Category: Formula 1

We’re sure Nico Rosberg is still smiling after his strong win at the Monaco Grand Prix overnight. You can read what he had to say after the race, along with the words from Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, in the post-race press conference below.

Actually, Mark’s final comment in regard to the Mercedes secret tyre test controversy is worth reading.

Speaking about his crash with Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo said: “I could see that Grosjean had got a good run out of the tunnel and that he was close, so I defended my line and the next thing I knew he was over the back of me. I haven’t seen it on a TV yet, but at the moment I believe it was a misjudgement on his part and a costly one that was quite dangerous, even if we are both okay.”

The race stewards said that Romain can have a 10-place grid penalty for the next race. And Grosjean won’t win himself many friends in our neck of the woods by blaming Daniel for underperforming in qualifying and the race.

“Daniel seemed to be really struggling with his rear tyres and they looked to have a lot of graining,” said Grosjean. “I’d been following him for almost all of the 61 laps but I was caught out by him braking early in the middle of the circuit and there was nowhere for me to go.

“It’s a frustrating end to the weekend, but the real damage was done in qualifying when I didn’t get through to Q3. That was Daniel again who I was held up by, but it certainly wasn’t my intention to end my race in the back of his car!”

[Pic: Getty Images/Red Bull]

Nico Rosberg (Mercedes AMG) has won his second Formula 1 race by taking victory in an incident-packed Monaco Grand Prix. In a nice bit of symmetry it’s 30 years since his father, Keke, won at Monaco, making them the first father-son pairing to win the iconic race.

Rosberg, starting from pole, drove a considered race that included two safety car periods and a temporary red flag. On each of the restarts Nico was able to maintain his lead and restore his gap back to second place.

The minor places were filled by the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Vettel was unable to launch a serious attack on Rosberg and had to content himself with the fastest lap set on lap 77 of 78. Webber, too, had an incident free race, although he did have to defend his position from Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes AMG).

The first safety car period came to be after Felipe Massa put his Ferrari into the wall at Sainte Devote, in a repeat of his free practice 3 crash. It was quite a heavy impact, but he emerged from his car okay before being taken to hospital for checks.

Contact between Max Chilton (Marussia) and Pastor Maldonado (Williams) caused the red flag. Maldonado crashed heavily forcing the air barrier in front of the armco out on to the track and a temporary halt to the race was the only course of action that could be taken.

Daniel Ricciardo’s race was ruined when Romain Grosjean drove his Lotus over the top the Australian’s Toro Rosso on the exit from the tunnel. The subsequent damage forced both cars out of the race and brought out the second safety car period.

Sebastian Vettel extended his lead in the drivers’ championship thanks to poor results from Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) and Fernando Alonso (Ferrari). Indeed, Alonso was well off his game being picked off by Sergio Perez (McLaren), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Jenson Button (McLaren).

Having grown up in Monaco as a boy Nico Rosberg was delighted to have won his ‘home’ race. However, for now, the victory will remain under a cloud pending the result of the protest that has been lodged by Red Bull and Ferrari after the secret test Mercedes conducted with Pirelli last week.

Nico Rosberg has made it three from three by claiming pole position on a drying track at the Monaco Grand Prix overnight. It’s his third pole position in a row and the fourth on end for Mercedes AMG.

Intermediates were required in Q1, then slicks in Q2 and Q3. As conditions continued to improve the times came tumbling down and Rosberg’s time (1:13.876) was around one tenth quicker than teammate Lewis Hamilton (1:13.967).

Following the all-Mercedes front row is an all-Red Bull second row; Sebastian Vettel (1:13.980) nudged out Mark Webber (1:14.181) who briefly held provisional pole until final few seconds.

With the race start all important in Monaco the third row will be the one to watch, with Kimi Raikkonen (1:14.822) in P4 and lightning starter Fernando Alonso (1:14.824) in P6.

Jean-Eric Vergne had a rare win over his Toro Rosso teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, and will start from P10. Ricciardo couldn’t manage to get himself into Q3 and will start from P12.

Speaking after qualifying Mark Webber said: “Yeah I’m pretty happy with that. It’s very easy to be towards the back when you have a disruptive session with those conditions, but we managed to survive all the tricky sections and put together a reasonably tidy effort.

“The conditions are changing and the tyres are tricky, so starting on the second row here is not bad. It’s a long race and a lot of strategy can unfold, so we’ll see what we can do from there.”

Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo was less happy with his effort: “I am disappointed with that qualifying, as I think this afternoon was a missed opportunity. I really wanted Q3 today and with the mixed conditions, the opportunity was there.

“I feel the car has got a good pace on a long run, certainly better than in qualifying, but with the difficulty in overtaking here, starting twelfth is not ideal. So now we need to come up with a good strategy to try and make up for this afternoon.”

Full qualifying positions, along with the post-quali press conference transcript, can be read after the break.

[Pic: Mercedes AMG]