LEW HIT BY STREET WISE SEB
Hamilton has to settle for seventh
LEWIS HAMILTON clawed back some of his loses as Mercedes rolled the dice in Monaco.
But it was Sebastian Vettel who was the big winner as the German stretched his title lead to 25 points after Ferrari’s first win on Monte Carlo’s streets for 16 years.
Hamilton’s chances of making it back-to-back wins in his adopted home had already been scuppered before the start after lining up 13th on the grid.
But by the time the chequered flag was waved, Hamilton had risen through the field to finish seventh.
The Brit managed to make a place ® from JAMES MURRAY up at the start. But his rescue act was down to Mercedes waiting until the rest of the field had pitted before bringing him in for fresh rubber.
A series of quick laps in clear air saw Hamilton rejoin in seventh.
But the twists and turns of Monaco are so tight that even when the field bunched up after a late safety car, thanks to a tangle between Jenson Button and Pascal Wehrlein, Hamilton was unable to make further progress.
“Ultimately, I lost a lot of points,” said the three-time world champion.
“But I started 13th, could have been in a crash, could have damaged the car, could have blown an engine, could have come away with no points. You can’t overtake. I gave it a couple of stabs towards the end but losing the points we had would have been silly.”
That was how Wehrlein described Button’s late lunge, his dive up the inside only succeeding in pitching the Sauber on to its side.
“I went up the inside and I thought it was on, otherwise I wouldn’t have made the move,” said Button, after his stand-in stint for Fernando Alonso at McLaren came to a premature end due to suspension damage suffered in the crash.
“I tried to back out of it but it was too late and we touched. I’ve never seen a car go up on its side before. Horrible to see.” There was no such drama for Vettel, the German also benefiting from some smart strategy by his side of the Ferrari garage.
With team-mate Kimi Raikkonen getting away well from pole, the decision to keep Vettel out longer than the Finn saw him emerge from his pit stop in a lead he held all the way to the finish. Fernando Alonso’s Indy 500 bow ended with an engine blow-out last night.
F1 driver Alonso retired on lap 175 with Takuma Sato taking the chequered flag.
Brit Max Chilton was leading the race for long spells but finished fourth. Alonso said: “I felt we deserved to finish and experience the last lap. If I come back, I will know what to expect, so will use that next time.”