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GP2 Features & Interviews (2006)
GP2 Feature - Cutting Corners
01/06/2006
The run to Monaco's first corner sweeps right handed. The cars hit sixth gear just before the braking area, which is obscured by shadows from the overhanging trees. Road markings make the track surface very slippery.
There is a small area of run-off directly ahead, but the moment a driver turns into the second gear right-hander, he's hemmed in by barriers on the outside of the track. He cannot afford to back off because exit speed is vital, but one mistake and he'll damage his car and be out of the race.
Welcome to Ste Devote, one of the most challenging corners of the GP2 season. Cranes are positioned on the inside and the outside because the corner has claimed its fair share of victims over the years - Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen - but it's a challenge that all the drivers love.
"There are lots of challenging corners at Monaco," says Michael Ammermueller. "Ste Devote is one of them because it dictates your speed up the hill to Casino Square."
The stakes are raised even higher at the start of a race because the drivers know that the dash towards Turn 1 is their best opportunity to make a few places. They jostle for position and some drivers leave their braking impossibly late.
At the start of Saturday's GP2 race, the expected happened: a first corner accident took out six cars, leaving one driver in hospital. Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton made a clean get-away to lead into Ste Devote, but a puff of Bridgestone tyre smoke from Tristan Gommendy a couple of places further back gave an indication of what was to follow.
Gommendy had left his braking too late and hit the rear wheel of Jose Maria Lopez. The Frenchman was catapulted skywards and his car ricocheted into compatriot Nicolas Lapierre, who landed on Lucas di Grassi's rear wing. The impact crushed two vertebrae in Lapierre's back, with the result that he will miss the next round of the Championship at Silverstone and the GP2 mid-season test at Paul Ricard in July.
"Nicolas compressed two vertebrae, D6 and D7," says his manager Didier Coton. "Immediately after the accident he was in a lot of pain, but he's now recovering well at home. He will have a further x-ray at the weekend, after which we'll know more about his recuperation. But he's probably going to have to take it easy for four to five weeks."
Amazingly, by the time Hamilton re-appeared at Ste Devote at the start of lap two, the marshals had finished cleaning up the debris, so there was no need for a Safety Car. The marshals hadn't had long: the GP2 cars were four seconds a lap faster around Monaco this year, thanks to Bridgestone's new slick tyre. And Hamilton's pole position time of 1:20.430s was only 2.9 seconds slower than the slowest Formula 1 qualifying time of Franck Montagny.
"The car certainly felt very stable," said Hamilton. "The tyres had a lot to do with it, but so did the tri-plane rear wing that we raced here for the first time this year. In a way, it's a pity that we can't keep the extra wing for the remainder of the year because the car feels better balanced with it."
The next GP2 race is at Silverstone on 10 June, where Copse - another classic first corner - awaits.
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