2018 Monaco Grand Prix review

First of all nice to see that Daniel Ricciardo dominated the whole weekend and that Red Bull is right up there with Ferrari and Mercedes. Ricciardo was best in everything except fastest lap of the race. Max Verstappen took that so Red Bull was flying (with wings) this weekend.

The start was surprisingly clean. I was sure that we were going to see a Verstappen-Grosjean-Stroll-Ericsson-Magnussen sandwich right after the start. Was almost disappointed. Sorry if you cheer for one of these guys... it's just that I watch the sport cause I love it and I don't really have a favorite driver. Used to be a Kimi-fan when he was with Lotus but not that much anymore.

I like Ricciardo but honestly everybody knows that he won this race because it's Monaco. He had technical issues in the race and was much slower than the rest. He was 9 seconds slower than in qualifying and the rest were just following him and couldn't overtake. 

I remember that in 1992 Nigel Mansell was also faster than Ayrton Senna who was in the lead but he couldn't get through. This is indeed a legendary track but it's usually pretty boring isn't it? I mean in 1984 and in 1996 we something awesome but it was because of the rain. This track is perfect when it rains! Remember when Olivier Panis won in 1996 and only 4 cars crossed the finish line? I really miss that time...

Back to this years race! But what can I say? There's nothing! I was unhappy that Charles Leclerc retired cause I am sure he will be something some day. Just wait!

The top crossed the finish line in the same order as they started... I really miss the old days.

Then it's time for my predictions and the results.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Ricciardo took pole

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 3rd and Ricciardo dominated the whole weekend.
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 5th and Vettel was 2nd.
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 4th

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Verstappen was fastest.

Surprise: Sergio Perez has pushed hard in Monaco but failed almost every time. Maybe he will succeed this year? - Now he didn't seem to push at all. His teammate Ocon on the other hand did pretty ok I guess.

Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE.

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2018 - RACE RESULTS

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2018 - QUALIFYING

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2018 - PRACTICE 3

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2018 - PRACTICE 2

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2018 - PRACTICE 1

2018 Monaco Grand Prix preview

Monaco, the most legendary track in Formula One. It starts on Thursday because Friday is usually a day of. There is no real explanation but some say that drivers celebrate in Monaco on Thursday so it wouldn't be ok to drive the next day. Maybe there is some other explanation nowadays? I don't know.

Monaco hosted their first F1 Grand Prix in 1950. It was also the second F1 race ever driven. Back then it was just sick how many laps they drove! 100 laps and it took over 3 hours!! Monaco has hosted GP's also before the F1 series started. The first race was in 1929.

The first F1 race in Monaco was won by Juan Manuel Fangio who started from pole and also set the fastest lap of the race. 9 cars crashed on the first lap and one car on the second. Only 7 cars finished the race and Fangio was much faster than everybody else! Alberto Ascari was 2nd 1 lap behind, Louis Chiron was 3rd 2 laps behind, Raymond Sommer 4th 3 laps behind, Prince Bira 5th 5 laps behind, Bob Gerard 6th 6 laps behind and Johnny Claes 7th also 6 laps behind.

The next time they held an official GP in Monaco was in 1955 and it has been a part of the calendar since that year.

In 1959 Monaco was the first race of the season and Jack Brabham won the race. He was such a super driver! He had his own team and won a championship with it. Who else has done that?

Monaco started the F1 season many times after 1959 but when they wanted more races in the calendar they had to fit in other races before it. The race in Monaco has always been in May.

I could talk about Monaco for days so let's stop here about the history and move on to statistics instead. Maybe I'll talk a bit about history as well.. can't control myself when it's Monaco we are talking about.

Most wins in Monaco: Ayrton Senna, 6 wins. 1984-1993 the Monaco GP was only won by Ayrton Senna or Alain Prost. Senna could have probably won in 1984 if the race wouldn't have been stopped. In 1988 he led the race almost 1 minute over Prost but made a mistake when McLaren told him several times to slow down.

Most wins by constructor - McLaren, 15 wins. Senna 5 times, Prost 4 times, Mika Häkkinen, Kimi Räikkönen, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton once and David Coulthard 2 times.

The fastest lap in Monaco is 1:14.439 and it was set by Michael Schumacher in 2004.

The track length is 3.340km and they are lapping it 78 times.

Then it's time for my predictions. Yes I know that I haven't talked much about this year's race but I'll focus on this year when the race is over.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

Surprise: Sergio Perez has pushed hard in Monaco but failed almost every time. Maybe he will succeed this year?

Remember to post your own predictions to our F1-4-LIFE PREDICTORS LEAGUE.

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2018 DRIVER STANDINGS AFTER THE SPANISH GP

2018 CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS AFTER THE SPANISH GP

2018 Spanish Grand Prix review

Lights out and away we go they say... Romain Grosjean got away and took out Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly as well. Take a look in this video:



Here is also a 360-video:



Sebastian Vettel got from 3rd to 2nd in front of Valtteri Bottas and the most interesting driver for me at the moment was 9th. I am talking about Charles Leclerc. Saw him drive in Abu Dhabi in November and that guy was/is fantastic. I used to get the same feeling when I watched Jules Bianchi race before he came to F1. May he rest in peace.

Leclerc drives for Sauber obviously and can't get any super results at the moment but we shall wait and see. He is already beating his teammate Marcus Ericsson in everything.

Moving on to the first pitstops. Bottas had been faster than Vettel and was surely ricing in front of him. It took a little bit too long for him in the pits which made the Finn stay behind. Bottas' pitstop was a second too slow.

The other Finn Kimi Raikkonen didn't even pit before his car broke down on him. A lot of bad luck like this and Mercedes dominates the series again... Actually they also messed up Vettel's race in the pits and he dropped behind Bottas and Max Verstappen. Points just slipping away!

Verstappen has been crashing a lot this season hasn't he? Again now he crashed into Sergei Sirotkin's Williams but fortunately for him he didn't retire. The wing got damage but didn't really slow him down at all and he got a podium finish after the Mercs!

Other drivers to be mentioned are Fernando Alonso for taking 8th place for McLaren and Charles Leclerc again for taking 10th place for my old palls at Sauber. Great job you guys.

Then it's time for my predictions and the results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - CORRECT
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. He had a DNF and Verstappen was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari - WRONG. Ricciardo was fastest.

Surprise: Esteban Ocon, Force India - He also had a DNF


Join our PREDICTORS LEAGUE now!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA EMIRATES 2018 - RACE

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA EMIRATES 2018 - QUALIFYING

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA EMIRATES 2018 - PRACTICE 2

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA EMIRATES 2018 - PRACTICE 1

2018 Spanish Grand Prix preview

The Spanish GP is a race where many teams bring new updates for their cars so anything can still happen.

Remember what happened in 2012? Pastor Maldonado was fighting against Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen and won the race in the end.

Pastor Maldonado won in 2012.

In 2013 Alonso won, Kimi was second and Felipe Massa was third. Kimi actually drove better than Alonso in that race but lost his position because of poor pitstop strategy. 

2013's podium finishers.

In 2014 and 2015 it was the Mercedes boys at the top. 2014 was Hamilton's year and 2015 Rosberg's.

2014 was a bit different than the years before.

Two years ago they collided after the start and Red Bull's new driver, Max Verstappen, won in his debut race for the team.

In 2017 Mercedes could have taken a double win again but Valtteri Bottas had a DNF. Hamilton won the race, Vettel was 2nd and Ricciardo was 3rd.

This year I am pretty sure that Mercedes will do great also. This is their track!

Then it's time for my predictions.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
3. Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari

Fastest lap: Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari

Surprise: Esteban Ocon, Force India


Join our PREDICTORS LEAGUE now!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW, MH, JI & PM. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

2018 European Grand Prix review

Like I suspected this was the most interesting race this season until now. Last year same thing. I hope we will see a lot of races like this because this sport needs to get more interesting quick! It used to be so amazing years ago and it's sad that it isn't anymore. I mean it's still F1 so I watch it but I am not as happy about a GP weekend as I used to be.

Moving on to the start! It was a clean start until Esteban Ocon and Kimi Raikkonen crashed. The Finn was able to continue but Ocon's race was over. He blamed the Finn for everything and said that he should not drive for Ferrari. Where I was standing it looked like it was Ocon's fault when he closed the door on Raikkonen and he had no place to go but what ever mate.

Fernando Alonso also had some drama. He had a clean start but then suddenly Sergei Sirotkin was pushed on Alonso's car. Might have been one of the Renaults but not quite sure. Carlos Sainz maybe? Anyways... Alonso was not happy at all about it and told everybody on the radio what he thought of it. Alonso was able to continue and McLaren is now the only team that has not retired from a single race this season. Can you believe that?!?!

The safety car was deployed after the crashes and when they restarted the Renaults of Hulkenberg and Sainz were just flying!! It got really interesting for a change! Love to see surprises like that. They were overtaking the Red Bulls but weren't fast enough for the Mercedes'.

The Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were also interesting to follow. Verstappen though... he should seriously calm down. He is driving like a maniac at the moment! One season like this and he is back at Toro Rosso or worse! Later on they crashed and they both retired. Sad story for Red Bull. Who's fault was it? Tough to say but Verstappen did change his racing line more than once so that Ricciardo had no place to go when he locked his tyres. Do the math.

Raikkonen jumped two positions higher and was now 4th. Valtteri Bottas pitted at the best possible time when the safety car was deployed again and was now in the lead ahead of Sebastian Vettel.

Romain Grosjean crashed during the safety car and was furious. Understandable to be mad because that was straight up embarrassing! He was just trying to get temperature into the tyres and wasn't concentrating enough I guess.

When the race restarted Bottas took a super start and was just flying in front. There was still debry on the track and Bottas got a puncture! That is so frustrating. He really deserved the win.

Now Hamilton took the lead ahead of Raikkonen and Sergio Perez. They crossed the finish line in this order and the race was over.

What a race!!! More of these please.

Now let's see my predictions and the results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Vettel was on pole.

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes - WRONG. He retired and Raikkonen was 2nd
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. Sergio Perez was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. His teammate Bottas was fastest.

Surprise: McLaren will have a great race here - CORRECT. Fernando Alonso 7th and Stoffel Vandoorne 9th.

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com