By almost halving the lead that Schumacher had in the driver’s championship, it has also put a big dent in the grip he had on this year’s championship. From here on Schumacher will have to watch every point that can be earned.

Had Trulli’s gearbox not failed (for the nth time this year) he may have stayed in front of Coulthard as overtaking was just not possible at Monaco. Had Schumacher’s suspension not failed I doubt if Coulthard would have caught up with him, let alone pass him.

But that is motor racing. Things break and at circuits like Monaco the smallest lapse in concentration is likely to end your race rather abruptly. Ralf Schumacher, who was in a great position to gain a podium finish crashed because he went just that little bit too wide around the emerging Mika Hakkinen.

In subsequent interviews both Michael Schumacher and Coulthard mentioned the role that Lady Luck plays. Schumacher said that although he was very disappointed he accepted that in Formula 1 one must expect periodic failure. He appeared quite philosophic about it, although I am sure that he must have said some unprintable things in his helmet when it happened.

Coulthard, during the post race press conference, most graciously, said: "OK, today I benefited from the problems, which hit Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, but that is Monaco and I have had my own fair share of bad luck here over the years. So I am happy to take the win here today"

I was very impressed by Coulthard. On a track where the only way to finish is to be perfect, he certainly showed that he could do what it takes. The confidence, with a touch of humility, rather than arrogance, that he displayed during the post race press conference, also impressed me. He has developed not only into a great driver, but has done it in a way that will make most want to see him win again.

If indeed Ron Dennis did state (which I do not believe) that Michael Schumacher’s retirement was due to "overdriving" by the German, in my opinion he makes my mother-in-law look like an amateur when it comes to being bitchy. We all know that the result of overdriving at Monaco is a sudden, terminal, meeting with the unforgiving boundaries of the circuit, not a melt down! Does that mean that every time a McLaren breaks down it is because of overdriving?

The fact is that F1 is a team effort and if the car has the slightest flaw, it will undoubtedly show up during the race. The Ferrari had a faulty exhaust and that ended Schumacher’s race. They just have to learn to build it better, just like every other team. Or was this just due to the pole jinx?

Attrition was high, but then it always is at Monaco. What I found interesting, and frustrating, is that we are still seeing so many transmission failures this late in the season. 4, or 5 if you count the transmission or gearbox problem that stopped Hakkinen from trying to get past Salo towards the end of the race. Surely transmission/gearbox problems can be solved?

Sainte. Devote also claimed an extraordinary number of cars this year. I can’t remember this being the scene of that many crashes in previous years. The area behind the barrier looked like a scrap yard by the end of the race.

Luck did not only apply to the race. What about Hakkinen with almost no chance of winning the race (unless almost every car in front of him expired) simply because he was not lucky enough to get one clear qualifying lap.

In all races now (with possibly one or two exceptions) it is not possible to make up more than two, or maybe three, positions during the race. Even Hakkinen, with his astounding starting ability, could not overtake 4 cars in one start and one pit stop. I know it has been done before and if you qualify in 5^th you can just as well plan to try it again. But, at Monaco, unless the cars in front retire, making up more than two positions relies on the mistakes of the other drivers and teams. Not a hopeful plan.

As it turned out, Hakkinen had too many things go wrong with his car to have a shot at it. Initially some bit that fell of in the cockpit, jamming the brake pedal, and then finally a problem with his transmission (I wonder if Ron Dennis blamed these failures on overdriving?)

And, finally before we look at the teams: Did you see the amount of wing that the cars were carrying? Driving behind one of those must have been like following a block of flats! What was significant is that it looked as if turbulence gave less trouble on this, very slow, circuit. Following cars may never have had an opportunity to overtake but they did not seem to have as much trouble staying in touch as we saw on the majority of tracks so far this year.

Ferrari.

Still marginally slower than McLaren.

At Monaco the Ferrari seemed a little more stable than the McLaren, which may be why Ferrari qualified a little better and easier, but it does not have the obvious mechanical grip superiority that we saw last season. I expected more mechanical grip from Ferrari.

Michael Schumacher

He drove a brilliant race and was clearly commanding the race from the front before his suspension failed. Admittedly Trulli, who held Coulthard back for around half race distance, helped Schumacher gain a substantial lead, but when Coulthard was driving in clear air too, they consistently traded fastest laps.

Love him or hate him, Schumacher is still regarded as the best at the moment.

Barrichello.

Barrichello is a very fast driver who appears to have no affinity with his car. I am not suggesting that he does not know how to set up a car, but there is a lot of evidence that he does not know how to set up a Ferrari.

This could be because the car was built around Michael Schumacher and does not suit any other driver. If so, Rubens must find a way around it, and soon.

At the moment a car that cannot support him is constantly baulking his very considerable ability. At the end of the day it is his job to get the best out if his car.

Coming second in Monaco is a great achievement, but Rubens was capable of doing better. The driver car combination was lucky to finish where they did.

McLaren.

McLaren are still the fastest cars on the circuit. The margin to Ferrari may be small but with a clear track ahead they are consistently faster.

Coulthard

What a perfect drive! I am sure that he could have done better, but I could not see where. He sat in close touch with Trulli for almost half race distance without any sign of impatience. A year ago I would have criticized his Kamikaze style of overtaking (or attempting to), now I cannot help but admire the way he kept his cool!

I predict that he will be a world champion within the next three years.

Hakkinen

How unlucky can you get?

He is, in my opinion, the best qualifier of the current F1 drivers and he did not even get the smallest chance to do what he does best. For Hakkinen, Monaco qualifying was a nightmare!

Then during the race it appears that he was given a car that was not finished.

Bits fall off in the cockpit, and when that is fixed the gearbox lets him down.

Well, you have to be unlucky sometime. Maybe Ron Dennis should concentrate on building a car that can be driven rather than concern himself with overdriving in other teams.

Williams.

Reliability, although much better than anyone could expect from the BMW motor, is still an issue with this team. Button’s car expired very early in the race and was the only engine failure of the race.

Monaco does not tax engines much as there is almost no opportunity to go fast enough. If an engine cannot make Monaco it is a clear indication that engine reliability problems are still not behind them.

On the other hand I did not expect them to be third in the championship this early in the season. In fact I did not expect them to be anywhere near third for the entire season.

The Williams chassis is fast and the engine produces plenty of the right horsepower and torque. It appears to be a very driveable car and, for the rest of the season they should easily maintain third place in the constructor’s championship.

As early as next year they could be competing for the lead!

Ralf Schumacher

Ralf was doing extremely well and looked as if he had a chance of finishing on the podium. It almost looked as if he did not expect Hakkinen to come out of the pits and was forced to run a little wide. Or maybe he just did not expect the track to be that slippery off the racing line.

Mistake, lapse of concentration or a miscalculated risk, Monaco does not take prisoners. This is the second time, in that many races, that I have seen Ralf make an unforced error at a time when there was no need to push that hard.

I just hope that the injury to his leg will not prevent him from being able to drive in Canada.

Button

I am starting to get the feeling that Button is not doing as well as he would like to. He certainly has the ability to go fast but does not seem to turn that into race pace. So far he has only finished ahead of teammate Ralf once and that was at Nurburgring when Ralf was involved in the get-together of Verstappen and Irvine.

Taking into account that Williams have more drivers for 2001 than a dog has fleas, I would be very worried if I were Jenson.

Button did not qualify well, but he was not alone. The starting grid was full of drivers that were two or three rows back from where I expected them. During the race he was on the track for only 16 laps and that was way at the back.

Benetton.

I expected to see Benetton do well at Monaco. This is one of the rare tracks where absolute power plays a very small role and second tier teams get a chance to do well. They certainly grasped the opportunity!

Fisichella

Fast, consistent and accurate. He drove a very good race and earned the podium position he deserved.

Wurz

He is not getting a break this year. But then I get the feeling that he is not trying to make the breaks happen.

Jordan

If you asked me at the end of last season I would have said that Jordan had the potential to be very strong this year. They are not trying out a new engine, the formula has not changed and all they needed to do was to evolve last year’s car.

This year they are slow and unbelievably unreliable!

The chassis is fast. If that was not true they would not have been able to qualify as well as they did. They seem to be down on power but that did not matter that much at Monaco.

What does it take to fix the gearbox so they can start finishing races?

Frentzen

He drove a good race until the 71^st lap, then he made just 1 mistake!

Trulli

Trulli has finally shown how fast he can be. Qualifying second, he must have felt that this was the chance to show what he can do and he was doing just that until his car let him down.

BAR.

Their performance at Monaco proved that BAR do not have the chassis to compete. The Honda engine seems to be doing its job but it is not a great package yet.

They qualified well down and would have stayed there if it was not for Villeneuve’s ability.

Villeneuve

Finishing just out of the points was an achievement.

Villeneuve deserves to drive something faster. If one believes all the rumours he is sniffing around to see who else he can drive for but, if that is the case, he should be careful. If Honda get their way BAR may be a good car by next season.

Zonta

He crashed on lap 48. By that time he was just one of the many contributions to the scrap yard.

Sauber.

It is a pity that Diniz crashed, as I was very interested to see how Sauber will do on the slower tracks.

The car seemed fast enough at Monaco, which may indicate that they are down on power or did not get the aerodynamics set up properly. Either way, the season is getting away from them.

Salo

Salo drove well and certainly made me change my mind about his ability to handle the slower circuits. In a good car he could be fast.

Diniz

Crashed on lap 30. He seemed to be doing reasonably well until then but certainly was not one of the drivers to watch.

Jaguar.

Both cars finished the race, and one of them in 4^th place!

They certainly seem to have reliability sorted, so I could see the increase in pace that I have been predicting since the beginning of the season.

Irvine

Irvine has always been fast at Monaco, and he certainly did a great job to finish in 4^th place on Sunday. If the Jaguar picks up pace Irvine could do well.

Herbert

It almost looks as if Herbert has lost motivation. I will be surprised to see him continue beyond the season, and if he does, he needs to find another team with a different challenge.

Arrows

Like Williams, Arrows should know how to build a fast car but, unlike Williams, they did not do it this season. They seem to be very fast in testing events so maybe there is still some hope.

They qualified in 15^th and 16^th place and never looked as if they could improve on that.

Verstappen

Verstappen crashed again (although Monaco is a place where crashes are the norm) and I am starting to wonder if this pattern will continue.

De la Rosa

He was unlucky not to be able to start. I think he is quite capable and he has managed to do some very fast laps on the off season. With a decent car he could do well.

Prost.

So now we know that the Prost is slow on a fast circuit, slow on a medium circuit and just as slow on a slow circuit. It seems to have nothing going for it except a great paint job.

Alesi

Alesi did not give up until his car did. He was struggling to stay in touch with the race (and was doing quite well) but mostly it seemed that he was fighting the Prost every inch of the way. He must have been relieved when the transmission failed, yet again, on lap 29.

Heidfeld

A promising driver that has to suffer the embarrassment of poor equipment.

Minardi

When you have a budget as small as Minardi’s it is hard enough to attend every race and qualify.

They qualified last and that is where they stayed until lap 21 when Gene’s gearbox gave up and Mazzacane crashed the very next lap.

Gene

Another fast driver that is unable to show his potential. He may be lucky and get offered a drive with a faster team.

Mazzacane