Sebastian Vettel took another victory in Monaco, after a race that has been unpredictable, after quite a few, incidents with mass crashes, the safety car having been deployed twice and a race stop on lap 72.
Right after the race start Vettel made it to Ste Devote in first place, followed by Jenson Button and Alonso who head passed Mark Webber for P3. Sebastian Vettel immediately started pulling off at a pace of around 1sec/lap, and it seemed that the race was going to be decided right after it started.
On lap six the differences seemed to have been stabilized, as the top four, Vettel, Button, Alonso and Webber were at the same pace.
On lap 10 Lewis Hamilton decided to make his move on Michael Schumacher for the 9th place. The result has been a great overtaking at the Ste Devote turn. Two laps later Rubens Barichello pulled an even harder overtake on the German as he managed to pass him on Mirabeau turn. Schumacher pit stopped right after that to change his tyres and front wing. Obviously he was facing problems with his car.
Meanwhile Felipe Massa has his own battle with Nico Rosberg on lap 13. They touched right after Ste Devote, causing a piece of Massa's front wing to break, on lap 14. Right after that Felipe Massa passed Rosberg in Tabac (!!!) turn for P5. We can't remember the last time an overtake took place at that point of the track. Rosberg lost his place to Maldonado also immediately after that.
The first pit stop round started for the leaders on lap 16. Vettel stopeed a lap after Button. His mechanics were not prepared and Vettel lost a considerable amount of time, resulting on Vettel falling behind Jenson Button and managing to return on track right in front of Alonso.
Button continued on super softs while Vettel and Alonso had chosen Softs. Button was on a very fast pace trying to pull off and create a gap that wold be enough to lead him to a victory. The pit stop has been a destructive on for Mark Webber as he had dropped down to P12.
A great battle between Hamilton and Massa ended with the Briton diving into Lowes the most unsuitable spot of the track to do so. Massa crashed his Ferrari onto the barriers, into the tunnel right after that. Safety car was deployed, as Schumacher also retired from the race and stopped his Mercedes just after La Rascasse. Lewis Hamilton was handed a drive through penalty for the incident between him and Massa. Not an unjust decision as it was clearly his fault.
The battle for the victory became more and more intense as we were closing to the end of the race. Vettel, Alonso and Button were pushing each other for the first place. Each one of them has been on a different strategy.
Safety car has been deployed once more, after Sutil crashed onto the wall at the swimming pool, triggering chaos behind him, as he has been followed by many cars, racing each other or lapping each other. This has been a huge relief for Vettel. The red flags came out a couple of laps later, interrupting the race.
With the race stopped, all drivers changed their tyres. Sebastian Vettel clearly had the advantage after this incident. During this time McLaren mechanics had their own battle against time to repair Lewis Hamilton's rear wing, which had been damaged.
The race restarted behind the safety car. Vettel had a fresh set of tyres and DRS disabled for two laps after the restart of the race. With 5 laps to go his rivals had only a couple of tries to pass him.
Right after the restart, Lewis Hamilton became the reason for another accident as he crashed on Maldonado at Ste Devote. Hamilton got ahead, but Maldonado's race was over. Not many things happened after that and the race ended finding Vettel victorious for one more time.
The race results are as follows :
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 2h09:38.373
02. Alonso Ferrari + 1.138
03. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 2.378
04. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 23.100
05. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 26.900
06. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 27.200
07. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap
08. Heidfeld Renault + 1 lap
09. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
10. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
11. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
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 + 2 laps
16. Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
17. Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth + 3 laps
18. Maldonado Williams-Cosworth + 5 aps
Retirements
Petrov Renault 68
Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 68
Massa Ferrari 33
Schumacher Mercedes 33
Glock Virgin-Cosworth 31
Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1
