Monaco Bather (GETTY)

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Feb 8, 2012

F1 2012: Testing at Jerez | The Iceman cometh back… Feb 8, 2012

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Kimi Räikkönen finished top of the timesheets as F1 2012 creaked gently into gear on the first day of winter testing.

Feb 7, 2012

F1 New car launches for 2012: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly… Feb 7, 2012

Unveiling the Force India

With the first winter test beginning this week, F1 has emerged from hibernation with a new look for 2012. Matt Youson casts an analytical eye over this summer's collection...

Dec 27, 2011

F1 2011 | Sebastian Vettel's Grand Tour | Part 2 Dec 27, 2011

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Sebastian Vettel became the youngest-ever double F1 World Champion this year. Here's the second part of of his season's story

Dec 26, 2011

F1 2011 | Sebastian Vettel's Grand Tour | Part 1 Dec 26, 2011

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Sebastian Vettel became the youngest-ever double F1 World Champion in 2011. Here's the first part of our recap of how he did it

Dec 22, 2011

F1 2011 | The statistics Dec 22, 2011

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So, what happened in 2011? Here's the story of the F1 season just past in statistics

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Event Details

Location
Monte Carlo, Monaco (Map this address )
Start
MAY 26, 2011 at 12:00 AM
End
MAY 29, 2011 at 12:00 AM
About
Like so many of the European races, the Monaco Grand Prix predates the current World Championship. In actual fact the first Grand Prix in the area took place in 1929, was organised by founder Anthony Noghès, and is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigious automobile races in the world. The Circuit de Monaco is a street circuit through the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine around the harbour of Monaco. Preparation and building of this infamous circuit begins six weeks before the big event and then takes a further three weeks of dismantling when it's all over. The track has many elevations shifts, tight corners and a narrow course which ranks it right up there as one of, if not the, toughest and most demanding in Formula One racing. Over the years the course has changed several times, but that has never detracted from its status as the ultimate test of driving skills and abilities. In stark contrast to eachother it contains both the slowest corner in Formula One (the Grand Hotel hairpin, taken at just 50kph (31mph) and one of the quickest (the flat out kink in the tunnel, three turns beyond the hairpin, taken at 260kph (160mph) which goes a long way in summing up its difficulty.

Due to the tight and twisty nature of the circuit, it favours the individual skill of the driver as opposed to the power of the cars. That being said however, the course is so dangerously narrow that very little overtaking occurs. The circuit has been recognised among the racing community as being less safe as other high profile circuits, in fact, were it not already an existing Grand Prix it would not be permitted to be added to the Formula One schedule, for safety reasons.

In January 2009 the Circuit de Monaco was voted top of the 'Seven Sporting Wonders of the World', in a poll of 3,500 British sports fans.