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Reigning Porsche Supercup champion Larry ten Voorde won last year on the streets of Monaco. He thought for a long time that he was going to set the best time in free practice on Thursday afternoon. He finally had to admit defeat by one of his favorite rivals, the German Michael Ammermüller, who won here in 2019: 1:34.998 on his last flying lap, driving his Porsche entered by SSR Huber Racing. This is only 5/100th better than the time of 1:35.051 set by ten Voorde, who finished just ahead of another German from SSR Huber Racing, Laurin Heinrich.
Behind this trio of potential contenders for the win on Sunday, 23-year-old Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci (1:35.452), who stood on the podium here last year as a Porsche Supercup rookie, took 4th place in his car entered by the Martinet/Alméras team, in front of another serious customer, Luxemburg’s Dylan Pereira, entered by Walter Lechner Racing.
Qualifying is scheduled for Friday in the middle of the afternoon, between two free practice sessions for Formula 1. And the race for Sunday at noon. It will be the most anticipated round of this 30th anniversary season of the Porsche Mobil1 Supercup.
Italian Gabriele Mini, one of the main contenders in Formula Regional Europe by Alpine, opened the ball in style Thursday afternoon by posting the best time in the one and only free practice session for the small and very agile single-seaters in the streets of the Principality : 1:30.585 for the young Art Grand Prix driver (17), currently 3rd in the championship, so slightly better than two Dutchmen, Kas Haverkort (Van Amersfoort Racing) and rookie Laurens van Hoepen, also entered by ART GP.
The best Frenchman in this session could have been Hadrien David, who took 3rd and 4th last year on the same Circuit de Monaco, in the same category. But he damaged his car by hitting the back of a slower car at la Piscine, on his last flying lap, and had to leave the honor of best Frenchman to Victor Bernier, one of the two French drivers of FA Racing, the team sponsored by Fernando Alonso. Bernier, a Formula Alpine rookie, took 6th place in this session behind Mini, Haverkort, van Hoepen, Estonian Paul Aron and Swede Dino Beganovic, the detached leader of the championship after two wins and two second places in the first four races. of the year.
Over 35 single-seaters took to the track, approximately one every 100 meters, and half were driven by beginners in the Principality, so some made mistakes and hit the rail, at the Portier turn or the Swimming pool S, or pulled straight at Sainte-Dévote. Fortunately, the Automobile Club de Monaco (ACM) marshals were vigilant, as usual, and very little time was lost in this session due to the excessive enthusiasm of the young guns, some not yet old enough to pass their driving licence.
The field will be divided into two groups on Friday morning for the one and only qualifying session on the weekend menu, which will inevitably be very intense. There will be two races this weekend, one Saturday morning and one Sunday morning, 30 minutes each.
It’s a battle royale that promises to take place in the streets of the Principality for the 79th edition of Monaco F1 Grand Prix, with four ace drivers spread in three top teams: Max Verstappen, the reigning world champion and new leader of the 2022 World Championship, at Red Bull Racing, Charles Leclerc, the local hero, in his Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for Mercedes.
One cannot expect any other driver to bother these top drivers who have accumulated 131 wins in F1, including 103 alone for the seven-time British world champion, 24 for the Flying Dutchman and 4 for the Monégasque. This 79th edition is more enticing than ever, between Sir Lewis and three spearheads of the new generation. Only Russell has never won in F1 but he has just finished in the Top 5 six times in a row this year, although he did not drive, by some length, the best single-seater on the grid.
To decide between the stars of modern F1, a little more eco-responsible and much less expensive for the teams, with a capped budget, a new format has been set up this year in Monaco: three days of F1, all inclusive, counting Friday morning for media duties and Friday afternoon for two free practice sessions, crucial to prepare for qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
It is indeed an extraordinary 79th Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco that is scheduled, in front of fully booked grandstands and VIP boxes, after two years of coronavirus, masks and sanitary constraints. It is also the beginning of a new era for Formula 1, in Monaco and elsewhere, around Verstappen, Leclerc and Russell, but also Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in their McLarens, and two former world champions who could reconnect any time with their past glory, Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), thanks to their huge experience: 340 Grands Prix contested (32 wins) for the popular Spaniard, crowned in 2005 and 2006, 283 GPs (and 53 wins) for the German four-time world champion.
On the French side, Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) will again be on the lookout if an opportunity arises, as in Monza or Hungary during their one and only success in F1, to date. The first two wins for a French driver in F1 since Olivier Panis in 1996… in Monaco!
On Sunday, talent, strategy and a bit of luck, an essential ingredient in the Principality, will determine the name of the winner. It will be much the same recipe for the supporting races, with a particularly exciting menu: the future champions of Formula 2, the young wolves of the Formula Regional Europe by Alpine and the overpowered coupes of the Porsche Supercup, ready to delight, one more time, lovers of old-fashioned thrills.
In this new-format Monaco Grand Prix, support races will be the only stars on track on Thursday. With a handful of famous surnames for young drivers who want to make a name for themselves: Enzo Fittipaldi, Eduardo Barrichello, Sebastian Montoya, Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson, Marino Sato. One thing is certain, even if the format has changed, it will still be very hot on track, all along this very special weekend, in the streets of the Principality!
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.
Starting from pole position, Hall resisted until the chequered flag te black and gold Lotus 76 (ex-Ronnie Peterson) driven by German Marco Werner, a treble winner of Le Mans 24 Hours. Placed on the front row, Roberto Moreno, the former Benetton F1 driver, slightly jumped the start, in his 1974 Lola T370 carrying the livery of Graham Hill‘s Embassy team, then he was penalized by ten seconds
The podium was therefore completed by the inevitable Michael Lyons, who had passed Moreno any way, in a McLaren M26 (ex-James Hunt). In the pack, the show was provided by the superb Shadows of Max Smith-Hilliard, Gregor Fisken and Jean-Denis Delétraz (ex-Jean-Pierre Jarier) fighting throughout the race (17 laps) with a Lotus 77 ( ex-Peterson) driven by Nick Padmore and a Penske PC3 (ex-John Watson) by Matthew Wrigley.
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.
