on frow again

ferrari2008
Felipe Massa will start tomorrow's Monaco Grand Prix from pole position after snatching the top spot from Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen by less than three hundredths of a second.
Ferrari locked out the front row, despite McLaren having looked quicker throughout the weekend so far. Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen had to settle for sharing the second row of the grid.
Hamilton and Kovalainen began qualifying by trading quickest times in Q1, but Massa pulled a 1:15.1 out of the bag in the dying seconds. The Brazilian repeated the time with his first effort in Q2 and it remained unbeaten as he went on to top all three parts of qualifying.
Raikkonen seemed to have secured pole position when his last effort proved just out of reach of Hamilton, but Massa, last on track again, stole the top spot by the smallest of margins with the final lap of the session.
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Ferrari F2008 - nose hole development

ferrari nose
For the second time in three races, Ferrari have utilised their vented nosecone assembly in Monaco. The solution, which improves the car's overall aero balance, works best at high-downforce tracks like Monte Carlo, and the Italian team have further refined it with the addition of two triangular, inclined winglets (inset) at the base of the nosecone. These are designed to help divert away turbulence generated by the front-wing pillars and hence enhance the efficiency of the bottom hole.

ref:[formula1.com]

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High stakes, high downforce: Toyota on taming the streets of Monte Carlo

toyota
For nearly 80 years, the Monaco Grand Prix has challenged drivers to tame the tight and twisty streets of a race track which winds its way through the second smallest nation on earth. At just two square kilometres, and with the highest national population density in Europe, Monaco is unique on the Formula One calendar. That 350km/h race cars still do battle on its treacherous turns in the 21st century is testament to the enduring fascination of the Monaco Grand Prix.
For most in Formula One racing, Monaco is in equal parts a trial and a joy; with the tight confines challenging everyone in the paddock, but the history, glamour and unrivalled atmosphere stoking the flames of passion in all motorsport enthusiasts.
Richard Cregan, Toyota team manager, sums it up: "Monaco is one of the great races of the year. It is an icon in terms of Formula One and a driver on a flying lap in Monaco, I believe, earns his salary for the year right there. But you also have the great atmosphere of being in Monaco; the glitz and the glamour combined with Formula One racing. You have an enthusiasm, a passion that you probably don't get at too many circuits in Formula One."
Jarno Trulli has a passion for racing and some incredible memories of Monaco's legendary streets, having won his first Grand Prix in 2004 with a superb performance from pole position. Of course, that kind of result will always give happy memories but regardless, for Trulli, Monaco is always a special place.
"My race win here was the perfect Monaco souvenir," he says. "I have a lot of fun at Monaco, it is a very different Grand Prix and I find it very exciting. There is more risk there and you need a good feeling with the car to succeed. It is difficult to explain why this race track is so special. The guard rail is very close and it seems very fast; it is a great challenge and you need total concentration. It is just a great circuit."

With unforgiving walls just centimetres away, drivers are given no margin for error, which makes Monaco one of the most mentally demanding races of the year. In terms of the cars, it may be tempting, logical even, to assume the slowest race on the calendar is the least demanding, but that could not be further from the truth. Monaco is not only a unique challenge for a driver; it places very special demands on a Formula One car as well.
With so many slow-speed corners, drivers spend almost the entire 3.34 km lap working their way through the gears, adding up to nearly 4,000 gear changes over a race distance, and that is just one element of Monaco's mechanical menace, as Toyota’s chief race and test engineer, Dieter Gass, explains.
"It is a circuit which is mechanically very demanding because there are a lot of gear changes due to the fact you are always working in the lower part of the ratios," he says. "So there is a lot of work for the gearbox - between every corner the driver is shifting up and down.
"This track is very demanding for the brakes as well because of the low average speed and the lack of long straights where you would cool down your brakes. Consequently the average temperature of the brakes is very, very high and this means you have to be very carefully about your brake cooling."
Engine cooling, too, can be a major issue. While the rich and famous sip ice-cold cocktails, with a cool sea breeze wafting over their luxurious balconies in the May sunshine, a Formula One car gasps for air around the chokingly tight streets.
At other circuits, long straights represent welcome relief for an engine, with relatively cooler air blasting past the radiators at 350km/h to trim temperatures, but Monaco has a distinct shortage of straights. Luckily, that also means high downforce, rather than high top speed, is the order of the day, so there is more leeway than normal for aerodynamics to be tweaked to help out.
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