For those of you who know this track as Gran Turismo’s “Cote de Azur”, you’ll be able to ride along as we take a detailed lap of this historical track. Also this will be talked about as if the walls at Sainte Devote and the 4 Pool Corners were still there; which they should be, even if they were removed for safety reasons - This is Monaco, and that’s what makes it “Monaco”.  

Also - Here’s the Greatest video of the Lap, but there are many phenomenal on-board videos. 

Crossing the Start/Finish line under trees, billboards, buildings, and over a thousand different white and yellow lines on the track (remember - these are city streets 99% of the year), you flash down a curved straightaway topping out at over 150mph, pit exit is at right.

Up ahead, a champion’s wall of sorts, although easier to mess up than the “Champions Wall” in Canada. Just about everybody, including Lewis Hamilton in practice last year, has hit the gas too early or the brakes too late, trying to dish out one more tenth of a second, and bashed the outside wall at this corner.

This is Sainte Devote, and it’s not exactly an overtaking opportunity unless you have a much faster car then the one ahead. You want to pull the car over to a bumpout in the wall to your left, then immediately twist right to just miss the inside barrier. If done right, your left wheels will almost touch the left wall as you start your trip up the hill.

Now although this is considered a straightaway, it is not, just as the other two “straightaways” here are not. Beau Rivage is a left-right-left-right full throttle hill climb, with the time between each turn of the steering wheel becoming smaller and smaller.

At the top of the hill you’re almost blind, but the brakes must be applied right at the peak and you’ll want your car in the perfect position to dive into Massenet. You really do feel as if you “dove” into a pool because of the slight elevation drop-off and the way the G-forces pull you after a winding straight. This long left-hander is the only corner in all the corners around the world that I have never nailed 100% while in video games.

You’ll want to “diamond” this corner but in a certain way, using the bumps and lines as your guide. Don’t diamond too soon or you’ll have to swing out again ruining your time. Diamond too late, and you’ll almost be hugging the inside of the next corner rather than keeping your correct line for the outside-inside-outside at the next bend, the right-hander Casino. As you can imagine, there is a beautiful casino on your right, but don’t look at it for even 0.002 seconds or you’ll crash.           

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