F1-Blog

McLaren Mercedes dominated at this weekends Monaco GP. Alonso and Lewis came home 1-2 in a dominant showing from the Grove based team.

The two McLaren’s lead from the start, and never looked like being surpassed all race. The Ferrari of Massa could not hang with the two silver cars, and made the race easy for the two at the front. Lewis had a few extra laps of fuel in the car, but struggled to maintain the race perfect pace of Alonso in the opening part of the race, and therefore could not capitalise on his longer first run.

Behind the two McLaren’s, Massa’s Ferrari showed that the struggling pace of the team was not just merely a practice and qualifying issue. Massa struggled to keep up with Lewis in the first section of the race, and after the first stop the Ferrari team resorted to trying the super soft tyres, in an attempt to give the Ferrari a little more pace. This did not work, and Massa could just not live with the pace of the front runners.

Fisichella brought his Renault home in fourth spot, after the car showed a boost in performance. Whether this is a trait of the car running in the high downforce configuration, or if it’s a genuine boost in performance for the team we will only tell when the car goes to the North American tracks.

The BMW team showed it still is a competitive team, even if they showed small signs of reliability and performance slowdowns. Robert Kubica brought his BMW in to fifth place (with a gearbox or drivetrain issue), his German team mate Nick Heidfeld brought the second BMW in sixth.

The Williams team looked a little more sorted this weekend as well. The car seemed to handle a little better, and looked to have the pace, at least in a high downforce configuration. Alex Wurz drove to seventh for the team.

The last spot in the points was the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen. He drove through from the back of the grid for the place, however it was no Michael drive, probably because the car was not as good this year.

So then, Lewis has still not managed to take his first win, however he is still joint top of the drivers championship alongside his team mate.

The American tracks are next on the calendar. Two more new tracks for Lewis. Can he show his talent and take his MP4-22 to the top of the podium. Time will tell, however, this weekend at least he was bettered by Alonso, showing Lewis that he is a two times World Champion for a reason.