Nico Rosberg reclaimed the lead of the Formula 1 World Championship from his Mercedes team-mate by beating Lewis Hamilton to victory around the streets of Monte Carlo.
Pre-race talk was focused on the Silver Arrows rivarly following the events that took place in qualifying. In which accusation on whether Rosberg had deliberately locked-up into the Mirabeau corner, resulting in a yellow flag period that prevented Hamilton in taking pole position.
The race stewards spent several hours investigating this incident and despite the paddock’s opinion that it was intention, they found no evidence thanks to the telemetry data and television replays.
So Nico Rosberg kept his pole position and with overtaking so difficult, he held that track position to win the Monaco Grand Prix for the second time.
Rosberg made a superb start from the grid and led Hamilton through Ste Devote.
The race was almost immediately neutralised by the Safety Car, as Sergio Perez’s Force India looped into the barriers at Mirabeau after a collision with Jenson Button’s McLaren.
Rosberg held Hamilton back at the restart and edged away slowly through the first stint as his team-mate gave chase.
A second Safety Car period, caused by Adrian Sutil crashing heavily under braking for the chicane, denied Hamilton his only realistic chance in passing Rosberg by pitting earlier than his team-mate.
Both Mercedes headed into the pits one after the other under the Safety Car, allowing Rosberg to retain the lead.
The 2008 Formula 1 world champion questioned his team’s strategy repeatedly over the radio as the drivers prepared for another restart.
Once again Rosberg controlled the restart well, and drove on unchallenged to victory, despite fears over excessive fuel consumption in the early part of the second stint.
Hamilton shadowed his Silver Arrows team-mate for most of the race, but dropped back in the closing stages after complaining he “couldn’t see” out of his left eye.
Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo saw this as an opportunity and closed Hamilton down, but fell short of beating him to second position by just 0.4 seconds.
The Australian thus had to be content with his second consecutive third placed finish.
Ricciardo had earlier made a slow start from third on the grid, but regained the lost ground thanks to problems for his team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Four-time world champion Vettel ran third initially after a strong start from the second row, but reported a loss of power shortly after the first restart.
Red Bull replaced parts of his Energy Recovery System unit before the race, following the ERS issue that hampered Vettel in qualifying, and the German complained of a loss of boost pressure from his Renault engine in the race.
A frustrated Vettel rejoined the action after some adjustments in the pits, but was told by the team to retire.
Raikkonen then looked as though he might claim his first podium since returning to Ferrari, having got up to fourth by passing his team-mate Fernando Alonso at the start and driving around the outside of Ricciardo’s Red Bull on the first run through Ste Devote.
But The Iceman’s race was undone by contact with Max Chilton’s Marussia during the second Safety Car period.
Chilton was trying to un-lap himself, and the resulting collision forced Raikkonen into a second stop to replace a punctured tyre on his F14 T.
This condemned the 2007 Formula 1 world champion to a recovery drive through the field, while Alonso maintained his third position in the world championship by finishing in fourth place.
Raikkonen ultimately ended up pointless after a desperate pass on Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren at Loews ended in contact with just a handful of laps remaining.
Magnussen had just been passed by team-mate Jenson Button as Hamilton and Ricciardo lapped a battle for fifth between Hulkenberg’s Force India, the two McLarens, and Raikkonen’s Ferrari.
Raikkonen spotted a chance to dive down the inside at the hairpin, but ran out of road, meaning both drivers lost ground.
Hulkenberg thus held on to claim fifth for Force India, narrowly ahead of Button, while Felipe Massa inherited seventh for Williams.
An engine failure for Valtteri Bottas, an exhaust problem for Jean-Eric Vergne, plus a crash for Esteban Gutierrez at Rascasse, not forgetting the incident between Raikkonen and Magnussen, meant Jules Bianchi crossed the finishing line an eighth for Marussia.
A five-second penalty for serving an earlier penalty for an out-of-position start under the Safety Car, means he will be demoted to ninth, but that wasn’t a main issue as Marussia was able to score their maiden points in Formula 1.
The Lotus of Romain Grosjean will thus inherit eighth, while Magnussen recovered from his incident with Raikkonen to round out the scorers in tenth.
So a fascinating intra-team battle between Rosberg and Hamilton. The Mercedes W05 is the quickest car in the field and with the Silver Arrows drivers fighting for superiority, it’s going to be exciting and thrilling contest for the rest of the season.
Monaco Grand Prix race results, after 78 laps:
1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h49m27.661s
2. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +9.210s
3. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault +9.614s
4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +32.452s
5. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes -1 lap
6. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes -1 lap
7. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes -1 lap
8. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault -1 lap
9. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari -1 lap
10. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes -1 lap
11. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault -1 lap
12. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari -1 lap
13. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault -3 laps
14. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari -3 laps
Retirements:
Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 59 laps
Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 55 laps
Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 50 laps
Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 23 laps
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 10 laps
Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 5 laps
Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 0 lap
Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 0 lap
Drivers’ championship:
1. Nico Rosberg 122
2. Lewis Hamilton 118
3. Fernando Alonso 61
4. Daniel Ricciardo 54
5. Nico Hulkenberg 47
6. Sebastian Vettel 45
7. Valtteri Bottas 34
8. Jenson Button 31
9. Kevin Magnussen 21
10. Sergio Perez 20
11. Felipe Massa 18
12. Kimi Raikkonen 17
13. Romain Grosjean 8
14. Jean-Eric Vergne 4
15. Daniil Kvyat 4
16. Jules Bianchi 2
Constructors’ championship:
1. Mercedes 240
2. Red Bull-Renault 99
3. Ferrari 78
4. Force India-Mercedes 67
5. McLaren-Mercedes 52
6. Williams-Mercedes 52
7. Lotus-Renault 8
8. Toro Rosso-Renault 8
9. Marussia-Ferrari 2
10. Sauber-Ferrari 0
11. Caterham-Renault 0
Next race: Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal. June 6-8.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton commented that racing with one eye closed made it quite challenging around the streets of Monte Carlo. Autosport.com has the full details.
Lewis Hamilton said driving with one eye closed for part of the Monaco Grand Prix was “virtually impossible” after dirt got underneath his visor.
The Mercedes Formula 1 driver was heard complaining about the issue over team radio during the closing stages of the race.
The team invited him to pit for attention if required and made medical assistance available at the podium ceremony, but Hamilton said the problem eventually cleared itself.
He fell away from race-leading team-mate Nico Rosberg while struggling with his eye and was caught by Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull, which finished just four tenths behind.
“I had quite a bit of wind coming in, I got close to Nico in one stage and I got some debris or dirt in my eye,” Hamilton explained.
“I was driving with one eye which is virtually impossible to do.
“Through low speed corners I had to close eye which made it worse, but five laps to go it cleared up and I was able to stay ahead of Daniel.”
Red Bull urged Ricciardo to try to take advantage of Hamilton’s issue, and the Australian caught the Mercedes at a rate of 1.5 seconds per lap towards the flag before falling just short.
“I pushed and didn’t need to save tyres, and we got close to one of the Mercedes in the end but it is quite hard to pass,” said Ricciardo.
“I tried to put a bit of pressure on but third was the best we could do.
“I knew the team felt I had to catch him, I knew I would get on to him, and I was waiting to see what happened.
“I wasn’t going to settle for third but if there was a clean move to be taken I would have taken it.”
The intense rivalry between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton became more heated following the Monaco Grand Prix, despite the Silver Arrows scoring another perfect one-two result. Autosport.com has the story.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton remain divided over whether they can reconcile intra-team relations at the Mercedes Formula 1 squad after the Monaco Grand Prix.
Tensions between the 2014 F1 title rivals became open following qualifying in Monte Carlo, with Hamilton displeased when Rosberg secured pole position despite going off on his final Q3 lap, causing a yellow flag that prompted Hamilton to abandon his own pole bid.
Hamilton finished second to Rosberg in the race as well, and repeatedly expressed his frustration at Mercedes’ strategy over the radio, particularly when he felt he should have been called in immediately when Adrian Sutil crashed in an incident that ultimately resulted in a safety car.
Asked if he felt the problems between him and Rosberg could now be solved, Hamilton replied: “I don’t have an answer for you.”
Rosberg was more conciliatory, insisting that there were no issues that could not be overcome.
“We’ve had discussions and we have known each other for so long, we always sit down and discuss it and move on, and that is what we will do,” said the German, who now leads the world championship by four points.
He also declined to respond to comments Hamilton had made about his upbringing in an interview with the official F1 website earlier this week.
“I didn’t hear Lewis say that so I am not going to comment, it is easy for you to just invent something,” Rosberg said.
“Even if something like that was written, between what Lewis said and was written… I know Lewis would not say something like that, maybe to me, but not to the press.”
Hamilton said a potential strategy change under the safety car was the only way he could have beaten Rosberg during the race.
“It is irrelevant now, but we got the exact same start and there are only two opportunities in the race, the pitstop is the other one,” said the Briton.
“So the safety car came out at a perfect time for him and I didn’t have a chance there.
“I think we have a rule that the guy in front gets the preference to pit first, I think that will be why.”
Prior to Monaco, Hamilton had won four straight grands prix. Rosberg acknowledged that it was essential to halt that streak.
“It is a special win definitely because Lewis had the momentum, the results and everything and I needed to try to break that momentum and I managed to do that this weekend,” he said.
Lewis Hamilton will only play fair against his team-mate Nico Rosberg for the rest of the world championship. Autosport.com has the full story.
Lewis Hamilton insists he will play it ‘fair’ in his battle with Nico Rosberg for the Formula 1 championship, despite the controversy of Monaco Grand Prix qualifying.
The Mercedes duo have fallen out amid rising competitive tensions in the early stages of the season.
After a bust-up at the Spanish GP over the engine settings that Hamilton chose to use, matters boiled over in Monaco when Hamilton reckoned Rosberg had deliberately gone off the track in qualifying to secure pole position by bringing out yellows that disrupted his run.
But despite the escalating situation, Hamilton insists all he wants is a clean fight for the title.
“I think that goes the same for both sides of the garage,” he said after finishing second to Rosberg in Monaco. “We want a fair fight.”
Although the tensions have prompted talk that matters could escalate into on track trouble, Hamilton is confident that he and Rosberg will not let their rivalry hurt the team.
When asked if he thought the season could run successfully like this, he said: “I think so. I think it is running successfully.
“It’s never going to be perfect because we’re fierce competitors, so you can never expect us to be best friends and compete as fiercely as we do.
“But we will remain respectful I think. Or I will try to remain respectful.
“We’ll continue to do what we do, work with the team. The team is the priority and that’s what we have to keep in front.
“I didn’t do anything silly, just looked after the car.”
Hamilton also thinks that the controversies of the weekend can be quickly put to bed, and that he will use lessons learned this weekend to help his own ambitions.
“The weekend’s done and dusted. We’ve got a one-two for the team. Let’s just focus on moving forward. I plan to be stronger in the next race.
“We’ve sat down and cleared whatever air was needed to be cleared. We’ve been through the data and seen what needed to be seen – and I wish you guys could see it. Otherwise, we’re good.
“It was a difficult weekend but what doesn’t break you will make you stronger. I can only get stronger from this weekend, I think.”
Kimi Raikkonen has been reprimanded for his Monaco Grand Prix clash with Kevin Magnussen, while no action was taken over Jenson Button and Sergio Perez’s collision.
The Formula 1 stewards investigated both incidents after the race but chose to limit the penalties to Raikkonen’s reprimand.
The Ferrari man had been chasing Magnussen’s McLaren for seventh place with six laps to go when they became entangled at Loews as the Finn tried to outbrake his rival.
Magnussen was adamant that the incident had been Raikkonen’s fault.
“I closed the door at Loews and he chose to go anyway,” said the rookie, who fell back to 10th with an engine issue.
Raikkonen had been running third until hit by Max Chilton’s Marussia during the second safety car period. He had to pit for repairs and fell to 14th.
He admitted that after that delay he had been willing to make very aggressive moves.
“I tried to overtake on the inside kerb and couldn’t make the corner,” Raikkonen said of the Magnussen incident.
“He moved a little bit to the left and I went over the kerb and was pretty close to the turn, but the wall was too close and I had to reverse.
“I never hit him until I reversed, because obviously he was behind me.
“But I didn’t really care at that point – a few points for eighth place, or 10th place or 11th place, it makes no difference for me.”
Button and Perez’s incident happened at Mirabeau on the opening lap and caused the first safety car, with the Force India stranded on track.
Although the stewards felt no action was necessary, Perez pointed the finger at Button.
“I was in a battle with Nico [Hulkenberg], who was ahead, and I went to take the apex normally,” said the Mexican.
“I was on the racing line and ahead of Jenson when he clipped my rear wheel and spun me around into the barriers.
“I did not expect him to be there as there wasn’t really any space for another car there.”
Button declined to comment on the collision.
Source: Autosport.com
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen commented that his collision Max Chilton ruined his chances of scoring points. Autosport.com has the details.
Kimi Raikkonen feels a collision with Max Chilton’s Marussia under the second safety car period “destroyed” his Monaco Grand Prix.
The Finn was on course to score his first Formula 1 podium since returning to Ferrari prior to the incident.
Raikkonen jumped from sixth on the grid to fourth at the start and ran third after Sebastian Vettel dropped back with an engine problem in his Red Bull, but was forced to make a second pitstop under the safety car when a collision with Chilton at Mirabeau punctured his rear tyre.
The Briton received a reprimand from the stewards over the incident.
“For some reason he managed to run into my rear tyre and damage it,” Raikkonen explained.
“He was unlapping himself, but I don’t know how he expected me to go offline in the tight corner as he was going past me.
“I don’t know what he was thinking, but obviously it destroyed my race and after that point the race was gone.
“I had a good position, good speed, but again got nothing out of it. But it wasn’t really our fault.”
The Chilton clash dropped Raikkonen to the rear of the field, but he mounted a recovery into the top eight before tagging Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren as he reversed out of a botched passing attempt at Loews hairpin in the late stages.
Raikkonen later received a reprimand for his incident with Magnussen.
Sebastian Vettel’s chances of a podium finish in the Monaco Grand Prix were wrecked by a turbo failure on his Red Bull-Renault.
The reigning Formula 1 world champion had hoped to challenge Mercedes on the streets of Monte Carlo, with the tight confines supposedly better suited to his Renault-powered car.
But his hopes were dashed early on when, while running third, his turbo failed during the first safety car period that was brought out for Sergio Perez’s opening lap crash.
“The problem started when he was behind the safety car,” explained Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.
“Off the line was car was fine. He obviously got a good start and then literally with a lap before the restart it failed.
“We thought we might be able to reset it, but it was actually a mechanical failure.”
Vettel had faced a difficult time in Spain a fortnight ago when he had a lack of running in practice before getting a gearbox change penalty.
Horner said there was no explanation as to why the German was suddenly being hit by problems.
“It is a Renault issue so I think you need to speak to Renault about that reason,” he said. “It is obviously frustrating as it is really what destroyed his weekend.”
Source: Autosport.com
Star of the Monaco Grand Prix was Jules Bianchi. Despite a stop/go penalty which added five seconds to his race time, the Marussia finished in ninth and scored valuable points for the team. Autosport.com has the news story.
Jules Bianchi believes Marussia’s first Formula 1 points finish in the Monaco Grand Prix was not just down to luck, as he feels the team has made genuine progress.
The Frenchman secured ninth place in Monte Carlo, despite being handed a post-race penalty for improperly serving an earlier punishment for starting grid infringement.
But while a number of leading retirements helped Bianchi’s cause, the Frenchman also knows that Marussia has improved its car since the last race in Spain.
“We improved the car a step in the Barcelona test,” he explained.
“The car was much more balanced and that’s why it made it much better for this race.
“Now, we have to keep our feet on the ground. We scored points, which is good, but without good luck we won’t be able to be in the points.
“So we have to calm down a bit after tonight and keep working to improve the car because we still have some improvements to make.”
Bianchi thinks his car was a genuine Q2 contender in Monaco, and its pace in the race was a encouraging for the future.
“It’s a big boost for everybody,” he said. “In qualifying I think I was able to fight for Q2.
“It would have been really on the limit but I would have been within one tenth or something like that.
“In the race it was the same. First it was a bit slower than Sauber and the cars in front, but I was on prime and they were on option.
“Then we switched to the other tyres, I was competitive and my laptimes were good.
“I think it’s a really good step forward for the team.”
Niki Lauda says feuding Mercedes Formula 1 team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg overstepped the mark with their behaviour at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The war between the pair blew up at the weekend when Hamilton felt that Rosberg had driven off the road deliberately in qualifying in a bid to secure pole position by disrupting his team-mate’s lap with yellow flags.
A stewards’ investigation into Rosberg’s actions ruled that he had done nothing wrong, so he kept the pole position that helped him to an important win.
Fresh off the back of a row between the two drivers at the Spanish GP, when Rosberg was upset that Hamilton went against team protocol to turn his engine settings up in the closing stages of the races, relations completely broke down between the pair.
AUTOSPORT understands that the two men are no longer on speaking terms, and it was their lack of communication during post-race ceremonies that has particularly upset Lauda.
When asked by AUTOSPORT about concerns of distrust between his drivers, Lauda said: “Lewis not happy finishing second is normal, but in the end he has to accept another guy was quicker. This is very simple in racing.
“What I did not like, and I have to say, and I will tell him this on Monday, is that when you are up there [on the podium] and you don’t say hello to your team-mate, which Nico has always done, that is not good.
“It’s not because I am well educated, but it’s for the brand Mercedes. This is something I start to worry about now, but it’s easy to fix.”
Hamilton conceded that the Monaco podium was the first time there had been no communication between himself and Rosberg after the race.
“We never really speak on the podium,” he said. “The last four podiums I will just say well done to him, and after we would say this is unbelievable what the team has achieved.
“This weekend we didn’t. But we will I’m sure in the future.”
Lauda plans to talk to both drivers in the coming days to get their perspectives on the situation at Mercedes, and he is hopeful that things will be better in Canada.
“I spoke to the drivers before the race and it is not finished,” he said.
“I understand all the comments and I have to wait two or three days, but before it goes to Canada it will be solved.
“I will speak to them like I always do. They always call me when they have problems, so I think it will sort itself out.
“It is normal. I had the same with [Alain] Prost. I hated the guy, but at least I said hello in the morning.
“There are certain limits and these certain limits I can reintroduce because I speak their language, the drivers’ language, and they do understand me, they like me and there is no issue.”
Source: Autosport.com
Tail-enders no longer, jubilant Marussia marked their first points in Formula One on Sunday with a champagne celebration that captured the spirit of the team.
Frenchman Jules Bianchi’s astonishing ninth place, from the very back of the starting grid and despite two stop/go penalties, was as good as victory for the outfit with the smallest of budgets.
To celebrate moving up to ninth in the championship, they cracked open five bottles of fizz in the pitlane – a splurge that sporting director Graeme Lowdon admitted they could hardly afford.
“I missed it all. I’ll have to buy my own,” he smiled as mechanics made thirsty work of packing up behind him in the cramped garages.
“I’ll certainly buy the lads a drink. And very well deserved it is too.”
Although Marussia brought upgrades to the most glamorous race on the calendar, their cost would be dismissed as little more than small change on the gaming tables of the principality’s famed casino.
“They cost a few thousand pounds,” team principal John Booth, a proud Yorkshireman with a not untypical sense of thrift, told Reuters.
Asked what anyone could buy for that in a sport where even a steering wheel costs around $50,000, he grinned: “You make it. Whittle it out of a bit of wood in the garage. But honestly, that’s all we spent on the car in the last few weeks.
“And it’s really unlocked the car from the Barcelona race (earlier this month) and into the test and gives us faith to carry on.”
Lowdon said the car would be even quicker if they could spend another couple of thousand pounds – what some teams spend on bottled water over a grand prix weekend – but that was easier said than done.
“The bottom line is that development money has to come last. You’ve an obligation to pay people to do everything and so we don’t have the development budget,” he explained.
“We’re not limited by ingenuity, we’ve got some really clever guys and they know what to do. We know that if we apply some more resource to the car, we’ll go quicker. We know that. But it’s an expensive business even before you try and make the car go quicker.”
Marussia came into the sport as Virgin Racing, one of three new teams in 2010. They employ just 193 people and have an annual budget of around 60 million pounds ($101.1 million), compared to the top teams’ hundreds of millions.
They are the first of the newcomers to score a point, 83 races on, with Caterham still empty-handed. HRT folded at the end of 2012.
Caterham’s Malaysian owner Tony Fernandes had his own celebrations to attend in London after his Queens Park Rangers soccer club returned to the Premier League, but Booth said he would not want to trade positions.
“My home team are at Wembley today, Rotherham United, so I’m hoping for a double celebration,” he said, declaring himself “absolutely over the moon”.
Rotherham duly obliged, winning the League One (third tier) playoff final against Leyton Orient on penalties.
Source: Reuters
Fernando Alonso feared he could have been forced to retire from the Monaco Grand Prix on the first lap after an ERS problem with his Ferrari engine.
Alonso qualified fourth with what he described as his best lap of the year, but fell to sixth at the start of the race.
The Spaniard, who lies third in the Formula 1 drivers’ championship, admitted his Ferrari lost power for the first few corners.
“The electric engine [ERS] didn’t work so I didn’t have the power going until Turn 3 [Casino Square],” said Alonso.
“I had a good jump, but I didn’t have any more power to keep going.
“But the McLarens were fighting and also it is not completely straight so I was lucky that no one else overtook me.
“It was more stressful after Turn 1 [Sainte Devote]. Between Turn 1 and 3 I was very, very slow and I was a little bit worried I would have to retire after lap one. And then suddenly the electric motor started working.”
Alonso conceded that, even if he had full power, he would probably have been boxed in on the run to Ste Devote.
“If I did have the power available I would have had to brake anyway because I didn’t have the space,” he added. “I tried to go to the left at one point but Kimi [Raikkonen] was doing a good start so it was not the place to go.”
After problems for Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, Alonso chased Daniel Ricciardo for third, but suffered brake issues in the closing stages.
“At the end we had some brake problems,” said Alonso.
“The car was braking with only right brakes so I had to hold the steering to the left.
“Once you are in that position you just try to bring the car safely home and get these points, but obviously we will try to do better next time.”
Despite the issues, Alonso believes fourth was the best the F14 T could manage in Monaco.
“Fourth was the maximum,” he said. “The top three showed their potential and that they were faster than me.
“I’m happy with the weekend in general. The race was difficult, it was tough, but I’ve got more points than I had yesterday.”