Mark Webber won an enthralling Monaco GP, beating of competition from Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton & Felipe Massa, who all finished within 6 seconds of each other.
Mark took the lead from the start, while chaos ensued behind. Romain Grosjean and Michael Schumacher got too friendly with each other. Romain caught Michael, and the touch was enough to spin the Frenchman. The cars around him reacted very quickly, ensuring there was no pile-up. However, some had to escape down the Pit-Lane Exit, while others went around the outside of the beached Lotus, and lost several places. Sebastian Vettel was the biggest gainer, jumping up to sixth, while others like Jenson Button failed to climb at all.With debris on the track, the safety car was called out for three laps, while the Lotus was removed. When the racing continued, Mark pulled out his lead over Nico Rosberg, who had managed to hold onto third. Lewis Hamilton was trying to stay as close as possible, while Alonso seemed to be holding up teammate Felipe Massa.
Throughout the race, there was a constant threat of rain. Drivers were continuously being told that rain was not far away, and it appeared that the race would be decided by the rain, and when the drivers decided to pit. The main decision the teams had to make was whether wait for said rain to appear, or to pit, allowing the driver to not slow down, in order to save their tyres. In the end, no rain materialized, allowing the drivers to continue on the strategies. It was Rosberg who pitted first, which failed to work for him, as Mark managed to pit, and return to the track in front of the Mercedes. However, behind Lewis' early pit-stop worked against him, as a blistering in-lap from Fernando Alonso ensured he jumped his former teammate, and by some distance. After the majority of drivers had pitted, it was Sebastian Vettel who lead, due to his lack of a pit-stop. He lead team mate Webber, the Rosberg, Alonso, Hamilton, Massa.
Once in the lead, Vettel set about extending his lead, to possibly keep his lead after a visit to the pits, or at least return as high as possible. He job seemed to be made easier by Mark Webber, who appeared to be holding up the cars behind him, helping Seb to pull out in front. Mark seemed to ensure that his teammate was kept at arms-length, as he hoped of returning back to 1st place, after Vettel had pitted. The other question, was who long the drivers could last on their tyres. With less degradation than people were possibly expecting, and with that possibility of rain, tyre saving was going to be vitally important.
After nearly 50 laps on the "harder" of the 2 tyres, Vettel pitted. He was unable to beat Webber or Rosberg, but he did manage to squeeze just in front of Lewis Hamilton to take fourth place. As it stood, it was Webber, Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and Massa, who were all separated by about 10 seconds. It was set to be shoot-out for victory between six drivers. All 6 drivers were ridiculously close; but, time gaps did appear, and disappear. For a few laps, Rosberg & Webber seemed to have broken away slightly, only for them to be reeled back in. It became even tighter when they had to lap a back-marker, with little more than a papers width between the cars. The tension was built even more with rain. After over an hour of saying it was just around the corner, it was finally here, but it still wasn't listening to the team radios. At Rascas, it started to spit, but that seemed all. The first to blink was not one of the front-runners, but Jean-Eric Verge who was sitting in seventh. He went into the pits for Intermediate tyres, assuming that the weather would get worse. It did not. Some umbrellas did come out in the stands, but it never got hard enough for wet weather tyres.
This ensured Mark had a slightly easier job to take victory. Even though he was being hounded by 5 determined drivers behind him, Webber ensured he drove to victory. His win makes it 6 different winners in the last 6 different races. It also completes a hat-trick of Red Bull victories at Monte Carlo. Nico Rosberg finished second, with Fernando Alonso taking the final spot on the podium. Sebastian Vettel took fourth, after starting in ninth, while Lewis Hamilton went the other way, going from third to fifth. Felipe Massa finished in a solid sixth, only 6.1 seconds behind winner Webber.
Race Results
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
2 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 6
3 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 5
4 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
5 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 3
6 - Felipe Massa -Ferrari - 7
7 - Paul DiResta - Force India - 13
8 - Nico Hulkenberg - Force India - 22
9 - Kimi Raikkonen - Lotus - 16
10 - Bruno Senna - Williams - 25
11 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - 18
12 - Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso - 29
13 - Heikki Kovalainen - Caterham - 20
14 - Timo Glock - Marussia - 26
15 - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - 34
16 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 4
R - Romain Grosjean - Lotus - 24
R - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 17
R - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 10
R - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 8
R - Daniel Ricciardo - Toro Rosso -28
R - Charles Pic - Marussia - 38
R - Vitaly Petrov - Caterham - 12
R - Pedro De La Rosa - HRT - 30
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