Monaco Grand Prix: Mark Webber becomes the sixth winner in six races.
May 27, 2012 in F1 2012, Monaco Grand Prix
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
F1 2012 has proven to be one of the most exciting seasons in a long time, with five different winners in five different races, but could it spice up the ‘procession’ that is the Monaco Grand Prix?
As the lights went out in the principality, Mark Webber had a fantastic start and lead into the first corner but behind him, craziness.
Romain Grosjean was right on Fernando Alonso’s exhaust and then moved across to the left, making contact with Michael Schumacher and spinning into the middle of the track, bringing out the safety car.
In the midst of the chaos, Kamui Kobayashi ended up flying through the air and Pastor Maldonado ran into the back of Pedro de la Rosa, destroying his rear wing.
Several drivers had to take evasive action and cut the corner, which came under investigation from the stewards but thankfully no further action was taken.
The early action resulted in the retirement of Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado, Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi.
After only a couple of laps under the safety car, Mark Webber lead the race with Nico Rosberg close behind.
Despite the madness of the start, some drivers had managed to gain a few places with Heikki Kovalainen up in 13th and Sebastian Vettel in 6th.
Felipe Massa had looked strong all weekend and continued to perform well at the start of the race. Many F1 fans took to Twitter to ask when Fernando Alonso would receive the message ‘Fernando, Felipe is faster than you’. Unfortunately for them, that message never came.
For the second year running, Vitaly Petrov would not finish the Monaco Grand Prix and was forced to retire with an electric issue on lap 18.
With the threat of rain, many drivers held off pitting until the rain began to fall. It didn’t come and Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton pitted at the same time for the soft tyres. Raikkonen pitted shortly after and gave a Force India mechanic a fright as he nearly ran over his leg.
For a few laps, we were transported back to F1 2011 as Sebastian Vettel led the race with a good lead over everyone else. The reigning World Champion did an incredible job of looking after his tyres and it appeared both he and the team were banking on heavy rain to get a free pit stop.
Sergio Perez was awarded a drive through penalty after nearly tripping up Kimi Raikkonen when he made a late dash for the pitlane. Personally, I thought it was nothing more than a racing incident. It reminded me of when you try to walk around someone and you go the same way, nothing malicious, just an accident.
As the news came that rain was now 30 minutes away, Vettel was still sitting pretty in the lead with a 16.2 second gap to second place man Mark Webber. Vettel began to lose pace and was forced to pit for the super softs, leaving team mate Webber to lead the race.
The rain saga continued as Kimi Raikkonen was then told that no rain was expected during the race.
Despite claiming that he could turn sixth into a win, Michael Schumacher would not even finish the Monaco Grand Prix as he retired from the race due to a fuel pressure issue.
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylifrom the race due to a fuel pressure problem.
A frustrated Jenson Button spent most of the race looking at the exhaust of Heikki Kovalainen’s Caterham and eventually tried to make a move on the Finn. His move resulted in him nearly hitting Kovalainen and the end of the Englishman’s race.
The retirements didn’t stop there though as Charles Pic stopped out on track due to an electrical issue and Daniel Ricciardo retired due to a steering problem.
With only seven laps to go and reports of light rain at Mirabeau, Jean-Eric Vergne strangely pitted for a set of the intermediate tyres.
Sergio Perez and Kovalainen ended up in a scrap as Perez tried to overtake him and ended up in the run off area. The incident is currently under investigation by the stewards, so I will update when the results are in.
The remaining few laps were a typical Monaco-type procession as Mark Webber lead the pack to the checkered flag and won the Monaco Grand Prix for the second time. Not only that but Webber became the sixth different winner this year.
As the winners were presented with their trophies, the rain began to fall. I imagine Jean-Eric Vergne was cursing the sky somewhere.
What were your thoughts on the Monaco Grand Prix? What were your highlights and lowlights? Whatever you want to get off your chest about the race, leave a comment and your thoughts will be included in tomorrow’s Monaco Grand Prix: Yay & Nay.
Also, if you’d like to give some feedback on my race report, that’d be fantastic.
Results of the Monaco Grand Prix.
- Mark Webber – Red Bull Racing-Renault – 25 Points
- Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 18 Points
- Fernando Alonso – Ferrari – 15 Points
- Sebastian Vettel – Red Bull Racing-Renault – 12 Points
- Lewis Hamilton – McLaren-Mercedes – 10 Points
- Felipe Massa – Ferrari – 8 Points
- Paul di Resta – Force India-Mercedes – 6 Points
- Nico Hulkenberg – Force India-Mercedes – 4 Points
- Kimi Raikkonen – Lotus-Renault – 2 Points
- Bruno Senna – Williams-Renault – 1 Point
- Sergio Perez – Sauber-Ferrari
- Jean-Eric Vergne – STR-Ferrari
- Heikki Kovalainen – Caterham-Renault
- Timo Glock – Marussia-Cosworth
- Narain Karthikeyan – HRT-Cosworth
Retirements:
Jenson Button – McLaren-Mercedes – Incident
Daniel Ricciardo – STR-Ferrari – Steering issues.
Charles Pic – Marussia-Cosworth – Electrical issue.
Michael Schumacher – Mercedes – Fuel pressure.
Vitaly Petrov – Caterham-Renault – Electrical issue.
Kamui Kobayashi – Sauber-Ferrari – Accident damage.
Pedro de la Rosa – HRT-Cosworth – Accident.
Pastor Maldonado – Williams-Renault – Accident.
Romain Grosjean – Lotus-Renault – Accident.
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