Glitz, glamour and glory. Three words that are used far too
often when describing the Monaco Grand Prix, but three words that perfectly fit
the iconic event.
FP3
Nico Rosberg emerged on top in the third and final practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, meaning he finished fastest in all three sessions. However it was a heavily disrupted 60 minutes of running after a number of incidents.
It was a quiet start to the session but it soon heated up, with Rosberg emerging as the fastest runner with a best time of 1m14.378, eight tenths faster than Romain Grosjean. The Lotus driver made contact with the barrier at the Nouvelle Chicane but managed to continue, however a late crash that mirrored his accident at Ste Devote on Thursday brought out the red flag.
The rarely used flag emerged prior to that thanks to a huge accident for Felipe Massa. Under braking for the first corner, his two front tyres locked up severely and he was unable to steer. He made contact with the left hand barrier before sliding into the padded armco by the run-off area, giving Ferrari plenty to do ahead of qualifying.
Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton rounded out the top five and Raikkonen's Lotus was the first driver outside the one-second deficit to Rosberg. Webber, Di Resta, Maldonado and Hulkenberg completed the top 10 with four tenths separating them.
Perez and Button finished just outside the top 10 for McLaren, just ahead of the Toro Rosso duo. Adrian Sutil slipped down the order to 15th after losing control and colliding with the barriers at Massenet, with Massa dropping to 16th. Gutierrez and Bottas were next up and finished a second clear of Pic and van der Garde in the Caterham cars, Bianchi and Chilton completing the field.
Qualifying
There is no question about it, the qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix is the most important and crucial of the season. All eyes were on Mercedes to see if they could utilise their free practice pace, Red Bull and Ferrari were in the mix too and Lotus were always in with a chance. Read on to see how the qualifying session panned out.
Q1
It was a tentative start for most and even more so for Jules
Bianchi who suffered a mechanical failure on his out lap, pulling off track at
Massenet. It was a frantic start as drivers crossed the line to start their
first timed laps. The rain intensified as the 15 minute mark arrived, Gutierrez
went off at Mirabeau but it was Button who provisionally went fastest.
Q2
It was another busy start to the session as drivers were fuelled
up for a long stint, trying to find clean air and continuing to find their
feet. Rosberg was first to cross the line with a 1m34.439 despite cutting the
harbour-side chicane, his lap time was bettered by the Red Bull duo and
Hulkenberg's Sauber.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
The Circuit de Monaco is one that requires commitment,
confidence and coordination of the highest level. The 78 lap race is most definitely a
challenge and there is always an excitable buzz around the race weekend. The usual mix-up
of the schedule, practice on Thursday and a rest-day on Friday, and the
stunning location make it the most unique race of the season amongst so many
other things.
It really is a special weekend. The location is second to
none, the typical paddock is harbour-side with striking views and the track is
arguably the most challenging on the calendar. One error, one lapse of
concentration or one delayed judgement and the barriers will find you, and it
won’t be pretty.
Check out my Monaco Grand Prix Preview for a more detailed looked at
the twisty street track, along with my Wednesday Snap Shot to see what the
drivers and teams got up to prior to the track action starting.
FP1
Nico Rosberg got his weekend off to a flying start by
topping the first practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix. The 90 minute session
on Thursday morning kicked off in a rather quiet fashion, the session took its
time to warm up.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
The bulk of the running came 30 minutes after the green
light for the highly anticipated session to start. Early runners Esteban
Gutierrez and Nico Hulkenberg started proceedings before the front runners
emerged for some practice around the challenging streets of Monaco.
Felipe Massa was the first serious runner to take to the
top, before being displaced by Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg. The German had
held the lead earlier on but returned to the top with a best time of 1m16.195,
a time that would go unbeaten. The Mercedes driver completed 30 useful laps,
his fastest being just 0.087 seconds faster than Fernando Alonso. Grosjean, Massa and Hamilton
followed close behind.
The two Red Bull Racing drivers failed to show their hand
with seventh and 10th for Webber and Vettel respectively, sandwiched
by the McLaren duo of Button and Perez. Maldonado had a good session for
Williams to take sixth in the practice results, his team-mate Valtteri Bottas
was down in 17th on his first visit to the principality.
Giedo van der Garde was the top back-marker for Caterham,
finishing just two tenths down on Daniel Ricciardo’s 18th place Toro
Rosso. Charles Pic also got the better of the two Marussia’s.
The ever intimidating barriers almost cost a number of
drivers, turn one proved to be the main challenge and a number of drivers took
to the run off at Ste Devote (including Hamilton and Grosjean), with Sutil coming closer than most. Traffic also
proved to be an issue (as it always is) and there were plenty of updates being
tested out, including the McLaren front wing that they were unable to try out in Spain.
FP2
The second Thursday practice
session concluded in a similar way to the first, with Nico Rosberg extending
has advantage and cementing Mercedes as real threats for qualifying and,
perhaps less likely, the race.
The German continued to lead the
field around the twisty confines, his best time of 1m14.749 coming half an hour
into the session and at a time where qualifying runs were all the rage.
Rosberg’s W04 didn’t just look fast on the short stints, long runs proved to be
positive too much to the delight of the team.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
Free practice two concluded with a
Mercedes one-two, Hamilton’s
best super-soft time being three tenths shy of his team-mate. Fernando Alonso was third, just ahead of Felipe Massa and the leading Red
Bull of Mark Webber.
Sebastian Vettel’s session started with a KERS problem but that was soon resolved. He eventually emerged to set
the ninth fastest time; Red Bull looked to be running heavier fuel loads.
Raikkonen, Grosjean, Button (who suffered from traffic and set his fastest time
at the fifth attempt) and Di Resta joined Vettel in the top 10.
Grosjean proved to be the first
driver to make severe contact with the barrier, taking too much speed into Ste
Devote – he cited cold tyres to blame. A brief red flag at the half-way stage
to repair kerbing at the swimming pool chicane proved to be the perfect chance
to clear the stricken Lotus E21.
Long runs on the soft and
super-soft tyres took place in the closing stages and teams saw better than
expected wear rates, Rosberg managed an impressive 20-lap run on the red-banded
Pirelli tyres with just a two second drop-off. Rosberg really was the master of Monaco on
Thursday; his driving was confident, coordinated and controlled. Perfect for
the challenges that Monaco
produces.
FP3
Nico Rosberg emerged on top in the third and final practice session for the Monaco Grand Prix, meaning he finished fastest in all three sessions. However it was a heavily disrupted 60 minutes of running after a number of incidents.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
The rarely used flag emerged prior to that thanks to a huge accident for Felipe Massa. Under braking for the first corner, his two front tyres locked up severely and he was unable to steer. He made contact with the left hand barrier before sliding into the padded armco by the run-off area, giving Ferrari plenty to do ahead of qualifying.
Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton rounded out the top five and Raikkonen's Lotus was the first driver outside the one-second deficit to Rosberg. Webber, Di Resta, Maldonado and Hulkenberg completed the top 10 with four tenths separating them.
Perez and Button finished just outside the top 10 for McLaren, just ahead of the Toro Rosso duo. Adrian Sutil slipped down the order to 15th after losing control and colliding with the barriers at Massenet, with Massa dropping to 16th. Gutierrez and Bottas were next up and finished a second clear of Pic and van der Garde in the Caterham cars, Bianchi and Chilton completing the field.
Qualifying
There is no question about it, the qualifying session for the Monaco Grand Prix is the most important and crucial of the season. All eyes were on Mercedes to see if they could utilise their free practice pace, Red Bull and Ferrari were in the mix too and Lotus were always in with a chance. Read on to see how the qualifying session panned out.
Q1
Rain had never really been a problem for qualifying in
Monaco, but drops began to fall prior to the first session. Clouds loomed ever
more intimidatingly over the mountains and the tricky conditions were only
suitable for intermediates.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
As drivers found their feet, the times continued to tumble
with Webber, Di Resta and Alonso all taking turns at the top of the time
sheets. Confidence started to show and drivers were jumping up the order at
quite a rate, along with a few trips to the limited run-off area.
Grosjean managed to emerge from his pit garage in time to
set some sector times, his first lap was tentative but his second was good enough
for first. By the chequered flag Pastor Maldonado had displaced him at the top
of the time sheets with a 1m23.452, ahead of Vergne, Alonso, Grosjean and
Button.
Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Bottas and Perez rounded out the
top 10, just ahead of Ricciardo and Sutil. Webber, Hulkenberg and Raikkonen
just made it through alongside an incredible Giedo van der Garde in his
Caterham,
Two midfield runners went out in the first session, Di Resta
will line-up 17th and Gutierrez in 19th. Pic and Chilton finished 18th and
20th, with Bianchi and Massa not setting lap times.
Q2
Conditions continued to suit the intermediate Pirelli tyres
for the second session, with 15 minutes to decide the grid order from 11th to
16th.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
Early on the times kept on coming and they kept on tumbling,
the tricky conditions meant drivers were building their confidence and finding
the limits. With five minutes remaining Rosberg was sitting pretty at the top,
with Webber and Button following close behind.
The predicted heavy rain never arrived and the cars pitted
for slick tyres with five minutes remaining. Giedo van der Garde was the first
to take the move and the rest of the pack swiftly followed suit. The Dutch
driver moved to sixth with his first timed lap on slicks, Webber moved up to
first and Button moved to second.
By the chequered flag, it was a very different story. Vettel
moved to the top with a best lap time of 1m15.988, a tenth clear of Raikkonen
in second. Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso rounded out the top five, with Sutil,
Webber, Button, Vergne and Perez making it through to the top 10 shoot-out.
In the Q2 drop zone finished Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Grosjean
and Bottas, meanwhile van der Garde and Maldonado rounded out the runners in
the second session.
Q3
It was a fully dry third and final qualifying session for
the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix, where the battle for pole position really heated
up. With a damp track offline and drivers pushing to the limit, there was
definitely no margin for error.
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| (c) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team |
Kimi Raikkonen was the first driver to set a lap time in the
top 10 shoot-out with a 1m20.269, however it was a half-hearted lap for the
Finn and Hamilton smashed it with his opening time of a 1m15.790. Webber was on
the pace from the off and bettered that by six tenths of a second.
With six minutes of the session remaining, it was a full
house out on track with all of the runners setting lap times. Rosberg and
Hamilton briefly held on to the top spot respectively before the two Red Bull
drivers moved to the fore.
Every driver pitted for fresh rubber before releasing them
for their second stints. For the closing stages, the top 10 all emerged for
another bite of the qualifying cherry.
By the chequered flag, the session built to a somewhat
underwhelming crescendo, Rosberg managed to clinch pole position for Mercedes
with a top time of 1m13.876. Hamilton took second place for another front-row
lock out, with Vettel finishing third. Webber aborted his final run to finish
fourth and Raikkonen rounded out the top five on the grid.
Alonso could only manage sixth on the grid, with Perez and
Sutil finishing close behind. Button and Vergne rounded out the top 10, the
former radioed in with a "power" problem. The top 10 on the grid were
split by 1.8 seconds.
The Race
Monaco, the most unique and prestigious race on the Formula 1 calendar. 78 laps and no margin for error, the barriers awaiting any slip or slide.
Celebrities were out on force, upping the glamour tag even more. The sun was shining over the principality, the fans were out in force and it could only mean one thing. Race day.
Controversy emerged prior to the race, with Red Bull lodging an official complaint on Mercedes after they took part in a private test for Pirelli. However eyes swiftly left that story to one side and took focus on the race, and what a race it really was.
Rosberg and Hamilton locked out the front row for Mercedes, with the Red Bull duo alongside and title challengers Raikkonen and Alonso lining up on the third row.
As lap 38 came to a close, the race was restarted. Rosberg made the jump at the exit of the second swimming pool chicane and managed to pull out a slight gap on Vettel. No one made a move at Ste Devote but there was plenty of hounding going on.
Lewis Hamilton was certainly frustrated after losing out to the Red Bull pairing and the Brit made an ambitious move on Mark Webber at La Rascasse. The Aussie squeezed him out and Hamilton had to back off before proceeding on to the start line to end lap 40. Alonso attempted to pass Raikkonen around the outside at the Grand Hotel Hairpin, Button tried to make a move on the inside and tagged the Ferrari.
After losing momentum, Perez made a pass on his team-mate at the Nouvelle Chicane. The Mexican's impressive overtake moved him up to seventh place. He was obviously fired up and attempted another move at the harbour-side chicane, this time on Fernando Alonso who had to take to the run-off area.
The red flag came out after contact between Max Chilton and Pastor Maldonado. The Williams was launched into the air before landing and hitting the barrier with some force. Jules Bianchi was then collected by the flying, dislodged TECPRO barrier. Chilton managed to continue and Bianchi returned to the pit-lane for repairs. All the drivers made their way to the start line, as is the usual red flag procedure.
Maldonado managed to climb out of his car and radioed the team to say he was okay. The marshals swiftly got to work removing the heavily damaged Williams and the red flag gave teams the chance to repair any damage and change to a fresh set of tyres. Alonso was also directed to give Perez sixth place after the earlier straight-lining of the chicane.
So after the feature race, it was time for the sprint to the flag (GP2 reference). The race was red flagged on lap 46 and after a 25 minute wait (and a welcome rest from the dramatic on-track action for many), the race restarted behind the safety car. The majority of the field went for the red-banded super-soft Pirelli tyre, with the only front runner breaking the mould being Kimi Raikkonen.
The safety car pulled into the pit-lane at the end of lap 47 and we were racing again in Monaco. Rosberg managed to make a strong restart once again but Vettel kept the pressure on. Max Chilton was gifted a drive-through penalty after stewards (rightfully) deemed him responsible for the crash that brought out the red flag.
Hamilton was all over the back of Mark Webber as the 50 lap mark shot past, the Brit was clearly faster at the time and was impatient to make his way through. The top 15 were only covered by 10 seconds due to the consistent pace up and down the field. Jenson Button slipped behind Adrian Sutil after an opportunistic move by Adrian Sutil at the Grand Hotel Hairpin, the slowest and tightest on the calendar.
Perez took to the inside at the Nouvelle Chicane for another attempt at his now trademark move, Raikkonen being the target. The McLaren driver failed to make it stick and they both cut the corner in avoidance. Out front, Rosberg started to pull clear as the Red Bull drivers backed up the midfield pack.
Sutil pulled off another stunning move at the Grand Hotel Hairpin, this time on another world champion. Alonso left the door open and the Force India took full advantage of that to move up to seventh place on lap 58. The yellow flags came out on lap 60 after Jules Bianchi locked up into Ste Devote and collided with the run-off barrier.
Vettel was leading a train of 14 cars and on lap 62 the gap from second to 15th was a mere 10 seconds. Rosberg started to waltz off into the distance as drivers started to struggle with tyre wear, however that all changed once again. Romain Grosjean's woes continued after running into the back of Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso underbraking for the harbour-side chicane. Both cars retired due to the damage sustained.
The safety car emerged for the third time after Grosjean's fourth crash of the race weekend due to the scattered debris on the racing line. The resulting period behind the safety car bunched the pack up once again and wiped out Rosberg's four second advantage.
Bernd Maylander pulled the safety car into the pit lane once again at the end of lap 66, releasing Rosberg into a sprint to the flag. The German got another good jump on Vettel and Perez looked racy behind Raikkonen. With 10 laps remaining, the pressure was on to see if the tyres would last the race distance and who could progress up the order.
Perez seemed to be a little too racy, the Mexican committed to an ever decreasing gap on the run to the Nouvelle Chicane but Raikkonen turned in and wedged the McLaren up against the wall. The Lotus suffered a puncture after the contact and the resulting drop in pace have Button the chance to jump Alonso for seventh.
The drama behind opened up a gap between Hamilton and Perez, his McLaren looked to have a problem and it proved to be terminal. He pulled off at the final corner to retire his car, promoting Sutil up into fifth place.
Meanwhile Rosberg was comfortable at the front of the field, the German pulled out a gap of four seconds by flag fall and he was in truly in control.
Nico Rosberg crossed the line to take a controlling victory around the streets of Monte Carlo, the same very streets that his father raced around to win in 1983 and the route that he took to school as a youngster. The German proved to be dominant after topping every single practice session, qualifying on pole and rounding out a perfect weekend to take victory. Mercedes tyre troubles proved to be a thing of the past as he took victory on a one-stop strategy (albeit with a change of tyres during the red flag), in what was a heavily disrupted 78 lap race.
Hamilton dropped off towards the end and despite looking
racy throughout the race, he could only manage fourth place on the day. Adrian
Sutil took a welcome point’s haul after being promote to fifth due to Sergio
Perez's troubles. Jenson Button picked up the pieces for McLaren by finishing
sixth, with Alonso dropping to seventh by flag fall after a rather
underwhelming race weekend.
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| (c) Sky Sports F1 |
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m13.876s
2. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m13.967s + 0.091s
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m13.980s + 0.104s
4. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m14.181s + 0.305s
5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m14.822s + 0.946s
6. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m14.824s + 0.948s
7. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m15.138s + 1.262s
8. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m15.383s + 1.507s
9. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m15.647s + 1.771s
10. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m15.703s + 1.827s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m17.748s Gap **
11. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m18.331s + 2.343s
12. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m18.344s + 2.356s
13. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m18.603s + 2.615s
14. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m19.077s + 3.089s
15. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m19.408s + 3.420s
16. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m21.688s + 5.700s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m26.095s Gap *
17. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m26.322s + 2.870s
18. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m26.633s + 3.181s
19. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m26.917s + 3.465s
20. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m27.303s + 3.851s
21. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth
22. Felipe Massa Ferrari
The Race
Monaco, the most unique and prestigious race on the Formula 1 calendar. 78 laps and no margin for error, the barriers awaiting any slip or slide.
Celebrities were out on force, upping the glamour tag even more. The sun was shining over the principality, the fans were out in force and it could only mean one thing. Race day.
Controversy emerged prior to the race, with Red Bull lodging an official complaint on Mercedes after they took part in a private test for Pirelli. However eyes swiftly left that story to one side and took focus on the race, and what a race it really was.
Rosberg and Hamilton locked out the front row for Mercedes, with the Red Bull duo alongside and title challengers Raikkonen and Alonso lining up on the third row.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
The revs rose, the sound echoed and intensified as it
bounced off the surrounding buildings, the lights went out and we were racing
around the streets of Monte Carlo. Off the line Rosberg had a slow getaway and
Hamilton challenged, however the German managed to fend him off and hold off
the charging Vettel.
Button made contact with Sutil at the Grand Hotel hairpin
and Maldonado pitted at the end of the first lap after damaging his front wing,
van der Garde also pitted for repairs too. As the cars crossed the line to
start lap three, Hamilton was starting to back up the chasing pack. Vettel was
close behind, with Webber, Raikkonen and Alonso all in close proximity.
The two McLaren's battled closely for seventh and eighth
early on too, Button radioed his team requesting Perez to "stop turning
in" on him. Despite the frantic start, most of the field retained their
positions off the grid.
From the off, Mercedes started to lap at a relatively slow
pace as tyre management kicked off as early as lap five due to the huge focus
on strategy. Kimi Raikkonen closed in on Mark Webber as lap nine kick started,
the Finn obviously faster in the opening stages. Charles Pic's day came to a
fiery end on that lap after his Caterham CT03 suffered an engine fire.
The Frenchman parked his car at the pit entry but the
chances of a safety car failed to materialise thanks to swift work from the
marshals. This meant an early stop for Paul Di Resta after the yellow flags
emerged failed to pay off. Meanwhile Button was let through by Perez after the
Mexican had earlier cut two chicanes defending from his team-mate.
The Brit was radioed on lap 12 urging him to put pressure on
Alonso; the Spaniard had fallen back from the duelling Webber and Raikkonen.
Out front, Rosberg's advantage over Hamilton had been extended to 1.8 seconds
by lap 13. Vettel had dropped back slightly from the rear wing of the second
Mercedes and behind them; the pack was starting to bunch up in the midfield.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
Fast forward a few laps and the Mercedes pairing continued
to pull away from Sebastian Vettel. However the main topic of conversation was
the all-important clean air to feed the cars back into after their stops.
Daniel Ricciardo kicked off the first stops after complaining about high rear
tyre wear, pitting on lap 23 to move onto the super-soft tyre.
Gaps started to emerge for the leaders and the pit window
opened up. The Red Bull drivers hinted at an upcoming stop by upping the pace
and closing in on the leading Mercedes, they duly chose to bring in Webber on
lap 26.
With Red Bull Racing opening up proceedings, Lotus and
McLaren reacted for Raikkonen and Button respectively on the following lap. The
chain reaction continued a few laps later with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso
pulling into the tight pit-lane. The Spaniard emerged just behind Kimi
Raikkonen and maintained his position ahead of Jenson Button. In all the pit-lane buzz, Di Resta was moving his way through the field after his early stop. After moving past Massa at turn one, he displaced Gutierrez to make up another position in a near identical overtake.
Speaking of identical, Felipe Massa suffered another huge accident on lap 29 at Ste Devote. It was a near re-run of his hefty crash in FP3 that saw him miss the qualifying session. The pit-lane became
very busy indeed as Perez, Sutil and Vettel all pitted within close succession.
The safety car made its debut in 2013 due to Massa's stricken Ferrari, Mercedes pitted their cars on lap 31 and stacked their cars. Hamilton backed off to enable his team to service Rosberg's car but ended up dropping behind the two Red Bull drivers.
Massa managed to climb out of his car but he was given medical
attention at the scene. It took a few laps for the safety car to pick up the
leading pack and as the cars slowly weaved their way around the tight confines
of Monaco, the top 10 consisted of Rosberg, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton,
Raikkonen, Alonso, Button, Perez, Sutil and Vergne.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
Lewis Hamilton was certainly frustrated after losing out to the Red Bull pairing and the Brit made an ambitious move on Mark Webber at La Rascasse. The Aussie squeezed him out and Hamilton had to back off before proceeding on to the start line to end lap 40. Alonso attempted to pass Raikkonen around the outside at the Grand Hotel Hairpin, Button tried to make a move on the inside and tagged the Ferrari.
After losing momentum, Perez made a pass on his team-mate at the Nouvelle Chicane. The Mexican's impressive overtake moved him up to seventh place. He was obviously fired up and attempted another move at the harbour-side chicane, this time on Fernando Alonso who had to take to the run-off area.
The red flag came out after contact between Max Chilton and Pastor Maldonado. The Williams was launched into the air before landing and hitting the barrier with some force. Jules Bianchi was then collected by the flying, dislodged TECPRO barrier. Chilton managed to continue and Bianchi returned to the pit-lane for repairs. All the drivers made their way to the start line, as is the usual red flag procedure.
Maldonado managed to climb out of his car and radioed the team to say he was okay. The marshals swiftly got to work removing the heavily damaged Williams and the red flag gave teams the chance to repair any damage and change to a fresh set of tyres. Alonso was also directed to give Perez sixth place after the earlier straight-lining of the chicane.
So after the feature race, it was time for the sprint to the flag (GP2 reference). The race was red flagged on lap 46 and after a 25 minute wait (and a welcome rest from the dramatic on-track action for many), the race restarted behind the safety car. The majority of the field went for the red-banded super-soft Pirelli tyre, with the only front runner breaking the mould being Kimi Raikkonen.
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| (c) Sky Sports F1 |
Perez took to the inside at the Nouvelle Chicane for another attempt at his now trademark move, Raikkonen being the target. The McLaren driver failed to make it stick and they both cut the corner in avoidance. Out front, Rosberg started to pull clear as the Red Bull drivers backed up the midfield pack.
Sutil pulled off another stunning move at the Grand Hotel Hairpin, this time on another world champion. Alonso left the door open and the Force India took full advantage of that to move up to seventh place on lap 58. The yellow flags came out on lap 60 after Jules Bianchi locked up into Ste Devote and collided with the run-off barrier.
Vettel was leading a train of 14 cars and on lap 62 the gap from second to 15th was a mere 10 seconds. Rosberg started to waltz off into the distance as drivers started to struggle with tyre wear, however that all changed once again. Romain Grosjean's woes continued after running into the back of Daniel Ricciardo's Toro Rosso underbraking for the harbour-side chicane. Both cars retired due to the damage sustained.
The safety car emerged for the third time after Grosjean's fourth crash of the race weekend due to the scattered debris on the racing line. The resulting period behind the safety car bunched the pack up once again and wiped out Rosberg's four second advantage.
Bernd Maylander pulled the safety car into the pit lane once again at the end of lap 66, releasing Rosberg into a sprint to the flag. The German got another good jump on Vettel and Perez looked racy behind Raikkonen. With 10 laps remaining, the pressure was on to see if the tyres would last the race distance and who could progress up the order.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
The drama behind opened up a gap between Hamilton and Perez, his McLaren looked to have a problem and it proved to be terminal. He pulled off at the final corner to retire his car, promoting Sutil up into fifth place.
Meanwhile Rosberg was comfortable at the front of the field, the German pulled out a gap of four seconds by flag fall and he was in truly in control.
Nico Rosberg takes his debut Monaco Grand Prix victory
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
Nico Rosberg crossed the line to take a controlling victory around the streets of Monte Carlo, the same very streets that his father raced around to win in 1983 and the route that he took to school as a youngster. The German proved to be dominant after topping every single practice session, qualifying on pole and rounding out a perfect weekend to take victory. Mercedes tyre troubles proved to be a thing of the past as he took victory on a one-stop strategy (albeit with a change of tyres during the red flag), in what was a heavily disrupted 78 lap race.
Sebastian Vettel crossed the line to take second place. The
German was fast towards the end but his charge came too late. However a strong
strategy call at the first pit stops proved to be vital in making it a double
podium finish for Red Bull Racing, Webber following his team-mate across the
line. The Aussie held off the challenges of Lewis Hamilton to take a strong
podium finish.
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| (c) Sahara Force India F1 Team |
Jean-Eric Vergne moved into the top 10 to take his second
points finish of the season, advancing due to troubles of others. The Toro
Rosso driver managed to hold off severe pressure from Paul Di Resta who
recovered from an early pit stop to finish ninth, with Kimi Raikkonen putting
in a storming last few laps to take the final point for 10th.
Hulkenberg dropped out of a points paying position in the
closing stages, with Bottas and Gutierrez finishing behind the German in 12th
and 13th. Chilton overtook van der Garde in the closing stages to finish 14th
after his earlier error with Maldonado, Caterham's qualifying star finished
15th and last.
There were seven retirements during the 78 lap race. Pic was
the first to drop out after an early gearbox problem caused a fire. Massa and
Maldonado both crashed out, with Bianchi also having to sit it out on the side-lines.
Grosjean and Ricciardo collided late in the race and Perez was the last driver
to retire with broken brakes.
 |
| (c) Sky Sports F1 |
Classified:
Pos Driver Team
1. Rosberg Mercedes
2. Vettel Red Bull-Renault
3. Webber Red Bull-Renault
4. Hamilton Mercedes
5. Sutil Force India-Mercedes
6. Button McLaren-Mercedes
7. Alonso Ferrari
8. Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari
9. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes
10. Raikkonen Lotus-Renault
11. Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari
12. Bottas Williams-Renault
13. Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari
14. Chilton Marussia-Cosworth
15. van der Garde Caterham-Renault
Not Classified
DNF. Perez McLaren-Mercedes
DNF. Grosjean Lotus-Renault
DNF. Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari
DNF. Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth
DNF. Maldonado Williams-Renault
DNF. Massa Ferrari
DNF. Pic Caterham-Renault
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