The Monaco Grand Prix is the most romantic race on the F1 calendar. The course is tight and cars couldn't help but have some physical contact on the circuit. Things got hott on the riviera.

Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix was so crash-y, I wasn't sure if I was watching Formula One or the NASCAR Coke 600. Never one to mince words, Lotus driver and perennial Jalopnik favorite Kimi Raikkonen had strong ones for McLaren's Sergio Perez when he said the Mexican driver deserves a punch in the face.

Hey, remember when we saw all those photos of new McLaren driver Sergio Perez hanging out with a camo'd McLaren P1? Now we get to see him actually drive it around the Top Gear test track. Perks of the job and all that.

During Saturday's qualifying rounds, I could hear the crowd chanting as I walked through the grandstands even with the earplugs in my ears to dampen the sound of the screaming Formula One engines.

A third of the way into the season, and here’s Monaco. It takes brains to win at Monaco. It also takes luck. And more luck. This year’s race was a showcase of what’s awesome about this antediluvian Grand Prix, and also of what makes Monaco so terribly irritating, for 2011 was a teeth-gnashing coitus interruptus of a…

There was an eerie similarity to the crashes of Sergio Perez (left) and Nico Rosberg (right) during the run-up to the Monaco Grand Prix. One major difference separated them, however. Perez hit a safety barrier. Rosberg miraculously skidded past it.

After a winter off-season extended by the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Formula One finally returned on a windy autumn afternoon in Melbourne. Four months without a Grand Prix, it would have been a fun race even if it weren’t fun. But it was fun. Warning: spoilers.