Monaco: Full of drama but result all the same

This is a track which has absolutely no overtaking opportunity. All we see most of the time is a train of cars moving round and round 78 times and yet a race at the Principilality is never dull. Monaco never lets its fans down. There might not be any breath-taking overtaking but still it never short of drama. And this time the drama started well before the drivers even lined up for the grid courtesy our number one man and seven times champion Michael Schumacher. A day after the race as I logged on to the F1 websites and I saw people talking only one thing. Hate mails to Schumi, some hailing it a scandal, some calling him a cheat, some saying he should have been thrown out of the race and what not. I was just wondering whether this event was that important to just go on and on with it? Is F1 only about one man? People forgot that we also had a race of 78 laps and for 2/3rd of the race it was edge-of-the-seat stuff all set for a grand stand finish until the all too familiar anti-climax happened. Yes, it happened again. First Webbo and then that reliability bug striking Kimi - once again in Ron Dennis' car. Till that fateful lap 50, it seemed Alonso's Renault had some kind of a glue stuck on its rear which just refused to leave the silver car behind it (All glue behind the blue). Needless to say, the result was a formality after that. Alonso enjoyed a lonely drive to the chequered flag. But such is the beauty of this circuit that even after the winner was all but known, the drama siezed to stop behind him. Schumacher, after being a lap down, putting in some stunning laps and hunting down Barrichelo towards the end for p4 and Trulli's car stalling just when it looked he would break his season duck thus handing over a first podium finish to Red Bull were some of the incidents which just did not let you leave your seat. This race provided some much needed excitement and drama after the big Spanish yawwwwn even though Webbo and Kimi's exits robbed us of a possible wheel-to-wheel classic right down to the wire.

Juan Pablo gave my McLaren team something to smile by taking a safe 2nd place and for old-timers in F1 it could have been no better than to see 'superman' DC giving Red Bull its first podium. And this could be the first of many to follow. Rubens finally got the better of Button and unlike last year did not let Schumi pass through in the final corner. Fisi showed sparks of brilliance but qualifying 9th in Monaco doesn't do anyone any good. So Alonso takes one more step towards a second world championship. A man whose worst performance this year has been three 2nd places will surely sail through the rest of the season especially since the blue cars look to be in a different league altogether.

While I sign off I must say that I love the sight at Monaco when the cars are turning into that Grand Hotel hairpin (see pic) down the slope.