[Race] The GROAT - Round 1 - 2010 Melbourne vs 1982 Monaco

[crmalcolm]

2010 Melbourne
The conditions on the grid were wet before the race; the air temperature ranged between 26 to 29 °C (79 to 84 °F) and the track temperature ranged from 24 to 28 °C (75 to 82 °F). The race began at 17:00 DST (UTC+11). All cars started on the intermediate compound tyre. Virgin Racing nominated to start Glock and di Grassi from pit lane after replacing the fuel collectors on their cars because issues in qualifying forced them to run with more fuel than would be ideal. Trulli attempted to start the race from the pit lane after his Lotus suffered a hydraulic pump failure on the grid, but the team were unable to rectify the problem and Trulli did not start. When the race started, Vettel maintained his advantage heading into the first corner while Massa made a fast start to slot into second position ahead of Webber. Kubica had an excellent getaway, rising from ninth to fourth position by the end of the first lap. Hamilton made up three positions over the same distance. At the first corner Button's front left wheel made contact with Alonso's right rear tyre, causing the Spanish driver to spin and dropped to 22nd position. Schumacher was collected by Alonso and sustained a broken front wing. Further around the lap, Kobayashi damaged his front wing from contact with another car at turn three, which became detached going into turn six and made heavy contact with the side of Hülkenberg and Buemi. The incident prompted the deployment of the safety car. Schumacher drove into the pit lane to fit a new front wing.

Racing resumed at the end of lap four when the safety car pulled into the pit-lane with Vettel leading Massa. Kubica attempted to pass Webber but the Australian maintained his position by moving to the outside. Schumacher attempted to pass di Grassi for 19th position on the same lap. di Grassi managed to retake the position from Schumacher by driving around the outside of Ascari corner, but Schumacher got ahead of di Grassi on the pit straight. At the end of the first racing lap, Vettel led Massa by 1.1 seconds, who in turn was followed by Webber, Kubica, Rosberg, Button, Hamilton, Sutil, Barrichello and Petrov. Hamilton passed his teammate Button for sixth at turn three on lap six. Senna stopped on the circuit to retire with an hydraulic failure on the same lap. Massa slowed on the next lap which caused Webber to move into second. Button called his team to bring out slick tyres and endured a large amount of water to enter the pit lane on lap seven. Button slid off the circuit at turn three, while Vettel had a 1.2 second over teammate Webber by the eighth lap. The track started to dry which resulted in most of the field pitting for soft dry tyres. Vettel made a pit stop from the lead on lap nine. Webber took over the lead for one lap before his pit stop on the tenth lap. He went off at the first corner, and fell behind Massa. Petrov missed the braking point for Whiteford corner on lap ten and spun off into the gravel trap which caused his car to become beached and retired. Sutil briefly took over the lead until he made a pit stop on lap twelve and got out of his car to retire because he lost power in his engine.

Thus, Vettel regained the first position as he began to slowly pull away from Button who was 1.7 seconds behind Vettel on lap 13 with Kubica a further two seconds adrift in third. Alonso had moved into tenth position by lap 13 and gained a further after he overtook de la Rosa at turn nine on the same lap. Alonso passed Barrichello for eighth on the 14th lap and set a new fastest lap on the following lap, a 1:31.573. Hamilton and Webber passed Alonso for fifth and sixth positions at the start of lap 16. Webber attempted to defend fifth place from Hamilton but went wide into the gravel trap at turn three and fell down to eighth. Massa immediately overtook Hamilton around the outside on the same lap. Hamilton started to battle Massa (who had graining on his right-rear tyre) for fifth position with Webber and Alonso starting to close the gap to the two drivers. Massa slid his car at turn 16 at the end of lap 21 which allowed Hamilton to pass Massa on the inside at Brabham corner although Hamilton sustained minor damage to his front wing. Hamilton defended Massa's attempt to pass him at Whiteford corner, while Alonso slowed which allowed Webber to pass him. Hamilton overtook Rosberg on the outside of turn eleven. Vettel had sparks coming from his left-front wheel and a large amount of vibrations built up in his car. This caused Vettel to lose torque drive between the front left axle and wheel, and spun into the gravel trap at Ascari corner on lap 26. Vettel's retirement promoted Button into the lead. Rosberg attempted to retake fourth from Hamilton at Ascari corner but was unable to because of the presence of yellow-flags. Webber passed Massa for fifth position at Whiteford corner two laps later. di Grassi drove to his garage to retire with an issue with his car's hydraulics on lap 29.

Hamilton closed up on Kubica by the same lap; Hamilton attempted to overtake Kubica while in traffic but Kubica fended off Hamilton's attempt. Hamilton feigned passing manoeuvres at the Brabham and Whiteford corners with the latter attempt resulting in Hamilton losing time to Kubica and fell back in front of Rosberg. Webber made a pit stop for soft compound tyres on lap 33, while Hamilton tried another pass on Kubica on the back straight but Kubica closed the door on Hamilton. Rosberg made his pit stop for tyres one lap later and came out level with Webber as Rosberg exited the pit lane, but Webber's extra momentum allowed him to move ahead of Rosberg. Despite going fastest overall in the first and second sectors of the track after making a pit stop on lap 35, Hamilton went wide at Ascari corner on lap 37 which allowed Webber to briefly move ahead of Hamilton before the McLaren driver regained the position. Hamilton and Webber began to close on Alonso at the rate of two seconds a lap after setting a new fastest lap of the race, a 1:28.591 on lap 40 while Massa started to close the gap to Kubica. di Grassi rejoined the race on lap 39 but returned to the pit lane two laps later. Glock made a pit stop and his mechanics retired him from the race on the 45th lap because a camber shim on his car was loose and it caused the left rear suspension to move around. Hamilton caught Alonso on lap 49 but was unable to pass the Ferrari driver because Hamilton struggled with tyre degradation. Schumacher dived up the inside to attempt an overtake Alguersuari for eleventh place at Ascari corner on lap 56 and the two drivers wheels made contact before Schumacher got ahead at the Stewart corner.

Hamilton attempted to pass Alonso around the outside at Ascari corner on the same lap but Alonso closed the door on Hamilton. Webber took advantage but missed his braking point because his front wing stopped producing downforce which prevented him from reducing his speed and locked his tyres. He collided one of Hamilton's rear tyres, sending both drivers into the gravel trap. Both drivers managed to continue and Webber drove into the pit lane to replace his front wing. Button had maintained his lead upfront and crossed the start/finish line after 58 laps to win his first race of the 2010 season and his second consecutive Australian Grand Prix. Kubica finished second 12 seconds behind Button, with Massa in third. Alonso held off Rosberg in the final laps to finish fourth. Hamilton recovered to finish in sixth, Liuzzi took seventh with Barrichello close behind in eighth, Webber finished ninth and Schumacher passed de la Rosa on the final lap at Whiteford corner for tenth, the final points scoring position. de la Rosa fell behind fellow Spaniard Alguersuari to finish in twelfth with Kovalainen and Chandhok the last of the classified finishers.


1982 Monaco
Unlike most visits to Monaco, the start was not that costly, with Arnoux pulling ahead smartly while Patrese lost out to Giacomelli into the first corner. Giacomelli's team mate Andrea de Cesaris made a better start, leaping in front of Keke Rosberg and Michele Alboreto off the line, immediately putting Pironi under pressure. Alfa's joy would not last long, however, as Giacomelli became the first retirement with a transmission failure four laps later.

The order remained the same for the next ten laps, as the usual stalemate around Monaco settled across the field. Then Arnoux, under very little pressure, spun and stalled, giving the lead to his team mate Prost (who had used Giacomelli's dramas to get infront of Patrese). Rosberg took Alboreto during the next few laps, while Pironi took most of his front wing off on a back marker, although this modification did little to reduce his pace. The two Ligier-Matras and the ATSes were the next to fall through individual issues.

The race returned to a dormant state until the 65th lap, when rain began to hit the track. The first car to fall was Rosberg, who took enough damage from the wall to retire, while his team mate Derek Daly removed the rear wing (and some of his gearbox casing) in a spin at Tabac, although the Irishman kept going. Their dramas gave Prost and Patrese some breathing space, with their private battle (which was mainly a case of Patrese trying to catch the Renault) becoming the decider to the race.

This was not the case, however, as on lap 74, two from the end, Prost oversteered into the wall on the exit of the harbor chicane, seemingly handing an easy victory to Patrese. This was not the case, however, as Patrese then spun at the Lowes hairpin on the next lap, dropping down to a distant third. Fortunately for the Italian, he was able to avoid stalling by bump-starting his car on the steep slope down to the entry to Portier. Pironi and de Cesaris swept past, with victory looking to go to one of the Italian teams. Fate had other ideas, however, as Pironi began to slow as he started the final lap, and eventually came to a stop in the tunnel, his Ferrari engine stalled for fuel. De Cesaris then retired at Casino for the same reason (and at almost the exact same time) as Pironi, promoting Patrese back into the lead. The only other cars running at this point were Daly, Mansell, De Angelis, Henton and Surer, each several laps behind the leader. Daly retired moments later at Rascasse, the rear-end of his car heavily damaged from a previous accident.

Patrese crossed the line before Mansell could unlap himself, which meant Pironi and de Cesaris took the other two podium spots despite not finishing. It was a similar story for Daly, who retired a lap after Prost, but was classified as sixth overall as none of the runners behind him could get themselves unlapped.

[S griffin]

Australia 2010 was action packed and shows why the two compound per race rule has been needed to get rid of from the beginning

Monaco 1982 was quite farcical in the end, but in a good way! Along with Spa 1964 and Imola 85 it really was a case of last one standing. James Hunt's comments about waiting for a winner and not getting one sum it up. As did Clive James' one about first place being 'open for practically anyone who could get his engine started'