Monaco Grand Prix 2012 - Report

Mark Webber took his first win of the season with a finely-judged drive around the streets of Monaco, making it six different winners in as many races in the process. The Australian was made to fend off a queue of cars during the closing stages of the race as rain threatened to arrive, Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso completing the podium positions.

Webber began the race from pole position, but only set the second fastest time in Q3 as Michael Schumacher, a five-time winner at the principality, set the pace. His shunt with Bruno Senna last time out at Catalunya however meant that he would begin sixth, with Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg joining Webber’s Red Bull on the front row. Lewis Hamilton lined up third ahead of Romain Grosjean, with Fernando Alonso the final man to begin ahead of Schumacher.

Webber made an uncharacteristically good start and lead Rosberg and Hamilton into the first corner, but as is typical at Monaco there was chaos at Sainte-Devote further down the order. Grosjean was the first man to hit trouble – the Lotus driver made a slightly slow getaway, and was then pitched into a spin after being squeezed between Schumacher and a fast-starting Alonso.

Kamui Kobayashi was unfortunate enough to collect the stricken Franco-Swiss driver, forcing the Sauber into retirement with damaged suspension. Pastor Maldonado meanwhile hit the back of Pedro de la Rosa’s HRT, eliminating both drivers from the race as well; the Spanish Grand Prix winner had qualified ninth, but was demoted to the rear of the grid through a combination of penalties for being deemed to have made deliberate contact with Sergio Perez’s Sauber during final practice and a gearbox change.

The Safety car was briefly scrambled for two laps, with the order being Webber from Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Sebastian Vettel (who cut the first corner to avoid Grosjean but wasn’t penalised), Kimi Raikkonen and Schumacher. As the race got underway once more, Webber was able to slowly edge away from Rosberg, with Massa at first pressurising his more illustrious teammate. As the track cooled as the first stint went on however, Alonso was able to shake off his teammate and begin to hassle Hamilton.

With the threat of rain ever-present, the teams were eager to delay the pit-stops as long as possible to avoid having to make an extra stop on to wet-weather tyres. The first man among the lead runners to switch from the super-softs to the softs was Rosberg, who did so at the end of lap 29. Two laps later, Webber and Hamilton followed suit, with Alonso pitting on lap 30 and Massa on lap 31. A superb in-lap by Alonso combined with a quick pit-stop from the Ferrari mechanics allowed the Spaniard to get ahead of Hamilton into third position.

All of this left Vettel in control of the race, the German having not set a time in Q3 on Saturday and thus giving him the privilege of starting the race on soft tyres. Vettel was able to set the pace with the benefit of clean air, but unable to stretch the 20-second gap required to be able to pit and retain his lead. With an advantage of around 16 seconds, Vettel headed for the pits for a set of super-softs on lap 46, slotting in between Alonso and Hamilton in fourth position.

Webber found himself back in the lead, albeit with Rosberg still just a couple of seconds behind the Red Bull. It seemed as if the outcome of the race was all but decided, but light rain did materialise with a handful of laps to go which closed the top six to within five seconds. With none of the leaders able to overtake during the dying stages of the race, Webber duly crossed the finish line to take his second Monaco victory. Rosberg held on for second position from Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton, Massa taking a season-best finish of sixth place which may allay rumours of his replacement for a couple of races yet.

Paul di Resta quietly ascended the order into seventh having begun on softs, with his Force India teammate Nico Hulkenberg collecting a handy eighth position. Raikkonen meanwhile finished ninth in a difficult race, compounding a miserable weekend for Lotus who began the weekend as the favourites for many onlookers. Bruno Senna in the sole remaining Williams collected the final point of the afternoon with tenth position.

Perez’s maiden race at Monaco was nothing short of catastrophe. The Mexican crashed his Sauber at the Swimming Pool chicane during the first part of qualifying on Saturday after suffering a mysterious steering failure, meaning he would start from the rear of the grid. Having negotiated the first corner carnage, the Mexican was handed a drive-through penalty for impeding Raikkonen as he entered the pits for his scheduled pit-stop before then spinning his Sauber at Sainte-Devote trying to overtake the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen. He finally crossed the line in eleventh place.

Twelfth position fell to Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne, who had made his way up to an excellent seventh place with two stints on soft tyres. The team was then faced with the choice of ending on super-softs or intermediates: they opted for the latter, and Vergne subsequently tumbled down the order with insufficient rain on the circuit to make the intermediates work. Kovalainen, Timo Glock for Marussia and Narain Karthikeyan for HRT completed the list of finishers in a race of unusually high attrition.

Jenson Button was another man to endure a disappointing weekend, qualifying in twelfth and spending the bulk of his race behind Kovalainen following the first-corner mix-up. The Brit failed to complete the race, hitting the back of the Finn’s Caterham at the Swimming Pool several laps from home. Michael Schumacher was on course for seventh position after over-hauling Raikkonen during the pit-stops, but ground to a halt late on with fuel pressure problems. Daniel Ricciardo retired after damaging his steering, whilst Charles Pic and Vitaly Petrov succumbed tp electronics gremlins, leaving just fifteen drivers to take the chequered flag.

Alonso now leads the championship race by three points, Vettel and Webber joint in second position with Hamilton a further ten points adrift. A sixth winner not only breaks the record for the most different race winners from the start of the season, but also means now we have had more different winners this year in six races as we had throughout the entirety of last year. With several others who one would strongly suspect will be able to add themselves to that list in the not-too-distant future, the title fight looks set to rage all season long. I for one wouldn’t like to bet who will come out on top.