Monaco Grand Prix Review

Ferrari has not won on the streets of the Principality since 2001, a remarkable drought given their success elsewhere in the intervening period. Last year they particularly struggled with their longer wheelbase F2007, and they arrived this year determined to once-and-for-all wrest title momentum away from McLaren. They went about it the right way by locking out the front row in qualifying. Given the importance of track position in Monte Carlo, even if Hamilton was running heavier, this was a telling blow.

But come race day it quickly started to unravel for Maranello. Not only did Hamilton get the jump on Raikkonen at the start, but soon after came the slice - no, make that a gigantic chunk - of luck that turned the race in Hamilton's favour. The corollary of having safer, sturdier cars in F1 these days is that they are also more resistant to damage. Not that long ago, Lewis' clout into the armco at Tabac would have been race-ending. Instead, McLaren simply fixed a puncture - there was not even any suspension damage.

Even then it was apparent that this could work out nicely in Lewis' favour. The Briton had lost time, but only a few positions; as Jarno Trulli was struggling in the Toyota in 6th, Hamilton emerged still in 5th and now effectively onto a one-stop strategy, which became 4th when Fernando Alonso also hit the wall. And when the safety car came out, he had made up all his lost time as well. A one-stopper is more viable at Monaco than elsewhere, and the fuel-saving pace required by the conditions only made that more so.

So here was Lewis, having to make one fewer stop than Raikkonen, Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa immediately in front of him, and already sitting pretty, as the real race order was the one after those three had pitted for the first time. But to rub salt into the wound, as the rain stopped and the track dried, Hamilton's one remaining stop fell exactly into the perfect window for switching to dry tyres. He and his team weren't even faced with a 'dries or inters' dilemma which they could have got wrong.

So really it was down to Massa, Kubica and Raikkonen to fight it out for the remaining podium positions, and very quickly Kimi was eliminated from that battle. In the other dramas and heroic stories of the day, Kubica's race, and indeed his entire weekend, was one of unsung quality. As BMW continue to put him on a lighter strategy in qualifying, he is using it to full effect and psychologically denting team-mate Nick Heidfeld's confidence every time - so much so that Heidfeld didn't even make it past Q2 here.

In the race, the Pole was caught behind Raikkonen's struggling Ferrari at the start, but once the Finn had to take his drive-through penalty, he was released to apply maximum pressure on Massa, to the point where Felipe made a mistake at Ste Devote and handed Robert the lead. The BMW's light-fuel strategy meant that the Brazilian leapfrogged him back at the first stop, but Ferrari's hesitancy in switching to dries at the second stop simply handed the place back. In the end, 2nd was just reward for an error-free drive.

Kubica's naturally forceful style behind the wheel previously was not only unsuited to the wet, but throughout 2007 it was also unsuited to the Bridgestone tyres. But China last year showed that he could be rapid in slippery conditions, and this season he has dialled himself perfectly into the BMW's characteristics. He is only 6 points off the championship lead, and as Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa continue to trip up and take points off each other, the Pole will be more than a mere spoiler, even if not a realistic title threat.

Massa, however, could perhaps finally be considered a genuine threat this year. Yes, he lost the lead to Kubica through a mistake, and his speed on dying inters late into his second stint was not great - but it was as much the team's fault for not calling him in for his second stop earlier which meant he lost 2nd to Kubica. But this was Monaco which Massa admits he doesn't like, and the conditions in the first half of the race were ones in which you would normally have expected him to throw the car into the wall.

Raikkonen's nonchalance may be one of his more strangely endearing qualities, but perhaps it runs the risk of slipping into complacency and that did not serve him well here. Being pipped for pole was one thing, but losing 2nd to Hamilton right at the start and being unable to find any grip whilst Massa was romping away was race-destroying as it was. And that was before his drive-through and early first fuel stop after he too ran straight on at Ste Devote and broke his front wing in the process.

It should be noted that the drive-through, for changing tyres after the three-minute board, was neither due to indecisiveness on Kimi's part or an operational mistake on Ferrari's part, but rather a wheel nut problem. But these two early stops put the Ferrari behind Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil, and from there Kimi was only able to pass Webber in the pits, when the Australian had no choice but to pit and change to dries earlier than he would have liked.

But the Finn could do nothing about the Force India, and even with the second safety car period bunching the field up, around Monaco you'd have thought that Sutil was a safe bet to keep 4th place. Of all people to then make a mistake, the reigning World Champion would have been one of the least likely candidates. For knocking out the hero of the race and ruin a fairytale, whilst heavily damaging his own title position after an unimpressive error-filled afternoon, we award Raikkonen the 'Reject of the Race' award.

Sutil has every right to feel grievously hard done by. From his lowly grid position he had not only not put a foot wrong, but he had been seriously quick, passing cars along the way and taking full advantage of the incident between Alonso and Heidfeld. It was reminiscent of Olivier Panis' race-winning drive in similar conditions in 1996, and it showed that last year's effort of topping Saturday practice in a Spyker had been no fluke. The German is special in the wet - remember he also scored a point at Fuji last year.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Kimi Raikkonen
Turned Force India's dream into nightmare

Webber, however, has wet weather and Monaco credentials to add to his superlative form in 2008. It was no surprise to see him in the top ten again in qualifying, and revel in the race-day conditions by being quick and staying out of trouble. Had he been able to delay his only stop for a few more laps, then 4th place would never have been something he eventually only inherited. For the first time ever he has scored five points finishes in a row; at this rate, he could surpass the 36 points he picked up for Williams in 2005.

Coming home in 5th, and almost unnoticed, was Sebastian Vettel on the Toro Rosso STR3 chassis' debut. In the dry, both he and Bourdais had found the new car hard to come to terms with, and both had missed the Q1 cut, plus the German had had to take a penalty for a gearbox change that came with switching to the new car. But unlike Sutil, he was unable to scythe through the field, but steadily rose up the order due to others' misfortunes and mistakes.

Vettel found himself in a battle for what should have been 7th (before Raikkonen and Sutil collided) against Barrichello and Kazuki Nakajima. Rubens in the Honda had been surprisingly relatively subdued despite conditions in which he is renowned, and it was only as the track dried that he came to the fore, being one of the fastest men in the transitional period. Nakajima's position had bounced around like a yo-yo in the early laps, but unlike team-mate Nico Rosberg, Kazuki wasn't bouncing off walls and other cars.

The order between these three should have been Barrichello ahead of Nakajima and Vettel, all on a one-stop strategy, but Sebastian benefited firstly from a wheel nut problem for Kazuki at his stop, and the fact that Rubens also came in for dries a smidgen too late (and yet he still did so two laps before Massa and three before Raikkonen to emphasise Ferrari's error). And so Vettel erased his luckless start to the season, whilst Barrichello scored his first points since the 2006 Brazilian GP.

Maybe it was a temporary malaise affecting Finns, but in the second McLaren, Heikki Kovalainen had as eventful a race as his compatriot Raikkonen, and arguably didn't deserve to pick up a point for 8th. An electronics glitch at the start meant a second burn from the stern in as many races, and as he charged back he got nudged by Rosberg during the traffic jam caused by Alonso and Heidfeld, before he assaulted Jenson Button at the chicane in much the same way Raikkonen would attack Sutil later.

Heikki is now equal on points with Webber and only ahead of the Red Bull driver on count-back, but more significantly he is 23 points behind Hamilton and now surely out of any championship contention. This doesn't reflect badly on Heikki, for the truth is that is increasingly matching Lewis on pace, but it does mean that McLaren's championship efforts will invariably now start to focus on Hamilton. This could prove crucial if Massa and Raikkonen in the Ferrari camp are taking points off each other.

Eventually taking a forlorn 10th behind Raikkonen was the Renault of Alonso, who had been the epitome of gung-ho-ness throughout the race. In a car which is still proving disappointingly inferior regardless of circuit type, here were conditions which would allow Fernando's skill to make up the difference. But after a great start in which he passed Rosberg straight away, very quickly it became apparent that perhaps the Spaniard was trying just a bit too hard, becoming the first victim at Massanet as the track got wetter.

That he survived that impact was even more amazing than Hamilton surviving his incident at Tabac, and at this point switching onto full wets gave him a temporary advantage which he used to good effect, until he came up to pass Heidfeld. Fernando's lunge at Loew's was half-hearted at best, and it was certainly impatient, and he never got more than halfway alongside the BMW, bringing about the inevitable collision. But upon pitting, he opted for another set of the full wets.

In a race in which several others showed their wet weather credentials, one of the surprises was that Button hardly made an impression, although that was largely due to an overly eventful first lap in which he lost places at Ste Devote, but then passed Barrichello, Webber and Heidfeld only to lose his front wing against Rosberg. A second stop during the first safety car period, plus being hit by Kovalainen later on, meant that he lost any chance of putting himself back into points contention.

Toyota turned out to be equally anonymous. Jarno Trulli's 8th place on the grid brought with it a disadvantageous two-stop strategy, which was exacerbated when he took on extreme wets at the same time as Alonso early on. As a result of being on completely the wrong compound as the track dried, he fell into the clutches of the one-stoppers, and from there having to pit twice more completely compromised his afternoon, putting him even behind team-mate Timo Glock at the end.

Despite qualifying outside the top ten, Glock appears to have been put on a two-stop strategy as well, a notÐunexpectedly dodgy strategic call from Toyota. His tyre choices throughout the race matched Trulli's, but Timo was also further undone by incidents at the Anthony Noghes chicane, at Mirabeau, and at the chicane after the tunnel. Timo isn't doing anything to curtail his growing reputation as someone who is incident-prone and, as we've said before, he needs to make an impression sooner rather than later.

The last classified runner was Heidfeld, who was finally parked a few laps from home when it became obvious that trailing around in a wounded car wasn't going to earn any points. Being hit by Alonso wasn't his fault, but no one else is to blame for how he is struggling against Kubica. The murmurs about Nick needing to raise his game has turned into a chorus of press statements, but perhaps the reality is that the solid-but-unspectacular German is simply being shown up by someone realising a greater talent.

Nelson Piquet Jnr spent all of qualifying and the race looking like an accident waiting to happen, and when he had to make his one fuel stop, Renault faced the unenviable choice of either sending him out on inters for a handful of laps, or putting him onto dries too early. They did the latter, with the inevitable consequence of Nelsinho finding the wall. Despite the internal pressure to perform now starting to be aired in public, his odds of becoming 'Reject of the Year' are shortening - if he lasts long enough into the season.

Fisichella's 200th Grand Prix start was entirely forgettable, for the gearbox change which would have put him at the back of the grid (but he was slowest in Q1 anyway), and for more gearbox problems on race day which meant that he couldn't make the same progress as his team-mate and found himself progressively losing his cogs. Otherwise, David Coulthard's early crash came on top of his nasty shunt at the end of Q2, whilst Bourdais joined the Scot in the wall in sympathy after narrowly missing the Q1 cut.

At the end of an eventful afternoon, Alain Prost came out and declared that this is a title fight going down to the wire, but that is only stating the bleeding obvious. The Ferrari is probably the faster car, but on Massa's current form, he and Raikkonen risk taking points off each other. And whilst the men in red repeatedly show how human they are, Hamilton returns to the site of his first Grand Prix triumph last year in Canada, and on the kind of luck he had at Monaco, some might say he has a divine force in his pocket.