The Racing Weekend that was, #21 - updated

Formula 1, at Monaco:

The Grimaldi's hosted this past weekend the Monaco Grand Prix. Widely considered the most important and prestigious race of the year, it was run through the streets of the principality for the seventieth time.
The crown jewel in F1 racing was nurtured and looked after by Prince Rainier III, and since 2005 by his son, Prince Albert II (left in photo).
The principality of Monaco, a sovereign state since the signing of the Franco-Monegasque treaty in 1861, is located on the French Riviera and encompasses an area of just 1.98 km2 (0,76 sq mi) and has a population of about 36.000. Furthermore, it has the world's highest life expectancy at almost 90 years, and the lowest unemployment rate at 0%!

Grosjean forcing Schumi out

All right, back to the future. Michael Schumacher was gunning for the podium but his race was offered a setback before they got to the first corner, as a barrier seem to jump out in front of him. Ok. Romain Grosjean helped him a great deal, in a first corner accident that saw the Frenchman drop out of the race.

As I mentioned in Friday's blog, there had been five different winners up to Monaco. And now there are six.

Mark Webber set a new F1 record by becoming the sixth different winner in as many races.

Mark Webber tastes victory in RB8

Having inherited the pole from Schumi (due to Bruno Senna incident), he led from start to finish and only slowed down a bit when a light rain set in during the closing stages of the race. However, as the street circuit is a bit tight and passing most difficult, there weren't that many passing maneuvers attempted. Hence, the Aussie was followed the entire race by Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes and Fernando Alonso, driving for Ferrari. This formed the podium as well. All in all, a pretty uneventful race.

Below a video of the incident with Romain Grosjean and Schumi. The video has no audio.


Grosjean's first corner mishap caused him to spin in front of the field. As drivers ahead took avoiding maneuvers, Pastor Maldonado went from hero to zero when he ran into the rear of Pedro de la Rosa's HRT. In the end, Schumi was forced to stop due to mechanical issues. Kimi Raikkonnen said he couldn't have done better than ninth, and for the first time in three races, he would not be on the podium.

Fernando Alonso leaves Monaco in the lead of the championship standings. The next race is the Canadian GP on June 08-10 next. For more info, please click here.

If you ever get a chance to visit the principality, you will be pleasantly rewarded by going. It is not very busy and each stroll brings new discoveries, as can be seen in the picture to the right, A statue to the legendary racer Juan Manuel Fangio. If you can make it for the Grand Prix, even better. We might even run into each other.
For more information about Monaco, please click here.


WRC, at the Acropolis:

The Acropolis Rally of Greece was dominated by Citroen's Sebastien Loeb, who even had time to stop and change a flat tire on Sunday. This was his third win in Greece and his fourth win of the season. Here is a link to some footage of Loeb's race from the air.

On Friday, Ford's Latvalla was leading but when he overshot a junction in SS4, Loeb moved into the lead and ended the first day with a 6.5 second advantage.

Solberg on the attack, Day 1

On Saturday, Loeb came under pressure form Latvala and the Finn cut the Ford's lead to just 2.2 seconds. However, Latvala hit a bank which gave him a puncture and caused him three minutes and dropped him to fourth place. At this time his teammate, the Norwegian Petter Solberg (aka Hollywood) took the fight to Loeb and in torrential rain he won the final three stages and reduced the gap to Loeb from 21.9 seconds to just 10.2. It would be a tough race the following day.

On Sunday, Petter Solberg pushed hard again to try and maintain Saturday's pressure on Loeb, however around 13 km into the first stage, he hit a tree and ripped off the left-rear wheel, which caused them to drop out of the race in SS18. Mikko Hirvonen in the second Citroen put in a solid performance to secure second place, however, he wasn't very happy with his place.

Loeb en route to his 3rd Greek rally

To watch the highlights of round six of the WRC, the Greek rally, please click here.

Loeb extends his lead in the championships; the final results of the race: 1. Sebastien Loeb (Citroen Total), 2. Mikko Hirvonen (Citroen Total), 3. Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford WRT) Fiesta

The next stop on the WRC calendar is the Brother Rally of New Zealand, on June 22-24 next. For more info, click here.


NASCAR, at Charlotte for the 600:
"In his first Coca-Cola 600, Aric Almirola experienced the thrill of leading the field to the green flag in one of NASCAR's biggest events..," was the opening of Nascars' race recap. The man driving for legendary racer Richard Petty, of RPM, would finish the race in sixteenth place and two laps down. His teammate was forced to the garage with a right-front wheel hub burned up. Such is the brutality of 600 miles of hard racing, Nascar style.

Kahne being congratulated by Hendrick

After 400 laps, it was Kasey Kahne who would come out on top, as he scored his third 600 win, his first at Rick Hendrick. Kahne beat runner-up Denny Hamlin by 4.295 seconds. Kyle Busch ran third, followed by Greg Biffle, Brad Keselowski, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Crews tried to match their car's performance and handling to the ever changing track conditions, as the long race starts during daylight but ends under the lights. The tracks cooled off a great deal, which often makes the cars freer, and for some drivers like Denny Hamlin, the cars got better.

A caution on lap 319 for debris in turn 3 briefly interrupted the best racing of the night, which saw Biffle and Kahne repeatedly swap the lead, but with no clear dominant leader. As Kahne and the other 7 lead cars pitted, Hamlin and Earnhardt stayed out. This strategy proved costly, as Kahne blew by the two just 7 laps after the restart.

Johnson pit incident, fuel man walks back

A late in the race pit-road miscue proved costly for front runner Jimmie Johnson. He was somehow released to soon as the jackman dropped him he drove off. However, the fuelman was still busy with his delivery and was dragged and dropped by Johnson as he sped away. He would return fo a stop-and-go penalty under green, which put him a lap down and left Kahne and Hamlin to decide the race. See the costly mistake at minute mark 9:25 on the race rewind video.

At the finish line Kahne proved to strong for Hamlin. For a race rewind video, please click here.

The next race on the Nascar race calendar with be the FedEx 400, at Dover, on June 3 next. For more info, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Crash.net, WRC, FIA, NASCAR.

Photo credit: Rally Sport Live, Massimo Bettiol/Getty Images Europe,