Vettel delivers for Ferrari as Raikkonen rages

KIMI RAIKKONEN had a face that could curdle milk. The Finn tends to display the same emotional spectrum as a block of ice, but his expression on the podium was a diagram of rage as some crafty Ferrari tactics propelled Sebastian Vettel to the team’s first Monaco Grand Prix win for 16 years.

Even the victor, sitting pretty on a 25-point championship lead after arch rival Lewis Hamilton finished seventh, had the decency to be sympathetic.

“I can understand that Kimi is not happy,” Vettel said.

There is little doubt that Ferrari’s strategy, which clearly favoured Vettel by giving him five laps of clean air to move past his rival after the first round of pit stops, cost Raikkonen dearly here.

All weekend this inscrutable cult figure seemed to have a fresh burst of energy, showing dazzling pace to achieve pole position and keep his team-mate at bay off the start line.

But from there, Ferrari reverted to extreme pragmatism, bringing Raikkonen into the pits first and giving Vettel all the space and time he needed to vault into the lead and sustain his quest for a fifth world title.

“It doesn’t feel awful good,” Raikkonen said, morosely.

Diplomatically, he chose to bite his tongue rather than accuse his employers of brazen team orders, but his distaste for their decision was clear.

Before the Italian national anthem played out, he could barely be bothered to lift his second-place trophy in the air.

This Monaco Grand Prix was a symphony in two movements; the first a predictable dirge and the second a discordant, but entertaining, catalogue of errors.

Jenson Button, making his fleeting return to Formula One to cover Fernando Alonso’s dash to the Indianapolis 500, was central to the chaos.

As his McLaren wedged into Pascal Wehrlein at the entrance to the tunnel, the German’s car flicked off his front wing like a hamburger off a spatula.

While marshals toiled to move the stricken Sauber off its side, the pursuers of the two dominant Ferraris all struggled to generate tyre temperature behind the safety car.

“My tyres were like concrete,” said Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who attempted a series of burn-outs to keep them warm.

It was testament to the quality of the Australian’s drive that he still managed to finish third, especially given how he crashed immediately after the restart.

Somehow, Hamilton carved a path through the midfield to salvage some faint sense of grace from his miserable qualifying effort.

Having started 13th, he endured 78 laps of draining anonymity just to reach seventh, as he shipped 19 points to Vettel in their championship tussle.

The hope has been that the two outstanding drivers of their era could slug it out to the bitter end, but already Vettel is an ominous distance in front. (© Daily Telegraph)