Lap 11 Fernando Alonso, who wrote himself off after qualifying, is 10
seconds off the lead down in sixth. Button’s told over team radio to put him
under some pressure.
Lap 9 Oh dear, Charles Pic’s Caterham has caught fire. Marshalls on
with estinguishers post haste, but lots of smoke at the entrance to the
swimming pool. Pic’s trudging towards the pit lane, the day’s first
retirement.
Lap 8 Pastor Maldonado sets a new fastest lap time, but let’s all calm
down for a second and remember that he’s on a new set of tyres after going
into the pits after a lap.
Lap 6 Rosberg’s lead back up to 1.15 seconds. Webber and Vettel still
hot on Hamilton’s heels. Slightly surprising lack of chaos thus far, no
retirements in the early stages.
Lap 5 Just looking at the start again, it was decent from Rosberg but
Vettel came flying out. Hamilton had a chance to take the lead, but deemed
it too risky. The boy’s growing up… Oliver Brown on
Williams’ woes:
Lap 4 Conservative start from the two Mercedes in the lead. Vettel
scheming away behind Hamilton but he’ll have to bide his time. Rosberg’s
lead is down to less than a second, but only just.
Lap 3 Perez and Button were having a car-based set-to early on, some
minor collisions between the McLaren team-mates. Button has said “He’s
got to stop turning in on me, guys,” with regards to the Mexican.
Lap 2 So Rosberg’s held his lead, he’s 1.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
Maldonado and van der Garde into the pits, the Caterham driver lost his
front wing at Loews.
Lap 1 Go! Great start from Vettel, but Hamilton manages to hold him off
and keep his second place. Vettel’s right on his tail. There’s an the
inevitable first yellow flag of the day for something that’s happened behind
him.
13.01 Eeek, Jules Bianchi in the Marussia having to get a push
from his team off his 20th-placed grid position. Not a wonderful start to
the afternoon for him. He’ll start from the pit lane.
13.00 The drivers are off on their formation lap. We’re not far away at
all.
12.55 You can’t argue with Twitter’s Scott Smith. You could try,
but it wouldn’t be very enjoyable:
12.50 Some more celeb-spotting from our man on the ground Oliver
Brown:
Cameron Diaz in the middle of a giant photographers’ scrum on the grid.
Leonardo DiCaprio here, too.
He’s not wrong:
12.45 I think Lotus have won the cool ligger stakes this weekend,
they’ve got Daft Punk wandering around in their livery:
12.40 Blimey, Ron Howard is on the grid. Shouldn’t he be
fielding the torrent of delight / abuse about the new Arrested Development
episodes, released today?
12.35 Oliver Brown is living it up in Monte Carlo:
Paddock filling up in Monte Carlo under splendidly turquoise skies. Just
passed Nicole Scherzinger, Gladiator director Ron Howard and Jeremy
Clarkson, apparently the one person here who does not require an official
pass.
12.30 Anyone else reckon Tony Fernandes might have been had? He
sounds awfully defensive…
12.25 Mercedes Ross Brawn on tyre-test-gate:
We’ll have to wait and see what the stewards say. We’re pretty clear on our
position. We were approached by Pirelli and asked to take a tyre test, they
were concerned that the car they were using not representative. Within their
agreement with FIA they can ask any team to do a tyre test. We ran it past
the FIA. It’s not our responsibility to inform people, but there’s been no
intent to be secretive.
12.20 More high glamour from the pit-lane, it’s Tony Fernandes relaxing
with horsey dance merchant PSY:
12.15 Have just seen a fairly angry-looking Christian Horner
stating his case over the Mercedes tyre test:
We feel it’s not in line with rules, that’s why we protested before the
race today, regardless of the outcome. We just want clarity. I don’t think
we’re the only team that feels this way.
12.10 Here’s the first gratuitious glamour shot of our celebrity
superiors hob-nobbing in Monte Carlo:
Why it’s gravel-throated Spurs’ dreamboat Andre Villas-Boas and FHM’s
sexiest man in the world 2013 Eddie Jordan.
12.00 Some more on this brewing tyre conspiracy, from our main man Oliver
Brown:
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has reacted furiously to the
revelation that Mercedes conducted a private tyre test in Barcelona,
describing the German team’s actions as “not on, and not done in a
transparent way” as tensions in the paddock escalated ahead of Sunday
afternoon’s Monaco Grand Prix.Horner has lodged an official complaint after
it emerged on Sunday morning that Mercedes,
who have locked out the front row here in Monte Carlo with drivers Nico
Rosberg and Lewis
Hamilton, had carried out a test at the Circuit de Catalunya following
the Spanish Grand Prix. Under the sporting regulations in-season testing is
banned. However, it is understood in Pirelli’s tyre-supply contract it is
allowed private tests with individual teams should circumstances require.
With Pirelli due to slightly alter the structure of its rubber on safety
grounds from next month’s Canadian Grand Prix, and with tyres for 2014 due
to change considerably given the new engine regulations, the Italian
manufacturer felt it crucial the tyres were tested.
The full story is right
here.
11.45 Morning liveblog fans.
It’s that special day that will be engraved in the calendar of the hearts of
all motor racing fans. The biggest race of the year, the most extreme test
of any driver’s capabilities, the one we’ve all been waiting for.
Yes, it’s the Indy 500! Oh no, wait, that’s later.
I suppose we’ll have to make do with goings on in a quasi-nation tucked away
at the bottom of France.
Nico Rosberg is a man tantalisingly close to walking in his father Keke’s
footsteps this afternoon. He’s on pole by the skin of his teeth ahead of Mercedes team-mate,
near neighbour and facial hair expert Lewis
Hamilton.
The Red
Bulls of Messrs Vettel and Webber are behind them, and… well let’s
just have a look at the full grid:
1 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1min 13.876secs
2 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:13.967
3 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:13.980
4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:14.181
5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:14.822
6 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:14.824
7 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:15.138
8 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:15.383
9 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:15.647
10 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:15.703
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari 1:18.331
12 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:18.344
13 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:18.603
14 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:19.077
15 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 1:19.408
16 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:21.688
17 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:26.322
18 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1:26.633
19 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:26.917
20 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:27.303
21 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia No Time
22 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari No Time
You can probably discount everyone below Kimi Raikkonen, unless we have a 1996
situation of only three cars finishing.
OR CAN YOU? We’ll find out. Together. Stay tuned.