Jarno Trulli wins Monaco Grand Prix
A masterful performance by Jarno Trulli gives him the best Grand Prix win of every season: The Monaco Grand Prix, his first ever.
Complete domination from the Italian driver for the entire weekend, who wins the race from pole position to finish, a flawless drive that not even a last minute bid by young and Monaco resident Jenson Button in the last five laps would threaten.
Jarno, a Monaco resident himself looked very much in control throughout the entire race, with razor sharp reflexes as he would go over the chicane curbs as if they were just part of the flat pavement.
After an aborted start due to Olivier Panis stalling his Toyota not even reaching his start-box position...
The re-start saw both Renault drivers catapult from their respective grid positions (1st & 3rd.) to take first and second with BAR-Honda drivers Jenson Button and Takuma Sato in tow. Sato had an absolute rocketing start from his 7th position (fourth row) to get ahead of Raikkonen, who himself got ahead of Michael Schumacher, and Barrichello.
Sato's stellar start came to an abrupt and short end with his engine exploding around Tabac, (a 90 mph corner) on lap three, thus leaving a trial of thick white-bluish smoke behind him at the exit of Tabac blinding all behind him and creating major mayhem.
Giancarlo Fischichella could not possibly see the McLaren of David Coulthard and rammed into David's car, catapulting the Sauber into the air and slamming it against the Armco barrier upside down, landing at a 45 degree angle against the barrier...
Giancarlo escaped serious injury, as the accident was somehow reminiscent of Francoise Cevert's fatal crash in Watkins Glenn during practice for the 1973 US Grand Prix when his Tyrrell crashed and bounced to the opposite side of the track landing upside down against the Armco barrier, killing Francoise instantly...
grandprix.com
This forced the entry onto the track of the emergency car, (for the first time in this season), while course workers cleaned the debris... the race resumed on lap 8.
Lap 18 saw Jenson coming in for the first re-fuel and tire change, five laps later Jarno from first came in, the stop was flawless and rejoined the race still holding the lead. Michael Schumacher's Ferrari crew once again assisted the German gain two places from Raikkonen and Button after his stop... (This time around not enough for the lead, as in the previous two races).
Raikkonen was called in by his engineers as they saw something in the telemetry that possibly would have blown the engine, so they retired him before another Sato-like incident.
This brings an interesting point as it appears that several drivers reported having seen Sato's engine start to 'fume' before the re-start... Luckily this time around with no fatal consequences, other than the drama of Giancarlo's accident. The question is... why the Honda engineers did not called Sato in, particularly on a circuit like Monaco as there is no possibility to run-off and spill the dead engine's oil other than on the track itself...
As the race progressed and past the half way mark (lap 43 of 77), Trulli and Alonso looked solid to have a super-Renault weekend, there was still one more re-fuelling stop to contend with and Schumacher loomed in third place not far from the Renault duo, yet Jarno and Fernando looked too strong for Schumacher's threat... however, knowing Michael’s never die attitude, one could never know...
Jarno and Fernando started passing back-markers, one of them was second fastest qualifier (on the track, sans penalty) Ralf Schumacher...
Inexplicably... Alonso slid off during his passing attempt inside the tunnel... with limited view of the incident (given the position of the cameras and light available, one cannot easily determine whose fault really was...
Ralf claims Alonso passed him in a spot he should not have, (due to the so called "marbles" i.e. tire debris that accumulate on the outside of every corner as the race progresses)... while true... it simply does not make sense that Alonso would initiate the pass, BEFORE the accident spot, probably at the entrance of the tunnel without him knowing he would be able to calculate if he would complete the pass without harm...
Alonso claims that after seven corners, Ralf kept ignoring the blue flag (meaning there is a clearly faster car behind the driver the flag is shown to, in his case Ralf)... Fernando further says that Ralf allowed the pass and as Fernando was making the pass, Ralf re-accelerated, leaving Fernando no place to go but the dreaded marbles and simply ran out of track hitting the Armco barrier at probably 160 mph or so... throwing away a perfect weekend for Renault and Fernando's certain second place in Monaco.
In all honestly, the logic of the situation favors Fernando's version of the events, however, the sight, (or whatever available sight of the accident, given its location), cannot confirm it... so one is left to wonder if Fernando simply made a judgment error in his frustration not to be able to pass Ralf, (Jarno had already passed Ralf and was getting away from Fernando), or as Fernando claims, Ralf re-accelerated and gave no place to go...
Hard to say.
For the second time, the emergency vehicle came out in order to clear off the Renault's remains, this opened the race once again, Michael Schumacher was now in the lead with one more re-fuel stop left... given the emergency car presence on the track (thus a yellow flag condition, meaning no-passing), most drivers immediately went in to re-fuel, including Jarno from P-1... Schumacher and Barrichello chose NOT to stop, the strategy being that with no passing allowed, (as long as the emergency car was in) and Jarno and Button having gone into the pits to re-fuel, Michael was now in the [temporary] lead immediately behind the emergency car... and although Ross Brawn and Jean Todd claim Michael "could" have had enough fuel to complete the race, the reality, (as evidenced by Barrichello's last refuel stop after all this), was he still needed one more stop, whereas Jarno and Jenson, were 'good to go' to the end of the race...
Another Michael Schumacher extraordinary win out of the clutches of the Renault? the possibility was certainly there... admittedly, Michael still had to stop for re-fuel, (and so did Rubens -a possible pawn to use in order to frustrate any attempts by Jarno to put on a set of impressive super-fast laps), indeed a definitive possibility... So as the emergency car was getting ready to get out of Michael's way... the opportunity, as thin as it were, it was still there
Then...
More of the unexpected took place.... ironically, in the very same spot where Alonso had ended his race, a couple of laps earlier...
Once again... inexplicably, Michel Schumacher slammed on his brakes locking the left front wheel... guess who... immediately behind Michael.... yep... ultra-arch-rival, JP Montoya....
As Michael all of a sudden locked his front wheel... it caught JP by surprise, who immediately veered off-line to avoid a collision... then more illogical stuff... surprisingly, Michael simply 'closed the door' on Montoya, squeezing him against the Armco barrier on the right side... to the point where JP's left front tire touched the Ferrari's right rear tire, thus throwing Michael's car against the barrier in the opposite side and ripping-off one of the Ferrari's front wheel...
The 'idea' being that Schumacher was 'warming-up' his tires and brakes for the re-start... [to the point of putting a flat spot on the front tire by locking it up???] -I very much doubt that- (more later)
Montoya was able to go on finishing fourth...
After these events, the race settled. Jarno continued unsettled by all the commotion of both accidents and drove the rest of the race without errors to earn a well deserved and maiden GP victory... in the best of the season, The Monaco Grand Prix...
Jenson Button in the last five laps closed the gap to less than a second, to no avail, as in Monaco, passing is an entirely different affair than merely 'closing the gap'
As Jenson was closing on Jarno, one could not avoid thinking of that epic victory by Jochen Rindt over Jack Brabham in the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix... when Rindt, literarily drove in the closing laps as if 'possessed' closed on good old Jack. In the last lap, both drivers were nose to tail, with Jochen charging for all the marbles, this got to Jack, who made a costly mistake in the absolute last corner (Anthony Noghes) causing him to hit the straw bales (YES, Those were the days!) and allowing Rindt to take the race from Brabham, who was able to re-join and take second place....
grandprix.com
So in the end... it was Trulli from Button, Barrichello, Montoya, Massa, da Matta (finally!), Heidfeld and Panis in the point paying positions with poor Baumgartner, although finishing the GP for Minardi, only just outside the points....
An event-filed event with unexpected results and somehow bizarre accidents.... (More on this later) |
