This time the weather forecast was right, and it was raining in Monaco, when the race was about to get underway. The track was so wet, that the race was decided to be started behind the safety car. Naturally all drivers had the blue-marked full-wet tyres on. There was no excitement at the start, since it happened behind the safety car, and Ricciardo´s lead wasn´t compromised. Kvyat at the wheel of his Toro Rosso had a horrible start to the race, as the Russian faced difficulties right at the beginning of the race. Kvyat seemed extremely frustrated on the team radio, as the Russian was asking, why it was always him hit with the difficulties. I definitely don´t envy him; turning his career from disappointments and setbacks into success isn´t an easy task after being demoted back to Toro Rosso.
On lap 8 the safety car came in, and the race was finally on! Ricciardo was leading the race with Rosberg second and Hamilton third. But then Renault´s Palmer hit the wall, and there was a lot of debris on the track. This time virtual safety car was deployed. The race was back on a couple of laps later. There was an intense battle going on between the Mercedes teammates. Hamilton was right at Nico´s tail, and it seemed obvious, that the Briton was faster than his teammate.
On lap 11 there was an unexpected and disappointing moment, when Kimi was going through the hair pin in almost walking speed, but had a lock-up and ended up in the wall. The crash was enough to destroy Kimi´s front wing, which got stuck under the front-left tyre of Kimi´s SF16-H and the Finn was unable to make it into the pits. It seemed to be Kimi´s mistake, which lead into his second DNF of the season. I was so gutted for the Iceman. I would have wanted to see him fighting for points in the changing conditions!
On lap 16 it finally happened: Hamilton made it past Rosberg and jumped second. It seemed as if Rosberg was having an issue with his car, because the German´s pace looked significantly slower than his teammate´s. After the overtaking move Hamilton rapidly increased the gap to his teammate into several seconds. Sebastian was the first top driver to pit for intermediate tyres. The German Ferrari driver, however, rejoined the track behind Williams´ Massa. Sebastian was clearly faster than the Brazilian, but in the narrow streets of the Principality there was no chance to get past. This cost Sebastian a lot of valuable time! Rosberg pitted on lap 21 -also for intermediate tyres. Ricciardo pitted a lap later for the same tyres. Now it was Hamilton leading the race -still on the full-wet tyres.
Red Bull´s young Verstappen had started to the race from the pit lane, but by lap 24 the Dutchman had already made it P10. His driving was so refreshing to watch; the Red Bull teenager showed, that overtaking in Monaco was possible. When there´s will, there´s way :) Hamilton pitted not until on lap 32 -not for intermediate tyres though, but a fresh set of purple-marked ultra soft tyres! What a bold move from the Briton indeed. Ricciardo pitted on the very same lap; but what a pit stop it turned out to be. The tyres weren´t ready, although Ricciardo had been called into the pits! It took 10 extra seconds, until the team got the super soft tyres on Ricciardo´s car! This unforgettable mistake enabled Hamilton to take the lead in the race! Hamilton was leading, Ricciardo second and Force India´s Perez was third.
Towards the halfway of the race Verstappen had shown phenomenal overtaking, but suddenly it took only a small mistake to end his race. Verstappen had a lock-up, he went on the damp line and ended up in the wall! Another huge disappointment for me! Monaco definitely doesn´t allow any mistakes. The glory of all the overtaking moves was suddenly gone. In the lead there was a thrilling battle going between Hamilton and Ricciardo. The Australian was putting massive pressure on the Mercedes pilot. Hamilton made a questionable move, as he cut a chicane a bit and blocked Ricciardo after that, but no penalties were warranted for this incident, although it was investigated by the stewards.
The tyre strategy varied between the top five drivers: Hamilton had ultra soft tyres, Ricciardo super softs, Perez soft tyres as well as Sebastian in P4, and Rosberg had also opted for ultra softs. On lap 50 there was drama between the Sauber teammates Nasr and Ericsson; the Brazilian was asked on the team radio to let Ericsson past, but Nasr didn´t want to obey the team order. Instead, the teammates ended up colliding with each other! There was smoke coming out of Nasr´s car, and his race was over. At this point Rosberg was down in P6. Where had Rosberg´s magical pace disappeared?
Sebastian managed to get into DRS distance from Perez, but there seemed to be no chance for overtaking really. The same implied to the battle in the lead: Ricciardo got dangerously close to Hamilton, but couldn´t challenge the Briton for the victory after the catastrophic pit stop. Which was quite a shame, as Ricciardo himself drove a flawless race and would have deserved to win! No wonder we saw an extremely disappointed Ricciardo on the podium. It´s ironic, that Red Bull gives you wings, but it doesn´t give you the tyres!
Hamilton took his second win at Monaco and decreased Rosberg´s lead in the championship standings into just 24 points. Ricciardo is now third in the standings, jumping the Ferrari duo of Räikkönen and Vettel. Perez made an amazing job today by finishing third, and the Mexican was absolutely overwhelmed with joy. Sebastian had to settle for P4 today. Alonso in his McLaren, however, finished 5th, which was a great result for the Spaniard. Force India´s Hulkenberg managed to overtake Rosberg on the final lap, and the German completed Force India´s success by finishing 6th. Rosberg was 7th, Sainz 8th, Button 9th and Massa 10th. It seems Red Bull is seriously challenging Ferrari in the constructors´ standings! Red Bull is now only 9 points off the Italian-based team!
I was absolutely amazed at the performance of the new ultra soft tyres in the race. Previously they had been referred to as "a qualifying tyre", but today Hamilton drove over 40 laps on those tyres! I was quite shocked, that they actually lasted that long; at the end of the day it didn´t matter, whether you had opted for ultra soft, super soft or soft tyres, because you could drive to the very end on any of those tyres!
P.S. You are welcome to read my article on the Monaco GP also here: http://sfcriga.com/monaco-gp-2016-not-so-glamorous-for-ferrari
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