In 1996, Olivier Panis won the Monaco Grand Prix, however, at the very next race in Spain that year the Frenchman crashed out on the opening lap of the race.
Fast-forward 24-years and the first Frenchman to win a race since then – Pierre Gasly – fresh from winning the Italian Grand Prix last time out, binned his AlphaTauri on the opening laps of the race.
Now, how is that for history repeating itself?
Inevitably hero-to-zero pops into mind, but what resulted from the chaos on the opening lap, as they barreled up the hill to Luco, was a racing incident pure and simple: three into one does not go.
The AlphaTauri was squeezed, got airborne and slithered into the gravel trap, coming to a halt not far away from fellow-victim Max Verstappen, in his similarly stricken Red Bull.
Thus, an early shower for the pair, after which Gasly reported, “It’s a shame to finish the race just after the first corner. It was quite messy coming into Turn 1 with so many cars side by side.
“I saw some space between Kimi and Romain in Turn 2, I ended up in the middle and had nowhere to go, so we collided and that was pretty much it.
“I don’t think there is anyone to blame, but it’s a shame as I feel like we missed an opportunity for points today. We showed good pace all weekend and, even if we didn’t have a great qualifying, I was confident we could recover today.
“Obviously, I would have liked to have been out there with the guys and fight for points, but I think we need to take the positives here because the performance so far has been good, so we need to carry this to Sochi,” added Gasly.