Mark Webber banished any doubts about him being a true championship contender on Sunday as he dominated a second Grand Prix in succession, leaving his rivals - Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel included - in the shade. As the likes of Ferrari and McLaren were left licking their wounds, Red Bull left Monte Carlo leading the 2010 constructors’ standings for the first time, with Webber and Vettel level on points atop the drivers'. We take a team-by-team look at the Monaco race...
Red Bull
Mark Webber, P1
Sebastian Vettel, P2
This was the pluperfect race for Red Bull, with Webber utterly dominant and Vettel able to ride shotgun despite often serious pressure from Kubica. The Australian got every restart right and never put a wheel wrong, and he and Vettel share the lead in the world championship for drivers as Red Bull move to the top of the constructors’ table for the first time in 2010. A great weekend for the team.
Renault
Robert Kubica, P3
Vitaly Petrov, retired lap 74, rear end problem
Kubica lost out to Vettel at the start when he got wheelspin on the dirty side of the grid as he powered up too soon upon observing Webber’s relatively leisurely start. After that he drove a stunning race with very similar pace to the Red Bulls, but was unable to challenge Vettel for second. Petrov lost time with a puncture, and subsequently retired from the midfield with an undisclosed rear end problem.
Ferrari
Felipe Massa, P4
Fernando Alonso, P6
Massa showed that he is back as good as ever with a strong and fruitful run to fourth place, while a great strategic switch from option tyres to primes at the end of the first, safety-car lap, let Alonso rise through the field to the sixth position that he maintained until Schumacher’s controversial - and penalised - move on the very last corner.
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, P5
Jenson Button, retired lap 3, overheating
This was not a great day for McLaren. The MP4-25 lacked the speed to do anything more than the fifth place that Hamilton achieved. He set only the 10th fastest lap. Button was unluckier, overheating out of the race under the safety car at the start of lap three, after a mechanic left the cover over the left-hand side radiator. McLaren lost their leads in the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships as a result of their misfortunes.
Mercedes GP
Nico Rosberg, P7
Michael Schumacher, P12 - includes 20s penalty
Both drivers lost out to the adventurous Barrichello at the start, as Schumacher led Rosberg. The younger German ran far longer - lap 28 compared to lap 19 - but crucially lost time lapping Senna on lap 24. That enabled Schumacher to stay ahead. As the fourth and final safety car pulled off just before the end of the 78th and final lap, he thrust ahead of Alonso to snatch sixth place, but the stewards subsequently ruled that an illegal move and added 20s to his race time, leaving him 12th not sixth. Mercedes have appealed the decision.
Force India
Adrian Sutil, P8
Tonio Liuzzi, P9
Liuzzi was unhappy when he was called in too early for his switch from option Bridgestones to primes. It transpired he was being held up by Barrichello and William brought the Brazilian in at the same time to try and stymie Force India’s attempt to overtake in the stops. That let Sutil go three uninterrupted laps longer, so he went ahead. Both drivers scored points, however, giving Vijay Mallya another six.
Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi, P10
Jaime Alguersuari, P11
Neither driver could quite keep in touch with the Force Indias, but Buemi got a point after Schumacher’s penalty was applied. Alguersuari set a slightly faster lap than the Swiss, but marred his race with a visit to the Ste Devote escape road.
HRT
Karun Chandhok, P14
Bruno Senna, retired lap 59, hydraulics
HRT ‘won’ the race of the new teams for the first time, courtesy of a great drive by Chandhok - even though he was taken out of the race at the height of a great battle with Trulli and Lotus when the Italian tried a moved that swivelled his car over the Indian’s head at Rascasse with four laps to run and left them both stranded. Senna also ran strongly, until halted by a hydraulics problem.
Lotus
Jarno Trulli, P15
Heikki Kovalainen, retired lap 59, steering
For a long time Kovalainen looked very strong and his lap times were very respectable. But both he and Trulli were delayed when the right rear wheelgun malfunctioned during their pit stops, and the Finn eventually retired with a steering joint problem which rendered the T127 too dangerous to drive. Trulli was pressuring Chandhok’s HRT for the new teams’ honours when he misjudged a passing move in Rascasse corner and they collided heavily.
Williams
Rubens Barrichello, retired lap 31, accident
Nico Hulkenberg, retired lap 1, accident
Williams had a very costly Monaco. First Hulkenberg had to start from the back because of a clutch paddleshift problem on the grid formation lap, then he crashed very heavily in the tunnel on the opening lap when, it is suspected, the front wing broke. Barrichello looked good for a while in sixth after an excellent start put him ahead of both Mercedes, but had a major crash going up to Casino Square on the 31st lap due to some sort of failure in his car’s rear end. The Brazilian did not endear himself to HRT; he threw his steering wheel from the cockpit and it was subsequently run over by one of the Spanish team’s cars.
BMW Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi, retired lap 27, gearbox
Pedro de la Rosa, retired lap 22, hydraulics
BMW Sauber had another dreadful race, with De la Rosa stymied by problems in the hydraulics which started to make the steering heavy and got worse, and Kobayashi’s C29 running into gearbox trouble.
Virgin
Lucas di Grassi, retired lap 26, wheel
Timo Glock, retired lap 23, track rod
Onboard footage from Alonso’s following Ferrari revealed just what oversteering handfuls both Virgins were. Glock nevertheless ran strongly and was chasing Kovalainen’s Lotus until he brushed a wall and damaged a track rod. Di Grassi also pushed hard and enjoyed a brief scrap with Alonso, but was eventually halted by a wheel problem.
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