21.6.11

Follow the money.  That's what the Watergate folk said, and that's surely been the thing to do in the days since the Monaco GP.  We've had the on-off saga of Bahrain where I can guess this led to general wailing from key sponsors all over the globe who could wish for nothing worse than seeing their logos on the front pages associated with an unpopular, undemocratic regime (I mean the Bahrain government and not the UK Coalition or the FIA).  I would suspect this pressure, which of course also has nothing to do with money, is what caused the race to be subsequently called off.

We've also had the Hamilton saga. His always aggressive style has been increasingly been showing signs of desperation as the McLaren machine fails to match Red Bull pace.  I'll leave his driving to later, but in post-race comments he criticised the stewards for not understanding overtaking and accused them of racism, which he later described as a joke. Unfortunately this was taken more seriously by the non-enthusiast public than the FIA might have wished, and a charge of bringing the sport into disrepute was mooted. (Actually, they were doing a rather good job of that themselves with the Bahrain fiasco.)  The potential sanction for Hamilton was a six race ban. Calculators must have come out and the financial consequences considered. With a major potential impact on his career if a substitute proved competitive, and a major impact on McLaren if the sub didn't, an apology was in order. I'll say this for Hamilton, he's good at memorising Martin Whitmarsh's scripts.

So onto the Principality where in the first session of qualifying the Ferraris didn't shine - seventh (Alonso) and tenth (Massa) whilst the Maccas had the first two positions. We Tifosi consoled ourselves that Webber was behind Alonso. Unfortunately, a colder view prevailed when Vettel was quick straight out of the box. Rosberg had had a big accident on the Tunnel exit bump in Saturday practice for which the repair was finished during qualifying; then not having lapped since Thursday, his first flyer was in front of Alonso.  Things weren't looking too good for the Fazzas....

After the usual suspects had been detained,  Q2 began. Both Ferraris showed understeer on the supersofts but despite this Alonso and Massa wrestled their 150° Italias round fourth and fifth.

In Q3 the Ferraris looked a lot better and were rewarded with fourth (Alonso) and sixth (Massa).  Then Perez hit that tunnel exit bump and was a passenger hurtling towards the Swimming Pool. Whereas Rosberg had ricocheted down the main track, Perez hit the foam barriers side-on with massive deceleration, very nasty. There were worries for the talented 21 year old Mexican, later reported to be injured but not badly, though he would take no further part in the weekend.  After a long delay, qualifying resumed for just over 2 minutes. McLaren had messed up sending Hamilton out too late earlier on, and they messed up again by going too early to the pitlane where his tyres cooled down. He failed to improve and the grid was Vettel, Button, Webber, Alonso, Schumacher and Massa.  Hamilton then gracelessly, petulantly and publicly criticised his team.

At the start Alonso immediately jumped Webber then got alongside Button into the all-important first corner, but intelligently drew back to fight again later. Schumacher (who had a bad start and was tenth) pulled an audacious move into the Station Hairpin. Here I surprise myself by praising Hamilton who clearly spotted him on the inside and realised that he either gave him space or they would both be out. Good driving and the order was reversed at St Devote when another hard-but-mutually-respectful move put the Englishman back in front. A few laps later Barrichello pulled a brave move on Schuey at Mirabeau, taking a place from his former team-mate and getting back for Monaco 2005!

Meanwhile, Massa in 6th was being delayed by Rosberg, the Mercedes' tyres going off. Massa made a brave pass for fifth into Tabac, followed by Maldonado. Vettel came in for the most significant tyre stop of the race. He had soft tyres put on, which are the hard ones, if you follow me.  In a bit of a Red Bull error, the pit stop was slow as the tyres weren't quite ready but as he rejoined in third it didn't matter. More significant was a complete un-readiness for the ever-unlucky Webber whose stop was 10 seconds over the norm and he lost 11 places.  The Ferrari-Alonso pitstop was well judged and efficient, and after the shake up the order was Button, Vettel, Alonso and Massa for 8 laps until he, first stopping very late at lap 26, dropped to tenth. He was then in front of the accident-prone Hamilton who on lap 32 thought he would try one of those audacious Station Hairpin moves.  He later blamed Massa for turning in early, and whilst Felipe did indeed move across a little early, he had every right to, and if he hadn't I suspect serious contact with Webber might have ensued.

What made Hamilton’s move unforgivable was that after contact he kept pushing Massa into the barriers, like a BTCC/banger racer. The effect of this was that Massa had problems going into the tunnel and Hamilton was able to push him onto the dirt at around 170mph. The result was a wiped out left side and instant retirement for the Brazilian. A Safety Car was called and Alonso immediately dived into the pits for fresh tyres.  Bizarrely, Schumacher stopped in the middle of the track on the entry to the pitlane with a frying Mercedes behind him. In doing so he delayed Alonso's pit entry, nearly causing an incident.  After the race restarted, Hamilton had a thoroughly deserved drive through penalty.

Tyres now dominated the reckoning. Vettel was leading on (old) softs, Button was second on (new) supersofts, around 7 seconds behind, Alonso was on (new) softs. Button had to stop again as he hadn't run softs, and as Vettel's tyres had been changed on lap 16; surely there was no way they could last to the end? So prospects for Alonso looked good. On lap 48 he inherited second as Button changed tyres, then it slowly dawned that maybe Vettel was trying to eke out his tyres to the end!

On lap 69 the leaders caught up with a group of six cars who were generally well behaved and let them through. However, being racing drivers, the group couldn't help but try to gain advantage by the leaders passing.  Hamilton passed Maldonado and Petrov for position and tried to pass Sutil, who had a second or so earlier been passed by Maldonado and squeezed into the barrier where he had punctured his right rear. Pressured by Hamilton, he had little alternative but to miss the chicane. As a result, Hamilton braked and set off a chain reaction where the innocent Petrov and Alguersuari ended in the wall, with concerns over Petrov’s welfare.  Hamilton's rear wing was badly damaged. Fortunately, the leaders were unaffected but a Safety Car came out, which at the time was thought would give Vettel's tyres some respite. Then there was a red flag.

Tyres can be changed on the holding grid after a red flag, nominally for safety reasons.  This ruined the race because it allowed Vettel to cruise to the finish on new tyres, in my view robbing Alonso of a near certain victory, although partisan Brits fancied Button on his newer tyres.  Not only were tyres changed, but Hamilton's rear wing was changed (which gave rise to the comical vision of a mechanic winding one of the pins the wrong way). Four laps from the end Hamilton nudged Maldonado off at St Devote, which was a pity as he was sixth and the points would have been very useful to the desperately beleaguered Williams team.  On a brighter note there was a terrific fight between Kobayashi and Webber, resolved in favour of latter, on the last lap for fourth place. Hamilton was an undeserved sixth, even after a 20 second penalty for the Maldonado incident, whilst Sutil managed a repair and ran through to seventh. Heidfeld was eigth for Renault, Barichello scored Williams first points of the year for ninth and Buemi had another run home in the points in tenth.

The podium positions of the 2011 Monaco GP were effectively decided when Sutil hit the wall and indirectly caused the red flag. More than once, Monaco has been a turning point for Ferrari. The car looked good in race trim, and Alonso just keeps on getting better. Of course Red Bull’s aero advantage was minimised at Monaco, but if the FIA take away some of that advantage with a ban on the off-throttle blown diffuser, a Ferrari/Alonso challenge cannot be dismissed, though it will be a tough fight. Personally, I can't wait.

Click here for FIA lap chart.

Stefano Domenicali: “Going into this weekend, if we’d been told that we would finish second, eleven tenths off the winner, I would have signed up for it on the spot, but now there’s no denying there is a slight feeling of regret. Fernando was fantastic all weekend long and today he fought for the win, right down to the final metre. There’s no doubt the red flag towards the end deprived our driver of the opportunity to attack in the final laps, making the most of having tyres with slightly less degradation. At the restart, with everyone on new tyres, there was not much more we could do. Clearly, the situation in both championships is getting ever more difficult, but we are not giving up: we are coming up to two races where, on paper, we should be competitive and then, before the summer break, we will see where we stand.”

Fernando Alonso: “This is my best result of the year and I think it is very important, especially for the team. A podium was needed, we needed to be fighting to the end for the win. Sure, this is not a typical circuit and we should not draw conclusions from a race that always produces its own story. We must close down the distance that separates us from the best. I got a good start, hen I tried to look after the tyres, before attacking Vettel at the very end, but then came the red flag and that meant it was over, because on new tyres, he was impossible to beat.

Felipe Massa: “I am very disappointed with the way my race ended. After Hamilton had tried to pass me at Loews, which is an impossible place to do it, hitting me and pushing me into Webber, the car was no longer right and I could not drive it properly, which is why he got on the inside of me inside the tunnel. That put me on the dirt and then I ended up in the barrier. I could have finished fourth.