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Monaco GP has been part of the F1 grid for as long as the sport has been in existence. The race has been home to some quite amazing spectacles over the years. It saw Phil Hill's domination of the streets, Niki Lauda's march to the front, Ayrton Senna's ferocity, and Michael Schumacher's brilliance.
In this piece, we will take a look at some of the most memorable moments from the Monaco GP over the years.
#1 Senna decimates Alain Prost in Qualifying (1988 Monaco GP)
It was 1988 and McLaren had produced a monster. A car that was so far ahead of the curve that no team could challenge it. McLaren also had the services of two of the best drivers on the grid in Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. While Prost was already a world champion, Senna wasn't, and he wanted to make a mark on the sport. Early on in the season, it became clear that Senna was by far the superior driver on a single lap while Prost was the better racer.
When the circus reached the Monaco GP, Senna was the favorite to score pole position. What happened next, however, went beyond expectations. Senna not only scored pole position, but he also did that with a time that was 1.4 seconds faster than Prost.
Senna didn't team up with an average driver, rather he had teamed up with the best driver on the grid, and then left him 1.4 seconds behind in the same machinery. It was at this race that everyone realized what kind of talent they had on the grid and what he could do in a racing car.
#2 Michael Schumacher roars to 5th after starting from pitlane (2006 Monaco GP)
Michael Schumacher's 2006 Monaco GP is remembered for his brain fade in qualifying where he intentionally parked the car at La Rascasse. While we saw this extreme of his career that weekend, we also saw the other end that left everyone in awe throughout his career.
Starting from the pitlane, Schumacher drove through the field, making decisive overtakes and correct strategic choices on a track like Monaco, and ultimately combining all of that to finish the race in 5th. Such a result holds significance, especially in the present era where making even a single overtake for a single grid position looks improbable.
#3 Kimi Raikkonen shows Fernando Alonso who the boss is (2005 Monaco GP)
Kimi Raikkonen had been dragging the McLaren on his shoulders ever since joining the team in 2002. The Michael Schumacher-Ferrari juggernaut, however, left everyone behind despite their best efforts. So when Ferrari messed up in 2005, the car was no longer in contention for the title.
Instead of McLaren taking the initiative, however, it was the combination of Fernando Alonso and Renault that took the early lead. Raikkonen in his McLaren showed speed but the car had poor reliability and was therefore never able to mount a proper challenge.
At Monaco, all of this changed as it was going to be a direct battle for pole position between Raikkonen and Alonso. Alonso was riding high with confidence and put together a rather competitive lap that shot him to the top of the standings. Next in line was Raikkonen and what everyone saw was magic on 4-wheels as the Finn danced the McLaren around the tight and twisty track to completely obliterate the time set by the Spaniard. This was a timely reminder for anyone who had forgotten how good Raikkonen was at the time.
#4 Lewis Hamilton has a race to forget! (2011 Monaco GP)
The 2011 F1 season was one where Lewis Hamilton could not get anything right. The worst portrayal of it was in the Monaco GP. Hamilton had a race to forget as it included the McLaren driver clashing with Michael Schumacher, damaging Felipe Massa's car, and then later in the race bumping Pastor Maldonado out of the race! It was one of the races where the British driver was a magnet for collisions and incurred multiple penalties during the race, including a drive-through penalty for his incident with Massa.
The worst part? When questioned why he was facing so many penalties, the British driver said, "Maybe it's because I'm black," inciting huge uproar against his comments.
#5 Nico Rosberg controversially brings out the yellow flag (2014 Monaco GP)
The 2014 season had the Mercedes drivers in a battle of their own at the front of the grid as the two battled against each other for the championship. Until the Monaco GP, the relationship had been rather cordial between the two as they had an intense battle in Bahrain where Lewis Hamilton prevailed. In Monaco, things got closer as Nico Rosberg, somewhat of a Monaco specialist, went blow for blow with Hamilton in every session. It all came down to Q3 and their final laps. The context? Rosberg did a marginally better fast lap and held a provisional pole.
It all came to a controversial end in the dying stages of qualifying. Rosberg was ahead on his fast lap with Hamilton next in line when the former spun his car at Mirabeau and brought out the red flags. Consequently, Rosberg sealed pole position for himself while Hamilton was left fuming and felt the spin was intentional. In subsequent years, it was revealed that the relationship between the two drivers broke down after this race, and the battle only intensified.
