The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel has extended his lead in the Drivers’ championship to 25 points following his victory at the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend ahead of his team mate Kimi Raikkonen.
Vettel has looked on the pace all weekend, bar his mistake in the final few corners of his flying lap that gifted pole to Raikkonen. After leapfrogging Raikkonen at the stops, he was able to control the pace throughout the race, and ultimately take victory here, the first for a Ferrari driver since 2001. However, there is a feeling of controversy to the win, with many feeling Vettel is being deliberately favoured by the Italian team. And that today was an example of the team engineering a win for him by dumping Raikkonen with a “number 2” strategy.
Raikkonen initially had the better start of the two Ferrari’s and was able to take the lead of the race, with Vettel behind him. Though when it came to the pit stop Raikkonen pitted earlier out of the two Ferrari’s. The Finn then struggled to warm up tyres as he had to weave his way through backmarkers, as his team mate set blisteringly fast laps out front in clear air. By the time he was pulled in for his pitstop Vettel had the buffer he needed to Kimi, and was able to emerge in the lead of the race once again. From there it was a cruise to the finish for Vettel.
“I tried to push as hard as possible and I was surprised to come out in front,” admitted Vettel after the race. “I can understand Kimi’s upset.”
Upset is an understatement. Raikkonen is not exactly known for being the most talkative driver on the grid, but today his body language betrayed him on the podium. He was clearly upset with how things had played out during the race with a rather sullen look on his face. Another telling sign he was not happy was the way he barely acknowledged his team mate in the post-race cool down.
A lot has been made of the strategy calls at Ferrari today, with some suggesting it was a deliberate team order to get Vettel ahead of Raikkonen. Indeed Ferrari do have a track history of favouring one driver over the other, and a history of team orders following that too. It could be easy to see Ferrari giving Raikkonen the inferior strategy that they knew would result in Vettel being ahead of him after the stops. And therefore, gifting him the extra seven points in the championship that comes with a move from second to first. There is a slight irony that the last 1-2 for Ferrari was Germany 2010, a race infamously known for Ferrari team orders and that immortal line uttered by Rob Smedley to then Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, “Fernando is faster than you.”
But at the same time the decision today does not seem as cut and dry as that of 2010. The laps Vettel put in after Raikkonen pitted were ultimately what secured him the race win. That is something the team could not have engineered, Vettel had to do that all by himself. Add into this fact that it is rare the overcut works around Monaco. The overcut is where a driver deliberately stays out longer than their rival to gain enough of a gap to overtake them in the pitstops. Vettel tried the overcut in Australia and won the race because of it, so it would make sense to try a strategy like that here as well. Both Australia and Monaco are street circuits notoriously difficult to overtake on, and these are two circuits that if you do want to overtake on you have to get a little creative with your strategy. Vettel’s former team boss Christian Horner was quick to point out he race he felt there had been no foul play on the part of Ferrari to engineer a win for Vettel.
“The thing is, Sebastian just looked quicker. Kimi was starting to run out of tyre and Ferrari gave him the first stop, which was more than fair. He got a little bit of traffic which affects the cars quite badly here and Sebastian just had great pace in free air. I think if Sebastian had gone for the undercut or the overcut, the result would have been the same.”
The two Ferrari drivers were joined on the podium by the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, who like Vettel opted for an overcut strategy at the pit stop. His strategy seemed to work even better than Vettel’s in respect as he was able to leapfrog both the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, and the fellow Red Bull of Max Verstappen. A result that left the young Dutchman owing money to the swear jar when he found out.
Bottas finished the race in fourth after being caught up in a Red Bull pincer movement at the stops. Due to the fact Verstappen pitted first Mercedes were forced to decide which Red Bull they wanted to cover off. They clearly decided Verstappen was the right Red Bull to cover and pitted Bottas the lap after him to maintain track position. Unfortunately for them the overcut was the way to go and Ricciardo was able to leapfrog them. Mercedes really were put in a catch 22 situation today by Red Bull, the chances were even if they went long there was no guarantee the overcut would work. While they would be foolish to underestimate the threat of the undercut. They did all they could do really considering the situation they were in. If they can take nothing else away from this weekend, they can take away the fact they held up Verstappen and caused the teenager to have a few expletive-ridden radio messages.
Behind Verstappen it was another positive weekend for Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso. After qualifying sixth he was able to finish in that position despite all the drama going on. He was even able to hold up a charging Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes towards the end of the race. Hamilton will be glad to see the back of this weekend after finishing seventh in the race following his disappointing qualifying on Saturday. It really was a case of damage limitation for Hamilton today, though the Brit never seemed to make the impression on the field we expected. Monaco is a notoriously difficult track to take on, and todays result cost Hamilton dearly as he is now a full race win behind Vettel in the standings. The result today was only the fourth in the last three years a Mercedes car had failed to finish on the podium.
“I came in this morning feeling terrible and didn’t sleep well last night,” Hamilton told the media after the race. “The car was very difficult to drive this weekend.”
Haas had their first ever double points finish as a team, with Romain Grosjean in eighth and his team mate Kevin Magnussen claiming the last World Championship point in tenth. The pair of them were split by the Williams of Felipe Massa who finished the race in ninth. Just outside of the points was the Renault of Jolyon Palmer, and the Force India’s of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez. The result now means Perez’s streak of 15 consecutive points finishes has now ended.
The race, while boring at points was not totally devoid of drama today, with a terrifying accident for the Sauber of Pascal Wehrlein and McLaren of Jenson Button that brought out the safety car. The McLaren collided with the Sauber coming into Portier and caused Wehrlein to overturn up against the barriers in the process. The team were quick on the radio to him to check that Wehrlein was okay following the accident, which he confirmed, while Button was forced to park up with suspension damage.
Formula One driver Pascal Wehrlein flipped into and trapped by Monaco wall https://t.co/hX8Ntcoz1V pic.twitter.com/Q4EUmebiaY
— Jalopnik (@Jalopnik) May 28, 2017
As a result the field bunched up behind the safety car, though that was not the end to the drama as Marcus Ericsson in the other Sauber crashed under the safety car trying to warm his tyres. At the restart, Stoffel Vandoorne in the other McLaren who had been running in the points, crashed out under pressure from Sergio Perez, resulting in another double DNF for McLaren this season. Though for the first time not as a result of a Honda failure.
Overall the race today was what you would expect from a Monaco Grand Prix, little pockets of action with the world’s most expensive floats on a parade either side of it. It was a procession at points despite the drama of qualifying yesterday, a point our BTCC and Junior Formulae reporter Bethonie Waring was quick to pick up on.
“After qualifying, you expected a kind of interesting race. That didn’t happen. Then, after the safety car, everyone started crashing. The Safety car probably defined the race. So thanks Jenson!”
I’m not so sure the safety car was the defining part of the race, but it certainly gave us all some false hope that something big was about to go down. My issue today was the strategy at Ferrari. In my head, logically looking at what Vettel has produced all weekend I’m inclined to agree with Christian Horner. Vettel looked to be on the pace all weekend and I feel he could have taken the fight to Raikkonen on track and beaten him had the strategy not played out as it did. But in my heart, looking at Raikkonen on the podium and the eerily similar look he had to Massa in 2010 after team orders, I can’t help but feel that maybe there was a little something more to this win. And that as they have done in the past, Ferrari have fallen back on team orders for their number 1 driver. It’s a tough call and it easily could go either way depending on how you feel.
I’ll leave you now with my highlight of the weekend. It’s no secret amongst the OM staff how big of a JB fan I am (just ask them about my reaction to his retirement, they had to send me lots of happy cat Gifs to cheer me up.) So I was thrilled to see him in the car this weekend. And even more thrilled that he and fellow McLaren driver Fernando Alonso could provide us with some of the best possible radio commentary of the year. Fernando, JB may not have taken care of your car, but I really hope for your sake he didn’t pee in it.
Fernando Alonso desde Indianápolis a Jenson Button antes del #MonacoGP por radio:
– Hola Jenson, cuídame el coche.pic.twitter.com/uMjwb6WOm4
— Javi Alonso (@javialogut) May 28, 2017
Monaco GP race result
1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
2. Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
4. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
5. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
6. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso
7. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
8. Romain Grosjean, Haas
9. Felipe Massa, Williams
10. Kevin Magnussen, Haas
11. Jolyon Palmer, Renault
12. Esteban Ocon, Force India
13. Sergio Perez, Force India
14. Lance Stroll, Williams, DNF
15. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, DNF
16. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, DNF
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, DNF
18. Jenson Button, McLaren, DNF
19. Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber, DNF
20. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, DNF
Feature Image Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Press Release.
