Month: May 2012

Mark Webber put in a masterful drive and resisted a five-car train behind him to scored his second Monaco Grand Prix victory and become the sixth winner in six races.

This impressive statistic is unprecedented in the sport’s rich history, but the Australian’s latest triumph did make Red Bull Racing the first team to notch up a repeat win this season.

Nico Rosberg gave chase to the leading Red Bull throughout the 78-lap race but had little to challenge. Second place is still a solid result for himself and Mercedes.

Completing the Monaco podium is Fernando Alonso. The Ferrari driver now leads the world championship with 76 points.

Thanks to an inspired race strategy from Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel finished in an excellent fourth ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa. The top six were covered by only 6.2 seconds at the chequered flag.

Pole position starter Webber held off Rosberg’s Mercedes away from the grid, then remained ahead through the sole pit-stop sequence, despite Rosberg going for fresh tyres earlier.

Vettel brought himself into contention by getting up to sixth at the start, and then stayed out until lap 45 before switching from softs to the supersofts.

Lapping 1.5 seconds faster compared to the others while leading, the defending champion was able to emerge from his pit-stop in fourth ahead of Hamilton, who had lost out to Alonso in the pits.

Rain had threatened all race, and became slightly heavier going into the final eight laps, just as the leaders’ tyres began to fade.

That brought the top six even closer together, with Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and Massa – in his strongest drive of the year so far – suddenly right on Webber’s tail.

But as the drizzle eased again, the pace increased and Webber was able to wrap up his first win of this year.

A first corner crash eliminated a potential podium contender with Lotus’s Romain Grosjean tangling with Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes, breaking the front suspension and sending it spinning across the pack at Sainte Devote.

Remarkably none of the front-runners hit it, but Kamui Kobayashi was not so lucky. His Sauber became airborne and would later retired with suspension damage. Further back, Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado ran into Pedro de la Rosa and was forced to retire.

Schumacher was able to continue and ran in seventh place until fuel pressure problems forced him into the pits and out of the race.

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne then picked up that position – a very early pit-stop on lap 18 having given him chance to run in clean air and vault up the order. But a decision to pit for intermediates in the late shower was a big mistake and dropped him out of the points.

Finishing in seventh and eighth were the Force Indias of Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg, with Kimi Raikkonen taking ninth ahead of Bruno Senna.

The Iceman lost time when his tyres dramatically faded in the first stint and he then spent a while trapped behind Charles Pic’s Marussia following his pit-stop.

Jenson Button failed to make any progress in the McLaren. After taking to the escape road to avoid the Sainte Devote mayhem, he spent most of the race trying to pass Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham, eventually spinning in the Swimming Pool complex in his efforts, and retiring soon after.

Kovalainen had been on course for eleventh, but had to pit with front wing damage amid a fraught battle with Sauber’s Sergio Perez, so fell to P13 behind Vergne.

It wasn’t a classic Monaco Grand Prix with a high speed train of cars. As each driver was managing their tyres. The lack of overtaking made it difficult around the streets of the Principality and yet it was a close and tense race. Six new winners in the past six events? Awesome.

Monaco Grand Prix race results, 78 laps:

1.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           1h46:06.557
2.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +0.643
3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +0.947
4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +1.343
5.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +4.101
6.  Massa         Ferrari                    +6.195
7.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +41.537
8.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +42.562
9.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +44.036
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +44.516
11.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +1 lap
12.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
13.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
14.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +1 lap
15.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +2 laps

Fastest lap: Perez, 1:17.298

Not classified/retirements:

Button        McLaren-Mercedes             71 laps
Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari           66 laps
Pic           Marussia-Cosworth            65 laps
Schumacher    Mercedes                     64 laps
Petrov        Caterham-Renault             16 laps
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               6 laps
De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth                 1 lap
Maldonado     Williams-Renault             1 lap
Grosjean      Lotus-Renault                1 lap

World Championship standings, round 6:

Drivers:
1.  Alonso        76
2.  Vettel        73
3.  Webber        73
4.  Hamilton      63
5.  Rosberg       59
6.  Raikkonen     51
7.  Button        45
8.  Grosjean      35
9.  Maldonado     29
10.  Perez         22
11.  Di Resta      21
12.  Kobayashi     19
13.  Senna         15
14.  Massa         10
15.  Hulkenberg     7
16.  Vergne         4
17.  Schumacher     2
18.  Ricciardo      2

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          146
2.  McLaren-Mercedes          108
3.  Ferrari                    86
4.  Lotus-Renault              86
5.  Mercedes                   61
6.  Williams-Renault           44
7.  Sauber-Ferrari             41
8.  Force India-Mercedes       28
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6

Next race: Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal. June 8-10.

Michael Schumacher might have been fastest around the streets of Monte Carlo but it will be Mark Webber who starts the Monaco Grand Prix in pole position with the German receiving his five-place grid penalty for crashing into Bruno Senna in Spain.

The seven-time world champion vaulted his Mercedes from a provisional fifth after his first Q3 run to the top grid slot with a time of one minute, 14.301 seconds at the end of an exciting qualifying session.

But the penalty for his Barcelona incident means Schumacher will not be able to claim the first pole position since making his Formula One comeback. Instead Red Bull driver Webber – who was only 0.08 seconds slower – will head the Monte Carlo grid for the second time in his Formula One career.

Nico Rosberg held provisional pole for most of Q3, before slipping down to third. The Chinese Grand Prix winner will start the race on the front row following his Mercedes team-mate’s penalty.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest, ahead of Romain Grosjean. The Lotus driver was a likely contender for the top spot but a poor middle sector on his final lap left him fifth.

Ferrari could not manage the pole challenge it had been tipped for, with Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa sixth and seventh, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado made it to Q3 and was ninth, but his Williams will also be moved down the order due to the ten-place penalty for his incident with Sergio Perez in final practice.

As for the championship leader Sebastian Vettel, the defending world champion elected not to run in Q3 despite making it through into the top-ten shootout.

For the second successive weekend Jenson Button failed to get beyond Q2. The McLaren driver could not improve on his time of one minute, 15.536 seconds and he will start the race down in a disappointing P13.

Twelve months on from his dramatic crash at the Nouvelle Chicane, Sergio Perez was in trouble in Monaco qualifying again as he slid into the Swimming Pool barrier early in Q1.

Television replays showed his front-left wheel was not pointing in the correct direction before he hit the barrier. It’s possible that this was damaged following his collision with Pastor Maldonado at Portier during the final practice session.

The Mexican tried to drag his broken Sauber back to the pits but succeeded only in causing a red flag when he shed a wheel and had to park at La Rascasse.

Perez’s team-mate Kamui Kobayashi also had a brush with the wall on the approach to St. Devote, but continued intact and qualified P12.

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne was the other driver to crash, losing control under braking for the Nouvelle Chicane and clouting the barriers, causing wing and suspension damage. That left him P17 on the grid – but this was just one position behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Neither Force India made into Q3, with Nico Hulkenberg P11 and Paul di Resta P15.

Bruno Senna again failed to match Williams team-mate Maldonado’s pace and was only P14.

While at the back, Heikki Kovalainen came within a tenth of getting his Caterham into Q2. The Finn did beat his team-mate Vitaly Petrov by nearly a second.

Pedro de la Rosa in the HRT managed to split the Marussias and was only a tenth off Timo Glock.

So an impressive lap by both Schumacher and Webber. If only Michael didn’t hit the Williams at the last race in Spain… Can Mark become the sixth winner in Formula One? We will find out on race day.

Qualifying positions for the Monaco Grand Prix:

1. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m14.381s
2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m14.448s
3. Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m14.583s
4. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m14.639s
5. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m14.948s
6. Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m14.301s*
7. Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m15.049s
8. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m15.199s
9.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     no time
10. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m15.421s
11. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m15.508s
12. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m15.536s
13. Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m15.709s
14. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m15.718s
15. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m15.878s
16. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m16.885s
17. Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m16.538s
18. Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m17.404s
19. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m15.245s**
20. Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m17.947s
21. Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m18.096s
22. Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m18.476s
23. Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m19.310s
24. Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       no time

107 per cent time: 1m20.697s

*Five-place grid penalty
**Ten-place grid penalty

Pastor Maldonado becomes the fifth driver in five races to win in Formula One with an incredible drive in the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Venezuelan resisted huge pressure from home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso in the late stages of the race to take his maiden victory and return Williams back to the top step of the podium since 2004.

Despite making the better getaway at the start and leading the early stages of the race, Alonso had to settle with second for Ferrari.

Completing the podium is Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus. Team-mate Romain Grosjean finished in fourth position ahead of Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber and defending world champion Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull.

Alonso had taken the lead at the start by beating Maldonado into the first corner, and then inched into a three-second lead during the first stint, as they pulled clear of the rest of the field.

But the combination of a stunning out-lap by Maldonado and Alonso getting stuck behind Charles Pic’s Marussia on his in-lap saw the Williams leapfrog the Ferrari at the second pit-stops, and then storm away for a few laps until seven seconds clear.

Alonso then started coming back at Maldonado, getting the gap down to 4.2 seconds before the Williams had a slightly slow final pit-stop with a left-rear issue.

A few laps behind Raikkonen, who was running much further before his final pit-stop, meant the leaders were absolutely nose-to-tail going into the closing laps as both tried to keep their tyres intact.

For a while it looked inevitable that Maldonado would succumb to Alonso’s pressure, but it was the Ferrari that started to lose pace in the final stages, and the lead gap began to increase again – allowing Maldonado to take a very unexpected victory by 3.1 seconds.

Raikkonen’s fresher tyres allowed him to gain on the leaders at a ferocious rate as the race neared its end, but he ran out of laps to catch Alonso, finishing six tenths of a second adrift.

Romain Grosjean finished fourth in Lotus, with Kamui Kobayashi producing some bold passes on the way to fifth for Sauber.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel produced a late charge to take sixth after losing ground with a drive-through penalty for not slowing down under the yellow flags and requiring a new front wing at his final pit-stop.

Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and both McLarens fell victim to Vettel’s surge up the order, with Rosberg then resisted last-place starter Lewis Hamilton for seventh as he managed to make a two-stop strategy work against expectations. His team-mate Jenson Button struggled for speed all day and finished in a disappointing ninth.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg resisted strong pressure from Mark Webber, who lost ground on the opening lap and needed an out-of-sequence pit-stop for a new Red Bull front wing.

Behind the Toro Rossos and the Force India of Paul di Resta, Felipe Massa had another difficult race for Ferrari. Penalised for a yellow flag infringement, the Brazilian finished only in P15.

Retirements included Michael Schumacher and Bruno Senna – who tangled at the first corner when the fresh-tyre-shod Mercedes ran into the back of the yet-to-pit Williams – and Sergio Perez.

The Sauber picked up a puncture while trying to attack the Lotus pair at the first corner, and later parked just after a messy pit-stop.

Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are now joint leaders in the world championship with 61 points. The next race is the most glamorous, the Monaco Grand Prix. Will we see a new winner once again?

Spanish Grand Prix race results, 66 laps:

1.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           1h39:09.145
2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +3.195
3.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +3.884
4.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +14.799
5.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +1:14.641
6.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +1:17.576
7.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +1:27.919
8.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +1:28.100
9.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +1:25.200
10.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
11.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +1 lap
12.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
13.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +1 lap
14.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +1 lap
15.  Massa         Ferrari                    +1 lap
16.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
17.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +1 lap
18.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +2 laps
19.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +3 laps

Fastest lap: Grosjean, 1:26.250

Not classified/retirements:

Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               38 laps
Pic           Marussia-Cosworth            36 laps
Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth                 23 laps
Senna         Williams-Renault             13 laps
Schumacher    Mercedes                     13 laps

World Championship standings, round 5:

Drivers:
1.  Vettel        61
2.  Alonso        61
3.  Hamilton      53
4.  Raikkonen     49
5.  Webber        48
6.  Button        45
7.  Rosberg       41
8.  Grosjean      35
9.  Maldonado     29
10.  Perez         22
11.  Kobayashi     19
12.  Di Resta      15
13.  Senna         14
14.  Vergne         4
15.  Hulkenberg     3
16.  Schumacher     2
17.  Massa          2
18.  Ricciardo      2

Constructors:
1.  Red Bull-Renault          109
2.  McLaren-Mercedes           98
3.  Lotus-Renault              84
4.  Ferrari                    63
5.  Williams-Renault           43
6.  Mercedes                   43
7.  Sauber-Ferrari             41
8.  Force India-Mercedes       18
9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6

Next race: Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo. May 24-27.

Pastor Maldonado will start Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix in pole position after Lewis Hamilton was excluded from qualifying for not returning to the pits after setting his timed lap.

McLaren instructed Hamilton to stop as he had too little fuel in the car and needed to retain enough to provide a sample to the sport’s governing body for testing.

Although the regulations allow a car to be stopped on its return to the pits if needed, a shortage of fuel is not considered an acceptable reason.

As a result, the stewards ruled that Hamilton be excluded from qualifying, but would be allowed to start from the back of the grid.

A statement from the stewards reads:

“The stewards received a report from the race director which stated that during post-qualifying scrutineering a sample of fuel was required from car four, however, the car failed to return to the pits under its own power as required under Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations.

“The stewards heard from the team representative Mr Sam Michael who stated that the car stopped on the circuit for reasons of force majeure. A team member had put an insufficient quantity of fuel into the car thereby resulting in the car having to be stopped on the circuit in order to be able to provide the required amount for sampling purposes.

“As the amount of fuel put into the car is under the complete control of the competitor the stewards cannot accept this as a case of force majeure.

“The stewards determine that this is a breach of Article 6.6.2 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations and the competitor is accordingly excluded from the results of the qualifying session. The competitor is however allowed to start the race from the back of the grid.”

Article 6.6.2 of the technical regulations states:

“Competitors must ensure that a one litre sample of fuel may be taken from the car at any time during the event.

“Except in cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the stewards of the meeting), if a sample of fuel is required after a practice session the car concerned must have first been driven back to the pits under its own power.”

Yes, the penalty does seem harsh but the team made the error in not fuelling the car. So to penalise the driver doesn’t seem fair but that is how the sport is governed. Break the rules and you will suffer the consequences.

It’s going to be fascinating how Lewis Hamilton will perform in the race started from the back.

Lewis Hamilton claimed his third pole position of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya. The 2008 world champion will share the front row with the surprisingly quick Pastor Maldonado in the Williams.

Home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso will start third in the revised Ferrari, ahead of Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez.

In a qualifying session full of surprises, Hamilton was half-a-second quicker than Maldonado, who had been fast in final practice, setting the quickest time in Q2, and then held provisional pole for a moment.

Hamilton was the only frontrunner to do two runs in Q3, and his initial lap time stood until crowd favourite Fernando Alonso in the much-improved Ferrari went faster, followed by the incredible Maldonado.

But Lewis held the advantage and produced a lap time of one minute, 21.707 seconds to give McLaren their 150th pole position in Formula One. He then stopped on track (possibly due to insufficient fuel) on the slowing-down lap.

Just behind Maldonado, Alonso held third ahead of the Lotus pair of Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen, who again proved extremely competitive.

Both Saubers made it into Q3, with Sergio Perez taking sixth while Kamui Kobayashi is in tenth. But a hydraulic problem forced the Japanese driver to stop at turn three on his way back to the pits.

Nico Rosberg was seventh after just one early run in Q3, while both Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher elated to save tyres and not do any flying laps in Q3, so qualified eighth and ninth for Red Bull and Mercedes respectively.

The biggest shock in qualifying was the elimination of both Jenson Button and Mark Webber in Q2.

Button complained of understeer in the McLaren while Webber believed a single run was enough to make it through into the top ten shootout. Sadly, this was not the case for the Red Bull driver. The pair will start the Spanish Grand Prix on row six.

It was also a bad session for Felipe Massa as well, with the Ferrari driver registering his worst grid position so far in this already-disappointing season with P17. The Brazilian lines up behind the Force Indias and Toro Rossos on Sunday’s grid.

With Maldonado setting impressive times at the front, his Williams team-mate Bruno Senna tried too hard in his efforts to keep up – spinning into the gravel at the end of Q1.

While at the back, Vitaly Petrov outqualified Caterham team-mate Heikki Kovalainen for the first time. Charles Pic was quicker than his Marussia team-mate Timo Glock. As for HRT, Narain Karthikeyan hopes the race stewards can grant him permission to race following an apparent mechanical issues.

UPDATE: Pastor Maldonado will start from pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton was excluded from qualifying for not returning to the pits after setting his best lap.

Hamilton’s McLaren was found to not have had enough fuel on board to comply with the rules that demand a car returns to the pits under its own power after qualifying with enough petrol for a one-litre sample to be provided to the FIA. He will start the race from the back of the grid.

Revised grid positions – Circuit de Catalunya:

1.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m22.285s
2.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m22.302s
3.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m22.424s
4.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m22.487s
5.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m22.533s
6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m23.005s
7.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     No time
8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             No time
9.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       No time
10.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m22.944s
11.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m22.977s
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m23.125s
13.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m23.177s
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m23.265s
15.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m23.442s
16.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m23.444s
17.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m24.981s
18.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m25.277s
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m25.507s
20.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m26.582s
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m27.032s
22.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m27.555s
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m31.122s
24.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m21.707s*

107 per cent time: 1m28.363s

*Sent to back of grid for not having enough fuel after Q3