Ferrari gift Vettel victory as Raikkonen loses out
It might have been a tough race in the cockpit of his Ferrari, but as Sebastian Vettel led team-mate Kimi Raikkonen home to the Scuderia’s first win in Monaco since the days of Michael Schumacher, he made it look oh so easy.
Once he had taken the lead on the 34th lap, Vettel had it all his own way as he controlled things from the front, and a generally dull race was enlivened inadvertently by Jenson Button, in his final Grand Prix in Fernando Alonso’s McLaren.
The 37 year-old Englishman, starting from the pit lane after penalties for engine failures in practice, accidentally tipped Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber into the wall at the Portier corner on the 65th lap. The two had been locked in battle at the back of the field for the whole race, and as the Swiss car came to rest with its cockpit up against the wall, things momentarily looked nasty, especially as the young German had already suffered neck injuries in a crash in the Race of Champions in December. Both the safety car and the medical car were deployed, closing up what had become a typically pretty spread out Monaco field.
Fortunately, it soon transpired that Wehrlein was talking over the radio to his crew, and he was able to walk away unaided. Button’s McLaren was also eliminated in the incident, which happened at relatively slow speed.
The 2009 champion was given a three-grid-place penalty, which he may as well frame as the chances of him ever taking it is remote.
Raikonen had won the start from pole position, as Vettel lagged slightly, and soon the two Ferraris had left Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes and the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo behind, as Lewis Hamilton seemed content to bide his time in 12th place after his practice and qualifying handling dramas.
There was a period in the middle of the race when Bottas, Verstappen and Ricciardo were running quicker as the red cars’ ultrasoft tyres started sliding around. But it was the Dutchman who pitted first for fresh supersoft tyres, on lap 32, followed by Bottas on 33. Ferrari covered, overruling Raikkonen and bringing him in on lap 34 even though he wanted to go longer. Vettel, meanwhile, got a new lease of life in his rubber, and stayed out until lap 39, and that was what gave him the edge. He went from 1.1s behind Raikkonen to two seconds in front, and that was all she wrote.
Ferrari’s first one-two since Hockenheim 2010 extended his championship lead.
“It’s unbelievable, a very tense race,” he grinned. “I’d hoped at the start to get a better launch by Kimi, but he got a better one. So I had to be patient, and at one point it was really tricky as the tyres began to slide and the pack was catching up. But then after a couple of laps when the car was really good again, I pushed all I could and was able to use that window to make my pit stop, and came out ahead.
“It was also really tricky after the restart on cold tyres, but after a couple of laps I was able to control and then open up the gap behind.”
On a day when the overcut rather than the undercut pit stop worked, Ricciardo also vaulted ahead, passing both Bottas and his very disgruntled team-mate, Verstappen, by pitting later, on the 38th lap.
Thus the single stops settled the race order, though it concertinaed when the safety car was deployed.
While Raikkonen was unhappy, as victory had seemed within his grasp, Ricciardo was delighted and relieved, as he had clobbered the barrier exiting Ste Devote when the race restarted on the 67th lap. “When these tyres lose their temperature behind the safety car, it’s like driving on ice,” he said “I thought I’d damaged the car, but I was lucky.” He just kept Bottas and Verstappen behind him to the flag.
Carlos Sainz brought his Toro Rosso home an excellent sixth, holding off a fierce challenge from Hamilton. The Englishman’s race didn’t begin until his rivals began pitting, and for the first 20 or so laps he ran 10th after overtaking Stoffel Vandoorne off the line and moving up as Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault stopped early on with a blown gearbox and Sergio Perez pitted early for a new front wing on his Force India.
Hamilton kept running as others stopped, and had climbed up to sixth before he pitted on the 46th lap. He lost just one place, to Sainz, but did not have the performance to pass the Spaniard even when the field bunched up behind the safety car.
“I was still struggling with the sort of problems we had on the ultrasoft tyres in practice,” he said. “It was better on the supersofts and I got some good times out of it, but overall it was not a happy car today. I could close up on Sainz, but I had to balance the risk of trying to pass him in a car that was struggling, against the possibility of throwing away what points we could score. I might be grateful for them later in the year.”
He now has 104 points, 25 - or a race win - behind Vettel’s 129.
Results
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1hr 44mins 44.340secs
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:44:47.485
3 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Red Bull 1:44:48.085
4 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1:44:49.857
5 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:44:50.539
6 Carlos Sainz (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:44:56.378
7 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:45:00.141
8 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:45:02.490
9 Felipe Massa (Bra) Williams 1:45:03.785
10 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:45:05.783
11 Jolyon Palmer (Gbr) Renault 1:45:07.077
12 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Force India 1:45:08.065
13 Sergio Perez (Mex) Force India 1:45:23.429
14 Lance Stroll (Can) Williams at 7 Laps
15 Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 7 Laps
Not Classified:
16 Stoffel Vandoorne (Bel) McLaren 66 Laps completed
17 Marcus Ericsson (Swe) Sauber-Ferrari 63 Laps completed
18 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 57 Laps completed
19 Pascal Wehrlein (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari 57 Laps completed
20 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 15 Laps completed