It comes as no surprise then, that there were several crashes throughout practice. Romain Grosjean suffered not one, but two crashes at the infamous Saint Devote corner, and then a third at the Nouvelle Chicane.
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| You'd almost think he had a loyalty card to hitting the barriers - 10 crashes or more in a season to get a FREE cup of coffee! |
Adrian Sutil got out of shape on his way up the hill and grinded against the barrier at Massenet. The biggest crash though, was that of Felipe Massa; he locked up going into turn one and had a huge impact with the armco, and then the tec-pro barriers. The Ferrari was trashed.
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| Felipe's 'Massa-ive' shunt was blamed on driver error. |
After clear running on Thursday's practice sessions (Remember, no Friday practice in Monaco!) Saturday saw intermittent drizzle and looming grey clouds. Clearly, tyre choice at the right time was going to sort everyone out. Almost everyone was out on track at the start of the session to try and get a 'banker' lap in.
Note - Massa's crash in P3 was so great that his car was not repaired in time. Therefore, he started 21st. Bianchi suffered an engine failure at the very start of Q1, and Chilton got a 5-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
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| Sacre Bleu(wn Engine) - Jules' pseudo-home race didn't start well. |
Cars Eliminated after Q1
17) di Resta
18) Pic
19) Gutierrez`
20) Massa (No Time)
21) Chilton
Bianchi (No Time, originally 20th, but started from pitlane)
It wouldn't be Monaco if there weren't unpredictabilities. In Q2 the rain began to stop, and the call for dry tyres was not far off. Those who put the tyres on in time, got right up amongst the top. Romain Grosjean was caught napping after being one of the fastest drivers in Q1, and languished in 13th
Cars Eliminated after Q2
11) Hulkenberg
12) Ricciardo
13) Grosjean
14) Bottas
15) van der Garde
16) Maldonado
The rain returned briefly in between Q2 and Q3, but it didn't dampen the spirits of the remaining top 10, not least those of Jean-Eric Vergne, who got into Q3 for (I think I'm right in saying) the first time in his career. The Mercedes of of Rosberg and Hamilton locked out the front row, with the Red Bulls snapping at their exhausts in 3rd and 4th.
The final top ten
1) Rosberg
2) Hamilton
3) Vettel
4) Webber
5) Raikkonen
6) Alonso
7) Perez
8) Sutil
9) Button
10) Vergne
As race day dawned, the soggy conditions that persisted on Saturday were all but forgotten; instead in its place was glorious riviera sunshine.
Rosberg led off the start, keeping Hamilton at bay, and only keeping the lead from Vettel due to Monaco's tight nature. A first-corner calamity is usually on the cards in the principality, but everyone scrambled round turn one safely. The harmony was broken shortly after though, Adrian Sutil came unstuck and hit the back of Jenson Button at the Loews Hairpin. Perhaps distracted by his flukey qualifying position of 15th, Geido van der Garde collided with Pastor Maldonado -- both drivers pitted for fresh carbon fiber at the end of the lap.
Rosberg and Hamilton backed up the pack in the early laps, following the monstrous tyre usage of the W04. The feats of Spain were not wanted to be repeated, where the Silver Arrows locked out the front row and went backwards. Nothing terribly eventful happened until Lap 9, when Charles Pic's Caterham got a bit fiery. The Frenchman crawled round to just next to the pit entry though, and the Marshalls were able to clear his car in next to no time.
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| He was so close to the pits that he didn't need to be 'Pic'ked up. Okay, I'll stop with the puns. |
Lap 26 saw the first meaningful overtake of the race from one of the drivers of the weekend, Paul di Resta. He, and indeed Adrian Sutil are showing what a competitive fighter the VJM06 is with some excellent performances. If I may digress for a moment, I can see Force India challenging McLaren all the way to the end of the season, as the front four teams begin to take their stranglehold on the championships. Anywho, di Resta passed Felipe Massa at Saint Devote. It followed use of the KERS and DRS by the Scot, and although it was at the time only for 15th place, he had just pitted.
Worryingly, Massa had not yet pitted, and was in 16th place in position. The Brazilian had not made up the ground he needed to after his no-show in Qualifying, but things were not about to improve. Towards the end of Lap 30 - one lap after pitting - Felipe hurtled towards turn 1, and in a Carbon copy of his crash (the two are scarily similar) he careered into same bit of Armco barrier jutting out of the track, before slamming sideways into the Saint Devote wall of shame.
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| Poorly little Ferrari :( |
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| Better safe than sorry, Felipe has his neck checked over. |
Felipe was a little hurt by the incident and a precautionary head restraint was applied by the famously brilliant Monaco Stewards. They're well known for their speed in clearing up incidents and bits of broken Carbon Fibre, but due to the magnitude of the crash, the Safety Car had to help them out.
The timing of the Safety Car was crucial - it picked up third placed Vettel rather than the leading Mercedes cars, and Bernd Maylander (SC Driver for those not in the know) had to wave the entire field through before picking Nico back up. At the time of deployment, Hamilton was sat 3 seconds behind his team mate. By the time he got to the pits, he was nearly FIVE times that, after cruising back to the pits. Maybe he was yacht-spotting in the Harbour. The calamity meant that both Red Bulls (who had already made their designated stops) zipped past the Brit in the pitlane, and threw away the chances of a Silver Arrow 1-2.
After seven long laps the Safety Car came back in, and Rosberg managed to restart well, etching out a second or so margin over Vettel. Their team mates had a near miss at Rascasse, Hamilton dived down the inside of an unaware Webber, but the Aussie didn't yeild, and they passed through Anthony Noghues corner in the order before.
Kimi Raikkonen had made quite the train of cars behind him. His Lotus was noticeably nervous on its tyres. Coming into the hairpin, Alonso bunched up behind the Finn. That cause Button to sneak down Alonso's inside. The McLaren could not quite disappear fast enough, and slight contact was made. The move didn't damage anyone, but lost momentum for Jenson, and coming into the Nouvelle chicane, he was pipped by his young Mexican counterpart.
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| Inter-team squabbles can cost you dearly... Careful boys. |
Sergio was not content with overtaking one World Champion, and just a lap later challenged Alonso in exactly the same fashion. The move did not stick. Perez made the move, but Alonso cut across the chicane to avoid a collision. The move caught up with him later in the race, though, and he was ordered to let him back past.
On lap 46 the red flag was seen for the first time of the season. Coming towards the Tabac corner, Max Chilton moved across in front of Pastor Maldonado and launched the Venezuelan into the barrier at a sickening speed. He was fine, but his car, Bianchi's, and indeed the track were not. The TecPro barrier was ripped from its holding ties, and surrounded the Williams car in a plastic cocoon, blocking the track and warranting the suspension of the race.
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| The Marussia's front wing actually deformed under itself rather than snapping. |
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| The flying... Venezuelan? Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Flying Finn. |
Life in F1 is always tough for the little teams, but Monaco was a dreadful weekend for Marussia. After Bianchi's engine failure in Qualifying and Chilton's gearbox change, they already started from the very back of the field. After The Chilton-Maldonado incident, which damaged both Marussia cars, you would think that their luck would improve, but Jules suffered a brake problem, and locked his steering up, coming to a rest in the barriers at turn one.
Further up the field another Frenchman was having difficulties. He had three crashes in Practice, and now a fourth with Daniel Ricciardo called time on proceedings. He shunted the rear of the Toro Rosso, putting the Australian out on the spot, and Romain retiring a lap later. After a superb performance in Bahrain, it appeared that the old, rash, clumsy Grosjean was back, quite a pity.
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| Heh, more like RAMain Grosjean. Am I right? |
The Mexican did not come out of the collision unharmed either. His car refused to turn at Rascasse on Lap 74, and when he tried to make it into the pits for repairs, his team mate inadvertently blocked his path. Sergio pulled over and retired.
With all the collisions, overtakes and incidents behind the leaders, everyone had rather forgotten the Mercedes and Red Bulls streaking ahead. Their nearest competitor was Adrian Sutil, my personal choice for driver of the day. Kimi Raikkonen overcame his adversity, and flung himself back into 10th place after being down in 13th with just a few laps to go. This continues his run of points-scoring finishes, and he is just two races away from taking the consistency title from Michael Schumacher.
The latter few laps provided calm and order, and Nico Rosberg led the field round to take his second career victory, and his first in the Principality. He also makes history, as his father Keke won here in 1983 exactly thirty years ago. At long last, the qualifying speed of the Mercedes translated into a victory, and it just happened to be the most glamorous and prestigious race of all.
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| Euphoric Rosberg celebrates second ever victory. |
Rosberg (1-78)
Finishing Positions
1) N Rosberg, Mercedes AMG
2) S Vettel, Red Bull
3) M Webber, Red Bull
4) L Hamilton, Mercedes AMG
5) A Sutil, Force India
6) J Button, McLaren
7) F Alonso, Ferrari
8) JE Vergne, Toro Rosso
9) P di Resta, Force India
10) K Raikkonen, Lotus
11) N Hulkenberg, Sauber
12) V Bottas, Williams
13) E Gutierrez, Sauber
14) M Chilton, Marussia
15) G van der Garde, Caterham
Out/Unclassified
S Perez, McLaren (Collision Damage)
R Grosjean, Lotus (Collision Damage)
D Ricciardo, Toro Rosso (Collision)
J Bianchi, Marussia (Spun Off)
P Maldonado, Williams (Collision)
F Massa, Ferrari (Suspension)
C Pic, Marussia (Gearbox)
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