2011 Monaco Grand Prix - Race

Sebastian Vettel won a thrilling Monaco Grand Prix, just beating of competition from Fernando Alonso, and Jenson Button.

The race started with Alonso being the main mover, taking Webber on the inside. Behind the front four, Schumacher, after a great Saturday, fell to tenth place, then into the first corner, he hit the back of Hamilton's car. They both continued, only for Schumacher to ease past a sleeping Hamilton. The front three began to pull away from the rest of the field, with about a four second gap between Vettel-Button and Button-Alonso.

By lap 10, Hamilton had finally used his DRS and KERS to good effect, and took Schumacher into the first corner. That was not the last of it for Michael, as two laps latter, former team mate Rubens Barrichello also took him at Mirabeau. Mercedes then took the decision to bring Michael into the pits. The other Mercedes was not faring well either, as Rosberg was soon taken by Massa down into Tabac.

Back at the front, the leaders had decided to pit, with Jenson in first. Both Red Bull's copied McLaren's decision. However, the pit crew didn't seem to be ready for Vettel, and took too long swapping tyres on both cars. The mistake let Button past Vettel, and hindered Webber badly as well. After Alonso pitted, and dropped in behind Vettel, Button had a 7 second gap over the young German.

By lap 22, it was time for Hamilton to pit, and as he came in, his mechanics were not ready at all, and were still in the garage. They rushed out, but the damage was already done, and Lewis lost time as well. By lap 30, Button, Vettel and Alonso had separated themselves from the rest of the field, and Button had over a ten second gap to Vettel. Behind them, Sutil and Kobayashi had managed to make hay with the mistakes in the Red Bull and McLaren garages, and sat in fourth and fifth. At the bottom of the points, Webber was ninth, with Massa and Hamilton fighting for tenth. The battling intensified, and then on lap 34, Hamilton tried to take Massa on the hairpin, but they just collide and go slowly round the corner. Then through the tunnel, Hamilton had the inside line, pushing Felipe onto the dirty side of the track. Massa then lost control of the car, and slide into the barriers. The accident, brung out the saftey car, the first of 2011.

Elsewhere, Button had pitted, and with the saftey car just being deployed, Schumacher pulled up at the entry of the pitlane with a possible over-heating problem. The safety car found the leader - Vettel - with Button in second, Alonso third and Sutil fourth. The incident between Massa and Hamilton was studied by the FIA, and Hamilton was soon given a drive through penalty. His team mate, meanwhile, was pushing Vettel, but could not find a way past. His only option seemed to be to jump him in the pits. Button pitted on lap 48, and filled in into third. Button then set about doing fastest lap after fastest lap. It was coming apparent that when Vettel pitted, he would slot in behind Button.

However, Sebastian never came into the pits, and neither did Alonso. They were both trying to push their tyres to the end of the race, meaning Vettel would try and do 60 odd laps on the same soft tyres. So with the finale coming to a climax, Alonso and Button both caught Vettel, and with Vettel, and Alonso, making their cars as wide as possible, both Fernando and Jenson tried to improve their position. However, neither prevailed, and soon their task was made more difficult.

The three were closing in on some backmarkers, namely - Sutil, Rosberg, Petrov, Hamilton, Alguersuari and Barrichello. All of which were fighting amongst themselves. As they came into the swimming pool chicane, Sutil had a puncture, so cut the chicane. Lewis slowed down a little, enough to force Alguersuari into a mistake, and hit the back of the McLaren. He went into the barriers, and was joined by Petrov. The rest of the large bunch, and the leading three, squeezed past the debris, and chaos. Nothing had changed for the front three, but the debris caused the saftey car to come out again. However, after two laps of the safety car, red flags came out. The remaining cars worked their way to the pit straight until they were told otherwise.

The red flags were for Vitaly Petrov. It was reported that Petrov fell unconscious after the accident, and when he came around, was complaining about a pain in his legs. He was soon removed from his Renault, and was put in the back of the ambulance, and taken to hospital. As I write, news is that Petrov is OK, and his hospital visit was for tests, and as a precaution.

During the red flag period, teams were allowed to do anything to their cars while they were on the pit straight. This first meant that McLaren could fix Hamilton's broken rear wing. It also came apparent that teams could change their driver's tyres. So, when the race resumed under the safety car, the front three drivers all had the softer tyres on. When the safety car re-entered the pits after a lap, the race resumed, with five laps remaining. With the front three now on similar tyres, their pace was pretty even, meaning they were unable to fight. The reaming action was to be found, again, with Lewis Hamilton. Lewis tried to take Pastor Maldonado into the first corner. However, they both got the corner wrong, Pastor turning early, and Lewis trying to make a gap that wasn't. The result was that Maldonado crashed out, hitting the barriers, but Hamilton continued unharmed.

In the remaining laps, little action occurred, so eventually, Sebastian Vettel came around the last corner to win the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix. He had held of Alonso and Button, with Mark Webber eventually taking fourth of Kamui Kobayashi.

Race Results
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
2 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4
3 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5
4 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
5 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 18
6 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 3
7 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 10
8 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 11
9 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
10 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 17
11 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
12 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 34
13 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 15
14 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 14
15 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 36
16 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 22
17 - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - 39
18 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 34
R - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 16
R - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 20
R - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
R - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 13
R - Timo Glock - Virgin - 19
DNS - Sergio Perez - Sauber - 34