Jenson Button took his fifth victory of the season with a masterful drive at the Monaco Grand Prix. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished in second earning the Brawn GP’s second straight one-two sweep.
Ferrari had one of its best results of the year so far, with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa taking in third and fourth positions respectively. The pace of the F60 during the Monaco Grand Prix was impressive, with Massa setting the fastest lap around the tight and twisty street circuit.
As for Brawn GP’s main championship contender Red Bull Racing, this race slipped away from them. Firstly, Sebastian Vettel was unable to benefit from the light fuel load in qualifying, as he was impended by the Williams of Nico Rosberg. Secondly, the young German was struggling with his super-soft Bridgestones, meaning he was losing grip and track position. This led to a crash at Ste Devote on lap 15 as he tried to regain lost ground following his pit stop. As a small consolation, team-mate Mark Webber did get to the chequered flag though it was only for fifth.
Nico Rosberg drove a solid race in the Williams to sixth, ahead of Renault’s Fernando Alonso. Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais took the final point for eighth, just edging out Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India after a race-long fight.
Despite Button dominating this race, it wasn’t a classic Grand Prix. Yes, the championship leader has match the record of Nigel Mansell and Michael Schumacher in winning five races, thereby extending his points lead in the drivers’ standings. But in terms of racing spectacle at the 67th running of the Monaco Grand Prix, it lacked excitement.
The only change in the top ten positions in the opening laps was when Rubens Barrichello made the perfect getaway off third on the grid. Any concerns that the KERS assist Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen might get by pole sitter Jenson Button down into the first corner vanished as the five red lights went out.
Sebastian Vettel gave chase in the Red Bull but was unable to catch the leading trio, no thanks to the super soft tyres losing its performance edge after a few laps. Sensing the opportunity behind the gripless Vettel, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa attempted to pass his rival into Nouvelle chicane on lap six.
But the Brazilian was caught out by the early braking from the young German and was forced to take the escape route to avoid making contact. Massa backed off to let Vettel by – or risk taking a penalty for gaining a position after cutting a corner – but that allowed the opportunistic Nico Rosberg to slip by.
Even though Vettel made an earlier than expected pit stop to replace the worn out Bridgestone, his race came to a premature end after crashing at Ste Dévote. This tricky first corner also caught out Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi, who misjudged his braking point and ran into the back of Nelson Piquet Jr. The Renault driver was forced to retire with heavy rear-end damage.
McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen was another driver to hit the barriers after losing control of his car in the Swimming Pool complex – in a similar style to Massa in qualifying – only this time it was harder! It lost him seventh place. Team-mate Lewis Hamilton had a difficult race started from the back but came home in a respectable twelfth position despite damaging his front wing after a brush with Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber in the early part of the race.
Kazuki Nakajima was set to complete the top ten finishers in the Williams until he slid into the Mirabeau barrier with one lap to go. That position went to Toyota’s Timo Glock, who started this race in the pit lane after a change in the set-up to improve the car.
Even with the changes to Glock’s car, both Toyota and the BMW Saubers had a poor weekend in Monte Carlo. The cars simply lacked speed or balance around the twisty street circuit.
As for Button, this was the perfect result for himself and the team. This victory in Monte Carlo stretches his points lead to 51, with team-mate Barrichello 16 points behind. Jenson’s only mistake during the weekend was after the race, when he parked his BGP-001 in the pits instead of the start/finish straight!
In a remarkable display of fitness, he jogged all the way to the podium like the triathlon runner he is. It proved to be a light relief after an intense 78 laps around the streets of the Principality.
In addition, it wasn’t just the driver that showed exceptional longevity but his engine as well. The Mercedes V8 in Jenson’s car was the same one he’d used in the last two Grands Prix, meaning he’d won three races on the trot with the same engine. Remarkable.
Race results from the Monaco Grand Prix, 78 laps:
1. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes 1h40:44.282
2. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes +7.666
3. Raikkonen Ferrari +13.443
4. Massa Ferrari +15.110
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault +15.730
6. Rosberg Williams-Toyota +33.586
7. Alonso Renault +37.839
8. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1:03.142
9. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes +1:05.040
10. Glock Toyota +1 lap
11. Heidfeld BMW Sauber +1 lap
12. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
13. Trulli Toyota +1 lap
14. Sutil Force India-Mercedes +1 lap
15. Nakajima Williams-Toyota +2 laps
Fastest lap: Massa, 1:15.154
Not classified/retirements:
Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 52 laps
Kubica BMW Sauber 31 laps
Vettel Red Bull-Renault 16 laps
Piquet Renault 11 laps
Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 11 laps
World Championship standings, round 6:
Drivers:
1. Button 51
2. Barrichello 35
3. Vettel 23
4. Webber 19.5
5. Trulli 14.5
6. Glock 12
7. Alonso 11
8. Raikkonen 9
9. Hamilton 9
10. Massa 8
11. Rosberg 7.5
12. Heidfeld 6
13. Kovalainen 4
14. Buemi 3
15. Bourdais 2
Constructors:
1. Brawn GP-Mercedes 86
2. Red Bull-Renault 42.5
3. Toyota 26.5
4. Ferrari 17
5. McLaren-Mercedes 13
6. Renault 11
7. Williams-Toyota 7.5
8. BMW Sauber 6
9. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 5
Next race: Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul. June 5-7.
Lets hear what the top drivers had to say following the Monaco Grand Prix. Articles taken from Autosport.com.
Jenson Button has described his Monaco Grand Prix victory on Sunday as his ‘best win so far’ after dominating the 78-lap race and extending his world championship lead over Brawn team-mate Rubens Barrichello to 16 points.
The Briton, who has now won five out of six races this season, admitted afterwards that he was emotional about winning in his home town of Monaco.
“Before the weekend I said that this grand prix doesn’t mean anything more than the others, but it was more to stop the pressure on myself – but we know the truth,” he said. “To win here is fantastic, this circuit is very different to anything else.
“I struggled at the start of the weekend so it makes it even better to get the victory.
“The victory means a lot and a one-two finish for Brawn is exceptional. The performance of the team here is staggering. I can’t wait to see the boys, they are all going to be very emotional.”
He added: “This victory was massive for us and it’s the best one of the season.”
Button built a strong lead in the first stint, and made better use of his super-soft tyres than most of his rivals, and admitted afterwards that he was amazed more drivers hadn’t chosen a similar strategy.
“I was surprised when the covers came off and most people were on prime tyres – the harder of the two – we never thought twice about running the option tyre (first),” said Button.
“Near the end of my stint I started struggling with a bit of oversteer, not as bad as Rubens [Barrichello] did, but my times weren’t quite good enough and that’s why they called me in.
“The prime tyres worked really well here, we expected the softer to be better, but the prime tyre was the race tyre.”
“I got off the line clean and had Rubens behind, and he had problems with his rear tyres and I was able to pull a gap. And it didn’t change much from there apart from traffic and the normal Monaco things where walls seem to get closer and closer the further you get into the race.”
The 29-year-old also revealed that he had to force himself to concentrate on his driving and put to one side thoughts of capturing the biggest win of his career.
“It is very strange feeling because you start backing off a little bit and in reality, as has been said many times before it is the worst thing to do, because you start thinking if I get to the end I am going to win Monaco!” he said. “And that is the worst thing to do.
“I started backing off and so much was going through my mind, it’s not that you are not thinking about driving but there is a part of your mind that’s thinking about something else. So I had to really concentrate.
“The last two laps were enjoyable as I had a big enough gap and I knew nothing would go wrong with the car and I could enjoy the moment. It’s a very special moment.”
Button’s focus lapsed after the chequered flag however, when he failed to follow traditional protocol at Monaco by parking his car on the start line, instead driving into parc ferme.
This forced him into an impromptu sprint along the pit straight on foot, waving to the crowds all the way: “I’m not very good at parking! The race was pretty tough, but that bit with the helmet on makes you realise how long the pit straight is – but in a way it was the perfect way to end the race!”
Rubens Barrichello that his challenge for victory in Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix was compromised by loose seatbelts for two thirds of the 78 lap race.
And the Brazilian, who recorded his fourth second place at the Principality on his 17th appearance, said afterwards that he was proud of his achievement considering the problems he faced as a consequence of the seatbelt issue.
“In the second stint my seatbelts got looser and looser and I could hear them going clank, clank,” said Barrichello.
“So I had to start driving differently and switch the brakes to the front, because when you brake you are just moving around in the car and when you press the pedal you lock the rear wheels more. So I had a great time, really.
“It wasn’t as easy as it looked from the outside, so I am proud of what we achieved today.”
Barrichello admitted that the race had realistically been lost on Saturday when Jenson Button took pole position on the street track – notorious for its lack of overtaking.
“If you look back it defined the race yesterday because it is great momentum to have when you start from the front,” he said.
“Once again, just like Barcelona I had a great start and was able to have a run on Kimi [Raikkonen] to take second. And then I ran tremendous pace. It was really, really good behind Jenson.
“But possibly I was just too close because losing that little bit of aero made me slide a little bit more and I grained the rear tyres.
“So from 1m16s, I started to run 1m20s and then Jenson gained 3-4s a lap, and that defined the race pretty much.”
Kimi Raikkonen said his third place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix had to be considered as a good result for the Ferrari team, given the steps forward it has made since the beginning of the season.
The 2007 world champion started from the front row and ran within a handful of seconds of Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn for most of the race, giving Ferrari its first podium finish since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
“We need to be happy with this result, given the way the team started the season,” said the Finn.
“Of course in the bigger picture I’m not happy with third place – I’m disappointed. But, in this situation, for the team it’s a good result.”
Raikkonen had expected to challenge pole-sitter Jenson Button for the lead into Ste Devote on the opening lap, due to the Finn having a lighter car and the added advantage of KERS under acceleration.
Instead though, he lost a position to Barrichello, and was unable to improve his position over the course of the race.
“It is not the first time I have been in second place and lost position at the start,” Raikkonen added. “It is very slippery on that side [of the track], and they were on the soft tyres at the start, so that definitely didn’t help us.
“Then I had a little bit longer second stint, but in the second pitstop, Rubens got a long way ahead. I don’t know what happened there.
“We’re still not where we want to be – we have many things to do to be able to fight for first position – but the people are working very hard at the factory and we have improved the car quite a lot at least.”
Even though Brawn GP achieved its third one-two of the season, it is great to see Ferrari returning to the sharp end of the grid following a disappointing start to the season. With Kimi Raikkonen in third and Felipe Massa fourth, the Scuderia is heading back in the right direction. Read on for Stefano Domenicali’s view on the Monaco Grand Prix. Taken from Autosport.com.
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said that his team’s results in the Monaco Grand Prix marked “just the start” of its fightback against the dominant Brawns.
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa finished third and fourth in the race to give the Italian squad its best helping of points this year.
Domenicali then warned its rivals that Ferrari will continue to close the gap on the front-runners as the season wears on.
“For sure we’re very happy with the result because it shows that what we’re doing at home at this moment is good and that we are working in the right direction,” Domenicali told BBC TV.
“The Brawns are for sure the best at the moment, but we are catching up and getting closer, so this is very positive.
“I’m very happy because at this moment the boys at home are working very, very hard, and I want to thank them for what they’re doing. This is just the start.”
Domenicali praised the job done by both drivers, who were the only ones to offer any sort of challenge to the Brawn squad during the weekend.
“For sure Felipe did a great race, but there was also a good race from Kimi, so this is important,” he added.
“Felipe did the quickest lap, so it’s important to look ahead with this perspective. We are, for sure, improving.”
As for the world champion Lewis Hamilton, he was quite satisfied to finish in P12 despite starting at the back following a gearbox change.
World champion Lewis Hamilton declared himself satisfied with his performance at the Monaco Grand Prix, despite finishing outside of the points.
The McLaren driver, who said he was hoping to fight from victory ahead of the weekend, started from the back of the grid after crashing during qualifying.
From there, he was unable to make much progress on a track where overtaking is virtually impossible. Hamilton finished down in 12th position, a lap down.
Despite that, the Briton said we has pleased to have made it to the end.
“It was an extremely tough race,” Hamilton told the BBC. “I feel quite satisfied though, because I wanted to finish.
“I was thinking of one of the Rocky films when he says, ‘I just want to see the end of the fight’, and I got to the flag having pushed as hard as I could throughout the race.
“We will keep pushing.”
Hamilton, who survived an early scare when he made contact with the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld, said he will try again next year.
“I broke the nose on my car,” he said. “I think my car was pretty much damaged from early on when I clipped one of the BMWs into turn one twice.
“I broke the wing and I hit my wheel as well so I had a lot of understeer throughout the race. But then I put the new wing on and it went a bit better.
“I’ll be back next year to try and win.”