Monaco Grand Prix preview

This weekend we'll be racing in Monaco in the streets of Monte Carlo. This is by far the slowest circuit on the F1 calendar. It is actually so slow and twisty that it's not possible to run the usual 300 km in two hours and the race is therefore shortened to about 260 km. The track has many tight corners and no "real" straights. Therefore the teams have as much downforce as possible for this race. Earlier years have seen the teams bring several extra winglets, but with the current regulations this is not possible.

Last year's race was won from pole by Mark Webber ahead of his team mate Sebastian Vettel. He just beat Robert Kubica for pole. At the start Vettel got ahead of Kubica and the top three staid that way for the rest of the race. In fact the top five finished in grid order except for the aforementioned switch. This race also saw a great drive from Fernando Alonso, who was forced to start at the back of the grid after a crash in Saturday morning practice. He made use of an early safety car to get his tyre stops out of the way and after passing a few back markers he showed great pace forcing Lewis Hamilton to pit early and the rest of the pack to react to him. Alonso fnished 6th just behind Hamilton.

The forecast for the weekend is sunny with almost 0% chance of a wet race. For the first time of the year, Pirelli are going to provide its super-soft tyre for this race. They have said they expect the tyre to last for less than ten laps. This means we are likely to see at least as many pit stops as we have seen in the last few races, and probably huge differences in tyre performance. It's going to be interesting to see how the drivers will tackle passing and defending on this incredibly tight circuit.