Auto-Racing @ MieNet: Details Worthy of Note in the Formula One 2004 Season: GP of Monaco

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Worthy of Note in Monaco

The first GP of Monaco was held in 1929. A few drivers have written special chapters in the history of this Grand Prix:

Graham Hill (Great Britain), who was nick-named Mr. Monaco, as a result of his five wins there, and

Ayrton Senna (Brazil), who currently holds the record of victories in Monaco, having won six times between 1987 and 1993.

Michael Schumacher has equalled Hill's five Monaco wins. Can the German equal, or surpass, Senna's six?...

Though for quite different reasons, it is worth mentioning Jean Pierre Beltoise (France), who also made history in Monaco, in 1972, as the winner of one of the most chaotic F1 Grand Prix.

For the first time, in his seven years of F1 racing, Jarno Trulli (Renault) started a GP from pole.

Previously, the Italian had come close to setting his first pole in four GP's which he started from P2: Monaco and Belgium, in 2000, and Malaysia and Great Britain, in 2003.

Among all drivers who have conquered at least one pole, Trulli is the one who has taken the longest to set his first F1 career pole: 117 GP's. The mark previously belonged to Thierry Boutsen (Belgium), who had lined up for 114 GP's before conquering his first pole.

Trulli's is the first pole in five years, for an Italian driver. The last had been Giancarlo Fisichella's in the 1998 GP of Austria, for Benneton (now Renault).

Takuma Sato's P7 is the best ever GP start for a Japanese driver in Monaco. He is actually the first to start among the top ten: Satoru Nakajima and Ukyo Katayama set P11 in 1991 and 1994, respectively, Aguri Suzuki set P15 in 1990, Tora Takagi and Shinji Nakano set P19 in 1999 and 1998, respectively, and Taki Inoue set P26 in 1995.

Ralf Schumacher (Williams), who has endured a tough start of Season, had a bitter-sweet qualifying experience. When he finally managed an excellent Qualifying result (the second fastest time), he had to line up at a lowly P12, following the penalty for an engine replacement on Thursday.

The entire Williams-BMW team, in fact, have had a tough first half of the Season. (Check the GP of Canada and the GP of the USA, as well.)

This is the first time, since Hungary, 2003, that no Ferrari occupies the front row!

Coincidentally, the Grid for the 2003 Hungarian GP had a Renault (Alonso) on pole, the second best Qualifying time also set by Ralf Schumacher (Williams).

The Ferrari's then lined up fifth and seventh (Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, respectively), whereas now, in Monaco 2004, M.Schumacher started ahead of team-mate Barrichello, in fourth and sixth, respectively.

M.Schumacher's P4 is his worst Qualifying since Japan 2003, when he started as far back as P14.

It is not unusual for the Monaco GP to be incident-packed.

This year's incidents included a couple of odd collisions in the tunnel, mid-way through the race: Montoya and M.Schumacher, and R.Schumacher and Alonso. Both M.Schumacher and Alonso looked quite frustrated at having to withdraw from the race the way they did.

Additionally, Takuma Sato's engine blew up in a huge cloud of smoke, which caused a number of drivers to crash, for sheer lack of visibility.

Fisichella's crash was the most serious of these, as the Italian's Sauber rolled over and ended up top-down, against the guard-rail. Luckily, the Italian was unharmed.

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