F1 Quals: Monaco 2017

When you take high-tech high-speed race cars, put most of the best drivers in the world behind the wheels, and drop them into the streets of a small French fishing village, weird things can happen.  When those weird things occur during Quals, you get some very interesting prospects for the biggest race on the Formula 1 calendar indeed.  Here's the provisional grid for the 2017 Grand Prix of Monaco:

Pos	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:13.117	1:12.231	1:12.178
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:13.090	1:12.449	1:12.221
3	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:13.325	1:12.901	1:12.223
4	Embryo Verstappen	Red Bull Racing	1:13.078	1:12.697	1:12.496
5	Smiley Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:13.219	1:13.011	1:12.998
6	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:13.526	1:13.397	1:13.162
7	Sergio Perez	Force India Mercedes	1:13.530	1:13.430	1:13.329
8	Lettuce Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:13.786	1:13.203	1:13.349
9	Jenson I'm Back Button	McLaren Honda	1:13.723	1:13.453	1:13.613
10	Stoffelwaffle	McLaren Honda	1:13.476	1:13.249	No Time
11	Kid Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:13.899	1:13.516
12	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:13.787	1:13.628
13	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:13.531	1:13.959
14	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:13.640	1:14.106
15	Felipe Not Retired Massa	Williams Mercedes	1:13.796	1:20.529
16	False Esteban	Force India Mercedes	1:14.101
17	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1:14.696
18	Pleasant Stroll	Williams Mercedes	1:14.893
19	Pascal's Wager	Sauber Ferrari	1:15.159
20	Sony Ericsson	Sauber Ferrari	1:15.276

Okay, let's deal with the elephant in the room first.  Lewis Hamilton had been complaining ever since Thursday's practice sessions that he was having trouble getting heat into his tires, particularly the rears.  This means a loss of grip, and around Monaco a loss of grip basically means your car is a mass of carbon fiber shards waiting to happen.  While he notably didn't have a wreck, he was only 10th in Q1, over a half-second behind the leader.  In Q2, he very nearly threw his Merc into the barriers at Massanet after a lurid twitch that would have left a lesser driver sitting in a chassis missing half of its suspension, much of a sidepod, and perhaps a wing or two.  After that, he went back to the pits for some adjustments and got randomly selected for a weighing by the FIA.  He didn't lose that much time there, but what was lost would never come back.  With time running out on the session, he returned to the track for a hot lap.  Through the first two sectors it looked like the team and driver had finally figured it all out.  True, it wouldn't have been the fastest time ever, but it was almost certainly going to get him into Q3.  But then, ahead of him at the Swimming Pool, the McLaren of Stoffelwaffle had kissed the armco and was on the side of the track in a bad state.  Marshals immediately threw the waved double-yellows, which meant that everybody coming upon the scene had to abandon their lap... like Lewis Hamilton.  And there was no time for another attempt.

In other interesting bits, RAIKKONEN'S ON POLE!  Amazingly, this was his first pole position since 2008, some 128 races ago.  His Ferrari teammate, Seb Vettel, is right next to him, just .004 of a second ahead of the remaining Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.  And if we needed any more evidence that Monaco is a place where weird things can occur, both McLarens with their wind-up motors made it into Q3... though neither will start in their provisional positions.  Jenson I'm Back Button will have to take a 15-spot penalty for changing out his MGU-H and his turbocharger overnight.  And Stoffelwaffle has a three-spot penalty from the last race for his accident with Felipe Not Retired Massa.  It also shows that this is a place where sheer grunt is not as important as maneuverability, because let's face it, the Honda engine in the McLaren is a dog.  The chassis, however... that's another story.

The race is in the morning on NBC... see ya then!

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