After a race ridden with crashes, safety car periods and even stoppage due to a red flag, Nico Rosberg went on to win the Monaco Grand Prix, emulating his father Keke Rosberg’s feat from 30 years ago, leading on every single lap from start to finish.
The Mercedes AMG team were racing under protest from Infiniti Red Bull Racing for secretly running tyre tests with Pirelli after the Spanish Grand Prix: something not within the regulations of the sporting agreement.
As the five lights went out, it was a clean start off the grid with Vettel attempting to go past Hamilton but then tucking in behind the Mercedes AMG car as the convoy went on to lap the scenic street circuit. Felipe Massa was starting from the very back of the grid after a gearbox change and due to his crash in qualifying. On barely the second lap, there was contact between the Williams of Pastor Maldonado and the Caterham of Giedo van der Garde, with both their front wings taking a punch. Adrian Sutil too suffered front wing problems but stayed on track. Geido van der Garde seemed rather determined to go quick and lap 6 saw him even put in the fastest lap of the race that far. His team-mate, Charles Pic, wasn’t so lucky and suffered a blown engine on lap 10.
The first of the pit stops began on lap 26 with Mark Webber bringing his Red Bull in. Paul DiResta made a move past Massa for position. A lap later, Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button came into the pits. Two laps later, Alonso came in, but was overtaken by Raikkonen as he exited the pit-lane. Everyone had started on the super-soft tyres and had now switched to the medium or “prime” tyres as the teams prefer to call them.
On lap 30, Massa hit the barrier and, in what was an almost identical incident from Final Practice, crashed at St. Devote, bringing out the safety car. This was the first time the safety car made its appearance this season, while also being its fourth consecutive appearance at the Monaco GP. Being just inches from the racing line, the debris warranted a clean-up which took all of nine laps.
On lap 41, Lewis Hamilton pushed the nose of his Mercedes AMG on the inside line in a bid to take the position away from Mark Webber, but Webber closed the door rather firmly. This was one of the few overtaking attempts made; something many are unfamiliar with at the tight Monte Carlo circuit. A lap later, Sergio Perez, after a series of attempts, overtook his team-mate Jenson Button in his McLaren; almost touching Alonso’s Ferrari as he made his way past. Lap 46 was utter chaos as Jules Bianchi managed to shunt his Marussia straight into the Williams of Pastor Maldonado. Maldonado took off and landed back on the track, hitting the crash barrier head-on and causing it to come apart and fall onto the track. That bought out the red flags and put a stop to the race while the repairs were carried out.
Lap 48 saw the race restart and everyone settle into their positions. Alonso, who was asked to concede the position he had maintained over Sutil by going over the chicane, was not too happy about the decision. Nonetheless, he took the restart as the opportunity to do just that. On lap 57, Alonso was overtaken by Adrian Sutil. Another safety-car inducing crash occurred on lap 63 when Romain Grosjean rammed his Lotus into the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo as they exited the tunnel.
With 8 laps to go, Perez managed to tap Raikkonen’s rear tire which led to a puncture. Raikkonen came in the next lap, dropping from 5th place to 16th. Just three laps later, Perez pushed his luck again, but ended up on the wrong side of an overtaking error and found himself out of the race.
As the chequered flag waved, Nico Rosberg took victory in his Mercedes with a clear margin over second-place Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull. Mark Webber finished in third, followed by Hamilton. Sutil took a fine fifth-place finish for Force India. Kimi Raikkonen managed to cover 3 places and 7 seconds in the last 2 laps and finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg to take tenth place, ensuring his now 23-race point-scoring streak stays intact.
Vettel now leads the driver’s championship with 107 points ahead of Raikkonen on 86 and Alonso in third with 78 points. The constructor’s championship sees Infiniti Red Bull in the lead with 164 points, followed by Ferrari with 123 and Lotus Renault with 112 points.
