The 68th running of the Monaco Grand Prix came a week after the event in Spain. That race had seen Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, after a close fought out battle with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, extend his championship lead to 41 points. Hamilton laid second in the standings, ten points ahead of Vettel’s team-mate, Mark Webber. In the constructor’s championship, Red Bull led McLaren by 47 points, with Ferrari 110 points behind the Milton Keynes outfit.
The major talking point in the lead up to the race was the safety aspect concerning the DRS. The FIA decided to ban its use in the tunnel, and move the detection point before the entry to La Rascasse, with the activation zone just before the pit straight.
2011 Monaco Grand Prix
In FP3, Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg had a scary moment at the Nouvelle Chicane, where he barely missed the barrier. Sauber’s Sérgio Perez was not so lucky. In the final part of qualifying, he smashed into the barrier. The session was stopped, so he could be taken away and the barrier fixed. He suffered concussion and a sprained thigh, and wouldn’t be able to participate in the rest of the weekend. With the crash coming near the end of Q3, there was no time for anyone else to post a quick time, and with Hamilton failing to set a time, he would start on the fifth row of the grid. The HRT pair of Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi didn’t post a time within the 107% time, but gained entry into the race as they had posted competitive times in free practice. Vettel had dominated qualifying, and put his car on pole for the 19th time in his career.
Qualifying
1 Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault
2 Jenson Button, McLaren-Mercedes
3 Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault
4 Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
5 Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
6 Felipe Massa, Ferrari
7 Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
8 Pastor Maldonado, Williams-Cosworth
9 Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes
10 Sergio Pérez, Sauber-Ferrari
11 Vitaly Petrov, Renault
12 Rubens Barrichello, Williams-Cosworth
13 Kamui Kobayshi, Sauber-Ferrari
14 Paul di Resta, Force India-Mercedes
15 Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes
16 Nick Heidfeld, Renault
17 Sébastian Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari
18 Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus-Renault
19 Jarno Trulli, Lotus-Renault
20 Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari
21 Timo Glock, Virgin-Cosworth
22 Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Virgin-Cosworth
23 Narain Karthikeyan, HRT-Cosworth
24 Vitantonio Liuzzi, HRT-Cosworth
At start of the race, Vettel led the field. Schumacher’s anti-stall kicked in dropping him from fifth to out of a point-scoring place in a matter of metres. He then clipped the black of Hamilton’s car in Sainte Devote, which damaged his front wing. Schumacher got past Hamilton at the hairpin, but Lewis was able to challenge Michael, and took pass the place on Turn 1. In the first stint of pit-stops, a slow stop for Vettel meant that Button leapfrogged him for first place. Webber and Hamilton had similar poor stops that hurt their races. This led to Hamilton and Massa fighting it out, and as Lewis tried to overtake the Brazilian, they collided. With damage to his front wing, Massa crashed in the tunnel moments later, and he was out of the race. The stewards gave Hamilton a drive through penalty. Schumacher stopped just short of entry into the pits with an engine fire. This resulted in the safety car coming out, and gave the opportunity for a number of drivers to pit.
On lap 48, Button pitted again, and went to third place. With Vettel first, and Alonso second, the Spaniard quickly caught up with the German, and on fresher tires, it looked that the Ferrari man was going to gain his third win here. With Vettel’s tires falling away, and slowing the lead pace, Button was able to catch up quickly with the pair, to make it a three-way battle. On Lap 72, the leaders were coming up to a train of cars. At the front of the queue, Maldonado and Sutil collided, and that caused a knock on effect, which resulted in Petrov and Alguersuari getting taken out, and Hamilton’s rear wing damaged. Many thought this meant the race was over, but the organisers decided to restart the race from lap 72. This gave McLaren an opportunity to fix Hamilton’s wing. It also meant that the drivers could put on fresh rubber, which resulted in the top three now neutralised in the freshness of their tires. This seemed an unfair call as it meant that the advantage that Alonso and Button had over race leader, Vettel, was all but wiped out. On a circuit that is tough to overtake on, it did seem to ruin what may have been a fantastic climax to the race. That didn’t mean there was no more drama. Hamilton again was involved in another incident. This time involving Maldonado at Turn 1, whilst battling for sixth place. Hamilton emerged unscathed, but Maldonado had a broken suspension. This resulted in Hamilton gaining a timed penalty. Webber took fourth from Kobayashi in the dying laps. Vettel went on to take his maiden victory here, and extended his championship lead to 58 points.
Race
1 Vettel
2 Alonso
3 Button
4 Webber
5 Kobayshi
6 Hamilton
7 Sutil
8 Heidfeld
9 Barrichello
10 Buemi
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