A weekend to forget for McLaren

While the MP4-24s performed well during the first free practice sessions on Thursday? Hamilton, third fastest and Kovalainen, fourth fastest - things started to go downhill during Saturday's qualifying session. Lewis Hamilton, the first, experienced problems. After a few minutes in Q1, he hit a tire wall at Mirabeau and had to resort to watching the rest of the session from the paddock.

On Sunday, the Briton started in 19th position after changing gearboxes. 12th at the finish, he did what he could on a circuit where overtaking is extremely limited even for a car equipped with SREC. “ It was a very difficult race », declared the world champion. “ I damaged my front wing quite early when I hit one of the BMWs at Sainte Dévote. This had the effect of amplifying understeer throughout the race? Putting on a new fin alleviated the inconvenience but it was not enough. »

Hamilton out of points, the hopes of the team Woking therefore rested on Heikki Kovalainen. Qualified on the fourth row, the Finn had a decent race before making an error in the pool which ruined his chances of getting into the points. “ I bit the curb at the chicane and lost the rear. I couldn't straighten it out and hit the spokel », Confided Kovalainen.

For his part, Martin Whitmarsh, the team director, did not hide his disappointment. “ Leaving Monaco without scoring a single point is very disappointing. » There is no doubt that McLaren will want to erase this result at the next Grand Prix in Turkey. Moreover, Norbert Haug, the vice-president of Mercedes Motorsport, only thought of that. “ We need to forget about this race and focus on the next improvements to the car before the Turkish Grand Prix. »