May 16, 2010

2010 Monaco Grand Prix



Weber was just in a class of his own today, he just put the hammer down lap after lap, it was fantastic to see. Too bad we were deprived of a duel between him and Alonso, the only other driver out there who seemed to be racing.

Schumacher? Did he come back with all his tricks more than his speed? Towards the race you could clearly hear Alonso's Ferrari had an "off" engine note yet Schumacher could not make a dent in the gap. I think the penalty he got was well deserved, for him and for the team who told him to go ahead with the dodgy move. If you do want to put a less negative spin on the incident, perhaps you can see it as a sign that "grandpa" Schumi is still as ruthlessly competitive as ever.

Speaking of team errors, is it just me who's amazed at how relatively little play Mclaren's incredible goof got in the motoring press? The result is Button now dropped to 4th in the championship and Alonso, who started from the pit lane today, only three points down from Webber and Vettel. Hmmm... how many times did I see that Singapore fuel hose episode ridiculed?

Anyway, how cool to see F1 cars so close you can smell them. Below is a surely way too big gallery of pictures I shot today. Indulge me, it's not every day I get to do play like this. Also, a video clip, so you can get a feel for the sounds... enjoy it, I had a blast getting all this material to share!






Revised race results

Pos Driver Team

1. Webber Red Bull-Renault
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault
3. Kubica Renault
4. Massa Ferrari
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
6. Alonso Ferrari
7. Rosberg Mercedes
8. Sutil Force India-Mercedes
8. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari
11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari
12. Schumacher Mercedes
13. Petrov Renault

World Championship standings, round 6:

Drivers: Constructors:

1. Webber 78 1. Red Bull-Renault 156
2. Vettel 78 2. Ferrari 136
3. Alonso 75 3. McLaren-Mercedes 129
4. Button 70 4. Mercedes 78
5. Massa 61 5. Renault 65
6. Kubica 59 6. Force India-Mercedes 30
7. Hamilton 59 7. Williams-Cosworth 8
8. Rosberg 56 8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 4
9. Schumacher 22
10. Sutil 20
11. Liuzzi 10
12. Barrichello 7
13. Petrov 6
14. Alguersuari 3
15. Hulkenberg 1
16. Buemi 1

All timing unofficial

14 comments:

  1. I think the real problem with the Schumi penalty was a badly written FIA rule. Ross Brawns explanation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQerOq_7DcA) sounds perfectly plausible to me. To me its just an F1 team exploiting a loop hole in the rules like when they served a stop-go penalty after the finish at Ferrari.

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  2. Awesome Pics AC!! Great job!

    On this one, I give the benefit of the doubt to the Old guy MS. As competitive as ever tried to exploit with Brawn a loophole in the rules. Fair point... the written rules are screwed... What should be done? Reword the rules and leave him in 7th.

    Funny how now everyone is awakening to the real personality of the Hammy. He just can't contain it anymore...

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  3. Brilliant shots. Thanks for sharing.

    -Freep

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  4. Well...too bad they dont care much about written rules in f1 anymore these days. Its the FIA stewards who will make or break the deal.
    But anyways great shots. I know thats one experience you dont get anywhere else being so close to the cars in such a setting. Damn i miss being there now! duh!

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  5. Since when overtaking is a dodgy move? A badly written rule is a whole different thing.

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  6. Oh, I don't know...the rule seems pretty clearly written (40.13: "If the race ends whilst the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking."). The mistake I thought was that course workers should have flown yellows, not greens between the last corner and the finish. Shumacher could not do a thing about Alonso the whole race, him getting a 6th on a sneaky move like that would not have been fair. It would have been fair to just keep him in 7th (I WAS SEVENTH!!!!) but I guess the rules don't allow for that?

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  7. Amazing pictures and video!! How on earth did you get so close?!

    LMAO at I was seventh!!!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyr6VDaaWJE

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  8. That was from far away! CHeck this other clip :)

    HERE

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  9. AC:

    "The mistake I thought was that course workers should have flown yellows, not greens"

    That makes all the difference in the world, because that way you could assume that the safety car was called in during the final lap and the race was not intended to finish with the safety car nor with yellow flags.

    Now, if it was a mistake by the course workers, who should pay the consequences?

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  10. Hummm from the quality of the pics (and of the video) I'm going to guess Canon 5DmkII with a nice lens on one end and someone that knows how to take good pictures on the other end (with a nice badge to get very close to the track). Good job man!

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  11. @ JNM Not quite, an old NIkon D200, a Nikon 300f4 (great lens) and a so so 18-35. The video is from a Contour HD. And yes a nice badge (but as good as what the pros get). Remember 90% of taking great event pictures is simply, access... :)

    @DJNX Not the course workers, but race control. Still, thinking there would be racing for one corner is ludicrous. I keep maintaining the correct "punishment" would have been to just put MS back in 7th and call it a day, but I bet there is no mechanism for that, if he was guilty (he was, clearly) he had to get a drive through.

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  12. Ah, I thought the video was shot with the SLR as well, since it's all the rage to shoot HD video with 5DmkIIs those days (like the season finale of House for example (!)). D200 is a good camera (I have a D300 myself) and 'prime lenses FTW' is always true (as well as 'F8 and be there') no matter the camera ;).

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  13. Amazing pictures and video! Thanks for sharing them, I got to see a lot more than what I did on Speed.

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