Lewis Hamilton has finally won a race this season in a thrilling Monaco Grand Prix, while a pit stop heartbreak for Daniel Ricciardo cost him the top result.
The defending champion finished the 78-lap rain-hit race seven seconds clear from Red Bull’s Ricciardo with Sergio Perez taking the final podium spot for Force India.
Overnight rain continued throughout the morning in Monaco with conditions sufficiently treacherous that the race was started under the safety car for the first time in its history.
After seven laps, the safety car was called in and Ricciardo pulled away in the lead, ahead of Nico Rosberg and Hamilton.
It became clear Hamilton was the faster of the two Mercedes, with Rosberg struggling with brake temperatures, so the team instructed the German to let Hamilton past.
Hamilton set off in chase of Ricciardo and although the track was drying out, he chose to stay out on full wets when Ricciardo pitted for intermediates and therefore the lead.
Ricciardo caught Hamilton quickly and retook the lead when the Mercedes pitted for the ultra-soft at the end of lap 31 of 78.
The honey badger pitted next time around, but a miscommunication meant the tyres were not ready when he reached the pitbox.
Eventually, the team fitted super-softs and got him out, but as he exited the pits Hamilton swept around the outside to retake the lead.
That slow pit stop ultimately cost Red Bull Racing and Daniel Ricciardo the Monaco Grand Prix victory. As overtaking around the tight, twisty circuit is nearly impossible.
Ricciardo closed on Hamilton as they went through the tunnel with the Mercedes cutting the chicane and then blocking his rival as he came under attack on the outside on the run to Tabac.
Ricciardo waved his hand in frustration but the race stewards decided to take no further action after investigating the incident.
Hamilton then absorbed the huge pressure from Ricciardo to keep the lead and secure his 44th career victory and first since he clinched his third world title in last year’s United States Grand Prix.
Perez jumped to third with well-timed tyre changes and then resisted heavy pressure from Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari to give Force India its first podium of the season.
Vettel’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen retired early on when he crashed at the Loews hairpin, blocking Romain Grosjean as he tried to rejoin and then pulling off at the exit of the tunnel with his front wing lodged underneath the car.
Fernando Alonso finished a brilliant fifth place with Nico Hulkenberg stealing sixth off a low-key Rosberg on the final lap.
That means Hamilton has cut the gap to title rival Rosberg in the championship to 24 points.
Carlos Sainz Jr, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa completed the top ten.
Sauber asked Felipe Nasr to let his team-mate Marcus Ericsson by but Nasy questioned the decision.
Ericsson then tried a move at Rascasse and the two cars collided, resulting in both retiring soon afterwards.
As for Max Verstappen. This was a hero to zero moment for the Red Bull driver.
He fought his way up into the points after starting from the pit lane but crashed at Massenet – his third crash of the weekend.
It was a tough race for Renault with Jolyon Palmer crashing when he lost grip on the pits straight kink as the race began and Kevin Magnussen hitting the barrier at Mirabeau.
Magnussen had previously collided with Daniil Kvyat at Rascasse, with Kvyat later retiring, having been a lap down after suffering a problem with his steering wheel at the start.
So a great result for Lewis Hamilton. His 44th career victory in such a thrilling race. Red Bull let Daniel Ricciardo down with a slow pit-stop but kudos to Sergio Perez in scoring a podium for Force India.
Monaco Grand Prix, race results after 78 laps:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1h59m29.133s
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 7.252s
3 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 13.825s
4 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 15.846s
5 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m25.076s
6 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m32.999s
7 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m33.290s
8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 Lap
9 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1 Lap
10 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1 Lap
11 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1 Lap
12 Esteban Gutierrez Haas-Ferrari 1 Lap
13 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 2 Laps
14 Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes 2 Laps
15 Rio Haryanto Manor-Mercedes 2 Laps
– Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari Retirement
– Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari Retirement
– Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault Retirement
– Kevin Magnussen Renault Retirement
– Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari Retirement
– Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari Retirement
– Jolyon Palmer Renault Retirement
Drivers’ standings:
1 Nico Rosberg 106
2 Lewis Hamilton 82
3 Daniel Ricciardo 66
4 Kimi Raikkonen 61
5 Sebastian Vettel 60
6 Max Verstappen 38
7 Felipe Massa 37
8 Valtteri Bottas 29
9 Sergio Perez 23
10 Daniil Kvyat 22
11 Romain Grosjean 22
12 Fernando Alonso 18
13 Carlos Sainz 16
14 Nico Hulkenberg 14
15 Kevin Magnussen 6
16 Jenson Button 5
17 Stoffel Vandoorne 1
18 Esteban Gutierrez 0
19 Jolyon Palmer 0
20 Marcus Ericsson 0
21 Pascal Wehrlein 0
22 Felipe Nasr 0
23 Rio Haryanto 0
Constructors’ standings:
1 Mercedes 188
2 Ferrari 121
3 Red Bull-Renault 112
4 Williams-Mercedes 66
5 Force India-Mercedes 37
6 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 30
7 McLaren-Honda 24
8 Haas-Ferrari 22
9 Renault 6
10 Sauber-Ferrari 0
11 Manor-Mercedes 0
Next race: Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal. June 10-12.
Daniel Ricciardo feels he was “screwed” for the second Formula 1 race in succession following Red Bull’s pitstop blunder that cost him the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver dominated the early part of the race in wet conditions from pole position, streaking away at the front as Nico Rosberg struggled in his Mercedes.
Once Rosberg allowed Lewis Hamilton through Ricciardo had to fight the reigning world champion for victory, and he lost the lead following a slow pitstop caused by a miscommunication about which tyres to use.
On the slowing down lap after Hamilton won the race Ricciardo told his team, “save it, there’s nothing you guys can say that will make it any better”, and he was dejected on the podium.
“I don’t even want to comment on the race to be honest,” Ricciardo said.
“I guess from the outside we put on a show, but it shouldn’t have been as exciting as it was.
“Two weekends in a row now I’ve been screwed. It sucks. It hurts.
“I was called into the box, I didn’t make the call, so they should have been ready.”
Ricciardo was upset after the Spanish GP when Red Bull’s strategy calls cost him track position after he led the opening part of the race, and his new team-mate Max Verstappen went onto win.
He looked on course to retain the lead despite making an extra stop compared to Hamilton in Monaco, with Ricciardo having a short stint on intermediates in the middle of the race as the track dried, while Hamilton stayed on full wets until it was time to change to slicks to put himself in the hunt.
“We had the speed in the wet,” Ricciardo added.
“At the start we pulled away, pitted for inters, and we put ourselves in a race with Lewis which we didn’t need to be in.
“I felt I was the quickest in all conditions, but again, second place doesn’t show much for it.
“I don’t like being up here being miserable – when it happens two races in a row, it’s hard not to.”
Red Bull motorsport chief Helmut Marko said the team gifted the race to Hamilton.
“We presented the race to Mercedes,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“Unfortunately, a lot of misunderstanding and not the right communication.
“We will investigate and find out [what happened], but it was a human mistake.
“I feel really sorry. All we can do is apologise to him.”
Source: Autosport.com
Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson has been given a three-place penalty following his collision with team-mate Felipe Nasr. Autosport.com has the details.
Marcus Ericsson has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix after colliding with Sauber Formula 1 team-mate Felipe Nasr in Monaco.
Sauber had urged Nasr to let Ericsson past for 15th place as they both chased Pascal Wehrlein and Romain Grosjean in the middle of the Monaco race.
Nasr rejected the suggestion and Ericsson then tried a pass into Rascasse that succeeded only in damaging both cars and forcing their eventual retirement.
In addition to the three-place penalty for Montreal, Ericsson also receives two penalty points on his licence, taking his current tally to six.
The stewards have also given Wehrlein four penalty points in total – two for going too fast during a virtual safety car period and two for ignoring blue flags – plus a pair of 10-second time penalties for the offences.
The officials will be talking to Daniil Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen about their collision early in the race and to Kimi Raikkonen for his messy end to the grand prix.
The Finn crashed at the hairpin, getting his front wing stuck under his car in the process.
Struggling to steer, he then almost put Romain Grosjean’s Haas into the wall at the following corner, and he then drove his broken car through the tunnel at low speed, with the front wing still under his front wheels before he pulled off the circuit at the chicane.
Monaco race review as reported by Formula1.com:
The Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco started behind the safety car in wet conditions, but was run mainly in glorious sunshine with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton narrowly defeating Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo after an epic battle around the streets of Monte Carlo.
When the safety car finally pulled in to release the pack seven laps in, it was polesitter Ricciardo who stormed away, as a slow Nico Rosberg struggled with suspected glazed brakes and cost Hamilton heaps of time before Mercedes finally instructed the German to let his team mate by on the 16th lap.
Hamilton then set off after Ricciardo, but the gap only came down tenth by tenth until the Red Bull driver joined many of his rivals who had already switched from wet Pirelli tyres to intermediates as the rain eased, on the 23rd lap.
Crucially, Mercedes kept Hamilton out – a reversal of last year – as they gambled on being able to switch straight to slicks as track conditions improved. From the 24th until the 31st lap, Hamilton kept the Australian at bay, before diving in for ultrasoft slicks. Red Bull immediately appeared to have covered that by bringing Ricciardo in for supersofts. Incredibly, however, a communication issue meant the tyres weren’t ready…
Hamilton thus kept the lead, but the fight was on.
On the 37th lap Hamilton overshot the chicane after losing time and traction behind a backmarker and Ricciardo got a run on him as they reached the exit, but Hamilton covered that – legally, as the stewards decided after an investigation – and after that the Red Bull driver never really got close enough to challenge.
The red-banded tyres looked the better bet for the 46 laps that remained after the stops, and it appeared that Red Bull had at least chosen them correctly. But this day all three of Pirelli’s compounds had their moments – Hamilton and Ricciardo, plus the soft-shod Sergio Perez in the Force India and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who were also fighting tooth and claw for the final podium place, had their turns setting fastest laps. Somehow Hamilton kept his rubber alive as the gap between them ebbed and flowed. Yet Ricciardo never gave up.
At the end, as delight and relief imbued Hamilton, who saw his championship deficit to Rosberg slashed from 43 to 24 points with another 15 races left, Ricciardo was uncharacteristically glum, refusing Martin Brundle’s podium invitation to discuss his race in detail. Of course it wasn’t Hamilton with whom he was angry – though he wasn’t impressed with the way his move had been rebuffed – but his own team, whom he felt had let him down and cost him potential victory for the second race in a row…
Perez was ecstatic with his podium run for Force India, which left Ferrari once again defeated by an underdog, while further back a tremendous drive by Fernando Alonso gave McLaren a great fifth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India, who snatched sixth place from Rosberg exiting Rascasse on the final lap.
Carlos Sainz was eighth for Toro Rosso, as Jenson Button made it two McLarens in the points again as he fended off Felipe Massa’s Williams which took the final top-ten spot.
Massa’s team mate Valtteri Bottas was 11th at the flag from the unlucky Esteban Gutierrez, who was running well in the points at one stage for Haas, but their positions were reversed post race when Bottas was handed a 10-second time penalty for a late collision with the Mexican.
Romain Grosjean in the second Haas came home 13th, ahead of the Manors of Pascal Wehrlein (despite a combined 20-second time penalty for running too fast under one of the many virtual safety cars and then for ignoring blue flags) and Rio Haryanto.
Jolyon Palmer crashed the moment the safety car let the racing begin on the eighth lap, after losing control of his Renault over white lines on the pit straight. Then Kimi Raikkonen understeered off at the hairpin and ran over his own front wing on the 11th lap before retiring his Ferrari in the chicane escape road.
Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso had suspected electronic problems before the start and pitted for a replacement steering wheel. He fell a lap behind, and when trying to fight back he got into a needless spat with Kevin Magnussen. His move at Rascasse put them both into the wall and is being investigated by the stewards. The Russian retired, and later the Dane nosed his Renault into the wall at Mirabeau and also had to stop.
Max Verstappen drove like a demon for Red Bull and overtook more cars than anyone, before his third crash in two days saw him go off the road approaching Casino Square on the 34th lap.
Finally, the two Saubers collided at Rascasse just after Felipe Nasr had been instructed to let team mate Marcus Ericsson by; both suffered damage which led to their demise and Ericsson picked up a three-place grid drop for the next round after stewards deemed him to blame for the coming-together.
Rosberg now has 106 points to Hamilton’s 82, with Ricciardo moving to third on 66 ahead of Raikkonen’s 61 and Vettel’s 60.
In the constructors’ stakes, Mercedes have 188 points to Ferrari’s 121, Red Bull’s 112, Williams’ 66, Force India’s 37, Toro Rosso’s 30 and McLaren, whose 24 move them ahead of Haas with 22.