Lewis Hamilton fought back from an early barrier-bending puncture to win an incident-filled Monaco Grand Prix.
A wet start to the race meant the treacherous street circuit become an obstacle course that few front wings survived. It was the theme of the day as drivers tapped one another or shunted with the barriers, limping back to their pits for quick repairs before heading out again.
Surprisingly, though, only six drivers failed to finish the incident-packed race. However, only one, Hamilton, actually benefited from his minor crash.
It allowed the Brit to pit early for fuel and tyres, putting him in contention for the victory while the early leader and pole position man Felipe Massa took the conservative approach which cost him any chance of winning. In fact it even cost him second place which Robert Kubica took off him in the second round of pit stops.
Mark Webber eventually finished fourth after a late Safety Car saw the field bunch up and Kimi Raikkonen take out Adrian Sutil. They had been on course to finish fourth and fifth with the Force India driver showing Raikkonen how it's done in Monte Carlo.
Race Report
There was light rain falling as the cars lined up on the grid and the teams needed to make the correct choice of tyre. With no indication of how long or how heavy the rain would get, it could have been a choice of wets, intermediates or even dry tyres, but as all the tyre warmers came off it was clear that everyone had opted for the Bridgestone inters.
Kimi Raikkonen had failed to get his tyre selection complete within the allotted three minute time and would face a drive-through penalty later in the race, but even worse luck was to befall McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen who stalled his car before the parade lap and would have to start his race from the pitlane instead of P4.
As the lights went out Felipe Massa took off perfectly from pole position, but Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was slow away and Lewis Hamilton was immediately up the inside and into P2. The McLaren driver probably had the pace to get alongside Massa into Turn 1, Ste. Devote, but thought better of it.
Behind, the rest of the field behaved impeccably in the wet conditions and all the cars got through unscathed, though many cars had looks into the Mirabeau. Running down the hill to the Lowe's hairpin Fernando Alonso got tapped up the back by Nico Rosberg who deranged his front wing. It didn't come off, but was left at an unconventional angle.
Nick Heidfeld had started cautiously in the BMW and Jenson Button wanted to get past quickly. Coming out of the Swimming Pool complex Button thought of a move up the inside but left enough room for the German, and then coming out of the corner put his car up the inside at the same time that Heidfeld decided to veer over and cover the line. The Honda wing was immediately knocked off and Button had to pit.
So coming over the line at the end of the first lap it was Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica, Alonso, Rosberg, Trulli Glock, Heidfeld and a slow-starting Mark Webber.
As the cars set about creating a dry line, the spread in lap times was enormous. By the second lap there was already 8 seconds between Massa and fourth place Kubica.
Timo Glock continued the theme started by Rosberg and Button by losing his front wing by spinning away 8th place at the Anthony Nogues (final) corner and dropping back down the field.
At the front Felipe Massa had opened a gap of three seconds to Lewis Hamilton by Lap 5, and Raikkonen was an enormous seven seconds behind the McLaren. Cameras switched to Fernando Alonso having a lurid moment coming out of Casino Sqaure at the same time asking on the radio whether he might go to full wet tyres as the rain got heavier.
Seconds later Lewis Hamilton let the tail of his Mclaren out too wide at Tabac and the right rear impacted the barrier heavily and stripped most of the carcass off the tyre. He was lucky to have his incident so close to the pits and managed to rejoin in 5th place thanks to the huge spread of the field. The McLaren team took the opportunity to stick more fuel in the car and the Brit took on another set of intermediates.
With the rain continuing to fall, on Lap 7, Massa already led his team-mate by 12 seconds, while the uncertain Raikkonen had been caught up by Robert Kubica.
On Lap 8 Alonso ruined his 4th place by hitting the barriers on the outside of Massanet, puncturing his right rear. Seconds later David Coulthard and Sebastien Bourdais hit the same patch of water and hit the Massanet barriers but this time harder than Alonso. The Red Bull getting hit up the back by the Toro Rosso seconds later and both retiring on the spot.
Out came the Safety Car and the field closed up, while both Alonso and Jarno Trulli pitted, Alonso for a tyre and Trulli for a new front wing. Alonso chose to change his tyres to the full wets and rejoined in 7th place.
While the Safety Car circulated the announcement came through that Raikkonen would have to serve a drive-through penalty for changing his tyres on the grid too late.
By Lap 10 we were racing again and the order behind the Safety Car was Massa, Raikkonen (still to stop), Kubica, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Webber, Alonso, Nakajima, Barrichello, Sutil and Piquet in 11th.
On the restart Fernando Alonso launched his Renault up the inside of Mark Webber's Red Bull going into the Mirabeau and controlled the car beautifully - he was up to 6th place and now with the most suitable tyres for the conditions. He was soon up to the back of 5th place Heidfeld and looking for a way past the defensively driving BMW driver.
A lap later (Lap 14) and Heidfeld had to hug the barriers coming out of Casino Square to stop Alonso doing to him what he'd done to Mark Webber into Mirabeau. A frustrated Alonso then tried a move that was never going to work and dived down the inside going into the Lowe's hairpin. He arrived there as Heidfeld was already turning in and nerfed him in the side, spinning the BMW round and losing his front wing in the process. The rest of the field queued behind them as they tried to find a way past.
Raikkonen had just taken his drive-through penalty and rejoined behind Lewis Hamilton in P4. At the front Felipe Massa was coming under serious pressure from Robert Kubica who was closing on the Ferrari driver at half a second a lap. Pressure told and at the beginning of Lap 16 Massa missed his braking for Ste. Devote and went straight on down the escape road handing the lead to the Pole.
On Lap 17 the order was Kubica, Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen. Heidfeld, Webber, Sutil, Nakajima, Trulli and Rubens Barrichello. Sutil in the Force India had kept himself out of the barriers and when the queue formed behind the Heidfeld/Alonso incident had got his car in front of Nakajima.
Mark Webber, and very soon the rest of the field overtook Nick Heidfeld after the BMW developed a puncture. It looked as though the tyre that had taken off Alonso's wing in the Lowe's accident also picked up a puncture at the same time.
On Lap 19 the positions were: Kubica, Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Webber, Sutil, Trulli, Barrichello, Nakajima, Piquet, Vettel and the recovering Heikki Kovalainen.
Despite Robert Kubica's pace - on Lap 21 the Pole took Fastest Lap down to 1:33.218 - Felipe Massa was beginning to close the gap to the leader and open up one to 3rd place Hamilton. By Lap 25 Kubica led by just 1.8 seconds while Massa had almost 15 seconds on Hamilton. Raikkonen was four seconds further back and there was an enormous 27 second gap to 5th place Mark Webber from the 4th place Ferrari.
It all changed on lap 26 when Kubica pitted and took on more intermediates, Kimi Raikkonen couldn't take advantage and pick up a place because he did what Massa had done and drive straight on at Ste. Devote. The only difference was that it dislocated his front wing which hung limply off the Ferrari nose. Kimi returned to the pits for a new one and had to rejoin behind Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil.
The watershed of the race occurred on Lap 29, when for the first time Lewis Hamilton went quicker than Felipe Massa. At this stage of the race Massa had a 16.8 second lead. Hamilton started to put in a series of Fastest Laps while Mark Webber also started to go quickly, although a fair way back in fourth place.
Massa came in for his first pit-stop at the end of Lap 33. When he emerged he was 13.2 seconds behind Hamilton who was now leading. On Lap 34 Lewis put in the first sub 1:30 second lap, a 1:29.420 as he started to put the hammer down.
Despite all the incidents, on Lap 35 approaching half distance, there were still only two cars retired from the race.
Both 4th and 5th place men were flying - on Lap 36 Mark Webber in the Red Bull traded fastest laps with the Force India of Adrian Sutil. The heavily fuelled Raikkonen in 6th place was dropping back from the Force India!
Lewis was chipping in with some significant Fastest Laps too and was rapidly opening a gap to Massa. By Lap 38 he had an 18 second lead. By Lap 41 it was up to 21.6. Rubens Barrichello, who always excels in mixed conditions was also joining in the fun with Fastest laps on Lap 40, 42 and 43.
Massa was very sluggish through the traffic and on some laps he lost as much as four seconds to the leader. By Lap 45 the gap was 26.2 seconds.
Despite the computer predicting that there would be rain in six minutes, Fernando Alonso was the first person to change to dry tyres on Lap 45. The change-over from Inters to the normal grooved tyre was reckoned to be a1:26 second lap and on Lap 46 Hamilton took the Fastest lap down to 1:26.546.
Massa was not only going backwards from Hamilton, he was being reeled in by Kubica and on Lap 49 the BMW driver got onto the Ferrari gearbox while the McLaren was a full 32 seconds up the road.
Mark Webber also decided to go for dry tyres when he pitted on lap 49 and at first it looked like it might be a marginal decision as the Red Bull got off line and the tyre lost temperature. Three laps later Rubens Barrichello overtook him going into the final corner, the first successful F1 move witnessed there for many many years. However the good news for Webbo was that Alonso had just put in the fastest middle sector of the race and dry tyres was definitely going to be the way to go. Rubrens would still have to come in.
On Lap 53 Robert Kubica pitted at the perfect time for dry tyres and rejoined without losing a place just as Fernando Alonso set the Fastest Lap with a 1:24.707. A lap later and the leader Lewis Hamilton was in for dry tyres and was able to rejoin with a comfortable lead.
It now transpired that both Ferraris were fuelled to the finish, but both were in danger of shredding their intermediate tyres in the dry conditions. Massa pitted for tyres on Lap 56 and Raikkonen on Lap 57. Massa couldn't make it out in front of Kubica and slithered out of the ptlane as the BMW screeched past.
So the order on Lap 58 was Hamilton 39.3 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica, who had 5.6 seconds on Massa, Sutil was in 4th place a healthy 18 seconds ahead of Raikkonen, followed by Webber, Vettel, Rubens Barrichello and Nakajima.
Then it all changed on Lap 61 as Nico Rosberg's Williams went straight on at the Swimming Pool and bounced off both barriers. Rosberg had had a miserable afternoon, losing two front wings (one his fault, one not) and in clear air had set fastest laps, although with no chance of getting in the points. With his car in pieces on the Swimming Pool exit he managed to hobble over the barriers while the Safety Car was dispatched.
Lewis Hamilton's lead had been 40.3 seconds and it would now be a few car lengths as the stricken Williams was craned clear. The cars lined up behind the Safety Car but the snake was a long time in forming.
On Lap 65 the lapped cars were instructed to overtake the SC and catch up at the back but inexplicably Kovalainen and Heidfeld remained in their place for two laps.
It was all go again on Lap 68 and it was clear now that not all 78 laps would be run and the two-hour rule would prevail. Hamilton got a good restart and easily opened the gap to Kubica. It was the Force India of Adrian Sutil who might come under most threat from Raikkonen. Coming out of the tunnel the Ferrari lost control under braking and Raikkonen got into a 'tank slapper' unable to slow his car he went careering into the back of the Force India.
Ironically, while the Ferrari was able to get a front wing change, the Force India limped back to the pits and retirement, a cruel blow for the team and the distraught German driver. Raikkonen rejoined in 9th place.
Lewis Hamilton proved that he had pace to spare by trading Fastest Lap times with team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in the closing laps, as the Finn stayed ahead of fellow countryman Kimi Raikkonen.
Kubica could get nowhere near Hamilton and similarly Massa was unable to get close to the second place BMW. Mark Webber was up into 4th, with Vettel, Barrichello and Nakajima further behind. Had Heiki Kovalainen got out of the Safety Car crocodile earlier he would no doubt have got himself 7th place as he was hauling the Williams driver in by three seconds a lap.He had to settle for 8th.
Lewis Hamilton duly took an emotional chequered flag on a day when more front wings were destroyed than seemed feasible. Robert Kubica drove a brilliant error-free race for second, while Massa (who'd come perilously close to emulating Hamilton through the Swimming Pool on several occasions ) suffered most from the wrong strategy.
It was perhaps fitting that the World Champion should end up with no points having made several mistakes in a race where he never looked comfortable and was a long way off his team-mate's pace.
FH
Results
01 L. Hamilton McLaren 2:00:42.742
02 R. Kubica BMW + 3.064
03 F. Massa Ferrari + 4.811
04 M. Webber Red Bull + 19.295
05 S. Vettel Toro Rosso + 24.657
06 R. Barrichello Honda + 28.408
07 K. Nakajima Williams + 30.180
08 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 33.191
09 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 33.792
10 F. Alonso Renault + 1 laps
11 J. Button Honda + 1 laps
12 T. Glock Toyota + 1 laps
13 J. Trulli Toyota + 1 laps
14 N. Heidfeld BMW + 4 laps
Did not finish
15 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 7 laps
16 N. Rosberg Williams + 17 laps
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 31 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 40 laps
19 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 70 laps
20 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 70 laps
