Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button
By Pete Vack
Photos courtesy and copyright Ferrari Media
We have mentioned the young Japanese driver Kobayashi before in these spaces; it is becoming clearer that this year he is gaining in status and experience while both learning from and taking the race to the former seven time World Champion Michael Schumacher. Although many things have changed in the world of F1 racing, the opportunity to learn on the track by directly racing with one of the best in the world is must be as valid now as in the days of Moss and Fangio. Certainly Kobayashi has had plenty of chances to learn from the great Schumacher; it appears that he is applying his learning with an increased sense of responsibility. Already he is ahead of Schumacher in the point standings and has almost singlehandedly placed the class B Sauber Ferrari into sixth in the Constructor’s Championship.
At Monaco this year, Kobayashi and the German again traded positions until Mr. Schumacher’s car simply stopped going further. But Kobayashi kept on going to claim fifth overall, his best spot yet. It will be interesting which teams will be willing to take on this new talent next year, for indeed by next year Kobayashi should be one of the leading lights in the race for a good F1 drive. It will be interesting to see if the Italian team will be interested in the young Japanese; a Chinese driver would be better for business but there are none ready for prime time yet. Even more interesting may be watching Kobayashi in the rest of the races this year.
Six laps from the end of a race largely dominated by Sebastian Vettel, the race leader got very, very lucky at the expense of Vitaly Petrov and Alguersuari. Their accident brought the race to an unprecedented temporary halt and restart. The restart allowed the competitors to change tires, allowing Vettel to dominate the remaining laps staying ahead of a charging Alonso and Button. Too bad, for the restart robbed us of a potentially exciting finish.
It remains to be seen if Alonso could have safely passed Vettel to win; Hamilton was aggressively passing everyone in sight on Sunday but it could not be said that he did so without danger, and the stewards agreed. As the pace increased and the gap narrowed between the first three cars, it became a real possibility that the three drivers would erase themselves in the same sort of melee that caught out Petrov and Alguersuari, leaving the race to a surprised Kobayashi. Of course this did not occur and Mark Webber passed the Japanese for fourth before the end of the race.
Was the race exciting? On a scale of 1-10, maybe a 7.5 but good for a course like Monaco, where only the foolhardy and very very good don’t fear to pass. It commanded our attention and respect, and that is increasingly difficult.
Monaco shares the day (but not the news) with the Indy 500, another often boring spectacle that was anything but this year.
What ties the two races together is tradition, the spectacle, the almost unimaginable historical richness and the ever present unknown variable called luck.
What it also tells us is that today, as much as ever, the two races reveal different worlds of technology, thought, practice and attitude between U.S. racing (for the most part) and European racing. And we thought the worlds would finally come together at Monza in the late 1950s but more than fifty years after the Race of Two Worlds on Monza’s oval course, the differences remain as wide as they were then.
By chance, we’ll be doing more about Indy and its unique relationship with the rest of the world, particularly Italy and France. Last week Roberto Motta kicked it off with “Maserati’s Indy Interludes” and we’ll have more of that coming up in VT throughout the year.
Felipe Massa
Fernando Alonso
Felipe Massa
Fernando Alonso
Race Results
| 1 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | 2h09m38.373s |
| 2 | ALONSO | Ferrari | + 1.1s |
| 3 | BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | + 2.3s |
| 4 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | + 23.1s |
| 5 | KOBAYASHI | Sauber-Ferrari | + 26.9s |
| 6 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | + 47.2s |
| 7 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | + 1 lap |
| 8 | HEIDFELD | Renault | + 1 lap |
| 9 | BARRICHELLO | Williams-Cosworth | + 1 lap |
| 10 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | + 1 lap |
| 11 | ROSBERG | Mercedes | + 2 laps |
| 12 | DI RESTA | Force India-Mercedes | + 2 laps |
| 13 | TRULLI | Lotus-Renault | + 2 laps |
| 14 | KOVALAINEN | Lotus-Renault | + 2 laps |
| 15 | D’AMBROSIO | Virgin-Cosworth | + 3 laps |
| 16 | LIUZZI | HRT-Cosworth | + 3 laps |
| 17 | KARTHIKEYAN | HRT-Cosworth | + 4 laps |
| 18 | MALDONADO | Williams-Cosworth | + 5 laps, accident |
| 19 | PETROV | Renault | + 11 laps, accident |
| 20 | ALGUERSUARI | STR-Ferrari | + 12 laps, accident |
| 21 | MASSA | Ferrari | + 46 laps, accident |
| 22 | SCHUMACHER | Mercedes | + 46 laps, airbox fire |
| 23 | GLOCK | Virgin-Cosworth | + 48 laps, suspension |
| DNS | PEREZ | Sauber-Ferrari | + 7 laps, gearbox |
| Fastest Lap |
WEBBER | RBR-Renault | 1m16.234s |
Note – Hamilton had 20s added to his race time for causing a collision with Maldonado, but keeps his sixth-place finishing position.
Driver’s Championship Standings
| 1 | VETTEL | RBR-Renault | 143 Points |
| 2 | HAMILTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 85 Points |
| 3 | WEBBER | RBR-Renault | 79 Points |
| 4 | BUTTON | McLaren-Mercedes | 76 Points |
| 5 | ALONSO | Ferrari | 69 Points |
| 6 | HEIDFELD | Renault | 29 Points |
| 7 | ROSBERG | Mercedes | 26 Points |
| 8 | MASSA | Ferrari | 24 Points |
| 9 | PETROV | Renault | 21 Points |
| 10 | KOBAYASHI | Sauber-Ferrari | 19 Points |
| 11 | SCHUMACHER | Mercedes | 14 Points |
| 12 | SUTIL | Force India-Mercedes | 8 Points |
| 13 | BUEMI | STR-Ferrari | 7 Points |
| 14 | BARRICHELLO | Williams-Cosworth | 2 Points |
| 15 | PEREZ | Sauber-Ferrari | 2 Points |
| 16 | DI RESTA | Force India-Mercedes | 2 Points |
Constructor’s Championship Standings
| 1 | RBR-RENAULT | 222 Points |
| 2 | McLAREN-MERCEDES | 161 Points |
| 3 | FERRARI | 93 Points |
| 4 | RENAULT | 50 Points |
| 5 | MERCEDES | 40 Points |
| 6 | SAUBER-FERRARI | 21 Points |
| 7 | FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES | 10 Points |
| 8 | STR-FERRARI | 7 Points |
| 9 | WILLIAMS-COSWORTH | 2 Points |