Romain Grosjean qualified 8th for the Monaco Grand Prix. The Haas car performed well despite a very near miss by Grosjean when he spun at Mirabeau during the second stage of qualifying.
Both Grosjean and the Haas car performed well. the car also performed well for Kevin Magnussen. KMags was on an absolute flier during Q2 when he was blocked on track by none other than the….. Languishing Lewis Hamilton. As a result, Magnussen will start the race in P13.
If ever there was an opportunity for the Haas F1 Team to campaign two cars in a third stage of qualifying, it was today. The cars of Force India driven by Sergio Perez and the Toro Roso car of Carlos Sainz both out paced the Haas machine of Grosjean. This keeps Haas third in that pecking order behind the leaders. But the car has out performed most fans expectations. Maybe I’ll read about brake problems, but I’ve not heard a peep of the “B” word…
Regarding Lewis……
I don’t think the problem was the car. He seemed to be over inputting everything. The oversteer had him sideways. And all of that vertical slip is time…. and if piled up in heaps. He knows this track as well as anyone. His teammate was first after the Ferrari’s. Lewis can tend to be a bit of emotional about things at times while in the cockpit. That emotion generally serves him well. We’ve seen Lewis tear up the field from the back of the grid. But no one does that at Monaco…
Regarding Pole…. Kimi Raikkonen was brilliant. 4/100’s of a second separate the first 3 cars of Raikkonen, Vettel, and Bottas. The Ferrari’s were delivering top performance for their drivers. Sebastian Vettel was grabbing all of the attention before qualifying. He, Like Hamilton, have a storied record at Monaco, but only has one win in 2011. Hamilton has won the Monaco Grand Prix twice, in 2008 and last years 2016 race.
As you may recall, Hamilton;s 2016 victory was tainted with the controversy of Justin Bieber. Upon taking his magnum of victory Campaign, he gave the first sip to Bieber. The 2017 Monaco Grand Prix promises to be a Bieber Free Event… as Lewis has no shot at a victory. His best hope is for attrition at the front of the field.
But for the Haas F1 team? They are in a good position to score double points.There will be some failures in front of Magnussen. He has had better than averages race starts and has been faster than his team mate at times. With some luck and effective strategy, the Haas team can see some success at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix.