Race Report: Rosberg Shines In Sunny Monaco

Monaco, the race everyone wants to win typically started for the first 25 laps as quite processional, but nevertheless all the talk was inevitably about strategy, and whether cars would one or two stop. Nevertheless, pace varied throughout and made predicting when drivers would push hard to predict.

The Mercedes majorly controlled the pace in a bid to save tyres, but Mark Webber stopped characteristically first, with Raikkonen a lap later. The top three of Rosberg, Hamilton and Vettel stayed out until lap 30, when Felipe Massa in his Ferrari had an identical accident to his crash in FP3, locking up going into turn 1 San Devote, smashing into the both barriers at 175mph.

Mercedes Lead Into Turn One Off The Line

Thankfully as this report is published, Felipe is okay, having checks on his neck in hospital. Nevertheless, the crash prompted Vettel to pit, which was shortly followed by the safety car coming out. Vettel, Webber and the rest of the field were sent past so the safety car could pick up the Mercedes, who pitted the following lap. This worked out well for the Red Bull's, who overtook Hamilton who had to lap slowly under the safety car yellow flags. Many will argue this is unfair, and a fair point too.

On lap 38 Rosberg restarted the race brilliantly, jumping away from Vettel who was told to look after his tyres. Hamilton trying to regain at least 3rd place from Webber dived down into the rascasse chicane of all places, almost squeezing by going up to the last corner but Webber swiped across firmly, letting Lewis know he wasn't going through. Button was attempted to pass Alonso, clipping the Ferrari's back wheel, which meant Jenson lost momentum and teammate Perez took advantage on the run to the nouvelle chicane completing a fantastic move to move into P7. 

As the second phase started to pan out, further down the field, Chilton in the Marussia moved across on Maldonado not realising he was there going into Tabac, resulting in the Williams front wing coming off and launching the Venezuelan into the barrier at full force. Again, the driver was okay just shaken in what was an instant crash with no control.

Official Looks At Maldonado's Car Wreck

Red flag was brought out on lap 46 as a result for 25 minutes. On the restart, everybody changed to used super-soft tyres used for one flying lap in qualifying, apart from Raikkonen who opted for a new soft of more durable soft tyres. Just before the red flag, Perez tried the same move on Alonso who cut the chicane, so on the restart Alonso conceeded the place. In the matter of a few laps, Adrian Sutil overtook Button and Alonso both into the hairpin, being very opportunistic. Meanwhile, Rosberg increased his lead to 3 seconds from Vettel. 

On lap 63, Grosjean had his 4th crash of the weekend, as he smashed into the back of Ricciardo coming out of the tunnel under braking. Not good enough from the Frenchman and costing Lotus big money. The safety car came out again, whilst Rosberg saw his lead disappear once again. Nevertheless, upon the restart after the debris was cleared, Rosberg was electric again gaining almost 2 seconds immediately. 

Perez clearly in a confident mood went for another banzai move this time on Raikkonen, Kimi cut across squeezing the McLaren into the barrier, which resulted in a slow puncture for the Lotus forcing him to pit, whilst Perez had his brakes and suspension give up on him a few laps later. Alonso lost yet another place after losing places to Perez and Sutil, Button taking advantage of the pack being close together into the final corner.

Sutil Had A Great Race To Finish 4th, Whilst Hamiton Was Unlucky To Finish 4th Rather Than 2nd

On the last few laps, Raikkonen impressively went from 14th to 10th, carrying on his run of 24 races scoring points. Jean-Eric Vergne held on through everything to finish a great 8th to take advantage of others, as well as Paul di Resta in 9th, recovering from his poor qualifying. A super win for Rosberg which was well deserved, and genuinely had the pace and tyres to hold station from pole 3rd time around.

Nick, F1 Hub


F1 Hub Overtake of the Race
Perez on Button - Lap 42
Into the nouvelle chicane, Perez took no prisoners and no intimidation from Jenson to superbly outrace and out-maneuver his fellow McLaren to dive down the inside, firmly and fairly.   


F1 Hub Driver of the Race
Perez had some good overtakes but one too many colliding with Raikkonen, Sutil had a super race to finish 5th, Alonso had an off day but Rosberg was supreme. Many predicted if he won it would be because of defending on the difficult to overtake circuit, but he controlled the starts and restarts well, and was quickest in every session. A truly world-class professional race and showed pace to pull away from everyone including Vettel and world-champion teammate Hamilton in the process.


Full Race Result
1) Nico Rosberg [Mercedes]
2) Sebastian Vettel [Red Bull-Renault]
3) Mark Webber [Red Bull-Renault]
4) Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes]
5) Adrian Sutil [Force India-Mercedes] 
6) Jenson Button [McLaren Mercedes]
7) Fernando Alonso [Ferrari]
8) Jean-Eric Vergne [Toro Rosso-Ferrari] 
9) Paul di Resta [Force India-Mercedes] 
10) Kimi Raikkonen [Lotus-Renault]
11) Nico Hulkenberg [Sauber-Ferrari]
12) Valtteri Bottas [Williams-Renault]
13) Esteban Gutierrez [Sauber-Ferrari]
14) Max Chilton [Marussia-Cosworth] Lap 
15) Giedo van der Garde [Caterham-Renault]


Did Not Finish
Charles Pic [Caterham-Renault] 
Felipe Massa [Ferrari] 
Pastor Maldonado [Williams Renault] 
Daniel Ricciardo [Toro Rosso-Ferrari] 
Romain Grosjean [Lotus-Renault] 
Jules Bianchi [Marussia-Cosworth] 
Sergio Perez [McLaren-Mercedes] 

F1Hub Teammate Battle Tracker: Spain

The teammate battles at round 5 in Spain...

Red Bull
Race: Vettel
Overall: Vettel 4 vs Webber 1
Not a great race for the Bull's, Vettel complaining about the buzz world 'tyres', meaning 4th was the best he could do, losing out to title rivals Alonso and Raikkonen. He maximised his position where as Webber qualified poorly and finished in 5th in what really is one of his stronger circuits. Webber isn't stepping up to the plate since his TMB victory in Malaysia.


Ferrari
Race: Alonso
Season: Alonso 4 vs Massa 1
A superb performance by both who arguably both should have a point. Nevertheless, Alonso was another class in Spain, with the overtake of the race on lap 1 and electric pace throughout. Top performance by Massa who with a deserved podium.


McLaren
Race: Perez
Season: Button 3 vs Perez 2
Sergio qualified 9th and ran as high as 6th, again with superb pace for the car he's in, whilst Jenson qualified only 14th, but recovered well and stopped one less time to enable an 8th place finish. Whilst Button finished higher, Perez was the superior performer here.


Lotus
Race: Raikkonen
Season: Raikkonen 4 vs Grosjean 2
We never got to see what Grosjean could do due to his suspension failure ending his good run of finishes and no crashes! Nevertheless, Kimi was on the money again and maximised his car to finish ahead of a great Massa and the two Red Bull's, showing great pace on a 3 stop. He also qualified 4th to Romain's 7th.


Mercedes
Race: Rosberg
Season: Rosberg 2 vs Hamilton 3
What a shocker for Mercedes after locking out the front row. Hamilton was 4th by turn 4, and ended up a lonely 12th. Considering the tyre wear, Rosberg did extremely well to hang on to 6th ahead of di Resta in the closing laps, and took pole by 2.5 tenths to Lewis. 

Sauber
Race: Gutierrez
Season: Hulkenberg 4 vs Gutierrez 1
A much improved Esteban who finally looked like an F1 driver, narrowly missing out on his first F1 point in 11th just behind Ricciardo. At one point before stopping he even led the race and his pace was good, with a few clean overtakes. Hulkenberg ran into troubles but nevertheless must be rueing over his move from Force India.


Force India
Race: di Resta
Season: di Resta 4 vs Sutil 1
Another good race for the Force India crew, apart from the one pitstop for Sutil which hampered his good race. This battle was close but di Resta showed better pace than Sutil overall in a consistent manner and was unlucky not to claim 6th. di Resta is not 8th, level on 26 points with Grosjean in 7th, ahead of Rosberg and the two McLaren's.


Williams
Race: Maldonado
Season: Maldonado 2 vs Bottas 3
No major improvement for Williams, but Maldonado did a respectable job to keep Bottas behind.


Toro Rosso
Race: Ricciardo
Season: Vergne 2 vs Ricciardo 3
Ricciardo picked up another point finishing 10th, and in the early stages of the race was flying, overtaking several cars, but ran out of tyres towards the end. Nevertheless, a firm performance, another one which he can build from.


Caterham
Race: van der Garde
Season: Pic 4 vs van der Garde 1
Giedo gets off the mark with a great display out-qualifying the 1 year experienced Pic, but despite being ahead of him in the race found one of his wheels fall off. A great effort nevertheless and gets the point.


Marussia
Race: Bianchi
Season: Bianchi 5 vs Chilton 0
Chilton is the last man to be on 0 points, but almost got his first one until Bianchi out-qualified him at the last minute. Both finished 2 laps down, way behind the Caterham of Pic. Looks like they may have lost the edge at the back again.


Nick, F1 Hub


Let us know what you think of the teammate battles!
Next race back the streets of Monaco - Mercedes favourites?

Race Report: Spain - Alonso Gets Cheered Home First

Fernando Alonso won a mighty race ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and teammate Felipe Massa to win in front of his beloved home fans. Starting 5th, he in fine style swooped around the outside of Raikkonen and Hamilton going through turn 3, which was the benchmark for his race. 

Alonso Celebrates With The Spanish Flag

The Mercedes starting on the front row had a torrid race again, the champions of Saturday dropped from 1st to 6th, and 2nd to 12nd for Rosberg and Hamilton respectively. It must be truly horrible to be a Mercedes driver at high tyre wear circuits. Nevertheless, Monaco is next where tyre where is not so great and overtaking is considerably harder, so expect them to bounce back. I will be bold and predict Hamilton for the win already...

After jumping to 3rd, Alonso then jumped Vettel in the pits, before then passing Rosberg on lap 13 in turn 1. Vettel then got punchy not wanting Alonso to run away, and he along with Massa and Raikkonen then quickly passed the Mercedes. Behind, Perez had got as high as 6th and considering the performance gap wasn't too far behind for the early stages of the race. He dropped back to 9th behind Button in 8th however, as Button stopped one less time than the Mexican who it seems has firmly found his feet again in F1. 

di Resta for Force India had another strong race, starting 10th he steadily made his way up to 7th, unable to pass Rosberg on the final few laps. Bringing up the last point was Daniel Ricciardo who in the early stages was flying, but like most had to stop 4 times, but is showing his potential in a class top 10. 

Raikkonen & Massa Had Great Races From 4th and 9th on the Grid

Hamilton finished a lonely 12th behind an improved Gutierrez who for the first time showed promise, and before his first stop led the race for a couple of laps. There was to be no repeat story for Maldonado this year though, as his Williams updates still delivered no performance. At the back, the Caterham's updates are the most notable of the field, jumping them ahead of Marussia seemingly, van der Garde winning their teammate battle this week too for the first time.

In the previous 10 years at the Spanish Grand Prix, the winner had started 9 times from pole position, and once from 2nd. To start from 5th and win showed Alonso's ability for a countless time and was a well deserved victory with Ferrari in fine form. It seems Alonso and Raikkonen are stepping up the plate to once again challenge Vettel for this year's title...

Please check back for Teammate Battle Tracker: Spain & 10 Things We Learnt From: Spain articles soon...

Nick, F1 Hub



F1 Hub Overtake of the Race
Alonso on Raikkonen and Hamilton - Lap 1
Alonso was in contention for many of his moves, but as the race started though, Alonso's race line gave himself more speed coming out of turn 2, and as Raikkonen got boxed in behind Hamilton as the Mercedes struggled to grip, Alonso swooped around the outside of the both - he's a clever ol' boy and never stops to remind us of it (apart from Malaysia maybe).

Alonso Sweeping Around The Outside Of The Lotus & Mercedes Round Turn 3

F1 Hub Driver of the Race
It's hard to look anywhere else but Alonso really, Massa had a fab race but Alonso was just infatic. A great weekend for the Ferrari boys and despite the tyre debates, the championship between Vettel, Alonso and Raikkonen is shaping up nicely.


Full Race Result
1) Fernando Alonso [Ferrari]
2) Kimi Raikkonen [Lotus]
3) Felipe Massa [Ferrari]
4) Sebastian Vettel [Red Bull]
5) Mark Webber [Red Bull]
6) Nico Rosberg [Mercedes]
7) Paul di Resta [Force India]
8) Jenson Button [McLaren]
9) Sergio Perez [McLaren]
10) Daniel Ricciardo [Toro Rosso]
11) Esteban Gutierrez [Sauber]
12) Lewis Hamilton [Mercedes]
13) Adrian Sutil [Force India]
14) Pastor Maldonado [Williams]
15) Nico Hulkenberg [Sauber]
16) Valtteri Bottas [Williams] 
17) Charles Pic [Caterham]
18) Jules Bianchi [Marussia]
19) Max Chilton [Marussia]

Did Not Finish
Jean Eric Vergne [Toro Rosso] - Lap 52, Accident
Giedo van der Garde [Caterham] - Lap 21, Wheel Nut
Romain Grosjean [Lotus] - Lap 8, Suspension Failure