The Jewel in the crown, the greatest race in the world,
the ultimate precession, the Monaco Grand Prix has been known as many things.
However, it can’t be argued that it is one of the most classic, iconic races in
the world and the ultimate test of a driver’s ability and courage as they
rocket around what are tiny streets with barriers less than an inch away at
times.
I've had the good fortune to go to Monaco both as a
regular old tourist with no grasp of French (I am English after all) and to
attend the Historic Grand Prix that alternates between Monaco and Pau on the
opposite end of France’s south coast. Believe me when I say the place is tiny,
especially with all the grand stands and barriers set up.
Anyway, there’s a race to discuss, not to mention other
happenings around the Principality, a courageous pigeon as well as a few things
that came to light from Barcelona. Let’s get cracking, shall we?
Circuit:
2012 Winner: Mark Webber
2012 Pole: Mark Webber
2013 Tyre Compounds: Super Soft and Soft
Being on the sparkling, beautiful Mediterranean within a
stone’s throw of both France and Italy, the celebrities were out in force
throughout the weekend, as well as deals being signed and announced such as
Toro Rosso having Renault engines next year (Maybe Vettel wanted to start
getting the straight line speed records instead of those junior drivers).
More importantly of course before I start rambling in
strange directions, single lap pace would be the most critical as once on track
for the race, overtaking would be next to impossible. The GP2 drivers had a
crack at it and found out the hard way, Johnny Cecotto Jnr landing himself an
overdue race ban for causing a fourteen car incident in the Feature race that
for some reason took place on the Friday (normally Friday is a ‘day of rest’ in
Monaco so F1 practice took place on Thursday).
Straight off the bat, the Mercedes and Ferraris looked
quick with home town boy Rosberg (born in Germany, raised in Monaco) on top for
all three practice sessions. The Red Bulls were slightly off the pace while
Chilton threatened to have an enthusiastic meeting with the walls. Eventually
though, Grosjean went and said hello to the first corner barrier and was the
only driver to do so in first practice.
Practice two passed without major incident while practice
three (after a day away from the track) saw three accidents from Grosjean again
and Sutil, followed by an almighty shunt with the barrier from Massa who locked
up going into the first corner, bounced off the wall next to the braking point
and then hurtled into the outside wall of the first corner. The car was so
badly damaged the Brazilian wasn’t able to take part in qualifying and
according to Ferrari it was driver error.
Before qualifying began, rain swept in quickly and
dampened the track before buggering off again, leaving the drivers to deal with
a classic Monaco gamble that could see any one of them eliminated. Not knowing
if it would rain harder, the drivers immediately came out on track (bar
Grosjean who’s car was still being fixed).
Many of the cars even waited at the end of the pit lane
and it seems the excitement was too much for Bianchi’s car, which conked out
half way up the hill towards the Casino. With Monaco having the best marshals
in the world and plenty of cranes to take advantage of, the car was removed
before anyone came to do a flying lap.
With everyone on track it was difficult to find space to
set a good lap, but as the track dried out the times came tumbling down but the
track never dried enough to warrant slick tyres. With barely three and a half
minutes to go, Grosjean got out on track and managed to finish fastest in the
session. The constantly changing order claimed Di Resta as its victim to be
eliminated along with Pic, Gutierrez, Chilton, Bianchi and of course Massa.
Out of the four drivers commonly at the back of the grid,
I never expected Van der Garde to be able to get into qualifying two, but he
did and with his previous good results around the Principality in GP2 it’s
actually not that surprising.
Almost as if it had been waiting for it, the rain
returned to quickly shower on the track before qualifying two began with
everyone rushing out again. The McLarens and Hulkenburg looked fairly strong
but as the session wore on, the racing line fully dried up and the slick tyres
went on. Alonso was last to do so, giving up on a decent lap on inters as he rolled
the dice hoping for a better time and losing out this time were Hulkenburg
after getting pushed down at the last second, Riccardo, Grosjean, Bottas, Van
der Garde and surprisingly Maldonado, who’d looked fairly strong during the
weekend.
Even going into the now dry final session of qualifying,
it was difficult to predict who would be on pole, though if luck’s involved
then it’s usually Vettel thanks to whatever deal he has with Lady Luck.
The cars all went out straight away on super soft tyres
thanks to abundance of the things they had left and Red Bull finally showed
there’re amazingly well concealed cards. How exactly they managed to hide such
speed is beyond me, but in the end it wasn’t quite enough to top the Mercedes
who locked out the front row, Rosberg taking the pole in what was essentially
his home race.
Button, after losing power during his final run, was
beaten by Perez again while Alonso was disappointed to be behind both the Red
Bulls and Raikkonen. Vettel was irritated in the press conference, feeling he
could have been on pole while further back, Chilton ended up with a gear box
penalty and had to start plum last.
During the evening however, news came to light of a
Pirelli test conducted with the help of Mercedes. It seems the German team
stayed at the Circuit de Catalunya after the Spanish Grand Prix to run a 1000km
test with their 2013 car on Pirelli’s development tyre to help them improve
what are frankly terrible tyres. Red Bull and Ferrari were furious Mercedes had
managed to gain this testing time that could help them understand their own
tyre issues and naturally pinned the blame on the German/British team, though I
have to wonder if Pirelli tricked Mercedes into doing it.
The race ended up being held ‘under protest’ as the
random collection of celebrities who managed to squeeze into Monaco enjoyed
entertainment all over the place, including Red Bull’s energy centre where
Trial bike legend Doug Lampkin, BMX star Matthias Dandois and free runner Ryan
Doyle showed off their crazy mad skillz (I think Dandois won).
After Bianchi stalled getting away on the warm up lap and
most of the grid took their sweet time to line up behind Rosberg, the race got
away with the German/Monaco…ian(?) nearly losing out to his team mate while
Vettel got trapped behind. Had the run to the first corner been longer,
Hamilton would have taken the lead but with not enough space to go around the
outside, Rosberg defended his lead as Vettel attacked Hamilton for all his
worth. Button got a good start, battling with Perez in a fight that nearly
ended badly with Perez diving past the Briton into the harbour front chicane and
the pair cutting across it (known merely as ‘the chicane’ from here on to save
me typing). After losing a chunk of his win, Maldonado took Van der Garde by
surprise and the Belgian hit the Williams car, costing him his front wing.
Fairly soon, the processional nature of Monaco took hold
as some of the cars spread out, Button being allowed passed Perez as the
stewards deemed he had gain an advantage, though Button’s own attempts to
repass were fairly half hearted. Pic ended up being the first casualty as his
gearbox seized up, bringing him to a halt at the pit lane entrance and
threatening a safety car. Di Resta dived in, expecting one, but the Caterham
was quickly cleared away and the racing continued.
Not much happened after as the pack spread out far enough
to not be able to attack each other but not far enough to come out in a good
position should they pit. No one was really pushing, driving well within their
tyres to avoid degrading them and losing any chance of a race. Webber was the
first leader to pit with Massa, who had moved up the order but was starting to
struggle, pitting to get rid of his soft tyres which was a surprise as they
should last longer.
Massa’s bad weekend ended soon after as he endured an
almost identical crash to the one he had the day before (this time caused by a
suspension failure, though I suspect something went wrong the first time too).
Vettel pitted immediately but was held up by the safety car which was deployed
almost a lap after the incident. The Mercedes went around on another lap for no
particular reason before pitting, Rosberg coming back out in the lead while
Hamilton was jumped by both Red Bulls.
Besides the Red Bulls splitting the Mercedes, there was
minimal movement with Chilton getting ahead of Gutierrez and Di Resta getting
up to eleventh. After nine laps behind the safety car and Massa sent off to hospital,
the race resumed and Hamilton wasted little time before attacking Webber.
Despite some unorthodox attempts and some stellar driving, Webber managed to
keep the Mercedes behind as they maturely fought.
The same couldn’t quite be said of Perez, though he was
able to get by Button as he dived by at the chicane, his gamble paying off as
he eyed up Alonso. Rosberg had bolted up front, maintaining a reasonable gap to
Vettel as Hamilton continued to stalk Webber with Raikkonen and the rest of the
pack in hot pursuit.
Perez dived Alonso next, though the Spaniard was forced
across the chicane to avoid an accident. While arguing over the radio, Chilton
cut the chicane after Gutierrez passed him. While recovering and likely
slightly phased, he accidently squeezed Maldonado against the wall and the Venezuelan hit the barrier hard, causing the softer
padded section of barrier to fly out and take Bianchi’s nose cone off.
With the barrier so
heavily damaged, the race was stopped on lap forty-six. Maldonado was unhurt
while Alonso was ordered to allow Perez past while behind the safety car for
the restart. With thirty-two laps left, the drivers were all allowed to change
their tyres, making it a dash to the flag. Raikonnen and Hulkenburg gambled on
soft tyres, hoping the super soft runners would be vulnerable towards the end
of the race, which was threatening to reach its two hour maximum.
Twenty-five minutes later the race resumed, Webber and
Hamilton picking up where they left off as Alonso looked to get his position
back off Perez. With the field so tightly bunched up, more drivers looked to
take advantage and Sutil slide past Button into the Lowes Hairpin, the tightest
corner on Formula 1. Perez gambled on his chicane overtake again on Raikkonen,
but the pair of them had to cut the chicane to avoid incident. McLaren reminded
Perez his tyres were good but keeping all four would be better.
As Perez continued to probe Raikkonen, Sutil again jumped
by at the Lowes Hairpin, this time taking Alonso by surprise as he continued to
struggling with what was said to be debris stuck in his front wing. Vergne and
Di Resta shadowed Button at the back of the group but it wasn’t long before
another accident, this time for Bianchi.
The Marussia was quickly cleared away as Webber seemed to
hold up the pack. Hamilton wasn’t quite able to find the traction when he
needed it and continued behind the Red Bull before Grosjean added another tally
to his crash chart when he plowed into the back of Riccardo at the chicane.
With debris all over the track, the safety car came out again as Riccardo
jumped out of his car in the run off area and Grosjean continued around for
another lap before realizing his car was defiantly broken.
With the order of the top for seemingly stable, Red Bull
continued preparing their case against Mercedes regarding the Pirelli test as
the race restarted. The top four spread out as much as they had all race
(covered by about four seconds) and left the following pack, with Perez
gambling one more time and finally losing out as Raikkonen squeezed him
slightly against the wall in his attempt to defend.
Both cars survived to limp on but Raikkonen’s tyre gave
up as they approached Rascas, forcing him to pit and demoting him down outside
the points. Perez continued for another lap before he suffered the same fate,
but as he slide the following pack slide up the inside and prevented him from
entering the pits, so the Mexican parked the car in one of the run off areas.
As the dust settled on what had been another somewhat
processional race, Rosberg took his second win ahead of Vettel and Webber. Out
of sight of the cameras, Raikkonen managed to take tenth place after being
thirteenth with two laps to go.
In championship terms, the weekend worked out well for
Vettel as his immediate rivals all scored poorly. Grosjean received a ten place
grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix while a rumour floated around a few
days later of Kobayashi making a return in Massa’s seat, should the Brazillian
be deemed unfit.
As always though, Raikkonen left his quote of the day in
that someone should punch Perez in the face. True, the Mexican had been taking
some aggressive risks, but let’s not forget people were accusing him of not
being aggressive enough earlier in the season. Make your minds up!
Race Results:
| Driver | Constructor | Race Time | Grid | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 2:17:52.056 | 1 |
| 2nd | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | +0:03.888 | 3 |
| 3rd | Mark Webber | Red Bull | +0:06.314 | 4 |
| 4th | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +0:13.894 | 2 |
| 5th | Adrian Sutil | Force India | +0:21.477 | 8 |
| 6th | Jenson Button | McLaren | +0:23.103 | 9 |
| 7th | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | +0:26.734 | 6 |
| 8th | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | +0:27.223 | 10 |
| 9th | Paul Di Resta | Force India | +0:27.608 | 17 |
| 10th | Kimi Raikkonen | Lotus | +0:36.582 | 5 |
| 11th | Nico Hulkenburg | Sauber | +0:42.572 | 11 |
| 12th | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | +0:42.691 | 14 |
| 13th | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | +0:43.212 | 19 |
| 14th | Max Chilton | Marussia | +0:49.885 | 22 |
| 15th | Giedo Van der Garde | Caterham | +1:02.590 | 15 |
| 16th | Sergio Perez | McLaren | DNF (Accident damage) | 7 |
| 17th | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | DNF (Accident damage) | 13 |
| 18th | Daniel Riccardo | Toro Rosso | DNF (Accident damage) | 12 |
| 19th | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | DNF (Crashed) | 20 |
| 20th | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | DNF (Crashed) | 16 |
| 21st | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | DNF (Crashed) | 21 |
| 22nd | Charles Pic | Caterham | DNF (Gearbox Seizure) | 18 |
Driver’s Championship:
| Driver | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Sebastian Vettel | 107 |
| 2nd | Kimi Raikkonen | 86 (-21) |
| 3rd | Fernando Alonso | 78 (-29) |
| 4th | Lewis Hamilton | 62 (-45) |
| 5th | Mark Webber | 57 (-50) |
| 6th | Nico Rosberg | 47 (-53) |
| 7th | Felipe Massa | 45 (-62) |
| 8th | Paul Di Resta | 28 (-79) |
| 9th | Romain Grosjean | 26 (-81) |
| 10th | Jenson Button | 25 (-82) |
| 11th | Adrian Sutil | 16 (-91) |
| 12th | Sergio Perez | 12 (-95) |
| 13th | Daniel Riccardo | 7 (-100) |
| 14th | Nico Hulkenburg | 5 (-102) |
| 15th | Jean-Eric Vergne | 5 (-102) |
Constructor’s Championship:
| Constructor | Score | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Red Bull | 164 |
| 2nd | Ferrari | 123 (-41) |
| 3rd | Lotus | 112 (-52) |
| 4th | Mercedes | 109 (-55) |
| 5th | Force India | 44 (-120) |
| 6th | McLaren | 37 (-127) |
| 7th | Toro Rosso | 12 (-152) |
| 8th | Sauber | 5 (-159) |
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