Nico's Monaco GP Column

Posted on Wednesday 28 May 2008 and tagged with nico, monaco.

First of all, let me say that I’m fine! My crash at the Swimming Pool chicane on lap 60 of the Monaco Grand Prix was a big one, but there’s no damage – not to me, anyway. After consulting the doctors on site I decided, as precaution, to go to the Princess Grace Hospital in Monaco. All the routine checks in the hospital showed that everything was perfectly fine, so I was released to go home rather quickly. After a couple days rest, I am currently preparing and training as normal for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The cause of the accident was straightforward. I was pushing really hard on dry tyres and coming into the swimming pool corner after Tabac when the rear of the car flicked out suddenly on entry, most probably on a patch of water under braking. After that I was a passenger and hit the barrier on the right before being thrown across the track into the barrier on the left.

What made the shunt so disappointing was the fact that the FW30 had been really competitive during practice and qualifying. I was second fastest during Thursday’s second practice session and managed to carry that pace into qualifying. I was second quickest in Q2, just 0.1s slower than Felipe Massa’s fastest time, and I was equally pleased with my lap in Q3 – given my heavy fuel load – to qualify sixth.

In the Monaco Grand Prix it is all about having a clean race, which it really wasn’t for me this year. I clipped the back of Fernando Alonso’s car at the hairpin on the opening lap, which broke my front wing and made my car very difficult to drive. Initially, I tried to continue until my first scheduled pit-stop, but the car was un-driveable and I was forced to pit for a new nose on lap three.

On lap 14, again at the hairpin, somebody drove over my front wing which meant that I had to pit once more for a new wing. Then later in the race the team called me in for a routine pit-stop, but they had problems with Kazuki’s left rear wheel and I was told to drive through. After a total of four visits to the pits,I was on the back foot but managed to climb back up to 10th place by the time of my accident.

It was great for the team that Kazuki managed to score two points for the Constructors’ World Championship. He drove a great race to stay out of trouble in what were very difficult conditions at the start of the race and has managed to keep us in fourth position in the Championship.

Now, though, I have to focus on the next race. I will fly to Montreal next Sunday to get used to the time difference and to see the city which I find very cool. I’m looking forward to getting back into the car in Montreal, because the speed in Monaco was very promising.

Although the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a completely different sort of track to Monaco, it should suit our car well. However, its long straights and fast chicanes provide us with a very different challenge. I’m really looking forward to the Canadian Grand Prix and let’s hope we can get a good result there.

Until then,

Nico

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