Red Bull dominated the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix, with pole sitter and winner Mark Webber getting a great start, and pit strategy allowing Sebastian Vettel to hold the lead until his first and only late pit stop. The German would finish the race in fourth, close behind Fernando Alonso and ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Nico Rosberg slotted into second behind Webber at the start and would essentially remain there through the entire race. Alonso had moved up at the start despite some contact with Romain Grosjean, who crashed into the first turn after contact with Michael Schumacher and brought out a Safety Car. Despite a lack of forecast rain, tyre strategy and weather considerations brought drama to the streets of Monaco, with Michael Schumacher forced to retire with just over ten laps remaining, and Kimi Raikkonen finished ninth. The final ten laps were nailbiting ones, as light rain began to fall, and Webber stacked up the top six to be covered by just five seconds as the final lap began.
Though Schumacher (1:14.301) set the fastest lap time at the end of Q3 in Saturday’s qualifying session, Webber (1:14.381) started the race on pole. The German lost his first place grid position due to a five-place penalty imposed after the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago when Schumacher ran into the back of Bruno Senna early in that race. That moved third fastest qualifier Rosberg up to the front row, allowing Hamilton and Grosjean to complete the second row, and dropping Schumacher back to start alongside Alonso on row three. Qualifying was itself eventful, with a red flag in Q1 for an incident by Perez, Button getting knocked out in Q2 as Raikkonen moved forward by the skin of his teeth, and multiple drivers holding pole in the final seconds after the flag fell to end Q3. Sunday morning, Perez also received a five-place penalty for a gearbox change, putting he and Maldonado together on the final row. Massa, Raikkonen, Vettel, and Hulkenberg completed the top ten starters for the race.
The three practice sessions might not have been as eventful, but the certainly held promise. Alonso (1:16.265) took first blood by leading the Thursday morning session over Grosjean, Perez, Hamilton, and Maldonado under the sunny skies of Monaco. The heavens opened only slightly for the afternoon practice, which Button (1:15.746) led. There was rain enough only to dampen and further add to the typical slipperiness of the streets, leading to fast times set in the first fifteen minutes of the practice. That session also ended early, after Kovalainen caused a red flag by spewing oil through the tunnel as the engine on his Caterham let go in the final ten minutes of practice. Grosjean, Massa, Alonso, and Maldonado completed the fastest five that afternoon, continuing to show the fast pace of the Lotus as well as a seriously committed Massa at Monaco.
The rails came off for Maldonado in the final practice Saturday morning. The most recent race winner of 2012 ended the session early for everyone after smashing into the barriers at Casino Square and losing a wheel. His behavior before the incident made things more difficult for the Venezuelan. A few turns earlier, Maldonado went around Perez in the typical Monaco traffic, only to seemingly deliberately turn into the Mexican in retribution for holding him up. Though Maldonado later claimed it was purely an accident, the stewards gave him a ten-place grid penalty for this weekend’s race, for causing a collision. He would later move back another five positions for a gearbox change between quali and the race. Rosberg (1:15.159) set the fastest lap in the latter half of the practice session, leading Massa, Vettel, Alonso, and Grosjean at the end
Race Start:
Though some teams saw a possibility of showers, the lights went out under the sunny skies and the drivers were away alongside a bright blue harbor at Monaco. Vettel, Button, Di Resta, de la Rosa, and Petrov all started on the harder (soft) tyre. Webber goot a good start, with Risberg leaping across into second. Hamilton took third, with Alonso sliding into fourth as Grosjean spun into the first turn, causing much smoke and melee. Kobayashi was unable to miss the Frenchman and ran into the Lotus.
On the start, Schumacher went to drive around the outside, kicking up dust, then Grosjean looked to slot between Schumacher and Alonso, tapping the Ferrari, then bouncing off Schumacher. Grosjean slid sideways to sit abreast the Turn 1 entry, allowing Kobayashi to bounce off his rear wheel. Button also lost a number of positions in attempting to get around the stranded Lotus. Meanwhile, Maldonado ran into de la Rosa’s rear, dislodging his own front wing and putting the Spaniards at an angle. Maldonado stopped on track before the first lap ended while the marshals attempted to remove Grosjean’s car as other streamed past. .
Safety Car (L2) and Restart (L4):
The Safety Car was deployed, but only for a couple laps. At that point, Webber led Rosberg, Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Vettel, Raikkonen, Schumacher, Hulkenberg, and Senna. Things restarted on L4. Hamilton was a bit late after a couple of frantic radio messages during the SC, leaving room for Alonso to snap back and forth behind him. In the mess of the first two laps, de la Rosa also retired after returning to the garage. Petrov also pitted, but returned to the circuit. On L7, Kobayashi pitted for another look at his Sauber to ensure all the bits were together properly. At about the same time, race control announced that the cars who had cut the first turn were under investigation for doing so. Webber managed to gain a small gap over Rosberg, who complained that the Australian was holding him up, going too slowly to save his tyres. Further back, Massa worried teammate Alonso, with Vettel, Raikkonen, Schumacher, and Hulkenberg in a train behind the Spaniard.
End L10:
On L10, the stewards decided that there would be no penalties for the drivers taking evasive action into the first turn. By the end of that lap, Webber had a 1.4s lead over Rosberg, with Hamilton and Alonso about the same distance behind the cars ahead of them. Massa, Vettel, Raikkonen, Schumacher, Hulkenberg, and Senna completed the top ten, with Button down in fourteenth. Kobayashi retired that lap, presumably from damage after bouncing off Grosjean. L13 brough information from Lotus to Raikkonen, indicating that rain could fall in fifteen laps. Fighting over sixteenth, Vergne took to cutting the chicane and had to give the position back to the Mexican driver.
At the front, Webber had two seconds over Rosberg, with Hamilton about the same behind Rosberg. Alonso was nearly four seconds behind Hamilton, as the Ferrari drivers had gained a gap of 1.3s on Vettel. Petrov pitted on L17, getting a roll back into the garage with an electrical problem. Suddenly, Alonso put forth a masterful lap, going fastest of all and doubling the gap back to his teammate. In the lead, Webber learned that typically Red Bull would be pitting him for new tyres now, but with the likelihood of rain he would need to stay on the track. With the temperature dropping, Alonso continued to move out after Hamilton, with Massa behind but not dragging. By L21, Massa had nearly four seconds gap to Vettel behind.
Well back, Kovalainen had impressively gotten around Button into thirteenth and had been lapping within similar times. Meanwhile, Mercedes looked to fake out Red Bull, putting tyres out for Rosberg in case he had gap enough to pit and get out ahead of soft tyre wearer Vettel, but neither pitted. In the middle of the pack, Schumacher gave Raikkonen a hard time, but also had Hulkenberg directly behind him and Senna another eight tenths back. At the end of L25, they were the drivers closest together on the track in a train through the chicane and hairpin.
Pit Stops Begin (L28):
As more and more drivers complained that tyres were wearing out dramatically, teams’ forecast for rain continued to change. Some teams said four minutes, other ten, others twelve. Rosberg became the first driver at the front to pit, switching to the harder (soft) tyre on L28 and dropping to sixth. Soon thereafter, Schumacher had a hard look at Raikkonen into the chicane, locking up and barely missing running into the back of the Finn as he was unable to make the pass. Webber pitted on L29, as did Hamilton, who had just lost his entire gap to Alonso. Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, and Senna joined them, all switching to the soft tyre. Raikkonen nearly ran over the foot and tyre warmer of Hulkenberg’s right rear crew member as he hurried to stay ahead of the German. Alonso pitted on L30, managing a seriously quick in lap and smooth stop by Ferrari to get ahead of Hamilton in the stop. Massa pitted on L31, leaving Vettel in the lead.
The German remained there, with teammate Webber almost twelve seconds behind having already stopped. Rosberg, Alonso, and Hamilton completed the top five, with Schuamcher, who had not yet pitted, ahead of Massa. Di Resta Ricciardo, and Button completed the top ten, but also had yet to stop. Schumacher pitted on L35 as Webber continued to lose time to his teammate, despite Vettel’s old tyres and Webber’s new ones. Schumacher rejoined in tenth, ahead of Vergne and behind three driver who still needed to pit.
The first word of rain drops came on L36, but things still looked dry enough. Meanwhile, Perez dove into the pit lane right in front of Raikkonen, nearly causing an incident as Hulkenberg took advantage to gain position ahead of the Finn. Word soon came that that incident had come under investigation. Perez would receive a drive-though penalty a few minutes later. In the lean, Vettel continued to gain time ahead of the field. Webber sat sixteen seconds behind his teammate at L38 ended.
Halfway (End L39):
Button pitted for his first stop on L39, switching to the supersoft tyres and coming back out in fourteenth, behind Kovalainen. At the front, Webber had gained a couple of tenths on leader Vettel after the team told him the gap to Vettel was safe and he could go faster. Rosberg, Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Ricciardo, Schumacher, Vergne, and Di Resta completed the top ten. Meanwhile, Hamilton informed McLaren that “at this pace, my tyres won’t last very long.” He was nearly two seconds behind Alonso, who was less than a second behind Rosberg.
Around this time, Rob Smedley continued to tell Massa to push a bit to catch up to Hamilton, who was himself on the radio. The Briton complained that something from a pit signaling board had been falling and hitting him on the head. Leader Vettel began to lose time, finally pitting on L46 with a 16.6s gap to Webber. He rejoined directly in front of Hamilton, sliding across the track having made it up the hill on the pit exit just ahead to make fourth place.
At the end of L47, with all drivers having pitted, Webber led Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Massa, Schumacher, Vergne, Di Resta, and Hulkenberg as the top ten. Raikkonen, Senna, Koavalainen, Button, Ricciardo, Glock, Perez, Pic, and Karthikeyan completed the running order. Meanwhile, Lotus told Raikkonen that there would be no rain at all. In this time frame, Hamilton complained to McLaren that they should have informed him that he needed to push to gap Vettel.
The drivers began to close up for the final twenty laps. Webber had a second and a half over Rosberg when just fifteen laps remained while Alonso was another two seconds behind. Vettel had begun to worry Alonso, less than a second back, while Hamilton sat another second and a half behind Vettel. Massa, having been told to keep his tyres fresh, was just over a second back from Hamilton. Schuamacher, in seventh, was no threat, nearly eighteen seconds behind Massa. L55 saw yellow flags for a bit of front wing from a Marussia at the Swimming Pool complex, which Perez barely managed to avoid after is flew off and skittered across the track in front of him.
The order did not change as the laps evolved, but there was plenty of consideration to be given to tyres and strategy as teams gossiped on the radio to the drivers over the strategy of other teams. Schuamcher drifted backwards, with some sort of issue the team labeled “not critical.” Vernge made a move for the seventh position after his great strategy moved him up through the field, and Schumacher did not force the issue and the Frenchman moved into seventh. In continued intrigue, rain reports began coming in from the harbor and umbrellas began opening in the grandstands with about fifteen laps remaining. Schumacher pitted, retiring with that previously mentioned, unidentified issue
10 Laps Remaining:
Pic became the next driver to end his race, stopping on track on L67, just after Button took a look on Kovalainen. The Finn refused to allow him through. Ricciardo added to the late retirements, pitting out of the race on L68. At the front, Webber began to really back up the field, with Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, and Massa all covered by 3.6s. At that point, rain drops could easily be seen from onboard cameras. While all this drama happened on track, race control announced that the Schumacher/Grosjean incident from the first lap would be investigated after the race.
Vergne pitted for inters from eighth on L71 as the leaders managed to get back a bit of their lost time from that light rain. Fighting over twelfth, Button went for a go at Kovalainen only to get turned around and lose position to Perez, then suffer a puncture. Perez then went for a pass on the Finn, only to have the two of them get together at Mirabeau. Perez flicked around in the escape route to continue on but Kovalainen continued on with a wobbly front wing. Perez, then Kovalainen had to practically sit offline to allow the leaders through, then found they would be under investigation after the race for some contact.
Getting through the traffic, Webber had a few car lengths on Rosberg with five laps remaining. Otherwise, the top sixth continued to be stacked like Lincoln Logs. Rain continued to fall and abate as the cars went sliding around the turns. Despite the close corners, the order remained unchanged. On the final lap, five seconds covered the top six drivers. Everyone made it cleanly through the chicane, though it looked as though they could easily have not. In the end, Webber led across the line as he did when the race began, and only sixteen drivers completed the race.
Final Positions, 2012 Monaco Grand Prix:
Driver Team Gap Pit 1. Mark Webber Red Bull 0.6 1 2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 0.9 1 3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1.3 1 4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 4.1 1 5. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 6.1 1 6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 41.5 1 7. Paul Di Resta Force India 42.5 1 8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India 44.0 1 9. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 44.5 1 10. Bruno Senna Williams 1 Lap 1 11. Sergio Perez Sauber 1 Lap 2 12. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1 Lap 2 13. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1 Lap 2 14. Timo Glock Marussia 1 Lap 2 15. Narain Karthikeyan HRT 2 Laps 2 Jenson Button McLaren 8 Laps 1 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 13 Laps 2 Chrles Pic Marussia 14 Laps 1 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 15 Laps 2 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 63 Laps 2 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 73 Laps 2 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1 Pastor Maldonado Williams Romain Grosjean Lotus
Discover more from The Parc Fermé
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
