Race Number Six of the 2011 Formula One season!! Aggression was at its best throughout the race which made Monaco GP really a jem of a race! What seemed to be a routine and a boring race turned out to the one of the most exciting race of the season. Just one thing that was predicted before the start of the race by the experts was true and that was a Vettel victory.
Monaco GP brought out emotions from many drivers be it from Schumacher, Hamilton, Vettel, Button, Alonso or any other. The frustration of not being able to win (Hamilton), the frustration to overcome their team’s failure to bring out a competitive car (Schumacher and Rosberg) or the team’s failing strategies (Button) the desperation to prove one’s worth (Alonso and Webber) and need to hang on to win (Vettel). Many of these emotions brought out the aggression in them and in some cases it turned out to be a negative one (Hamilton). A hint of the vintage Schumacher was on display if only for a while because of the failure of his car once again and some superb and composed driving was on display by the trio of Vettel, Alonso and Button. Hamilton was frustrated through out the race and which saw him take out more than one drivers from the race. It was Hamilton’s move that lead to the accident of Petrov also.
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The start was a clean one sans the Sauber of Sergio who crashed in the qualifying. Rosberg moved up the order while Schumacher dropped down to tenth from fifth. Vettel lead the race from Button and Alonso with Webber behind Alonso. Schumacher already had made his move on Hamilton who was ahead on him and made a clean overtaking move to move into ninth. Hamilton’s frustration started at that point which continued till the end of the race as he started complaining about Schumacher’s move. But then come lap 10 and a mistake by Schumacher and a brilliant move by Hamilton got him P9 from Schumacher. Schumacher had conveyed on radio to his team mates that the car was struggling with the tires and that gave Hamilton the lead on where to attack him. Schumacher’s woes continued as his former team mate Brazilian Barrichello overtook him on lap 12 and which lead Schumacher to pit on Lap 12 and got his front wing replaced because of the damage done to it by Hamilton’s overtaking move. This meant he rejoined the race on P21.
Meanwhile Button and Alonso were pushing hard on Vettel and all of the trio was on super soft tires. Lap 15 saw Button pit and get on to super softs again in a bid to push on Vettel and in the same lap Mercedes woes were exposed with Rosberg also having problems with the tires and Massa overtaking him easily.
And then drama started on Lap 16 with Red Bull making a big blunder calling in Vettel and Webber into pits but not being ready for the same. This meant Vettel had an extended pit stop and came out third behind Button and Alonso while Webber rejoined the race on 12th. Vettel put on the softs and Webber the super soft tires. Alonso pitted next lap and came out with his super softs on behind Vettel. This move of Red Bull by putting Vettel on softs turned out to be the move of the race.
Meanwhile Button was flying in his McLaren and Hamilton who moved into seventh position was called for pits on Lap 22 and now it was McLaren’s turn to make a mockery of it and which increased Hamilton’s frustration. By Lap 29 the battle between the trio of Webber, Massa and Hamilton intensified in the same order.
Lap 30 saw a vintage and clean overtaking move by the struggling seven times world champion Michael Schumacher on his team mate Nico Rosberg who was equally struggling due to the tire problems.
Lap 34 saw Hamilton making a clumsy overtaking move on Massa. He tried to squeeze in the inside of Massa on the hairpin and Massa had to run wide because of the move and tried to close the gap but Hamilton had already gone too far and was in no mood of backing off. This move meant Hamilton bang into the side of Massa and his Ferrari got damaged. Later in the lap when they entered the tunnel again as Hamilton got inside of Massa, Massa had to go wide and take the wrong path of the track. This lead the Brazilian man crashing his Ferrari into the side walls.
The same lap saw Michael Schumacher come to a stand still at the La Rascasse at the entry of the pit lane and what seemed like a probable comeback despite trouble with tires was ruled out. Safety Car was deployed on lap 34 to remove the particles from the track.
Just before the incident Button had pit and came out on his super soft tires again and so did Alonso but Alonso came back on his soft tires. This meant that Vettel was leading Button and Alonso was third.
So the Safety Car meant the tire wear out was temporarily reduced and so was acting in the benefit of Alonso and Vettel as they have used both their primes and options but Button after two pits stops still was yet to try the prime.
Hamilton was then handed a drive through penalty for that incident which saw him drop places to eleventh position.
Meanwhile Button had pit again on Lap 48 for his primes and came out in third position. Alonso meanwhile was pushing Vettel as he had a fresher pair (25 laps fresher) of soft tires and Button was also pushing hard from behind. Now Alonso had a relatively better chance of making the cut than the Briton Jenson Button. But all three drivers were showing some class, composure, patience and meanwhile aggression to make sure there is an exciting finish. Now there was only question in everyone’s mind “when will Vettel pit if he will?”
By Lap 65 the trio were followed by Adrian Sutil and Kobayashi who had a quiet but superb race. Sutil was still on one
stop and his tires also started to deteriorate. By Lap 68 Alonso also started struggling with his tires and Button was looking to capitalize on the situation. Then came lap 70 and the race stopping incident. Hamilton was pushing hard on Sutil who was struggling with his tires already. Hamilton came inside of Sutil who was trying to shut him down but due to lack of grip he ran wide on the turn and went into the gravel and rejoined the track all of a sudden. Thus Hamilton had to break hard suddenly and Alguersuari who was behind him also had to break suddenly. But he was late in his breaking and made contact with Hamilton and jumped up in the air a bit. This lead to contact between Petrov and Alguersuari and Petrov was out of control and crashed into the barrier. Sutil hit the side wall and his tires got punctured while Alguersuari. This meant Hamilton was the only one who emerged out of this crash undamaged.
While this was happening the leading trio had just entered into the crash area and escaped it safely. With yellow flags momentarily waving the overtaking was suspended. And everyone after Hamilton, who moved into seventh position was lapped and this also went in his favor at the end of the race. So now the standings were Vettel leading Alonso who was followed by Button. Kobayashi was now in fourth ahead of Mark Webber who was followed by Maldonado and Hamilton while the rest followed who were one lap down. By lap 72 the race was suspended momentarily while the cleaning work was going on.
With four laps to go and the session stopped the teams were allowed to work on their cars which included change of tires. This was a big bonus for Vettel who could get on to fresh pair of tires and Alonso and Button virtually conceded their race. McLaren started working on Hamilton’s wing and and just finished in time for the restart.
The race was started again and the new front wing of Hamilton gave him one mare chance to attack someone and this time his prey was Maldonado. Again a risky, bad and very unclean overtaking move lead to Maldonado crashing out of the race and Hamilton once again came under the purview of the Stewards. By Lap 75 Hamilton moved into sixth position while Webber was battling for fourth position with Kobayashi. Button and Alonso both were nowhere near Vettel’s pace with the new tires. On the closing stages of the last lap Webber made a brilliant move on Kobayashi as he came into the inside of the chicane after the tunnel where Kobayashi went across thus losing fourth position to Webber.
Hamilton was penalized twenty seconds for his move on Maldonado but it did not matter as the seventh position person Adrian Sutil was classified one lap down.
So overall it was an action packed race with lots of aggression. And the trio of Vettel, Alonso and Button stole hearts of many. No doubt Vettel won it by putting in a superb effort but Button’s efforts were very appreciable and he might have won the race if not for some poor strategies (As Hamilton said in Monaco you can not leave it till the end after the qualifying and McLaren surely haven’t learnt from the qualifying fiasco.
The positions (courtesy : www.formula1.com)
1. Sebastian Vettel 2hrs 9min 38.373sec2. Fernando Alonso +1.1383. Jenson Button +2.3784. Mark Webber +23.1015. Kamui Kobayashi +26.9166. Lewis Hamilton +27.2107. Adrian Sutil +1 lap8. Nick Heidfeld +1 lap9. Rubens Barrichello +1 lap10. Sebastien Buemi +1 lap11. Nico Rosberg +2 laps12. Paul Di Resta +2 laps13. Jarno Trulli +2 laps14. Heikki Kovalainen +2 laps15. Jerome d’Ambrosio +3 laps16. Vitantonio Liuzzi +3 laps17. Narain Karthikeyan +4 laps18. Pastor Maldonado Ret +5 laps19. Vitaly Petrov Ret +11 laps20. Jaime Alguersuari Ret +12 laps21. Timo Glock Ret +46 laps22. Felipe Massa Ret +46 laps23. Michael Schumacher Ret +48 laps
