EXCLUSIVE TACH COVERAGE

Monaco Grand Prix

Monaco madness !

Andrew Frankl European Bureau Chief

In 30 years of reporting from Monaco I have never ever seen a race like the one this afternoon. Had I taken the script across to Cannes where the film festival is being held I would have been laughed out of the place.

Here we had a double world champion in a red Ferrari starting from pole position resulting in an exodus from Italy by train, cars, bicycles which ended up the greatest number of people seen in the Principality at any one time hitting the guard rail half way round the first lap! The tifosi, most of whom were up on the hill about a mile away did not even get a glance of their hero. To his credit Schumacher later admitted that it was simply a mistake, a human error. Under the circumstances it would have been difficult to say anything else as there was nobody near him at the time.

The madness continued when the Frentzen got all excited about Irvine who was holding him up and damaged his own car resulting in a pit stop for a new front wing.

The next thing that scene was not really madness, it was just sheer pure bad luck. Damon Hill was leading by a mile in his normally totally reliable Williams Renault when his engine blew up. Of all places on Renault's home patch.

We hardly recovered from his demise when Alesi, who inherited the lead gave up with suspension trouble. This left none other than the virtually unknown Olivier Panis in the lead. He started from 14th place and was a total outsider as far as victory was concerned. And yet here he was, driving like an old pro, leading the most famous Grand Prix of them all.

For sure at one point he did push Eddie Irvine out of the way but no steward was going to penalise a French driver on what is virtually French soil for a minor indiscretion such as this.

In the end it was Scotland's David Coulthard who gave chase but realising just how quickly the Frenchman was going settled for second place. A surprised Johnny Herbert came in third, getting points for the first time this year.

The French Canadian Jacques Villeneuve was unlucky to get hit by Luca Badoer of Italy but to be fair he was never really in the running as far as the lead was concerned.

Near the end there was further Monaco madness, this time Eddie Irvine spun out of sight of the Finnish rivals Salo and Hakkinen who were giving each other a pretty tough race. It became even tougher when they crashed into each other trying top avoid the hapless Eddie who had spun on the entrance to portier.

In the end of the two hour race there were just four cars running out of 22!

Panis finally took the chequered flag for the first time in his life and with that and the previous 6th place in Brazil he is currently fourth in the championship.

He did a lap of honour with a huge French flag to the delight of the home crowd and to all true supporters of the sport who were happy to see a new face on the podium.

At the top of the championship table nothing changed, none of the top three-Hill, Villeneuve or Schumacher got any points.

Now the circus moves on to Barcelona where in all probability "normal service" will be restored.