Webber conquers the mean streets of Monaco

Monaco Grand Prix winner Mark Webber leads the pack early on

May.16 (www.yallaf1.com) Mark Webber became the first Australian to win the Monaco Grand Prix since Jack Brabham won the world’s most glamourous race in 1957. Webber was supreme throughout, yet again scoring another emphatic triumph on an afternoon fraught with drama and incidents which saw Michael Schumacher penalised for a last corner pass on Fernando Alonso which relegated the German from sixth to 12th.

Mark Webber celebrates on the Monaco Podium - two wins in seven days

Webber gave Red Bull Racing their third win of the season, his second in seven days and his fourth career victory. As in his previous Grand Prix triumphs the Aussie simply took control and romped home. Despite four safety car periods, which cut into the his lead on all the occasions, each time the lights turned green he was off into the distance, untouchable, taking a memorable victory which in retrospect was never in doubt.

Clearly delighted Webber shouted over the radio to his team after crossing the finish line, “”Unbelievable. Thank you. You deserve every bit of this. The car is fantastic.”

Later on speaking to the media he continued, “It is absolutely incredible. It is the greatest day of my life today, to win here is very, very special. This place is such a test. I knew what I had a lot to do and I am absolutely elated to join the winners around here. It is the blue riband event.”

The engine in Jenson Button's McLaren begins to expire

Reigning World Champion Jenson Button retired his McLaren Mercedes with engine problems on the second lap of the race and succumbed the Championship points lead to Webber and Vettel who are tied at the top with 78 points.

The Englishman explained, “We left a bung in on the left-hand side of the car that obviously you’re meant to take out on the way to the grid. That’s cooked the engine.”

There were four safety car periods of which the first occurred very early on when Williams rookie Nico Hulkenberg lost it in a big way in the middle of the tunnel.

It appeared that the young German drifted onto the dirty side of the track, before losing control and clouting the Armco barrier at high speed (midway through the tunnel) and coming to a smoldering stop 100 metres or so outside the tunnel. A big one.

The damaged Williams FW32 of Nico Hulkenberg

It was not a good weekend for the Williams team as on lap 31 Rubens Barrichello’ race ended when he slammed viciously into the barrier at the top of the hill approaching Massenet. Something appeared to give at the rear of the FW32 which caused the car to slither out of the Brazilian’s control. Another safety car period ensued and an expensive weekend for the Williams team.

The team investigated and concluded that in neither case was it driver error: “Hulkenberg’s race ended in the tunnel on lap one when his car suffered a component failure on the front wing. Barrichello retired on lap 30 following a failure on the rear of his car.”

There was more safety car drama, but more of that later…

Top fic=ve as they finished: Webber, Vettel, Kubica, Massa and Hamilton

Meanwhile back to the end of the race where Webber’s Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel, who started third on the grid, finished second overall. He did well to edge past Renault’s Robert Kubica off the start line going into Turn 1. Kubica started from second on the grid and finished third. It was Vettel followed by Kubica throughout the race, with the Pole making a half hearted challenge towards the end of the race to no avail.

Nevertheless when the chequered flag dropped it was Renault powered 1-2-3 on what is just about (French) home soil.

Monaco podium: Sebastian Vettel second; Mark Webber race winner; Robert Kubica third

Runner-up Vettel said afterwards, “I wasn’t able to keep up with Mark, there was a big difference. By the time I got my grip sorted he was too far in front. It is very difficult to overtake here in the end so I decided there was no point chasing and I spent a lot of time looking in my mirrors.”

Kubica summed up his race, “Normally I would defend the position but I saw Mark pulled away quite slow. I went on the power too early, there was wheel spin and it was too late to close the door on Sebastian. We have to be positive. Nobody expected us to finish on the podium. We have been challenging all weekend and the team should be really happy.”

Felipe Massa finished fourth tailed by Lewis Hamilton who ended fifth

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa started fourth ended in the same place in what was a comparatively uneventful race for the Brazilian. Also holding station was Lewis Hamilton in the sole McLaren Mercedes to finish, crossing the line in fifth after starting in fifth.

Controversy reigned at the principality right at the very end and invariably involved Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher.

It all started with four laps to go when Jarno Trulli (Lotus) tried an ambitious move on Karun Chadhok (Hispania Racing) which resulted in the Italian’s car going over the Indian driver’s car, The rear wheel appearing to make contact with Chandhok’s helmet. The damaged cars lay strewn across the La Rascasse with enough gap for only one car to pass through. The safety car was again deployed.

Bernd Maylander driving the safety car had a busy day

On the very final lap of the race, Bernd Maylander (driving the safety car) peeled into the pits which meant a short squirt of power and Webber took the win as he crossed the line to complete lap 78, followed by Vettel, Kubica, Massa and Hamilton.

Next up should have been Alonso’s Ferrari but instead it was Schumacher who made a contentious move as the track went to green and pipped Alonso over the line. Thus the final results on the timing screens showed Schumacher sixth, but a few hours later the race stewards declared that Schumacher had breached article 40.13 of the sporting regulations and demoted him 20 seconds which effectovely dropped him out of the points to 12th overall.

Fernando Alonso started the race from the pit lane

The “drive of the day” – apart from Mark Webber – could easily go to Alonso who started from the pit lane after a big shunt in Saturday practice kept him out of qualifying. The Spaniard had nothing to lose and a lot to gain, by the end of the afternoon he had achieved the latter by carving his way through the field.

His duels with the vastly slower new team drivers provided some of the highlights of the race. Despite clinical moves and greater pace of the Ferrari F10 it took 16 laps to get past them all. A shrewd early pit stop on lap two, when the safety car came out for the first time, was crucial as it ended giving the two times World Champion crucial track position and ended with a well deserved sixth place.

Michael Schumacher continued courting controversy in Monaco

Schumacher’s penalty benefitted the his teammate Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) who finished eighth but inherited seventh.

Force India duo of Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi finishing ninth and tenth respectively on the day but ended eighth and ninth after gaining from Schumacher’s demotion.

Next up were the Toro Rosso pair with Sebastien Buemi promoted to 10th and inheriting the final point on offer, with Jaime Alguersuari bumped up to 11th in what were incident free runs for both drivers.

Monaco for rookie Vitaly Petrov was a huge learning weekend as his team mate was among the pace setters and on the podium. The Russian GP2 graduate struggled and ended up 13th, climbing out of his car in the pit lane during the final safety car stint.

Karun Chandhok's race ended with Jarno Trulli parked on top of him

Despite the La Rascasse incident Chandhok was classified lucky 13th albeit 8 laps adrift, nevertheless the Indian was the best placed of the new team drivers, the best placed Cosworth driver and probably the luckiest guy in Monaco on the day. Trulli was classified 15th.

Chandhok reflected, “Jarno Trulli has just apologised to me, there was absolutely no way he could get through there. It’s a real shame because I was driving my best race of the year so far and I was on track to be the best of the new teams. His car just missed my head. I ducked down and it came over and hit the roll hoop.”

Apart from the Williams duo of Hulkenberg and Barrichello who both ended in the barriers and Button whose engine gave up, other retirements included:

• Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus) on lap 58 with steering problem
• Bruno Senna (Hispania) on lap 58 with hydraulic problem
• Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) on lap 26 with gearbox problem
• Lucas di Grassi (Virgin Racing) on lap 25 with a wheel problem
• Timo Glock (Virgin Racing) on lap 22 with a damaged track rod
• Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber) on lap 21 with hydraulics problem

Race Result – 16 May 2010