hmmmm. I do like Monaco as it always gives some epic races.
Just looked at the replay after reading Greg's report. IMHO this was a similar situation to the Montjuice mega fest, and I was involved again !!
Apologies to all those who got snarled up, but at Monaco ( as at Montjuice ) there is nowhere to go when it all kicks off ahead.
Qualification was very tight, but vitally important at Monaco because passing other cars, even if they are slower than you, is almost impossible.
Greg's WR time ( afaik ) in the Brab was awesome and although prib was promising me a sub 1:20 lap I could not quite hook it up....but my pace was on race fuel, so I knew I should be able to match Greg's pace in the race. However Piero's time had dropped me to the 2nd row with about 15 mins to go. In my mind the 2nd row at Monaco is nowhere, unless it is a full length 67 GP race where attrition and fatigue will present opportunities. So I kept hammering around tantalisingly a few tenths off that front row, either because I made a mistake or came across other cars on their quali lap that was just not quite fast enough for my purposes. Always an issue around somewhere like Monaco, where finding space for a clear banzai lap is difficult.
Just in time I hooked up a 98% lap with no traffic and slipped onto the front row alongside Greg's Brabham...it looked all set for quite a battle
We could argue that the extended grid did its job and we all got through T1 ( well 99.5% did). Greg's unexpected attempt to test the armco that early in the race, left me with a huge dilemma that required some instant decision making.
My entry into St Devote gave me a clear view of the track through the apex and up the hill. Greg was obviously compromised against the barrier and would have lost some pace, but maybe not that much. I also knew that Piero and Tim would be at full attack right behind and expecting to give their cars the full wellie up the hill.
If I slowed and played it safe ( which at any other track I might have considered!), I would have been alongside Greg and the 2 of us would create a rolling road block. I reckon that there was a 70% chance that somewhere in the chasing pack the sudden slowing of cars in front would trigger contact and chaos.
At Monaco, from a driver's perspective, track position is everything because it is so impossible to pass, so you have to take any chance that presents itself to make a place. I could not pass up this golden opportunity and hope that I would get a better chance later in the race.
I nailed the gas and hoped that the cold rear tyres would yield at least some assistance ( how the heck do you get the tyres even remotely warm in the 69x cars???!!) I was also aware that Greg might detach himself from the barrier and bounce out into the centre of the track. So I used the pavement area to the right and aimed straight up the hill through Massanet to the crest, hoping that any bouncing over kerbs did not damage the suspension.
It almost worked!
In commom with the Montjuice "incident", this scrap fest was more to do with the lack of peripheral visibility and less to do with the close proximity of cars off the grid. Greg seems to have been more concerned with where Piero was, or was not, and attempted to keep to the left. This compromised his line into Casino and the rest is history as they say.
From that point on and after completing a somewhat bungled SnG where I managed to stop the Brabham with its nose buried in the piwall at 90 deg to the track, the race was one of damage limitation. I could see on Prib that Tim was steaming through the field and I was stuck behind a couple of cars that were not circulating quite as quickly as I wanted to
. It takes a lot of time and concentration to fashion a safe pass around Monaco, and I hate having to take the smallest opportunity and force the issue when racing for position. The smallest error by either driver will end in tears. A couple of cars ran wide or made big mistakes, but by then Tim was rubbing the paint off my gearbox!!. We had a few laps of fast racing until I made a small mistake and Tim took the chance. Then his progress was slowed by Sam ( I think) and I was back on his tail.
When Tim made his move to pass Sam I thought I was going to lose touch with him but unfortunately for Sam he was momentarily baulked by a car out of Casino Square and I was able to squirt my Brab down the outside and keep Tim in sight.
Our pace was carrying us closer to the front cars and I was hopeful of fighting for a podium spot after all of the problems.
But my setup in the Brab had been built on full race fuel and it seemed that as the fuel load got lighter the handling became less predictatble ( or maybe it was several "kisses" of the armco?? ). Anyway a half spin dropped me back and the harder I pushed the more ragged I became, until I forced myself to concentrate on making it to the flag, rather than risking it all on tatsing champagne.
Grats to Piero, Tim and Greg on great pace.