Monaco Grand Prix

Mark Webber was able to take the momentum from his win in Spain and dominate qualifying. After taking pole, it was basically a case of Italian race car driving; what is behind you is not important. The Australian was never challenged for the lead and drove a clean race to cap the weekend. Sebastian Vettel was hot on his heels at the end of the race, but the 0.4 second gap on timing and scoring could have been 10 as the race ended effectively under safety car conditions. Robert Kubica didn’t have a great start when Vettel passed him and basically just tried to keep up with the Red Bulls which showed surprising speed on the tight circuit. The chassis has the right balance of downforce and drivability and the drivers made it look easy. Having a French car on the podium will be splashed over most of the local media for the rest of the week, but Petrov didn’t make the local Russian expat community happy when he retired five laps from the end.

Filipe Massa drove a very clean race and hung with the front runners as much as he could and would finish in fourth place, but it would be his team mate who finished in sixth place that everyone was talking about. After crashing in the morning practice session on Saturday, the Spaniard was unable to post a time in qualifying and started from the pit lane, in 24th place. The Ferrari driver would then climb all the way through the field, picking off back markers and waiting for some of the fast cars to take themselves. It was an almost epic drive which reminded most people of a similar drive that Schumacher had to do several years ago, when he was penalized for “spinning out” during qualifying, attempting to get a red flag out on, guess who’s hot lap? That’s right, Alonso.

But that wasn’t the only ironic point of the weekend. Schumacher actually passed Alonso during the last corner which was effectively under a safety car to take sixth place away. The stewards from the Monaco Automobile Club muttered something that sounded very close to tres merde, and after consulting with Damon Hill of all people, gave Schumacher a 20 second penalty, which was enough to drop him to the back of the pack in twelfth. Mercedes originally said they were going to protest the penalty, but upon further reflection of the rule book (and likely a word of warning from the FIA that the penalty could be made worse if they were found to be in the wrong), the team has since backed off. It’s always going to be something with Schumacher in Monaco. Rosberg attributed his seventh place to clean driving, with a smirk.

Lewis Hamilton announced to the world over the radio that he was not happy with the car, someone needs to tell this chap that is not the way to win friends and influence designers at the Woking based team. Jenson Button suffered from a fan being left on the car which resulted in the lump over heating during the early laps. He had the right to complain a little, but did so behind closed doors and away from an open microphone.

Force India left the weekend happy with a points from Sutil and Liuzzi more TV money is in their future. The last point of the weekend went to the Toro Rosso team whose death reports have been not so greatly exaggerated.

With the trailers packing up, the old money was starting to come back to town on Sunday afternoon. Maybe it was the aura of the weekend or the sun, but as usual, Monaco is special for Karen and me as it was our first date many years ago. In keeping with the spirit of the weekend, this year we bought a Bentley Mulsanne S on Sunday, for some reason, I’ll probably remember this weekend more that Webber does.

I’m just looking forward to being able to swear at a car in English again so that it understands me.

Race Results

1	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	1h50m13.355s
2	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	+ 0.4s
3	KUBICA	Renault	+ 1.6s
4	MASSA	Ferrari	+ 2.6s
5	HAMILTON	McClaren-Mercedes	+ 4.3s
6	ALONSO	Ferrari	+ 6.3s
7	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	+ 6.6s
8	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	+ 6.9s
9	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	+ 7.3s
10	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	+ 8.1s
11	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	+ 9.1s
12	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	+ 25.7s
13	PETROV	Renault	+ 5 laps, retired
14	CHANDHOK	HRT-Cosworth	+ 8 laps, accident
15	TRULLI	Lotus-Cosworth	+ 8 laps, accident
16	KOVALAINEN	Lotus-Cosworth	+ 20 laps, steering
17	SENNA	HRT-Cosworth	+ 20 laps, hydraulics
18	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	+ 48 laps, accident
19	KOBAYASHI	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 52 laps, gearbox
20	DI GRASSI	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 53 laps, wheel problem
21	GLOCK	Virgin-Cosworth	+ 56 laps, rear suspension
22	DE LA ROSA	BMW Sauber-Ferrari	+ 57 laps, hydraulics
23	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	+ 76 laps, engine
DNS	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	+ 78 laps, accident
Fastest Lap	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	1m15.192s

Driver’s Championship Standings

1	WEBBER	RBR-Renault	78 Points
2	VETTEL	RBR-Renault	78 Points
3	ALONSO	Ferrari	75 Points
4	BUTTON	McLaren-Mercedes	70 Points
5	MASSA	Ferrari	61 Points
6	KUBICA	Renault	59 Points
7	HAMILTON	McLaren-Mercedes	59 Points
8	ROSBERG	Mercedes GP	56 Points
9	SCHUMACHER	Mercedes GP	22 Points
10	SUTIL	Force India-Mercedes	20 Points
11	LIUZZI	Force India-Mercedes	10 Points
12	BARRICHELLO	Williams-Cosworth	7 Points
13	PETROV	Renault	6 Points
14	ALGUERSUARI	STR-Ferrari	3 Points
15	BUEMI	STR-Ferrari	1 Point
16	HULKENBERG	Williams-Cosworth	1 Point

Constructor’s Championship Standings

1	RBR-RENAULT	156 Points
2	FERRARI	136 Points
3	McLAREN-MERCEDES	129 Points
4	MERCEDES GP	78 Points
5	RENAULT	65 Points
6	FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES	30 Points
7	WILLIAMS-COSWORTH	8 Points
8	STR-FERRARI	4 Points