Monaco GP Report
May 18th 2010 03:42
It was a glorious, sunny weekend when the parade hit the harbour of Monaco – the legendarily claustrophobic street circuit paved with Formula One history and glamorous excess While millionaire playboys toyed with jetpacks out in the bay, the teams got down to work, chasing the most treasured of grands prix on the calendar. But it was one team, and one man who reigned supreme. Carrying scintillating form from the week before, Red Bull and Mark Webber claimed their first ever Monte Carlo victory.
Red Bull
Mark Webber (1st)
The Australian was radiating confidence after winning the Spanish Grand Prix a week before, a factor essential to mastering the tight confines of Monaco. His performance over the weekend was flawless, timing his crushing qualifying run to perfection and then following up with a race that was essentially Mark Webber’s Guide to Setting Fastest Laps. Had it not been for Williams’ and drain covers littering the track and triggering safety cars – Webber would have won by more than half a minute. It was an invincible performance, one that confirms his status as a title contender.
Sebastian Vettel (2nd)
Sebastian had no answer to Webber’s searing hot form over the weekend, but the young German was at least able to jump Kubica’s Renault and deliver Red Bull a famous one-two. Seb’s pace seems to have been blunted somewhat by his team-mates outstanding form, his body language in press conferences confirms this. However, this result means he is now joint-leader of the championship with Webber – something that will only escalate what it already a tense intra-team battle.
Renault
Robert Kubica (3rd)
Just when you thought Kubica and Renault could not possibly continue punching above their weight – the Pole delivers his best performance of the year. After sticking his wheeled-banana on the front row, Kubica unfortunately let his rears slip a little too much off the line and was ambushed by Vettel into the first corner. He kept his Renault right on the Red Bull’s tail however, and brought it home for a brilliant, convincing podium.
Vitaly Petrov (13th)
It was a difficult weekend for the rookie, on a track that notoriously takes no prisoners. The Russian was summarily outclassed by his teammate – and in the race suffered a puncture and some other failure that put him at the very bottom of the heap.
Ferrari
Felipe Massa (4th)
Rumours intensified in Monaco that Massa will have to evacuate his Ferrari next year when Kubica’s backside finds its way there. Suggestions were that Massa was looking to Red Bull, and Mark Webber’s seat – however given Webber’s domination of the past two races, and Kubica’s continued miracle-working for Renault, Felipe’s future is looking uncertain. A solid fourth is Monaco is a good result, but until he wins or scores podiums, Massa is at risk of losing a top drive next season.
Fernando Alonso (6th)
Thanks to a small mix of fortune and fantastic timing, Nando’s practice prang was redeemed with a sneaky drive from the back of the field to sixth. When Nico Hulkenberg took a wrong turn in the tunnel early on, Ferrari immediately took advantage and brought their star in to swap rubber and then rejoin the pack ready to leapfrog those in front when they pitted. Better still for Fernando – Schumacher’s opportunistic move on the final corner was penalised by the stewards and Alonso kept his sixth place – and his pride.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton (5th)
It was a quiet afternoon for burnout boy. The McLarens were not as effective on the low-speed confines of Monaco, so even a podium seemed unlikely. Hammy stayed clear of the barriers and delivered a tidy result. And he only slagged off his team over the radio once.
Jenson Button (DNF)
The defending champ was off the pace in qualifying, so any hopes of a podium were already slim. Then some resourceful mechanic decided to utilise the storage space inside Jenson’s left side-pod by leaving his belongings there. Unfortunately, this choked airflow to the Mercedes engine, and Jenson retired early with a baked engine.
Mercedes
Nico Rosberg (7th)
Nico dealt another blow to the slowly improving Schumacher by going a nanosecond faster in qualifying. However, the dreamboat’s advantage was fleeting, after Schuey muscled his was past on the opening lap, and took the position away from him. Nico fell away from his teammate after that, and was only promoted to seventh when Schumacher was penalised for making F1 more exciting.
Michael Schumacher (12th)
The form is beginning to return the newly monkey-free Schumacher. Despite being pipped by the tiniest of margins on Saturday, the seven-times world champion reminded everyone of his brutal competitiveness in the race. First, by pushing past Nico on the opening lap – and then by mugging Alonso for sixth at the end of the last lap after the safety car. A technicality in the rulebook penalised Schumacher afterwards, something to do with his actions not being conducive to F1’s anti-excitement section in the regulations.
Force India
Adrian Sutil (8th)
Sutil was disappointed to have missed out on Q3 on Saturday – but from 12th, the German made a brilliant start and squeezed his way into the points on the first lap. He managed to leapfrog his teammate later on and lead home the team’s first double-points finish of the year.
Tonio Liuzzi (9th)
The Italian stereotype exorcised some demons by fighting his way into the final round of qualifying. From 10th on the grid, Tonio kept his nose clean, but was not quick enough to keep his teammate in check. One point became two thanks to Schumacher’s penalty, but Tonio will need to produce something a little more convincing to protect his drive from a certain young Scot waiting in the wings.
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi (10th)
Buemi inherited his first point of this season thanks to Michael Schumacher’s wrap over the knuckles by the fun-police. Trundling about in 11th all day, Buemi was able to keep ahead of his teammate and finish the race. Not much else to be said really.
Jaime Alguersuari (11th)
Lil’ Algy was just off the pace of his slightly more experienced teammate in Monaco. The young Spaniard was never noticeably quick – and save for a spin at turn one, conducted his afternoon in a particularly boring fashion.
Williams
Rubens Barrichello (DNF)
Not a happy day for Rubens – despite a promising showing in qualifying. Rubens wringed enough pace from his under-powered Williams to run in the points, but a suspected suspension failure put an end to that. Woobens was tossed into the barriers – scaring the bejesus out of a trackside cameraman. To demonstrate his frustration – the Brazilian even tossed his steering wheel underneath a passing car. Just because.
Nico Hulkenberg (DNF)
Hulkenberg was the worst-faring of the rookies at Monaco. Completely outclassed by his 246-year older teammate on Saturday, Hulky entered the tunnel on lap one with a car and exited it with a striking carbon fibre sculpture of a crashed car.
Lotus
Heikki Kovalainen (DNF)
Heikki was enjoying a relatively impressive turn of speed at the beginning of the race – keeping up with the Renault of Petrov. Unfortunately a steering issue began to transpire, and seeing that Monaco requires cars to be able to alternate their trajectory in order to not become a fiery wreck wedged between strips of Armco – the team decided to retire the Finn for safety reasons. Sensible.
Jarno Trulli (DNF)
Speaking of safety reasons, Lotus did fail however to retire Jarno Trulli before he tried taking a shortcut over Karun Chandhok’s head. The Italian wino was bottled up behind Chandhok’s HRT, frustration fermenting after a troublesome pitstop. Percieving an opportunity to pour his Lotus past into Rascasse late in the race. Trulli popped the cork, but grossly mistimed the move and ended up on top of the Indian driver’s head, bringing out the race-ending safety car.
HRT
Karun Chandhok (DNF)
Chandhok was lucky to walk away with his head after Trulli tried to use it to get more traction out of Rascasse. The Indian rookie was keeping a good pace – he even called it his best race to date before the incident withTrulli came about.
Bruno Senna (DNF).
Bruno and HRT were mixing it with the other new teams for once – thanks to a great start and inspired call to pit early, a la Fernando Alonso. Though with 20 laps remaining, Senna’s hydraulics came down with the flu and stopped working.
Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi (DNF)
Sauber once again proved their cars are as sturdy as a slice of bread in a bucket of water, with another double-retirement. This time, Sauber forgot to put gears in the hapless Kobayahi’s gearbox.
Pedro de la Rosa (DNF)’While Kamui was driving with no gears – De La Rosa was grappling with a steering wheel set in cement. The Sauber’s hydraulics were again the team’s nemesis and the Spaniard retired with power steering and gears absent from his car. Then he fell into a river.
Virgin
Lucas di Grassi (DNF)
Di Grassi High kept cameramen busy early on, after a blinding start propelled him past his teammate and into a dogfight with a recovering Fernando Alonso. The Brazilian put up a stern defence against the infinitely-faster Ferrari – providing some lary thrills out of the tunnel. The fun was short-lived however, when his Virgin’s wheel developed measles.
Timo Glock (DNF)
Glock was again showing his feisty side, taking the fight to Lotus by zipping past Jarno Trulli and keeping Kovalainen honest despite a bad start. The German pushed his car to the very limit in pursuit of the green Lotus, and ultimately it proved too taxing on the car – with a suspension failure ending his Monaco afternoon early.
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