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He is eagerly awaited this weekend and has every intention of making a faultless run until Sunday. It’s off to a good start, with the best time in Free Practice 1 on Friday afternoon for Charles Leclerc, in his Ferrari, in 1:14.531, with a tiny margin ahead of Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull (1:14.570) and on Carlos Sainz’s other Ferrari (1:14.601). A fourth driver fell below the 1:15 lap mark, world champion Max Verstappen, 4th fastest in this inaugural session where he tried to find the limit and went straight at Sainte-Dévote, without damaging his Red Bull carrying number 1.
The good surprise came from McLaren who set the 5th (Lando Norris) and 7th times (Daniel Ricciardo). Between the two drivers of the English team, the best Frenchman of this FP1, Pierre Gasly, took 6th in his AlphaTauri. Even if we cannot rely on a first session to draw hasty conclusions, it is already clear that the Scuderia has prepared this meeting in Monaco well and that Mercedes, despite obvious progress in recent weeks, is not yet back at the top of the F1 hierarchy: George Russell (8th) edged out Lewis Hamilton (10th) and another world champion, Sebastian Vettel (9th), pointed his Aston Martin’s nose in the Top 10.
The good news is that we won’t have to wait too long, only for Friday’s FP2 session at 5:00 pm, to find out if these trends are confirmed…
It was the last free practice session of a busy afternoon, for Formula 2, and it was very lively, the main agitators being the top drivers who scored big points in the first eight rounds of 2022: Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport ), winner in Jeddah and Barcelona, Frenchman Théo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix), victorious in Sakhir and Imola, in the long races on Sunday morning, and Indian Jehan Daruvala (Prema Racing). The first three in the standings on their arrival in Monaco.
Drugovich finished at the top of the time sheet, thanks to a best lap of 1:21.589, ahead of two unexpected drivers at this level, at the start of the weekend: Switzerland’s Ralph Boschung (Campos) and Norway’s Dennis Hauger ( Prema), followed by Briton Jake Hughes (Van Amersfoort) and two sons of former motorcycle world champions, Liam Lawson (5th) and Jack Doohan (6th). Something to make their glorious dads, Eddie and Mick, very proud tonight.
Pourchaire entered the Top 10 of this session, a year after his first victory, in Monaco, in the same category. The second Frenchman entered, Clément Novalak, Drugovich’s teammate at MP Motorsport, had never driven in Monaco in an F2 before. He had to find his bearings and settled for 21st in order to prepare well, without damaging his car, for qualifying on Friday morning.
As with the Formula Regional Alpine, there will be two qualifying groups on Friday morning, with only 11 single-seaters at the same time on the track. For 16 minutes only, so no time to waste.
Long before Jacky Ickx became the great motorbike and car champion we all know, his father, Jacques, wrote sports columns for the Belgian daily newspaper “Les Sports” under the title “Tout autour de nous”.
His sharp style, his pen dipped in vitriol and even curare earned him the title of journalist-writer in France.
He was also one of the five European automobile journalists of the post-war period.
And he knows motor sport rather well!
The first Belgian Motocross Champion, Jacques Ickx also distinguished himself by winning the toughest car endurance event in 1951: the Liège-Rome-Liège Road Marathon.
“Our father’s past as a competitor allowed him to know all the movements of the soul that motivate a sportsman and the emotions that could sweep his heart”, remembers Jacky’s elder brother Pascal.
These sports chronicles written between 1948 and 1951, full of information but also rich in adventures, exploits, human feelings and unexpected moments, Jacky only discovered them recently: “I was blown away by their actuality, more than 70 years after they were written! And this is not a son admiring his father talking to you, but a reader seduced by a writer.
Compiled in a book entitled “Tout autour de nous, hymne au sport et aux valeurs humaines” (All around us, a hymn to sport and human values), the chronicles of Jacques Ickx are naturally prefaced by his two sons Pascal and Jacky.
In the name of the Father.
Tout autour de nous, by Jacques Ickx, Éd. MOLS is available in paper version
– 29,90 €, ISBN 978-2-87402-272-2 – and in digital version – 20,99 € – ISBN 978-2-87402-282-1
The royalties will be donated to the SOLIMEDA Foundation for Olympic medallists in financial need.
Scriptwriters could not have done it better: this 2022 edition, marked by a tribute to the death of Colin Chapman, in 1982, ended with a victory for German poleman Marco Werner in a Lotus 87 produced in… 1982, and even by a hat-trick for the mythical brand founded by the most brilliant engineer in all of Formula 1 history. Since Friday, this G Series carried the label of Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian who offered Lotus a 7th and last triumph in Monaco, in 1987, before joining McLaren to win three world crowns despite fierce competition from Alain Prost. This final race of the weekend involved 3-liter engine F1 cars produced between 1981 and 1985, since turbo engines are too tricky to manage on such a track for an historic race weekend. A three-time winner of Le Mans 24 Hours of Le Mans, Werner finally beat Briton Michael Lyons, hands down winner of Race E an hour earlier, who had swapped his Hesketh for a 1983 Lotus 92. On the last step of the podium, another Brit, Nick Padmore, entered in the famous double-chassis Lotus 88B produced in 1981 but never allowed to race. A radical and innovative car, just like its designer. Honored all weekend, Colin Chapman would have been overjoyed by this one and only victory in the 13th Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, in the last race of the weekend. Perfect timing.
Michael Lyons has now won 7 times in a Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, including four times (2012, 2014, 2021 and 2022) in the beautiful Hesketh 308 E (ex-Rupert Keegan) carrying the livery of Penthouse magazine, which he drove to perfection again to win Race F on Sunday. His task was made easier by the last-minute withdrawal of poleman Miles Griffiths, who parked his Fittipaldi in the pits after the formation lap.
The podium was monopolized by British drivers since Michael Cantillon took 2nd place, in his Tyrrell 010 (ex-Michele Alboreto), and a Lotus 78 completed the picture, thanks to Lee Mowle. Monaco’s Frédéric Lajoux finished at the foot of the podium, 4th in his black and gold Arrows although he had started at the back of the grid after a collision in qualifications.
Coming down from the podium, Lyons was rewarded, like the other winners of the day, with a figurine of a legendary F1 driver. For him, one of Canadian Scuderia driver Gilles Villeneuve autographed by Yvon Amiel, creator of Antoine le Pilote, a popular cartoon series.
The demonstration was announced in the program of the 13th Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, but the content of the event had been kept secret.
Jacky Ickx‘s presence in the paddock throughout the weekend, as well as the visit of Charles Leclerc planned for this Sunday, should have served as clues for the spectators. To the delight of enthusiasts, both drivers, the Belgian with an XXL résumé, and the Monégasque from the Scuderia, offered a real journey through time, for a few minutes, at midday, as the sun shone again over the port of Monaco.
Leclerc took charge of the Ferrari 312B3 (ex-Niki Lauda) entered in the E Series for Claudia Hürtgen by the Methusalem team. In 1974, this single-seater triumphed in Spain and the Netherlands, allowing the Austrian to claim his first two F1 wins, then Clay Regazzoni won in Germany and the Scuderia finished second in the Constructors’ World Championship, behind McLaren.
“When I was four, we were playing with toy cars in a friend’s apartment, that’s my first memory of Monaco Grand Prix,” Charles Leclerc said after this very special parade lap. “I took these streets on a bus to go to school when I was a kid and I always dreamt of winning this race. It’s really exceptional to see all these old cars today, at Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, it’s fun and it’s beautiful to see“, the Scuderia driver added.
For his part, Ickx recalled some good memories at the wheel of his 312B2, registered in the D Series and entrusted this weekend to Jürgen Boden. With this car, the Belgian was on the second step of the podium in the Principality in 1971, before winning in the Netherlands and Germany later in the season.
The demonstration lasted about ten minutes, the Ferrari engines roared and many spectators were moved. Then Leclerc and Ickx posed for the official photo on the starting grid. A snapshot for history, with Charles and Jacky, worthy representatives of two generations of drivers, to the delight of many photographers.
It was the one and only race for Sports Cars of the type authorized to compete in the streets of the Principality in 1952, 70 years ago, a Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday (cars with more than 2 liters of displacement) or a Prix de Monte-Carlo on Sunday (less than 2 litres).
So it was a bit of a different race, with two-seaters with great lines, gleaming bodies wrapping their wheels. Some were in total slide mode when they arrived on Place du Casino, the noise of their engines was tremendous, the fight was fierce and the spectators were ecstatic. Eventually, a British driver won in the person of Frederic Wakeman, embarked in a 1955 Cooper Jaguar T38 Mk2. He started from pole position in this “Vittorio Marzotto” series and he managed to beat two Maserati 300S driven by Austria’s Lukas Halusa and Spain’s Guillermo Fierro-Eleta, who slightly rubbed the barrier in the closing laps. The leading quintet was completed by Niklas Halusa, Lukas’s brother, in a 1954 Jaguar D-Type, ahead of Germany’s Claudia Hürtgen, victorious of Race A2 in the morning. She had swapped her Ferrari Dino 246 for a Maserati 300S and again she did a superb job. Well done, Madam.
This superb single-seater had already won in the streets of the Principality in 2016, at the hands of the same Stuart Hall. It has not aged a bit and was only overtaken at the first corner by Jordan Grogor‘s Matra MS120C. But the South African based in Dubai was then penalized ten seconds for having anticipated the start, which did not prevent him from reaching the podium at the end. The main beneficiary of this penalty was Michael Lyons, 4th on the grid, who finished 2nd in his Surtees TS9. The young Briton also profited from the retirement of the BRM P153 (ex-Pedro Rodriguez) of Mexican Esteban Gutierrez, which brutally stalled at the tunnel exit chicane, for a purely mechanical reason.
The American did it again on Sunday morning, in Race B “Graham Hill” for single-seaters with 1500cc engines from year 1961 to 1965, starting from pole position.
In his 1964 Ferrari 1512 (ex-Surtees and Bandini), he initially got off to a very good start, running his business masterfully, but he then encountered some fierce resistance from Mark Shaw in a Lotus 21. The Briton only needed one attempt at the start of lap 8 to pass his rival, but the battle did not end there. Pressed by the Ferrari, Shaw delayed his braking too much at Sainte Dévote and his green single-seater crashed into the Tecpro barriers. End of the story. On the podium, Joe Colasacco was joined by Christopher Drake, never worried in his Cooper T71/73, and Andrew Beaumont, who saved Lotus’s honor in his Type 24.
The Formula 1 world champion, Max Verstappen, a Monaco resident, took a short walk in the pits of Grand Prix de Monaco Historique on Saturday afternoon, before the start of qualifying for the G Series, the last of the day . He spent a long time with his compatriot Frits van Eerd, entered in a 1983 Williams FW08C (ex-Keke Rosberg). He seemed perfectly rested from his triumphant weekend in Miami, concluded with his third victory of the season; He will be back in Monaco at the end of the month…
