Monaco madness! Antonelli does it again, Oscar Piastri rises as SEVEN fail to finish<\/a><\/p>\nSelfless Lando sacrifices race for Oscar | 00:59<\/p>\n
HOW COOKED IS RUSSELL?<\/p>\n
On the toast scale, his bread is certainly moving from white towards a deep tan.<\/p>\n
At 68 points adrift and remarkably now down to third in the championship, there\u2019s no talking around the fact that Russell\u2019s championship campaign is in dire health.<\/p>\n
The lack of pace is one thing, and the Englishman talked openly after qualifying about the way he feels this year\u2019s car no longer suits his driving style, leaving him languishing while Antonelli excels.<\/p>\n
More decisive on Sunday, though, was a certain looseness \u2014 perhaps even a sloppiness, if you were being particularly critical \u2014 that seems certain to see him punished eventually.<\/p>\n
Twice he escaped the stewards clutches in the first part of the race \u2014 first for a possible start infringement and later for crossing the blend line on pit exit. On both occasions he was found to be just inside the rules.<\/p>\n
Unavoidable, however, was a penalty for speeding in the pit lane, which is always a slam-dunk offence.<\/p>\n
Though there is some consternation about the number of speeding penalties handed down in the race \u2014 more on that below \u2014 what happened next can\u2019t be explained away by the peculiarities of the pit lane speed gun.<\/p>\n
Russell pitted unexpectedly at the first safety car, but his team, unprepared for his arrival, started work on his car immediately after Antonelli\u2019s service was complete rather than serving the penalty first.<\/p>\n
It was a huge own goal. The punishment for improperly executing the infringement is a drive-through penalty.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Russell, his drive-through had to be served shortly after the red flag restart, dumping him out of the points.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe punishment doesn\u2019t fit the crime, P3 down to P14,\u201d he told Sky Sports before explaining that he had attempted to argue his case with the stewards during the red flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a 20-second gap behind me to [Pierre] Gasly. I probably gained 0.1 seconds through the pit lane with that software glitch and ended up losing 12 positions because of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really know what to say. It\u2019s two races in a row. It could have been I won the race last week, I could\u2019ve maybe been P3, P4 today. It\u2019s 40 points down the drain for things outside of my control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sixth placed qualifier George Russell of Great Britain and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team in parc ferme during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Of course it\u2019s not quite true to say his Monaco non-score was outside his control. He was told not to pit but boxed anyway, putting his team in a position to make an extremely costly error.<\/p>\n
He must share at least equal blame for his predicament \u2014 and what a predicament it is.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s almost three clear race wins behind his rampaging teammate after just six rounds. His pre-season title favouritism has been obliterated.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally we just need to keep going,\u201d Wolff said with a faint air of someone clutching at straws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a long championship. Last year everyone was saying this is [Oscar] Piastri\u2019s, and then it swung.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year Lando Norris had to turn around a 34-point deficit in nine rounds to win the title, a required score rate of 3.8 points per race.<\/p>\n
Russell needs 68 points in 16 weekends, or 4.3 points per weekend. Already his mountain is steeper \u2014 especially because it will require a sustained performance for the rest of the year to complete the climb.<\/p>\n
He can still win the title through the power of his own results, without needing any mistakes from Antonelli.<\/p>\n
But not only does Antonelli not look likely to make mistakes, he doesn\u2019t look beatable either.<\/p>\n
Russell\u2019s bread keeps toasting.<\/p>\n
Monaco track starts to break apart?! | 03:31<\/p>\n
WHAT WAS WITH ALL THE SPEEDING INFRINGEMENTS ANYWAY?<\/p>\n
The kernel of Russell\u2019s disaster was a bizarrely sensitive pit lane speed trap that triggered an unusual number of speeding penalties during the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Speeding penalties are rare, especially in Monte Carlo. Because the corner preceding pit exit is so slow, there\u2019s no need for drivers to try to be as late on the brakes as possible before hitting the speed limiter. Instead they actually speed up to the limit as they enter.<\/p>\n
And yet multiple drivers, and some more than once, were handed time penalties for exceeding 60 kilometres per hour in the lane.<\/p>\n
Russell might like to think he was the worse affected, though the sting for him was the non-serving of the penalty.<\/p>\n
The hardest hit was actually Pierre Gasly, who lost a chance to stand on the Monte Carlo podium because of a pair of speeding penalties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just heartbroken,\u201d an emotional Gasly told Sky Sports. \u201cI don\u2019t have the words. I have too much emotion to process, and I just can\u2019t get my head around what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just doesn\u2019t sound fair. Triple-checking with the team, they said the right speed in the car. On both occasions I put the pit limited way before the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were working so hard for this moment. For 10 years I try to grab every opportunity \u2026 we passed the road in third position in front of all the French people, and it gets taken away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Completely s***! Guys what the f***’ | 00:49<\/p>\n
Alpine confirmed after the race that it would request a right of review from the FIA.<\/p>\n
There was no clear answer as to why so many drivers seemed to unexpectedly trip the speed gun, but there are working theories.<\/p>\n
The detection tool is a series of average speed loops through pit lane, with speed calculated by how long it takes a car to travel a set distance.<\/p>\n
There was some speculation during the race that the tight lines taken by the drivers on entry or on exit effectively shortcut this average speed loop \u2014 that is, the drivers travelled less distance than expected, which showed up as them going faster than the speed limit.<\/p>\n
Some have also speculated that because drivers speed up to 60 kilometres per hour as they enter pit lane rather than slow down to below the limit, there may have been some instances of the limiter blipping to allow speed to fractionally increase beyond the limit, which would also trip the loop.<\/p>\n
The FIA system is reportedly accurate to within 0.1 kilometres per, so it wouldn\u2019t take much of a glitch for a driver to exceed the limit \u2014 and like the technical regulations, you\u2019re either in or you\u2019re out.<\/p>\n
It seems unlikely that Alpine would be able to recover Gasly\u2019s podium. Perhaps there would have been a chance had all the speeding penalties had been applied post race, but several drivers served their infringements during the Grand Prix \u2014 Hamilton and Piastri, for example \u2014 meaning their penalties are baked into the results.<\/p>\n
Assuming all offenders were penalised for the same reason, the FIA would only be opening another can of worms by allowing some drivers to escape punishment rather than enforcing the same rules \u2014 controversial or not \u2014 for everyone.<\/p>\n
‘Something is going to explode!’ | 00:55<\/p>\n
FERRARI\u2019S OFF-TRACK WIN<\/p>\n
Despite pre-weekend favouritism, Ferrari walked away from the Monaco Grand Prix with a mixed bag of results.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton was second \u2014 his best finish in Monte Carlo since winning the race in 2019 \u2014 but was never going to be anything more than second, such was the performance gulf to Mercedes.<\/p>\n
Charles Leclerc\u2019s day ended understeering into the barriers approaching the penultimate corner just minutes after Lance Stroll had made what looked like exactly the same error.<\/p>\n
Unusually for racing drivers, neither took the excuse of the track clearly breaking up in the braking zone, where a section of the public road had been recently resurface but wasn\u2019t standing up to the rigours of Grand Prix cars.<\/p>\n
Stroll blamed his car, which on Friday had also ejected teammate Fernando Alonso into the barriers.<\/p>\n
Leclerc blamed his \u201cf***ing brakes\u201d for catapulting him into the barriers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been very honest, and no matter how many mistakes I did, I would hate to look at myself in the mirror and see myself finding excuses,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cThat why I\u2019m always bluntly honest whenever I\u2019m in front of cameras, but I\u2019m not going to take any of it today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI touched the brakes and \u2026 on the front brakes it just broke a lot more than what I thought and in the rear brakes I had no deceleration at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I look like an idiot, and when you look like an idiot for a mistake of yours, it\u2019s fine, but it\u2019s borderline dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second placed Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Scuderia Ferrari sprays Champagne on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
He said he would try Hamilton\u2019s braking set-up from this weekend\u2019s Spanish Grand Prix in a bid to fix his struggles.<\/p>\n
But in remarkable late-breaking news on Sunday night in Monaco, Ferrari walked away with a small tactical victory.<\/p>\n
The FIA informed teams about its engine performance calculations for the year to date, and the Scuderia is in line for maximum concession, as the team had hoped.<\/p>\n
According to widespread reports, Ferrari\u2019s engine \u2014 specifically its internal combustion engine \u2014 is more than four per cent down on power relative to the best motor. It entitles the team to a higher cost cap spend and two in-season upgrades.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, however, Mercedes will be entitled to one upgrade, because the FIA\u2019s metrics found that Red Bull Powertrains has the most powerful motor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s an eight-to-10-month project,\u201d Hamilton cautioned. \u201cThat\u2019s not something we can just do next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after a tough start to the year, it\u2019s the sort of win Ferrari needed to keep the faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The more Andrea Kimi Antonelli wins races, the more history he makes. A flawless performance in Monte Carlo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[349793,12295,1724,64,63,349861,349856,349862,349866,143987,241769,106485,13275,512,349871,84696,36626,349851,349877,9239,349878,82605,349792,2057,817,845,349857,813,816,3875,349859,1806,14211,349865,282110,2328,1737,349864,349868,825,311702,927,321989,349869,176936,25586,77355,349852,349875,349853,28421,349860,82611,349854,25598,349858,2643,349873,349863,3595,164254,349870,349867,349850,85,349872,99282,13773,349855,349876,349874,4703,2062,9020],"class_list":["post-722013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aid-teammate","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-average-speed-loop","tag-bizarre-penalty-party","tag-blend-line","tag-braking-set-up","tag-braking-zone","tag-breakthrough-win","tag-championship-campaign","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-china","tag-clear-race-wins","tag-combustion-engine","tag-cost-cap","tag-detection-tool","tag-drivers-speed","tag-eastern-asia","tag-engine-performance-calculations","tag-engine-problems","tag-engine-troubles","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-finding-excuses","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-grand-chelem","tag-grand-slam","tag-grands-prix","tag-historic-win-piles","tag-italian-young-gun","tag-italy","tag-lando-norris","tag-lane-speed-gun","tag-lane-speed-trap","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes-driver","tag-monaco","tag-penultimate-corner","tag-performance-gulf","tag-pit-exit","tag-pit-lane","tag-pit-lane-speed","tag-possible-start-infringement","tag-pre-season-title-favouritism","tag-pre-weekend-favouritism","tag-red-flag","tag-red-flag-restart","tag-required-score-rate","tag-rostrum-appearance","tag-safety-car","tag-sensitive-pit","tag-sky-sports","tag-slam-dunk-offence","tag-software-glitch","tag-southern-europe","tag-speed-gun","tag-speed-limiter","tag-speed-loops","tag-speeding-penalties","tag-sports","tag-stewards-clutches","tag-team-game","tag-team-principal","tag-things-outside","tag-time-penalties","tag-toast-scale","tag-toto-wolff","tag-western-europe","tag-young-gun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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