F1 - Monaco Grand Prix Results

Omer Said

Weresloth
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seb-vettel-monaco.jpg2011 Formula 1 Season is going great with the new tyres, KERS, and DRS. And when these rules and the great atmosphere of Monaco Grand Prix clashed, we witnessed a breath-taking show in the streets of glamourous Monte Carlo.

As usual the pole-sitter was this year's flash driver Sebastian Vettel. Behind him, Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso trio was aiming to get into the lead at the first turn. While Lewis Hamilton was starting on 9th and podium-targeting Michael Schumacher was on 5th.

After the red lights went off, Vettel and Button accelerated perfectly and kept their positions. While Alonso overtook Webber. Schumacher disappointed as he was too slow to go and descended to 9th. So his 5th place was taken by team-mate Nico Rosberg.

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Start of the exciting Monaco Grand Prix

Then, Vettel began to open a gap. Alonso was sticked to Button's rear wing. And Schumacher showed his experience by overtaking Hamilton magnificently at the Old Loews Hairpin.

In lap 10, Hamilton overtook back Schumacher who was suffering with his degraded rear tyres. On the ahead Button and Alonso duo began to match Vettel's pace. In a few laps Hamilton caught the 8th place, but he was losing too much time in the traffic.

First one to pit in the leading battle was Button. McLaren made a perfect stop and the British driver took the super-soft tyres. After a few laps later, Red Bull drivers pitted in the same lap. Both of them lost time by some tyre confusion of the pitcrew. This put Vettel behind of Alonso.

In Lap 34, Button was ahead of Vettel by more than 15 seconds. And he seemed to be going for the victory. But a contact between Massa and Hamilton who were fighting wing-to-wing in the Old Loews Hairpin ended Button's plans. With a damaged car, Massa got out of the racing line while fighting against Hamilton and lost control in the tunnel and hit the barriers. He ended his race and also Button's pit-stop-strategy by causing a safety car period. With this Button lost his chances to do some fast laps with his super-soft tyres.

Suprisingly Red Bull took a gamble and decided to go till the end with Vettel's worn hard tyres. So did Alonso, but his tyres were less worn then the German. However Button had to pit one more time as he was on super-softs.

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Vettel-Alonso-Button trio fought from the start till the finish

When there was 10 laps to go the finish. Vettel-Alonso-Button trio was glued to each other. And Vettel's tyres were ultimately worn, Alonso's were less worn, but Button's were a lot more fresh. Everyone was expecting to watch a legendary battle between these three guys, but a crash in the chaotic mid-field ruined the fun. Adrian Sutil, Jaime Alguersuari, Lewis Hamilton and Vitaly Petrov starred in a crash at the swimming pool. Petrov and Alguersuari were out, Hamilton's rear wing was damaged. Sutil had a puncture.

This crash brung the red flags, because Petrov could not get ouf of his car by himself. An ambulance had to take him to the hospital. Fortunately nothing happened to the Russian, and later that was understood that it was just a temporary pain and lose of sense in his legs.

With the red flags, everyone could be able to change their tyres, so that Vettel and Alonso got rid of their tyre disadvantage which meant bad news for Button on his fresh tyres.

After the restart of the race, first three drivers could not come close to each other and finished the race without a fight. But Hamilton was the action-igniter in the behind. While trying to pass Pastor Maldonado for the 7th place, the young drivers collided and Maldonado hit the barriers, ending his race. Then Webber overtook the ultimate climber of the race, Kamui Kobayashi on 4th, Hamilton also caught Kobayashi but could not overtake him. It would be in vain tough if he could, because after the race Hamilton was given a 20 seconds penalty for his aggressive driving against Massa and Maldonado.

Another note to say that Mercedeses and Renaults had a terrible race. Schumacher had a mechanical problem and retired, Rosberg finished on 11th. Nick Heidfeld finished only on 8th.

So Vettel again won and made it 5th victories in 6th races. Alonso proved his talent once again with a slower car against McLaren and Red Bull. Button too, must be credited as he was close to the victory before Massa's safety car bringing crash.

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Results sheet taken from Autosport.com, write-up belongs to RaceDepartment.com
 
Great race, especially around lap 66, when Vettel, Alonso and Button were driving with maybe 2 seconds between the three of them with Vettel's tires about to fall off the cliff. Petrov's crash was a bummer, because I really wanted to see if Vettel could hang in there. The restart was kind of pointless, didn't change much.

Sad to see Schumi out after his best qually this season.
 
Really sorry not to see the battle culminate as Vettels tyres went off the cliff and to see Button and Alonso. I felt it was there for Button who drove supremely.
Hamilton is causing himself a few problems now by his reactions to the pressure.
 
Seems like we just cant win with F1, now we have the type of racing we want with the kers, drs, overtaking, degrading tyres and different strategies and pure excitement of it all but now the battle for the championship is all but over already.
 
I think it's still to early to say that Neil. Just 6 races is completed, not even the half of the season has come.

And there is not a big gap between McLaren-Red Bull-Ferrari trio :)
 

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