Sebastian Vettel Wins a Superb 2011 Monaco GP

Patrick AllenMay 29, 2011

Well, what can I say?

I expected very little from the race today but I think what we got was unquestionably the best show of the season so far.

I think we were unfortunately robbed of the perfect finish by the rules and the final accident, but to be honest the action that had unfolded beforehand was so great that I don’t really mind.

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We saw three great performances from three phenomenal drivers, overtakes, penalties and even some high controversy at the end.

The race was fantastic from the moment the lights went out.

Sebastian Vettel held on to P1 whilst Jenson Button moved to cover Mark Webber. Meanwhile Fernando Alonso made yet another phenomenal start and placed himself perfectly in third as the cars gingerly made it around the first corner.

Further back, Michael Schumacher had suffered with anti-stall and found himself battling with the penalised car of Lewis Hamilton. (Hamilton was demoted to P9 when he was found to have cut a corner on his only timed lap in Qualifying). The Mercedes Works car made contact with Hamilton’s McLaren and both drivers fought hard for P9 as the lap unfolded.

As the cars crossed the finish line after one lap the positions were as follows:

Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa, Pastor Maldinado, Vitaly Petrov, Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Paul Di Resta, Kamui Kobayashi, Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld, Sebastien Buemi, Jarno Trulli, Jamie Alguersuari, Heikki Kovalainen, Timo Glock, Jerome D’Ambrosio, Narain Karthikeyan, Vitantonio Liuzzi

By lap 6, Vettel had begun to pull away, whilst Hamilton struggled to find a way past Schumacher.

The Mercedes cars clearly began to struggle with tyre wear very early on and both Rosberg and Schumacher felt the pain.

Lewis Hamilton expertly took advantage of Mercedes' woes when he crucially darted up the inside of Schumacher on lap 10 at turn one.

Schumacher’s day went from bad to worse when he was taken two laps later by his arch nemesis Rubens Barrichello at turn five. In fact the Mercedes man’s race had actually been ruined at turn one of the first lap, very soon after yielding to Barrichello, Schumacher was forced to pit for a new front wing (damaged by contact with Hamilton).

The once king of Monaco rejoined in P21, and stayed pretty low in the rankings until his eventual retirement.

There were other little manoeuvres here and there but to honest with you I don’t want to write an essay so I’ll try to concentrate on the vital stuff.

Jenson Button was the first of the front-runners to pit. The McLaren man stopped on lap 16 and rejoined in P4 with the benefit of perfect, clear air.

Red Bull responded to this stop but seemed to completely forget they are constructors Champions. Sebastian Vettel entered a pit box in disarray as the mechanics seemed to be desperately searching for the right tyres. It looked as if the team were unprepared for their man and things got worse when Mark Webber pitted just seconds later.

The whole thing looked a mess, but Vettel came out of the madness relatively unscathed in P3. Webber on the other hand found himself in P14 after a 15 second stop (to give you an idea of how bad that is, Red Bull aim to stop their cars in under 3 seconds).

Fernando Alonso was no doubt grateful for his clean stop and the Ferrari man rejoined the action in P3.

It looked as if McLaren had played an ace as Jenson Button flew around the track in pole position. However, Button’s teammate seemed to suffer from the same problems as Red Bull when he came to stop on lap 23.

Yet again it looked as if the mechanics weren’t ready and Hamilton’s 9.7 second stop cost the driver who was now down in P15.

Through pit stops Hamilton eventually found himself up behind Felipe Massa in P9 on lap 31. The fight between Ferrari and McLaren was close but I have to say Hamilton not only made a fool of himself on lap 33, but as it turned out he probably also ruined his teammate's chances of a win.

Lewis Hamilton has seemed impatient and frankly arrogant all weekend, first stating he felt he was the only man with the skill to beat Vettel in an inferior car and then by blaming his team for mistakes in qualifying whilst actually failing to complete an honest lap himself.

The impatient McLaren man attempted a pass on Massa up the inside of the Ferrari whilst going around the hairpin at turn 6. Massa was left with no room and Hamilton’s McLaren made heavy contact with the Ferrari.

Massa held the line but was forced out onto the marbles in the tunnel. There was simply no grip and Massa became a passenger as his car smashed into the barriers and out of the race. I don’t think Hamilton was to blame for the tunnel incident but I think he set the whole crash in motion through his reckless driving at turn 6.

The safety car was deployed and at that point it hadn’t become clear quite how much Hamilton had wrecked his teammate’s day. Jenson Button had pitted a lap before the incident but Vettel and Alonso took advantage of the safety car and pitted after the incident. (Alonso actually did a great job avoiding Schumacher who had broken down right at the entrance of the pit lane.)

The safety car left the track on lap 38 and the top 10 were as follows:

Vettel, Button, Alonso, Sutil, Kobayashi, Webber, Hamilton, Maldinado, Petrov, Heidfeld

Hamilton was given a drive through penalty on lap 44 and it was around this time that we began to realise what the safety car period had done to Button’s chances of a win.

When Button rejoined after his stop he had done so in traffic and so had no clear air to optimise his fresh tyres. The McLaren man did an excellent job to work his way up to the back of Vettel and Alonso but it became ever more clear that track position, not fresh tyres was the more important factor.

Button had to stop for a third and final time on lap 48, but crucially Vettel and Alonso had decided to chance it and stay out on a two-stop strategy. Vettel had been on the same tyres since around lap 16 and Alonso hadn’t had fresh ‘boots’ since about lap 33. Button would have to overtake these two, but on his new tyres it looked as if he would have to power to do it.

The next laps were superb! The front three runners were so close the tension was unbelievable. Alonso was all over Vettel but lost a bit of power coming out of the final corner, whilst Jenson Button hung back waiting to pounce.

It was all building to an absolute mammoth battle by lap 69 when the front runners found themselves behind a traffic jam of at least seven cars.

The potential was eye watering and I think whatever happened we would have exploded! Perhaps it was all too much for the drivers too as in front of the battle for pole Adrian Sutil lost control and clipped his rear wheel, this caused Hamilton to slow to avoid the Force India which caused a domino crash effect.

I don’t think anyone can be blamed for the crash as there simply wasn’t enough track for everyone to use. Jamie Alguersuari pilled into the back of Hamilton and Petrov swerved to avoid the Torro Rosso in front. Unfortunately Petrov didn’t manage to avoid the barriers and the race was red flagged. I can’t believe through all that all three front runners survived the carnage.

With the fantastic news that no drivers were hurt came the confirmation that the race would resume for five kick-ass laps!

I’m afraid the potential for a classic finish was destroyed when the teams rushed to their rule manuals though.

We all initially thought that the tyres would remain the same as before the red flag and that therefore the battle for pole would be intense. However, it unfortunately became clear that under red flag conditions cars could be fixed and tyres could be changed.

Vettel and Alonso were put on the crucial softer compound and the race was effectively finished by this decision.

Lewis Hamilton found himself in the firing line yet again on the final couple of laps when he tried to dart up the middle of Pastor Maldinado at turn one. The move was brave and ambitious, but I think it was ultimately foolish as he effectively forced the Williams driver off and into the barriers.

Hamilton will face the stewards about this decision, but I think he may well be more concerned about his post race controversial comments. I don’t want to dwell on this too much as I honestly think Hamilton was stressed and angry after a disappointing weekend.

However, by implying that the stewards of Formula one are racist he may well have opened a can of worms that will haunt him for days to come.

I believe he was tired and joking, but he choose some very unfortunate words. To be perfectly frank, I think Lewis ends up in front of the stewards a lot because he can cause some pretty ‘avoidable crashes’ through ballsy driving.

I admire him for his gutsy performances and I hope he continues to make them (as in many cases Hamilton is the only driver creating a stir at race weekends). However, I think if he is going to make these bold moves he has to accept that he may find himself in front of the stewards more often than most other drivers.

That’s all I want to say about that, but I think the overall conclusion of the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix is that it was a great one!

Drivers’ Championship Top Three

Vettel 143

Hamilton 85

Webber 79

Constructors’ Title Top Three

Red Bull Racing 222

McLaren 161

Ferrari 93

Result

1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault

2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari