By Huw Alban
May 28 2006

This isn't want Midland F1 needed today. Both of their drivers tangled at the start with Tiago Monteiro pushed into the pit wall at the start by his team mate. Despite this Midland managed a two car finish, making the most of other retirements.

The start line incident wasn't clear until a replay around lap 9 clearly showed what looked like Christijan Albers covering his position by squeezing his team mate towards the pit wall. I took a number of video stills during that incident, and feel that Christijan himself was being gently squeezed by the BMW of Nick Heidfeld and so perhaps didn't have much choice but to move to the right off the line.

Around lap 18 Christijan had to take a pit lane drive through penalty handed down by the race stewards because of the start line incident demoting him to 19th place. Tiago had to pit at the end of lap 1 for a new nose cone and was running plumb last.

ITV's Ted Kravitz wandered over to the Midland F1 garage and had this to say during the UK TV coverage. "None of them are happy about it here, especially Tiago Monteiro who I'm told has been using some very choice language on the radio to discuss the problems with coming together; what his team mate did to him. Tiago is also saying that the steering seems funny, but he wants to try and finish this race and is going to press on regardless."

I checked this last point with our sources in the Monaco garage, and got confirmation that Tiago wanted to do just that.

Christijan Albers pitted around lap 41 from 19th place and rejoined in 20th. 8 laps later, Mark Webber's Williams expires in the pit lane exit road, bringing out the safety car. Midland F1 bring Tiago Monteiro in to pit straight away, but he's still running in last place.

Further retirements from Kimi Raikkonen, and Nico Roeberg, a drive through penalty for Jacques Villeneuve, and a retirement from Chritian Klein promoted Christijan Albers to 13th. Around lap 63, Tiago Monteiro pulled an aggressive move on Frank Montagny to claim 16th.

Around lap 73 Jarno Trulli suddenly pulls over and stops on the hill up from Ste Devote, promoting both MF1 drivers up another place to 12th and 15th and there they stayed up to the finish flag.

Final results from the Monaco Grand Prix:

1 1 Fernando Alonso Renault Winner
2 Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes +14.5 secs
3 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari +52.2 secs
4 Rubens Barrichello Honda +53.3 secs
5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari +53.8 secs
6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault +62.0 secs
7 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW +1 Lap
8 Ralf Schumacher Toyota +1 Lap
9 Felipe Massa Ferrari +1 Lap
10 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth +1 Lap
11 Jenson Button Honda +1 Lap
12 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota +1 Lap
13 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth +1 Lap
14 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-BMW +1 Lap
15 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota +2 Lap
16 Franck Montagny Super Aguri-Honda +3 Lap
17 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota +6 Lap

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