The principality of Monaco hosts the crown jewel in the Formula One calendar. Everyone wants to be here, everyone wants to be seen here, and more importantly, every driver wants to win Monaco. Senna, Prost, Schumacher, and Graham Hill are some of the notable multiple winners. Nico Rosberg has won the previous two races here and was looking at a third win at his home race. Lewis Hamilton on the other hand, won back in 2008, and has never claimed pole. This scenario now sets up a very interesting qualifying session between the two Mercedes drivers. Will Lewis claim his maiden pole or will Nico have something to say about it? Will the race be a pole-to-flag procession? Will the saftey car make its presence felt and be a factor in the outcome of the race? These were questions in the minds of fans and pundits alike, in the days leading up to the race.
Saturday saw Lewis demolish his teammate to claim his first ever Monaco GP pole. Nico, who topped the time sheets in practice, had a huge lockup going into Saint Devote and had to abort his last lap in Q3. Rosberg knew that the mistake cost him the chance for P1 and the possible win. Sebastian Vettel slotted his Ferrari behind both Mercs, marking the team’s best qualifying this season. Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat took P4 and P5 respectively, with Kimi Raikkonen closing up the third row of the grid.
As the cars took to the grid, all eyes were on Lewis and Nico for the race start. Will it be a clean start? Who will take turn 1? Will Vettel jump the leaders? Will everyone make it cleanly through turn 1?
Hamilton had a good start. Rosberg, who started on the dirty side, was followed alongside by Vettel, with the Ferrari trying to muscle its way ahead of the Mercedes but having to yield. Kvyat made easy pickings of his teammate to take a position. Up front, Lewis was running away from the field. On reaching Mirabeau, Alonso and Hulkenberg touched, with the Force India getting the brunt of the damage by running into the barrier. Alonso was given a five-second penalty by the stewards for causing the collision.
The race progressed, as expected, into a procession. There was no clear point to overtake in the tight and twisty track.
Teams were going for a one-pit stop strategy. If an undercut was in the plans, it had to be done right the very first time. There are no second chances. Doing a two-stopper will not work in Monaco, but no one told that to the Mercedes engineers.
As expected, Lewis maintained his lead from the start, and Nico was not a threat. Neither was Ferrari nor even the Red Bulls. Hamilton was in the zone. Even after the first round of pit stops, Lewis came out in P1. He was firmly in control of the race. It was the typical Monaco GP. Drive, dive in for your tires, and head out to the finish line.
Some excitement was provided by rookie Max Verstappen. The Belgian was hounding Romain Grosjean, on board his Lotus. Max’s Toro Rosso was clearly faster and he just needed a place to pass Romain. Then on lap 64, it happened: as Verstappen lined up to pass Grosjean up in Sainte Devote, the Toro Rosso touched the rear of the Lotus, tearing off Max’s front wheel and driving him into the barriers. The virtual safety car was deployed, requiring the drivers to slow down without the actual safety car being out. Then race control decided to send out the actual Mercedes-AMG GT safety car. This meant that the lead that Lewis built up during the course of the race would be whittled down to nothing.
On lap 66, Mercedes made the call to Hamilton to take on new tires. But this is Monaco—even under the safety car, it is really difficult to come out in front after pittting. And that is just what happened: Lewis Hamilton, leading all though out the race, dominant, untouchable, suddenly found himself sniffing at the heels of Vettel’s Ferrari. Hamilton lost two positions, and more importantly, the race victory, due to a bad call from the team.
He wasn’t able to recover. Even with fresh super-soft tires, there was just no place to pass the Ferrari. Sebastian made sure that the Ferrari was a little wider than usual.
Nico Rosberg crossed the line for his third consecutive Monaco win. Vettel kept Hamilton at bay to take P2 while a distraught Lewis took his time getting to the podium, even stopping at the entrance of the tunnel (fans would recognize this as the place Ayrton crashed out while leading the GP). He eventually made it to parc ferme, knocking over the “P3” marker with the front of his Mercedes.
Lewis was not happy to say the least. He did his part, he kept up the pace, and he didn’t put a foot wrong but a silly error robbed him of his second Monaco GP win.
Being magnanimous in defeat, Lewis said, “We win as a team and we lose as a team” during the post race interview. There was nothing else for Lewis to do, and griping about it all will not give him the win back.
Nico Rosberg is now in good company, that, of being multiple Monaco GP winners, and joining Prost, Graham Hill, and Ayrton Senna as the only ones who have won three in a row.
The happiest man on the podium was Vettel. He gleefully accepted his second place trophy, a pleasant surprise for the German.
Hamilton still leads the champiosnhips standings with 126 points. With the win, Nico is now within 10 points of Lewis, while Sebastian maintains his hold on third place with 98 points followed by Kimi with 60 points.
The F1 circus flies off to Canada for the next GP on June 7.
Can Lewis rebound from the disaster that was Monaco? Will Mercedes make amends to ensure that their defnding champion remains happy and driven? Or will Nico seize the chance to make a run on his way to his first ever world championship title? Whatever happens, one thing is assured: we will be in for one exciting season.
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