The 55th Monaco
Grand Prix
German lock-out as
front row falls to watchful adversaries.
In the closing moments of the most
eagerly anticipated qualifying session of the season
so far, Heinz Harald Frentzen, driving his Williams
FW19, clinched thefirst pole position of his
career. A rather frustrating hour was had by drivers
suffering generally from a lack of mechanical grip
and marginal downforce settings.
From the outset the
contest seemed to be between only four drivers, one
of which, Giancarlo Fisichella, driving with a
maturity and experience beyond his years, found
himself in a head to head with mid session pole
sitter Michael Schumacher, briefly attaining a
place alongside him at the front of the grid.
By contrast
Frentzen’s Team mate Jacques Villeneuve,
anxious to better his dreadful performance last year,
found it hard to get to grips with the circuit,
making life difficult for himself with a succession
of rather untidy laps. His speed was undeniable
however and on his fastest lap, with six minutes
remaining, he was up on Schumacher in both sections.
Distracted by the Tyrrell of Jos Verstappen
coming into the Anthony Noghes corner onto the
pit straight, his car twitched first left then right
coming within millimeters of the barriers and it
undoubtedly lost him the pole. Still recovering from
his mistake he booted the car unnecessarily hard into
Ste Devote after passing the start finish
line, losing his rear end and suspension in a hard
swipe with the Armco and came to a premature stop
dangerously close to the tunnel entrance five turns
later. His earlier time was sufficient to enable him
to keep third position. "I was going for it
and it wasn’t the car." He said,
seemingly unconcerned and rightly so, about the
presence of the Tyrell, "I made a few
mistakes in my last lap, mostly in the last corner
and lost enough time to not get pole."
The best was yet to
come, for even as Villenueve was coasting to a
standstill, Frentzen was starting his final set of
laps and, a little less than two minutes of
electrifying driving, saw the young German not only
topple fellow countryman and sparring partner
Schumacher from a superb pole held for most of the
session, but, after taking his first win at Imola
recently, again put his team mate on the defensive
and take a psychological advantage for the start of
tomorrow’s race. Commendably shy he just said, "A
very pleasant moment!" and added with a
smile, "I’m in a good mood!"
Schumacher, despite a
desperate bid in the last 5 seconds of qualifying and
in a Ferrari that seemed a lot happier on the twisty
circuit, was unable to better Frentzens time, ending
the hour 3 thousandths of a second slower than the
Williams time of 1.18.216. "It’s not
satisfying having been on pole for most of the
session," He said, "but I have
enough reason to be satisfied, being 2nd in front of
another Williams.... Mr V!"
Teammate Eddie
Irvine suffering badly from understeer, was
unable to get higher then 15th, his car, in complete
contrast to Schumacher’s looked unsettled and
unwieldy. In his almost musical Irish lilt, he
moaned, "We put new sets of tyres on but
nothing changed."
The glummest face in
the pitlane belonged to young Ralf Schumacher
who was unable to push his Jordan Peugeot to
the limits that his team mate and arch-rival had
achieved. "I am not satisfied with the
position I made-it is my fault I did not manage to go
any faster." He grumbled, "I am
frustrated because I wanted to do better." He
has indeed been outclassed by Fisichella all weekend
and whilst both have driven the circuit before,
albeit in lesser Formulas, the performance of the
Jordan team thus far at Monaco has been creditable to
say the least and should go a long way in helping
them to keep their supply of works Peugeot engines
for next year. Giancarlo, understandably was over the
moon, "I am very happy with this result, as I
had set myself a target of finishing in the top six,
so second row on the grid is Fantastic! For the race
I am really hoping to be on the Podium." For
a young driver to be saying such things after only 4
F1 races and in his first season, is confidence
indeed.
Ironically, the team
that have been instrumental in hanging this Peugeot
Sword of Damocles above Team Boss Eddie Jordan’s
head, did not fare so well. Shinji Nakarno under
threat of the sack by boss Alain Prost did
little to improve his job prospects by finishing
second to last in front of Jos Verstappen’s
tug-boat Tyrell. Even Prost number one driver,
Olivier Panis winner of this race last year,
could do no better than 12th, his soft compound Bridgestones
for the first time this season losing advantage to
the ‘hards’ that most of the Goodyear teams-with
the exception of McLaren-seemed to be running.
Damon Hill’s
lamentable progress downward in the TWR Arrows
A18, proceeded with vigour as, despite only being
a little under a second and a half off the pole time,
he only managed to beat his team mate Pedro Diniz in
the closing stages of the session ending his day
13th, but, as of late, still a regular finisher in
front of one or other of the Benettons. "I’m
not happy about being 13th," he stated,
"but everyone in the team made a good
effort." Starting to talk about his car, he
obviously thought better of it and merely said, "It’s
always fun to drive here though." New fires
will undoubtedly be lit this weekend regarding
rumours of the World Champion’s possible signing
with any number of teams for next season. Hill has
been practically invisible this weekend which will
not amuse his sponsors and he probably did not
envisage his Champion’s patina disappearing
quite so fast. Monaco, being the one circuit where
the Arrows may have had a look-in towards the front
of the pack, could signify an early Swan song for his
time with TWR.
Both the Benettons and
McLarens continued to disappoint. David
Coulthard finishing as highest Brit, in 5th and Mika
Hakkinen, who clipped the inside barriers exiting
the new Swimming pool complex, piscine, a
rather fortunate 8th. With Jean Alesi a row
behind and Gerhard Berger a distant 17th, the
pecking order in the top five teams is definitely
beginning to change.
Johnny Herbert,
despite heading the tables in the mornings warm up
and also on Thursday’s timed practice, only
managed seventh for the Sauber Petronas team.
Rubens Barichello
scraped into the top ten in a strictly average Stewart
Ford, but happily cosseted within his new team,
he could have come last and exuded positivism. "This
morning we had a problem with torsion bars on my car,
so we had to change the set-up for qualifying. In a
way we had to guess at another type of set-up."
Rather mystifyingly and, bearing in mind his final
position, he continued, "In the end the car
was even better than this morning, which just goes to
show how well the team are working. If you look at
the times you can see how little it would have taken
for us to be in the top six." Well, quite
but that’s what all the teams except one, are
saying. ‘If only....’
With barely 2 seconds
covering the first 17 places and only 3, the whole
grid, and despite the Williams and Ferrari’s
being regarded as unbeatable, cars have not been so
evenly matched since 1978, when the start of the
Turbo years and big money sponsorship enabled
enormous gulfs in chassis and engine development to
polarise the grid.
One has of course to
put the sensible cash on the likes of Schumacher,
Frentzen and (maybe not quite so much), Villeneuve.
But if you were a betting man, you’d go with
Fisichella for Victory and most definitely, as he
says, a podium finish. The processional nature of the
track will mean that other than co-operating back
markers, overtaking will be a pig and the closer a
driver can judge his distance from the barriers, the
more tenths of a second a lap will be gained.
To finish here will be
of the utmost importance not only for the teams but
for the sponsors who will be looking for their
investment to absorb and eventually reflect the
success that they all crave association with.
There has ever been a
dull race at Monaco and this looks to be no
different. There may even be an Italian flag hanging
over the podium.
Chris Richardson
Top 10 qualifiers:
H H Frentzen 1.18.21
M Schumacher 1.18.23
J Villeneuve 1.18.58
G Fisichella 1.18.66
D Coulthard 1.18.77
R Schumacher 1.18.94
J Herbert 1.19.10
M Hakkinen 1.19.11
J Alesi 1.19.26
R Barichello 1.19.29
