LEWIS HAMILTON WINS THE MONACO GRAND PRIX!
It’s the Briton’s first win of the 2016 season – and he’s looking to get back into his winning groove. It’s also been a brilliant race for Force India’s Sergio Perez, who has taken the team’s first podium of 2016.
Fernando Alonso had an excellent race today – finishing in 5th after a consistent race. But Force India have stood out today – qualifying well and with some good pit strategy. Nico Hulkenberg took P6 from Hamilton’s teammate Nico Rosberg at the last second giving Force India some good points today!
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Hamilton has a 5.7s lead on the FINAL LAP and it’s all LEWIS HAMILTON here in Monte Carlo!
It was all Ricciardo’s race to lose, and it’s Red Bull’s pit stop error that has lost it.
FINAL TWO LAPS! Hamilton looks set to take his second career win at the Monaco Grand Prix and Nico Rosberg’s championship lead is getting cut down – he’ll earn only 8 points if he runs in position.
RAINING NOW and drivers are beginning to slide around a bit. Is there still a challenge left in this race?
It's not over till it’s over! The rain is back with 6 laps to go and Fernando Alonso running in the top quarter of the grid says “drops of rain on the visor!” Clouds are looking and dashcams showing moisture.
And there’s a flag on the track – virtual safety car comes out again and Hamilton has benefitted – his lead over Daniel Ricciardo has widened and the Briton is looking set to take his second ever win at Monaco! Rain appears to be headed the way of the track again.
Just over 10 laps to go – and now it’s looking like there could be rain again!
The two Sauber drivers are under investigation. Not really surprising given what has just happened – but impressive strategy by Force India looks like it has given Sergio Perez a podium if he can hold on!
The race has ended for Felipe Nasr, who is being reprimanded as he walks back to the garage. He’s retired and now it’s teammate Marcus Ericsson’s turn. Given that the team are also struggling for funding, this will be a significant blow.
Bad collision between the two Sauber drivers – Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr. The team had told Nasr to give way to his teammate, who was significantly faster, which Nasr refused to do. The next lap saw Nasr refusing to give way and Ericsson stealing a move anyway – leading to a collision between the pair.
Fernando Alonso is having a good race. He’s been consistent today and is running in fifth as he has been for a while. Sergio Perez on the softs is having an excellent day and the team have pulled off some good pit stop strategy.
Looks like that poor pit stop has lost Ricciardo the lead. Hamilton has had one stop, while Ricciardo has had two.
Pascal Wehrlein of Manor receives a 10 second time penalty for failing to stay in time behind the Safety Car.
There’s a fight still on – and now Sebastian Vettel shaves 3s off Ricciardo’s best lap as the track dries up. The incident between Hamilton and Ricciardo at Turn 11 is under investigation – and marshals say “no further action warranted.”
Ricciardo is gaining on Hamilton – who pulls off a rather unsporting move. Mercedes will earn a warning from the FIA for that and Ricciardo isn’t happy on team radio! Hamilton blocks the Australian’s path going into the chicane and Ricciardo makes a gesture in response. The gap has now widened, though, and with just under half the race to go it’s looking as though Mercedes could win. Hamilton lost last year’s race because of a faulty pit stop and it could be the case that Red Bull have done the same this season.
Drivers are now getting back on the slicks! Hamilton gets onto the ultrasofts as does Sauber’s Ericsson – now the race leader Ricciardo pits – and that’s a bad pit stop from Red Bull – which looks like it could possibly lose Ricciardo the title. The Australian is still hounding his British rival, though.
That pit stop will earn a few brickbats; pit crew were not ready with tyres at all when the driver came in and that will earn them a few blushes.
Hamilton’s leading but the margins are narrow – Daniel Ricciardo is hungry for a win! There’s some contact between Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Valtteri Bottas of Williams. HAM vs RIC at the moment sees Ricciardo with a quickly diminishing gap!
Considering the tyres they’re on, it looks like there will be one more pit stop at most. A good race from Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez. The former Ferrari test driver is yet to score points this year although teammate Romain Grosjean has. Unfortunately for Grosjean, his Monaco GP has ended.
Max Verstappen has just made a move on Jenson Button and set the fastest lap of the race so far! Most drivers have now switched to the intermediates – and now Ricciardo has taken the fastest lap title back!
YELLOW FLAGS! Rosberg has pitted for a set of the intermediates and he’s back out, rejoining in 5th! Crash again as Daniil Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen have an incident. Collision in the barriers there.
Max Verstappen catches three drivers in quick succession – but it’s Force India who are doing very well today! With good driving and pit strategy the drivers are high up. Daniel Ricciardo pits and Hamilton temporarily leads the race – Mercedes have not responded to the Red Bull pit stop! Ricciardo is on to the intermediates.
Top 6 all on wets – with Perez and Massa rounding them up. Fernando Alonso, who is fond of this track, running up in 9th. Max Verstappen takes a great pass, on the inside of Kevin Magnussen to move up now to 14th after overtaking Felipe Nasr of Sauber!
Looks like Toro Rosso is producing some quality racers here! Carlos Sainz Jr is up in 4th place now ahead of Sergio Perez of Force India! Can they podium today?
Most drivers on intermediates – and Lewis Hamilton grabs a march on Nico Rosberg! Hamilton in second and looking to step up the pressure against Daniel Ricciardo!
CRASH already as Jolyon Palmer goes into the barrier with almighty force. It’s also the end of the race for Kimi Raikkonen, whose front wing comes off. In true Kimi fashion, he pushes to drive with it on – that’s not happening, of course, and he retires.
SAFETY CAR IS IN! Ricciardo ZOOMS ahead to widen his lead – and Kevin Magnussen pits straightaway for a set of the intermediates!
We’re 6 laps in and still behind the safety car. Drivers are getting impatient as Renault’s Kevin Magnussen implores for a race start. “The spray is much better now, let’s get going,” says Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
No word from marshals yet....
AND THEY’RE OFF! Race begins under the safety car courtesy the wet conditions – Kvyat appears to be having problems but they’re not really audible. Lots of spray out on track and there’s a big risk of aquaplaning sodrivers will want to be careful!
ALMOST TIME!
It's raining down in Monte Carlo and looking very much like we have a wet race on our hands here! Six of the drivers on the current grid have won before; Nico Rosberg, who took victory last year is the triple reigning champion at the race!
Sebastian Vettel won in 2011 (his first championship year), Jenson Button in 2009, Fernando Alonso in 2006 and 2007, Lewis Hamilton in 2008 and Kimi Raikkonen in 2005. Good news for Ferrari, Mercedes and decent news for McLaren – Alonso qualified in the top 10 yesterday, which given the repeated issues the team have had in 2015 and now 2016, augurs well.
Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo is on pole position for the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix; it’s the career-first pole position for the Australian, whose teammate Max Verstappen won the race in Spain a fortnight ago.
Despite not ever having held pole, Ricciardo has three race wins – most recently at the 2014 Belgian Grand Prix. All three of his race wins came that year, with the driver partnered by four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel on the team.
Red Bull have seen serious overhauls in the past few months, most significantly with the structure of their team. Despite having scored a podium this year, Daniil Kvyat was demoted to junior team Toro Rosso after two shunts with Ferrari driver Vettel, one of which ended his race.
Toro Rosso driver Max Verstappen, the youngest driver on the grid, was promoted to Kvyat’s seat alongside Ricciardo, and more than impressed on debut for the team – pulling off a win at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya ahead of former world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, who had spent a significant portion of the race decreasing the gap to the teenager.
With that win, Verstappen became the youngest ever Formula One race winner in the sport’s history, also becoming the only Dutch F1 winner.
Ultrasoft tyres – the purple compound - will make their race debut at the Grand Prix of Monaco this year, after being used during practice and qualifying sessions this weekend. Most teams opted for the purple compound – and to significant success, with speeds slashed at the track. Ricciardo was within fractions of a track record, which he was eventually unable to do.
Meanwhile, Verstappen will begin today from the pit lane after a crash into the barriers saw his qualification session end prematurely. Lewis Hamilton, who won pole position last year, moved well into Q3 and looked set to take pole position until an engine issue threatened to end his session; he came back to move up the grid and eventually qualify in third behind teammate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton has had repeated reliability issues this year, with the reigning double world champion repeatedly expressing his unhappiness with the mechanical issues he has suffered. Meanwhile, teammate Rosberg has won the first four races of the year, with Verstappen winning the fifth in Spain; it is the German who sits atop the drivers’ rankings, followed by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen who has fewer than half the points Rosberg does.
News from today:
After a difficult 2015 that saw Renault and Red Bull decide to mutually end their relationship at the end of the 2015 season, the team approached both Ferrari and Mercedes for power – and were rejected. It was decided then that they would return to Renault power for 2016 – and now, with unprecedented success for the team in 2016, it has been revealed the two will remain together through to the end of 2018 – another three seasons, including the remainder of 2016.
Renault’s works team, which returned this year, has not had much success, however, with no points just yet for drivers Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen.
