Ferrari was dominant in the last four races leaving their competition behind. If ever McLaren had a chance of fighting back, it was going to be at the Monaco GP where Ferrari has never won since Michael Schumacher took the chequered flag back in 2001.
Ferrari however seemed to have solved their woes in the tight city streets of the glamorous principality by securing the front row of the grid. But like the old adage of racing, “anything can happen.” And that line could never be truer in the tightest track in the Formula 1 calendar that has absolutely no room for the slightest of errors.
As it turned out, slight showers greeted the racing drivers just before the start of the race. The track wasn’t terribly wet to merit full wet racing tires, but it was certainly more than a handful for intermediate tires: the perfect recipe to induce driver errors. Just ask Lewis Hamilton who grazed the barrier in “Tabac” that damaged his right rear tire forcing an early pit stop in lap seven.
Hamilton was running second at that time hounding pole sitter Felipe Massa. It seemed as though Hamilton squandered his race right then and there. But as it turned out, the error was a blessing in disguise. Shortly after Hamilton’s pit stop, the safety car came out forcing the front runners to slow down until the debris from Coulthard’s redbull Renault and Bourdais Toro Rosso was cleared. By the time the safety car went in, Hamilton lost only two places running in fourth.
Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica, on the other hand, were battling for first and second. Kubica grabbed the race lead after Massa’s turn one error, but Kubica pitted shortly after. Massa was then race leader. Unfortunately for Massa, he couldn’t push hard enough because he ran into a train of back markers.
As a result, by the time Lewis Hamilton made a second pit stop, he was able to leap frog both Massa and Kubica. Massa’s run with back markers also allowed Kubica to snatch second place after his second stop.
Despite another safety car period after Nico Rosberg crashed his Williams, the top three runners had more or less secured their positions.
It was mostly a race to forget for Kimi Raikkonen. The reigning champion first had a bad start as he dropped down to third place, relinquishing second position to Hamilton immediately after the red lights went off. Then he was given a drive through penalty because of a tire ruling that Ferrari violated.
Raikkonen fought hard to claw back fourth position. But two crucial errors would ultimately put the Finn out of contention. The first error was over shooting turn one, damaging his front wing in the process. The second was crashing on Force India’s Adrian Sutil just after the bridge.
Sutil was running an amazing fourth position when Raikkonen crashed into him. Sutil was forced to retire for the day. Raikkonen was still able to race but wound up all the way down in ninth place.
A scoreless result means that Raikkonen trails Lewis Hamilton in the championship standings by three points.
Rounding up the top eight was Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello, Kazuki Nakajima and Heikki Kovalainen who finished fourth through eighth respectively.
