Rosberg untouchable around the crazy streets of Monaco

The sound of the engines roaring and reverberating off the buildings of Monaco must be a particularly awesome experience, but to thread your car for 78 laps knowing you’re untouchable must be a supreme feeling.

Nico Rosberg was fastest in every practice session, took his third consecutive pole position on Saturday and was never headed on Sunday to secure his second Formula 1 victory. He looked absolutely dominant.

Sebastian Vettel got a great start, but Rosberg was already wise to it and cut him 

off and headed down to Sainte Devote in the lead with his team mate Lewis Hamilton safely behind having also headed off the Red Bull.

At first as the race slowly heated up it looked like Mercedes might have tyre issues again, as they almost cruised around in the opening laps making sure the tyres were kept as fresh as could be.

This became evident after contact Pastor Maldonado in the Williams pitted in the early stages and was lapping up to two seconds faster than the leaders. But this was all part of the plan, if you keep on line and inch your car into the right position it’s almost impossible to pass around these streets.

However, just as it seemed like a queue was forming behind the Mercedes they slowly started stretching their legs, their conservation work over and this became more obvious as some of the leading pack pitted. First Mark Webber dropped out of fourth place to get fresh rubber on lap 26, followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button a lap later switching from the super softs to the soft tyres.

Now tyre degradation was never expected to be that high in Monaco, it’s surface is less abrasive and the lack of fast corners ensure that the tyres are not over worked. Still, the fact that the early stoppers could barely lap any quicker than the Mercedes pair showed just how well they’d managed the tyres in the opening phase of the race.

In fact they went on for longer until lap 31, a lap later than Sebastian Vettel and just as the safety car made its first appearance of the season as Felipe Massa copied his accident from practice 3 into the barriers at Sainte Devote. This is when the race really got going.

The Mercedes had to pit both cars at the same time, Lewis was only a few seconds adrift of Nico so hung back in the pit lane to allow his team to reset themselves after servicing the lead car. But this didn’t work out for him.

The safety car had picked up the Red Bull’s but allowed them to pass as it was waiting for the leader to come round, they scampered around and just managed to get in front of Hamilton as he exited the pits. But for that, it would have been a silver arrows 1-2; although it wasn’t for lack of trying from Lewis that this wasn’t achieved. Webber was perfect as he kept the Mercedes behind.

Lap 46 and Max Chilton in the Marussia had Pastor Maldonado alongside into Tabac. The Englishman failed to see him and edged him into the Armco wrecking the techpro barriers too further along and causing Jules Bianchi to lose his nose. The Red flag came out to reset the barriers.

Rosberg had by now built up a four second lead ahead of Vettel, but again it was wiped out and again he had to lead a restart after all teams had taken the opportunity to switch to fresh rubber as is allowed under the regulations. For the second time he managed the situation perfectly, pulling away in the lead.

Lap 62 now and another safety car after Romain Grosjean who had hit the wall three times already this weekend now hit a car instead, wiping out Daniel Ricciardo as they battled for 13^th. The Lotus was almost launched over the back of the Toro Rosso coming down into the Nouvelle chicane.

Both were out with Grosjean once again having questions raised about his driving and a 10 place grid penalty for Canada. This incident meant Rosberg had to watch his lead get swallowed up for the final time. However, he made no mistakes and lead away again five laps later. He opened up a manageable gap yet again and responded when needed.

He was in brilliant form, and Mercedes boss Ross Brawn came on the radio to say he couldn’t have driven any better. In his home town, Rosberg took the chequered flag to win. He was absolutely ecstatic and deserves to be. No one got near him, he dealt with all the incidents that came his way including a near miss with a pigeon, managed the tyres and was fast when he needed to be; a thoroughly deserved win with Lewis Hamilton unfortunate to only come away with fourth.

Lewis has been complaining he can’t drive the car the way he wants to at the moment, especially on the brakes. Perhaps when he gets more comfortable in the car we’ll see things change but right now Rosberg is putting him under significant pressure.

However, Mercedes are racing under protest. It was discovered last night that Mercedes had been asked by Pirelli after the Spanish Grand Prix to perform a 1000km test to assess some new tyres, most of which are for next year it has to be said, and the team weren’t allowed to know which compounds they were using anyway.

Now in season testing is not allowed so some teams have taken exception to this despite it being ok’d by the FIA. Red Bull protested before the race and it remains to be seen if this will affect the race result, although if it’s been allowed by the governing body I don’t see why it should.

It shouldn’t take away from the Rosberg, but people will ask how Mercedes seemed so much better on the tyres at this race. My answer is they suffered from poor tyre wear last year too, and Rosberg could have won here in 2012, so how significant the test was remains to be seen.

Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez make the moves

Sutil and Perez really starred in today’s race making some brave and opportunistic moves. As they said in the commentary on Sky they were rolling the dice today. Unfortunately for Perez it ended up not paying off.

After handing a place back to Button, he later got him back again into the chicane, and then made another great move on Fernando Alonso into the same place. He tried his luck on Kimi Raikkonen but this time it ended his race.

It was a racing incident and I think Kimi was already making it clear that he was coming into the apex of the chicane out of the tunnel. As Perez went for the gap Kimi was there they clashed, leaving Kimi with a slow puncture and Perez with failing suspension and a damaged front wing. Kimi later said Perez needs to be 'punched in the face'.

It was still impressive and aggressive stuff from the Mexican and it was sad to see him retire from 5^th. This allowed Adrian Sutil into the top 5, who himself had made Loews hairpin, sorry Fairmont Hairpin, his passing place of choice.

Sutil effectively mugged first Button, then Alonso and was looking menacingly at the back of Perez before he retired. A decent result for the Force India, scoring his first points since Australia.

Championship contenders

Sebastian Vettel was the top finisher in the title race with second place. I found his race rather strange. The safety car gave him second spot, as I doubt he’d have challenged Lewis properly. And that’s kind of how it felt today, Vettel was just out there to secure some decent points. That’s fair enough really especially when your main rivals are not having good days, but I’m not sure it was Vettel’s choice.

The team once again told him to calm down as he set an outrageously fast lap in the closing stages, he said he did it for satisfaction and maybe to show he’d have liked to have fought harder for the victory. I’m not sure he could have, but it was decent points and he’s extended the gap at the top to 21 in front of Kimi.

Fernando Alonso ended up with 7^th and lost a lot of ground to Vettel. I thought Ferrari would be strong here and that they were about to launch a sustained attack for the top of the title race. The team said he had some debris stuck in the front wing which was hurting the aerodynamics, but in truth he never really looked like he could challenge and not even his usual brilliant self.

He was caught napping by Perez, Sutil and Button in the second half of the race and just didn’t seem to have the pace. Coupled with the strange incidents that afflicted Massa I think Ferrari will be investigating this weekend rather thoroughly.

Kimi Raikkonen had good race pace in practice but was always caught up in the pack, spending the large majority of the race in 5^th. After his Perez incident he found himself back in 16^th. He quickly made progress and with 2 laps left he was 13^th. Unseen by the camera’s by the time the race ended he was 10^th. I’d love to have seen his on board camera footage from that. He’s still within a race win of Vettel, but this would have definitely disappointed him more than usual.

It’s by no means certain that Mercedes will play a huge part throughout the year to come, but they’re certainly going to spring a surprise or two again at some point. It’s at those times the top three have to have good damage limitation. Today Red Bull did, Lotus and Ferrari did not. Sometimes it’s these results which win championships.

Rest of the top 10

Mark Webber looked strong this weekend, he certainly had the pace of his team mate but they was no room to pass. After the first safety car he ended up in the final podium spot and there  he stayed. It was a decent display but I thought maybe he’d have an edge on Vettel this weekend.

Jenson Button again felt his McLaren team mate Perez was being a bit too strong armed, but after a disappointment in qualifying with  a faulty fuel pump, luck swung his way in the latter stages and he made a nice move on Alonso to secure 6^th. At present, that’s a good result for the Woking squard.

Jean-Eric Vergne turned his best qualifying performance of 10^th into 8^th. He never looked really threatened and kept up the pace of the leaders well. A good showing after his team mate Ricciardo had looked to be gaining the upper hand.

Paul di Resta took 2 points for 9^th place. He should be very proud of the result; he pitted early anticipating a safety car which never came when Charles Pic’s Caterham retired. It meant he had clear air and when others pitted and safety cars and red flags enabled him to get fresh tyres he found himself in a position to take advantage of further incidents ahead of him. A strong drive after qualifying only 17^th.

Racing at Monaco and looking to Canada

Monaco is a special place to race, just watching the cars go through the swimming pool chicane is utterly mesmeric. Watching an on board lap is a thing of beauty. That’s why even when the race has yet to come alive it’s still a treat to see these cars race on such majestic streets.

Today’s race wasn’t exactly amazing in its first half, but this event is almost like a flat tour de France stage. You know you’re going to get the good stuff by the time the end comes. Today was no different, although perhaps it wasn’t exactly a sprint finish.

We now look ahead to Canada. Kimi and Alonso can’t afford to let Vettel get further ahead in the championship battle, but can Mercedes become a permanent factor in the title race? How much if any, did Mercedes gain from the Pirelli test? Will Pirelli’s apparent tweaks for Canada make any difference and will they even be allowed? And if Monaco can be this wild, then Canada is going to be amazing; lots to look forward to as we head to North America.

all photo's taken from autosport.com