Mercedes gambles, Red Bull blow it: Hamilton wins in Monaco.

 The slim margin between Hamilton and Ricciardo, but did Lewis cut the chicane on the previous lap?

You might not realize it reading UK racing media this morning but Hamilton's brave gamble to stay on full wet tires on a drying track, long after the rest of the field had switched to the intermediate Pirellis,  was not paying off.

Had the Red Bull not comically botched poor Ricciardo's stop, the Australian would have been a good 10 seconds up the road and set to win his first Monaco GP.

But you can't take too much credit away from Mercedes and Hamilton, gambling on the one stopper was a bold move and luck certainly favored the brave on Sunday.

Many fans will take objection to the move Hamilton used to block Ricciardo exiting the Neuvelle Chicane.  It was a similar move to the one Rosberg made in Spain with the difference that Ricciardo backed off from driving into that cone.    Stewards found he left a car's worth of space,  Ricciardo probably disagrees.   It's racing in Monaco,  Hamilton handing the champagne bottle to Justin Bieber before his team was far more tasteless.

Some people say cars should not race in Monaco....

Scuderia Toro Rosso Danil Kvyat in Free Practice 3

...some people just don't understand.

All the 2016 Nürburgring 24 Hours Live Streams

Schedule: PDF download

Live Timing

All the best to:

Dale Lomas:  SP2T #136 Manheller Racing Ford Fiesta ST  Qualified 141st  10:38.401



Gabriele Piana: V4 #141 Fixum Team Adrenalin Motorsport BMW E90 Qualified 131st 10:29.154


Sergio "Sergini" Negroni: #SP7 #68 HRT Performance Porsche 991 GT3 Qualified 48th 8:53.043



Alessandro Cremascoli: Cup 5 #302 Fixum TeamAdrenalin BMW M235i Qual:114th 10:14.932




English language feed and onboard cameras...

Ricciardo gives Mercedes and Ferrari the finger in Monaco practice.

Daniel Ricciardo was a bit tense on Thursday morning,  he had the latest spec Renault... no wait, Tag Heuer power unit...  yet that "plucky teen" from the land of tulips was ahead on the time sheets.

That probably accounted for his bit of a hissy fit towards Kimi Raikkonen,  guilty in his eyes of not moving over fast enough.   Sorry Daniel, it's free practice not qualifying.

Crash to the Max: the 2016 Spanish GP:

It was bound to happen, everyone expected it sooner or later.

If there's little doubt the silver cars would have dominated the race had they managed not to hit each other, the Nico-Lewis fratricide set up a magic moment in F1 history.

Hamilton fastest but Red Bull schools Ferrari in Spanish GP Qualifying.

A shocker at the worst possible time for Ferrari:  after no breaks in the first four races in Asia, a dramatic loss of performance in qualifying for  the first European meet will do nothing to quash the rumor mill.
Another dramatic management shakeup before the end of the season is unlikely but at the very least Ferrari will need to ask how it managed  1:22.7 in pre season testing but could do no better than 1:23.1 today.

What Drivers Think : Dion Von Moltke at Sebring

Stevenson Motorsport Audi R8 by Mike Johnson/Flikr

Dion Von Moltke  shares an inside look at how a professional driver might analyze their practice sessions and what the though process is in working with engineers to improve the car can be.

You might not have an engineer with you at the track but this video is well worth your time.

Great job Dion,  more please!



Want more?  

Pure Eye Candy

The Car vs Drones film is focused on visualizing the concept of Speed and Agility set within a cinematic battle of superiority between two nimble machines, a Holden Astra and a fleet of custom-designed Quadcopter Drones. Working with Vice and The Creator’s Project from the inception definitely influenced the treatment, lending the aesthetic more to a transparent lab experiment than a hyper-polished film.

From the initial brief, they wanted all the components of the exercise revealed, from the Drone Pilots to the various Technologies on set, exposing the Lighting setups, the Camera rigs and Computer Monitors displaying each machine’s trajectory during the film. They wanted the film to be an entirely honest rendition of the experience the team went through during the filming process; and to the naked eye if a person entered the studio stage everything they would see was captured in the final film..

From a stylistic standpoint, it was a natural choice to infuse Munko’s favorite medium into the equation, the element of Illumination. Light can be interpreted over time as a lateral, striking way to show speed when captured as a long-exposure — it’s the equivalent to a motion path in an animation program, it’s how we can quantify speed and maneuverability in an easily digestible visual representation. So they outfitted every machine in the film with addressable LEDs which allowed them to play with this exciting ingredient of light painting and the ability to manipulate their motion constructs, fully exploring form and composition which paved the way to an array of seductive visuals.

These various techniques of light manipulation positioned this entire exercise more towards an art film than anything else, allowing the dramatic, abstract competition between the drones and the Astra to create a beautiful dance of light, form, color, performance and technology..

Car vs Drones Credit List

AGENCY: VICE

EDITORIAL & CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Royce Akers
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: Georgia Field
PRODUCER: Ramona Telecican
PRODUCER: Katy Roberts
HEAD OF ACCOUNT SERVICE: Damien Miller
MANAGING DIRECTOR: Myki Slonim

AGENCY: AJF

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Glenn Dalton
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: George Freckleton

PRODUCTION COMPANY: AIRBAG

DIRECTOR: GMUNK
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Robert Stock
LINE PRODUCER: Kate Merrin
CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST: Steven Nicholson
TECH CHREOGRAPHER: Nick Wright
VFX SUPERVISOR: Travis Hogg

PROD. MANAGER: Justine Pitcher
DP: Ed Goldner
1ST AD: Eddie Thorne
CAMERA OPERATOR: Chris Child
1ST AC: Jesse Minter
2ND AC: Michelle Marchant
DATA WRANGLER: Ellery Ryan Jnr
VTR OPERATOR: Michael Gibbs
2ND UNIT DP: Travis Hogg
GAFFER: Con Mancuso
BEST BOY: Antonio Argiro
ELEX: Gene Van Dam
GRIP: Robbie Hansford
GRIP ASST: Jason Hansford
GRIP ASST: Jacko Panagiotou
SFX HAZE: Tim O'Brien
SAFETY OFFICER: Adrian Kortus
WORK EXPERIENCE: Georgia Conheady
WORK EXPERIENCE: Darcy Newton
PRECISION DRIVER: Davin Taylor
BTS DIRECTOR: Alex Watkins
BTS ASSISTANT: Ben Helweg
AERIAL CAMERA OP: Chris Lansell
DRONE PILOT: Sean "Radar" Kane
DRONE ASST: Josh Gray
BTS PHOTOGRAPHER: Mia McDonals
UNIT MGR: Richie Young
CATERING: Fringe Benefit
PRODUCTION ASST: Rob La Terra
PRODUCTION RUNNER: Dyllan Corbett
PRODUCTION RUNNER: Annelise Hickey
PRODUCTION RUNNER: Bridie Connolly

POST FACILITY: AIRBAG

EDITOR: GRAEME PEREIRA
COLORIST: CJ Dobson
MUSIC / SOUND DESIGN: Rohan Rebeiro

DRONE TEAM

DRONE CAPTAIN: Nick Jaffe
DRONE PILOT: Paul Paws
DRONE PILOT: Gavin Nash
DRONE PILOT: Alex Benn
DRONE PILOT: Tony Matulic
DRONE PILOT: Alex Doucas
DRONE PILOT: Dale Pearce
DRONE PILOT: Justin Power
DRONE PILOT: Ben Van Deventer

Time for Daniil Kvyat to get a time out.

Romain Grosjean was made to sit out of F1 for a race in 2012 for similar stupidity. Kvyat hit Vettel's Ferrari twice, possibly three times in the space of two turns at the Russian GP in Sochi. It looked like a drunken Russian dash cam video, one contact is a mistake that can happen, two is sheer stupidity.

Imagine the crash if the Toro Rosso on the right had not managed to avoid the out of control Russian. Still think putting a windscreen on cars is the most important safety priority?

Time for Danil to get a time out.