Monaco GP - Monaco misfortune again
Company press release.
Monaco, 26 May – It is ironic that while the streets of the Principality are swarming with beautiful Ferrari GT cars all week long, come Sunday, the single-seaters from the same factory seem to struggle to perform on the Monegasque street circuit. Fernando Alonso had a difficult time of it this afternoon to at least bring home a few precious points for seventh place, while Felipe Massa appeared to have a very similar accident to the one he had on Saturday morning and had to retire, fortunately without nothing worse than a stiff neck. As is often the case at this race, it was won by the man who started from pole, Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes. Joining him on the dais outside the Royal Box was the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Alonso is still third in the Drivers' classification, while Massa drops from fifth to seventh. In the Constructors' table, Scuderia Ferrari remains second behind Red Bull, but the gap has grown from 14 to 41 points.
As the lights went out, Rosberg and Hamilton led from the front row, with Vettel in the Red Bull immediately harrying the English Mercedes driver, while behind it was also grid order, Webber, Raikkonen and Fernando sixth. Felipe, starting on the Prime Soft tyre from the back row had moved up to 18th. The race settled down into the usual Monaco high speed parade, with 5.8 seconds separating leader Rosberg from Fernando's F138 in sixth on lap 6. However, while the first five were pretty much nose to tail, the Spanish Ferrari driver was dropping back slightly from Raikkonen in the Lotus. On lap 9, Pic had to park the Caterham at Turn 18, as flames licked the rear of his car with black smoke pouring out of the engine cover. By lap 10, the McLaren Button-Perez duo was beginning to get nearer to Fernando, and at this stage, Felipe was sixteenth.
As cars ahead of him began to pit, Felipe went up to 15th on lap 24, while Fernando was 1.8 behind fifth placed Raikkonen. Webber in the Red Bull was the first of the leaders to change tyres on lap 25, which promoted Fernando to fifth. Further back, Di Resta had managed to get his Force India ahead of Felipe. Raikkonen pitted on lap 26 as did Button and Felipe, with Fernando now up to fourth behind Rosberg, Hamilton and Vettel. Fernando switched tyres on lap 28, dropping him back down the order.
Then on lap 29 Felipe's Monaco weekend came to an end as he appeared to have an almost carbon copy of his Saturday morning accident, except that this time the impact with the barriers at Ste Devote was even heavier. Once out of the car, it was obvious the Brazilian was in some pain and the doctors at the scene fitted a brace around his neck as he sat atop the tyre barriers. The move brought out first the yellow flags and then the Safety Car, which meant plenty of cars diving for pit lane. The leading Mercedes duo actually came in one lap later than the other front runners, so the order behind the SC on lap 33 was Rosberg, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Fernando in sixth who was unable to profit from the SC as he had already made his pit stop, Button, Perez, Sutil and Vergne completing the top ten.
Not until half distance on lap 39 did the Safety Car come in, allowing the race to resume and while Rosberg pulled out a small gap at the front, behind it was frantic nose to tail action with Fernando snapping at Raikkonen's heels and Hamilton nearly passing Webber at Rascasse. At the Loews hairpin as Fernando momentarily ran wide, he was clipped by Perez but everything seemed to be fine on board the F138. But with no more pit stops scheduled, would there be any way of changing the order? On lap 44 Perez tried a bold move on the Ferrari at the chicane as Fernando rode the kerb to avoid a collision, but it did not stick.
On lap 47, there was a huge crash at Tabac, when Chilton in the Marussia was defending from Maldonado in the Williams and the collision threw the Venezuelan's car into barrier which wrapped itself around the Williams, blocking the track. Race Control immediately red flagged the race and the rest of the field reformed on the grid. The cars were released behind the Safety Car for one lap with Fernando, on fresh Super Softs, having been instructed to give his position to Perez after he was deemed by the stewards to have used the kerb at the chicane to keep his position a few laps earlier. With everyone on new tyres, we now had a 30 lap sprint to the flag.
On lap 52, behind Fernando, Sutil got his Force India past Button's McLaren at the hairpin, as Rosberg pulled out a visible gap over second placed Vettel and the rest of the pack. Hamilton was putting Webber under a lot of pressure for the final podium position. Fernando was coming under more and more pressure from Sutil and, on lap 57 the German squeezed by at the hairpin in a high risk move, so that the sole remaining Ferrari in the race was now eighth. Lap 62 brought out the Safety Car again, as Grosjean drove his Lotus into the back of Ricciardo's Toro Rosso on the run out of the tunnel. Racing resumed on lap 67. Lap 70 and the fiery Perez damaged his front wing trying to pass Raikkonen at the chicane, so the Finn's race was ruined as he had to pit with a puncture, while the Mexican still managed to continue in his McLaren. It was now that Button also managed to pass Fernando. Perez could no longer control his damaged car and dropped back, so the Ferrari man was seventh, ahead of Vergne, in the Ferrari powered Toro Rosso, who was putting him under intense pressure in the closing stages, but the two times Monaco winner managed to keep him at bay, hanging on to seventh place at the flag. Behind the podium trio came Hamilton fourth, then Sutil and Button ahead of the Ferrari man, with the remaining points going to eighth placed Vergne, Di Resta and Raikkonen.
Although this period of the championship is known as the European part of the season, the F1 circus now heads across the Atlantic for a brief North American trip and the Canadian Grand Prix in a fortnight's time.
Monaco, 26 May – It is ironic that while the streets of the Principality are swarming with beautiful Ferrari GT cars all week long, come Sunday, the single-seaters from the same factory seem to struggle to perform on the Monegasque street circuit. Fernando Alonso had a difficult time of it this afternoon to at least bring home a few precious points for seventh place, while Felipe Massa appeared to have a very similar accident to the one he had on Saturday morning and had to retire, fortunately without nothing worse than a stiff neck. As is often the case at this race, it was won by the man who started from pole, Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes. Joining him on the dais outside the Royal Box was the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Alonso is still third in the Drivers' classification, while Massa drops from fifth to seventh. In the Constructors' table, Scuderia Ferrari remains second behind Red Bull, but the gap has grown from 14 to 41 points.
As the lights went out, Rosberg and Hamilton led from the front row, with Vettel in the Red Bull immediately harrying the English Mercedes driver, while behind it was also grid order, Webber, Raikkonen and Fernando sixth. Felipe, starting on the Prime Soft tyre from the back row had moved up to 18th. The race settled down into the usual Monaco high speed parade, with 5.8 seconds separating leader Rosberg from Fernando's F138 in sixth on lap 6. However, while the first five were pretty much nose to tail, the Spanish Ferrari driver was dropping back slightly from Raikkonen in the Lotus. On lap 9, Pic had to park the Caterham at Turn 18, as flames licked the rear of his car with black smoke pouring out of the engine cover. By lap 10, the McLaren Button-Perez duo was beginning to get nearer to Fernando, and at this stage, Felipe was sixteenth.
As cars ahead of him began to pit, Felipe went up to 15th on lap 24, while Fernando was 1.8 behind fifth placed Raikkonen. Webber in the Red Bull was the first of the leaders to change tyres on lap 25, which promoted Fernando to fifth. Further back, Di Resta had managed to get his Force India ahead of Felipe. Raikkonen pitted on lap 26 as did Button and Felipe, with Fernando now up to fourth behind Rosberg, Hamilton and Vettel. Fernando switched tyres on lap 28, dropping him back down the order.
Then on lap 29 Felipe's Monaco weekend came to an end as he appeared to have an almost carbon copy of his Saturday morning accident, except that this time the impact with the barriers at Ste Devote was even heavier. Once out of the car, it was obvious the Brazilian was in some pain and the doctors at the scene fitted a brace around his neck as he sat atop the tyre barriers. The move brought out first the yellow flags and then the Safety Car, which meant plenty of cars diving for pit lane. The leading Mercedes duo actually came in one lap later than the other front runners, so the order behind the SC on lap 33 was Rosberg, Vettel, Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Fernando in sixth who was unable to profit from the SC as he had already made his pit stop, Button, Perez, Sutil and Vergne completing the top ten.
Not until half distance on lap 39 did the Safety Car come in, allowing the race to resume and while Rosberg pulled out a small gap at the front, behind it was frantic nose to tail action with Fernando snapping at Raikkonen's heels and Hamilton nearly passing Webber at Rascasse. At the Loews hairpin as Fernando momentarily ran wide, he was clipped by Perez but everything seemed to be fine on board the F138. But with no more pit stops scheduled, would there be any way of changing the order? On lap 44 Perez tried a bold move on the Ferrari at the chicane as Fernando rode the kerb to avoid a collision, but it did not stick.
On lap 47, there was a huge crash at Tabac, when Chilton in the Marussia was defending from Maldonado in the Williams and the collision threw the Venezuelan's car into barrier which wrapped itself around the Williams, blocking the track. Race Control immediately red flagged the race and the rest of the field reformed on the grid. The cars were released behind the Safety Car for one lap with Fernando, on fresh Super Softs, having been instructed to give his position to Perez after he was deemed by the stewards to have used the kerb at the chicane to keep his position a few laps earlier. With everyone on new tyres, we now had a 30 lap sprint to the flag.
On lap 52, behind Fernando, Sutil got his Force India past Button's McLaren at the hairpin, as Rosberg pulled out a visible gap over second placed Vettel and the rest of the pack. Hamilton was putting Webber under a lot of pressure for the final podium position. Fernando was coming under more and more pressure from Sutil and, on lap 57 the German squeezed by at the hairpin in a high risk move, so that the sole remaining Ferrari in the race was now eighth. Lap 62 brought out the Safety Car again, as Grosjean drove his Lotus into the back of Ricciardo's Toro Rosso on the run out of the tunnel. Racing resumed on lap 67. Lap 70 and the fiery Perez damaged his front wing trying to pass Raikkonen at the chicane, so the Finn's race was ruined as he had to pit with a puncture, while the Mexican still managed to continue in his McLaren. It was now that Button also managed to pass Fernando. Perez could no longer control his damaged car and dropped back, so the Ferrari man was seventh, ahead of Vergne, in the Ferrari powered Toro Rosso, who was putting him under intense pressure in the closing stages, but the two times Monaco winner managed to keep him at bay, hanging on to seventh place at the flag. Behind the podium trio came Hamilton fourth, then Sutil and Button ahead of the Ferrari man, with the remaining points going to eighth placed Vergne, Di Resta and Raikkonen.
Although this period of the championship is known as the European part of the season, the F1 circus now heads across the Atlantic for a brief North American trip and the Canadian Grand Prix in a fortnight's time.
