It's one of my favourites, too. I just got my first career win there. I won by over forty seconds. I was kicking myself over some scruffy lap times, but when I reviewed the final standings, I noticed that they were still faster than some of the fastest laps set by my rivals. I was sure that I could set a time deep into the 1:13s - and if you added up my fastest sector times across the weekend, I was threatening (but not quite there) the high 1:12s - and was really quite disappointed that I didn't do it.
Nice job. I have no idea what my lap times were when I was last there. I just took another win at Monaco from pole, and followed it up with a win from second on the grid in Canada. This meant one thing: My weakest circuit from my first season was up next. Baku.
Now the first time around I found it difficult to find a set-up that allowed me to place the front end where I wanted it on corner entry, this was probably due to the Renault only having the tier one updates installed, and still being quite a heavy car with a lack of downforce. This time around, the car has all the tier three updates, and feels much more nimble than it did originally, so I was hoping to be more competitive. Last time, IIRC, I qualified something like 16th, and finished 11th, but as the car was much more competitive with the other top cars this time around, I was hoping to trouble the top 5. I didn't have time to do the race last night, but was anxious to see my performance, so I did practice and quali.
Managed to set the third fastest time in q1, though one of the cars ahead of me (Ricciardo) had set his time on softs, so I was expecting the bulls to have a significant advantage. In q2 the two bulls were 9 tenths clear of the field, and I was fourth behind Hamilton, 1.1 seconds off Verstappen's time in first. I went into q3 very happy, because I felt way more comfortable at the circuit than I did the previous season, which made me feel like it was less my fault, and more the car's fault, for the poor showing last season. I was happy with being as far up as fourth, and was hoping to repeat that performance in q3. To my surprise, the track evolution was major, and most cars were significantly faster in q3 than they were in q2. That was, except for the two Red Bulls! I set a time two hundredths faster than Verstappen's q2 time, but he lost a tenth on his q2 time, and Ricciardo gained about a tenth, to slot in just behind me, and just ahead of his team mate. Hamilton has also gained a significant chunk of time, and instead of being 9 tenths down on the Bulls, was now just 3 tenths down. I couldn't believe I had snatched pole, after not leading a single practice or quali session before q3 lol.
Really looking forward to the race now, as the car feels quite nice to drive, with a very positive front end, which will help me to be consistent in the race. The only dark horse will be Raikkonen, who, despite being about a second off the pace, was the only driver to make it to q3 on softs, so he might have a strategic advantage in the race. I'm just happy that I'm going into a race where I was expecting to have to do damage limitation, trying to protect my 33 point championship lead as best I can, but I'm now going into the race with an eye on increasing my championship lead