 he
Ace class Monaco GP saw more incidents than the incident room at the Crimewatch
studio. Pure incidents. Bumps, knocks, spins, the LOT. To top off
this 'mare of a race, what was initially an intended two-stop strategy,
there was some very high-level fuel consumption going on. "After a major
change of strategy mid-race to a three-stopper, ten laps of which were
with a damaged front wing, I still managed to run out of gas just
near the end, forcing a splash 'n' dash on lap 77," said Shaughnessy. "The
jackarse mechanics don't quite know what this means and insisted on changing
the tyres aswell." He was fortunate that Villeneuve's transmission packed
in on lap 70, and Schumacher was a fair way behind, and eventually completed
lap 78 to win by just over 14 seconds. There are some hairy moments saved,
if you're interested email him. "There's one lap where I get tangled with
Villeneuve and I manage a reverse-and-spin recovery manoeuvre (pictured),
which used plenty of pté-tchewé, oh yes." |
Francisco Nico's Pro race wasn't without drama either. After only six
laps the plank worn down to an illegal 1mm, causing an approximate 16km/h
top-speed penalty for the rest of the race. In addition, two laps after
his first pitstop on lap 28 he suffered an electrical fault which forced
him to nurse the car back into the pits, which amazingly the mechanics
fixed. Rumours say it was due to interference from Nico's car stereo, and
all they did was turn the tape over. Nice. The lead was regained from Villeneuve
eight laps after the stop, and a comfortable lead was built up thereafter.
Back-marker trouble damaged the front wing on the last lap, but dispite
this he drove the second Bacardi Ferrari to it's second victory of the
day. The team is said to be well chuffed with its success at the
Principality, especially from their new driver, who incidentally didn't
find the need to call them 'jackarses'... |