Monaco GP: Mercedes, Ferrari and the big talking points so far
Setting the scene for F1's return to action in Monaco on Saturday...
Monday 29 May 2017 08:30, UK
The opening day of a Monaco GP weekend often throws up a surprise or two and on Thursday, it was the unusually off-the-pace performance of world champions Mercedes which was the talk of the paddock.
Eighth and 10th on the Practice Two timesheet was strange in itself, but the 1.1-second gap to pacesetters and championship rivals Ferrari suggested something wasn't quite right with the W08.
And, as it soon turned out, it wasn't: Toto Wolff confirmed to Sky F1 that Mercedes "took a wrong junction in setting up the car" after first practice, leaving Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas fighting a chronic lack of grip around Monaco's tortuous streets.
With Wolff saying the team needed to "back track" to the set-up which saw Hamilton set the Practice One pace from Sebastian Vettel, the smart money is on the winners of the last four Monaco GPs returning to the sharp end when action resumes on Saturday.
But will that still be enough to beat Ferrari?
With the help of Sky Sports F1 pundit and long-time technical chief Pat Symonds, we assess some of the big talking points from an intriguing Monaco 2017 so far...
Will Mercedes bounce back?
For the second year in a row in the Principality, Mercedes have left themselves with plenty of work to do on Friday's supposed 'rest day' after their set-up miscue ahead of Practice Two.
While Ferrari and Red Bull made afternoon lap-time improvements of nine and five tenths of a second respectively on a street circuit that tends to just keep on getting faster, Mercedes's quickest P2 lap was 0.4s slower than they managed in the first session.
Hamilton: Mercedes got it wrong
Provided the team's engineers do successfully complete that set-up U-turn, Symonds believes Mercedes are set to re-appear in a closely-fought battle for supremacy heading towards qualifying.
"The real surprise of Thursday was that we saw Mercedes go off in a direction that obviously hasn't worked," said Symonds.
"It's easy to say 'well if they've been in a direction that hasn't worked and they were okay in first practice, they'll be back on Saturday' and they might well be. But it's quite close at the front and we're seeing the different attributes of the different cars come to the fore."
Standing trackside during Practice Two, Martin Brundle noted that a lack of traction out of the harbourside chicane was hurting the W08. Symonds, himself watching the action at the Rascasse, believes the ability to get on the power early out of Monaco's tight corners is also marking cars out.
"You can absolutely see the difference between the cars," he said. "You could almost rank them like that with the grid order."
So are Ferrari the team to beat?
Ending Thursday with a new Monaco outright lap record of 1:12.720, championship leader Sebastian Vettel topped the P2 timesheet by a seemingly comfortable 0.487s margin from Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
Symonds suspects the SF70-H is probably just ahead as it stands, but believes the nature of the circuit will also help others, including Red Bull, close up on F1 2017's dominant top two.
"I think Ferrari will end up a little bit ahead, but Red Bull are going to give them a little bit of a challenge," he said. "It's a reasonably obvious thing to say, but here in Monaco the power unit advantage is not quite as significant as at other circuits.
"So the advantage that Mercedes and Ferrari enjoy over Renault-engined Red Bull and Toro Rosso, for example, is less here than it was in Barcelona and will be in some of the circuits to come, particularly Canada.
"So we could have a fight at the front. Ultimately Ferrari will probably prevail and Mercedes will not be eighth and ninth."
What do teams do on a Monaco Friday?
Unique among all of F1's races, Friday is considered a 'rest day' in Monaco with sponsor and fan engagements taking precedence at F1's most glamorous race.
However, it remains a busy day of fixing and fine-tuning for teams' crews in the garages - or that is at least the intention, according to Monaco veteran Symonds.
"On Friday the work just expands to fill the time available," said Symonds, who served as chief technical officer at both Williams and Renault.
"So Friday consists of engineers dreaming up daft ideas and getting poor mechanics doing things that really don't need doing. There is a huge temptation to mess around with things, so you do need to carefully consider everything.
"Otherwise you can go out in Practice Three and think 'wow, what have we done?'"
Mercedes will hope their sinking feeling of Thursday afternoon does not return when the W08 completes its first flying laps in Practice Three from 10am BST on Saturday.
A change in the 2017 narrative?
Mercedes v Ferrari may remain the overriding story of the weekend, but Thursday's practice has certainly offered glimpses of promise that the large gaps seen between various sections of the grid so far in 2017 could be smaller in Saturday's ever-critical battle for Monaco pole.
"I think Mercedes have got a bit of a fight on their hands," said Symonds. "There are a lot of midfield cars that are in the mix now and, yes, I know when it gets to that final bit of qualifying the order does tend to shake up, but I still think we have the potential for quite an unusual grid order.
"And that's got to be good."
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