"Our aim is always to win," said Dennis, "but we like to have fun, like to enjoy it." Yes Senna had broken it, but he had apologised. Yes, there had been an agreement between the drivers. Ron Dennis explained it away at a press conference. Was there significance in Prost being faster than Senna? There had been that falling-out at Imola. It seemed a fairly ordinary sort of session. Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell. Soon the trees overhanging the track were twitching as the main field came out. "There is no more in the car," said Volker, "and no more in me." That was it. The same was happening at Onyx, and at Zakspeed, and with the cars of Gregor Foitek and Volker Weidler. FISA reached for a yellow book and decided that, yes, it had happened in Brazil, but actually that had been a mistake. With Gerhard Berger not starting, Osella argued, five pre-qualifiers should go forward. Ghinzani was out - by 0.026 second - and the Osella team was unhappy. Modena was in, cool as ever: "I'm always very lucky in pre-qualifying " Caffi was in: "I sleep very good, last night " Raphanel was in: "I like street tracks " Brundle was in - by the skin of his teeth - "That was too close!" That didn't happen until the closing minutes when it was time to step back from the barriers as a totally crossed-up and out-of-control Zakspeed came straight at you. "My car was perfect, but I could never get a clear lap." The man who ran comfortably in the top six at Imola was out for the weekend. "It is completely casino," said Nicola Larini later. Modena, Caffi, Larini, Stefan Johansson, Piercarlo Ghinzani, the all-important top four slots were passing between the drivers quicker than money passes to the croupiers in the Casino. Enter former Monaco F3 winner, Pierre-Henri Raphanel in the Coloni.Īfter half-an-hour he was topping the timesheets. Nicola Larini, Alex Caffi and the Brabhams of Stefano Modena and Martin Brundle seemed in control. To begin with it was business as usual - Joachim Winkelhock was soon jogging into the pits, looking for a spare AGS. Young drivers, close barriers, 'green' track, take cover. There were times when that seemed like a good idea. "Where are you watching pre-qualifying from?" someone asked a more cynical member of the press corps. Start at the back of the grid and you might as well go home.įor some of the pre-qualifying teams, the grid is still a very long way away, but they were out at 8am on Thursday, ready for their 60 minutes of make-or-break. Qualifying is infinitely more important here than at any other track. You forget how impressive it is when they thread their way through the streets. It reminds you, lest you had lost sight of it, that all GP drivers really are basket-cases. It's a madhouse but for one weekend a year it doesn't do any harm. It's a beautiful spot, nestling under the corniche. Monaco is for the gold-dribbling rich on their "botes", each one stuffed to the gunwhales with Barbie dolls.ĭoes it matter that the gentlemen look like extras from The Long Good Friday? Of course not, people are looking-that is all that counts.ĭespite all this, you cannot help but like Monaco. They make too much noise and cause all the traffic jams. These are the optional extras of the weekend, the noisy fag packets on wheels which intrude on the festival of public preening. That may be, for the Monaco GP has little to do with racing cars. Sigmund Freud would tell you it's all to do with sex. The Ferraris are almost as common as the people driving them. In Monaco, everyone has a fancy car at Grand Prix time (dare I suggest they don't normally?). "There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women," wrote PJ O'Rourke on this subject, "chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible." There's a toy shop on the Boulevard des Moulins in Monaco where you can buy your Barbie doll a Ferrari with which to impress Action Man.
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