Rosberg wins Monaco Grand Prix; Hamilton denied victory due to a Mercedes strategy

Nico Rosberg was literally gifted his third consecutive Monaco Grand Prix victory after a Mercedes strategy backfired for Hamilton under the safety car caused by a crash between Max Vestappen and Romain Grosjean for tenth position on lap.

At the start, Lewis Hamilton pulled off instantly ahead of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. It was a clean start for the grid except for Nico Hulkenberg who had a crash with Fernando Alonso at Mirabeau and for Felipe Massa, who had to pit instantly after the first lap following a collision and a puncture . It sent him further back down having dropped in Q2 yesterday.

Pastor Maldonado continued his share of bad fortunes, this time facing a mechanical failure of the brake because of some wire issues. Max ‘Senna’ Verstappen produced a stunning overtake to overtake the limping Lotus at Sainte Devote.

Lewis Hamilton was further helped by the traffic as his rivals Rosberg and Vettel were caught in the traffic for a much longer time than the Briton. He was comfortably cruising ahead and looked set to win the race.

A sever crash between Verstappen and Grosjean at  Ste Devote ensured the safety car had to come out on lap 64. Verstappen simply banged on the back of Grosjean fighting for tenth position, going airborne and crashing out of the race.

At the time of the entry of safety car, Hamilton had a 15s lead over Rosberg. As the safety car came out, Mercedes decided to pit Hamilton, which was nothing but a disaster as he came out behind Rosberg and Vettel. Thanks to the cramped Monaco Circuit and a mere 8 laps of racing left, Hamilton couldn’t do much.

Vettel finished a strong second and Kimi Raikkonen sixth, as both the Red Bulls managed a very strong result with Daniil Kvyat fourth and Daniel Ricciardo fifth. While Vettel continues to impress, Raikkonen’s form will make Ferrari ask alot of questions from him, certainly.

McLaren enjoyed both good and bad fortunes as Jenson Button finished eighth, giving McLaren their first points of the season so far. Fernando Alonso on the other hand, despite running in ninth position even after serving his 5s stop go penalty for his crash with Hulkenberg, crashed out.

Verstappen’s team mate Carlos Sainz Jr was excluded from the Qualifying and was made to start at the pit lane. He ran a mammoth race to finish 10th and gain some valuable points for his team after Verstappen’s crash ruled him out.

Sauber’s Felipe Nasr finished in the ninth position while Marcus Ericsson finished thirteenth. Force India enjoyed a splendid result with Sergio Perez finishing seventh and Nico Hulkenberg 11th despite his early crash. Grosjean was able to finish 12th, while both Williams endured a horrible weekend, finishing just ahead of the two Manors in 14th and 15th places. Manor rounded up the result with both their drivers crossing the line in 16th and 17th positions.

Hamilton was visibly upset over the podium and certainly there will be a lot of questions asked from his team mate. Toto Wolff came out and apologised to him, but it won’t be settled this easily. Things at Red Bull and McLaren will be much better than before with a very strong result for both the teams. There will be a lot of questions asked from Verstappen as well, whose aggression did impress everyone at first, but ultimately costed him and Grosjean crucial points.

This result gives Rosberg 25 points while Hamilton only 15, which means Hamilton’s lead cuts down by 10 points.

The championship battle is ever so close now! F1 now moves to Canada in two weeks time, and much like this race, we at ES will have you covered.

Final Result:

1 Rosberg
2 Vettel
3 Hamilton
4 Kvyat
5 Ricciardo
6 Raikkonen
7 Perez
8 Button
9 Nasr
10 Sainz
11 Hulkenberg
12 Grosjean
13 Ericsson
14 Bottas
15 Massa
16 Merhi
17 Stevens

DNF:
Verstappen – crash
Alonso – gearbox
Maldonado – brakes

Drivers’ championship:
1 Hamilton 126
2 Rosberg 116
3 Vettel 98
4 Raikkonen 60
5 Bottas 42
6 Massa 39
7 Ricciardo 35
8 Kvyat 17
9 Nasr 16
10 Grosjean 16
11 Perez 11
12 Sainz 9
13 Hulkenberg 6
14 Verstappen 6
15 Ericsson 5
16 Button 4

Constructors’ championship:
1 Mercedes 242
2 Ferrari 158
3 Williams 81
4 Red Bull 52
5 Sauber 21
6 Force India 17
7 Lotus 16
8 Toro Rosso 15
9 McLaren-Honda 4