind of Marshal Olympics, they’re some sort of ninjas and I salute them all.
Like each year we also have to cope with the fact that the actual race is probably going to be…not that great. You can tell by how it inevitably generates threads about why oh why are we still racing here. As I say every year, you make your own fun, even if it’s having fun moaning about how rubbish it is.
But it isn’t ALWAYS dull. And when action happens here, it REALLY happens. I put this one together a couple of years ago but it is by no means exhaustive! Add your own!
Monaco's greatest hits
- Ascari crashing into the harbour. As a kid I was always vaguely concerned this might one day somehow happen. Didn't know then it wasn't just a theoretical possibility.
- 1982 and the race finish described by James Hunt thus: "Well, we've got this ridiculous situation where we're all sitting by the start-finish line waiting for a winner to come past, and we don't seem to be getting one!" Patrese blinked first and took the race win that seemingly no-one wanted. As a reminder, this was super boring for 98% of the running time…
- The 1992 duel between Senna and Mansell.
- Keke Rosberg winning in 1983 with horrifyingly blistered hands.
- Ayrton Senna and Stefan Bellof having storming debuts in 1984 in the wet.
- Ayrton Senna and his mystical experiences during the 1988 qualifying and more prosaic ones during the race the next day, crashing from the lead.
- Ayrton flying here in 1990.
- Only three (three!) cars finishing the race in 1996.
- Michael Schumacher being found guilty deliberately crashing in his qualifying to bring out yellow flags and therefore stopping Alonso beating his time.
- Fernando Alonso threatening to lie down before the cars at the race start like Arthur Dent protesting a bypass if the above wasn't punished.
- Nico Rosberg later being found not guilty of doing the same thing to Lewis Hamilton in 2014.
- Kimi breaking the heart of Adrian Sutil by crashing him out of a podium place in 2008.
- More positively from Michael, this was the scene of his last pole position winning time in 2012 even if a grid penalty meant he didn't get to keep it. Also this from 1996. A thing of wonder from one of the true greats.
- Hamilton crashing in 2008 and somehow winning
- Hamilton crashing about three times in 2011 and blowing up the world in his answer about why the stewards kept penalising him.
- Perez last year winning after crashing at the end of qualifying. (Kind of a recurring theme, huh) Also kind of a long fuse on that one for the Red Bull internal team dynamic.
- Many more things I've forgotten. Why not add more in the thread?
When is this on?
Don’t forget this all kicks of on Friday now, not Thursday.
All times BST:
FP1 Fri 1230
FP2 Fri 1600
FP3 Sat 1130
Q. Sat 1500
Race Sun 1400
e. PS It might rain on Sunday.