The Monaco grand prix
Mark Webber drove past all his competitors at the Monaco Grand Prix 2010, thus attaining the first position in a total time of 1 hour 50 minutes and 13.355 seconds. The Australian Red Bull driver claimed his second victory in this week alone. Webber described his victory as the biggest day of his life. The circuit demanded a total of four safety cars appearances and a rough accident to decide who the winner is going to be.
Webber’s Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel stood second, after a smooth start. His hope to win was dimmed soon after Webber started digging up the fastest laps and made a 10 second lead by the time of their pit stops on laps 22 and 23. Never the less the day proved to be a bright one for the Red Bulls. Robert Kubica offered a good weekend for the Renault team by posting the third position. Kubica started at pole position, but was overtaken by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel very early in the race. Despite feeling faster than the German driver, Kubica had to settle for the third spot.
Felipe Massa, the Ferrari driver finished at fourth. His teammate Fernando Alonso, who began from the back of the grid, failed to show a huge improvement. The McLaren’s man, Lewis Hamilton ended with fifth place, though his teammate Jenson Button had his engine apparently overheated during a safety car period and he retired on the second lap of the race.
Michael Schumacher completed ahead of his Mercedes teammate, Nico Rosberg, who was on the 8th position. Schumacher ended the race with a sixth spot for which he thought that he took an interesting start and it actually went just as planned.
Both cars of Force India got home with a point each for the first time this season. Adrian Sutil ended ahead of Tonio Liuzzi, though he started behind him on the grid.
Vettel left behind Kubica off the line while Hamilton was able to secure the fourth slot. Rubens Barrichello had a great beginning from the ninth position, getting ahead of both Mercedes cars up into the sixth spot.
Nico Hulkenberg met an accident while coming out of the tunnel on the first lap, bringing out the safety car. Replays showed that he had advanced off-line and was unable to control the car on a dirty tarmac. While under the safety car, Jenson Button pulled over to the side of the track with what looked like an overheated engine, and with that, last year’s winner was also out of the race.
Fernando Alonso, who started on the super soft Bridgestone tires, went to the pits at the end of the first lap to take a place on the medium compound. Without any drama on the restart, it was interesting to watch Alonso’s attempts to move forward and take over Lucas di Grassi of the Virgin Atlantic. The Brazilian driver did all that he could to keep the Ferrari behind him as Alonso’s frustration kept mounting.
Finally, the Spaniard over took him on Lap 11 at the harbor chican. Jarno Trulli, the next driver in Alonso’s way, yielded with less pain.
At the same time, Mark Webber was setting a series of fastest laps, steadily pulling out a lead over his own teammate. Lewis Hamilton was the first of the lucky ones to make a pit stop on Lap 17. He came out just before Fernando Alonso.
Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello all halted at the end of lap 19, and Schumacher moved ahead of Barrichello. Meanwhile, Massa appeared ahead of Alonso, while the other pair ended up behind the charging Ferrari. Nico Rosberg, who was still not stopped and was sitting in fourth, become conscious that he would be left following Alonso when he made his tyre change, and tried to secure the situation by making four successive fastest laps. Kamui Kobayashi in the Sauber began on the medium compound, and later took fifth place, to the lead of Massa, Hamilton, Alonso and Schumacher, and was starting to hold a handful of drivers up. Anyhow, they all were able to get past the Japanese driver pretty soon and Kobayashi retired shortly afterwards.
To conclude, at the close of Lap 28, Nico Rosberg pitted from second place and he ended up behind both Alonso and his teammate in eighth place. At the neck, after that round of pit stops, Mark Webber had a 10 second lead over his teammate. On Lap 32, Webber’s hard work was show to be in vain as Barrichello had an accident in his Williams. The Brazilian ended up in the middle of the track, all wheels askew, and facing in the wrong direction. This brought out the safety car, bunching up the field again. Moreover, on Lap 43 the safety car was there for the third time now for a loose drain to cover at Turn 3, where Barrichello’s accident took place.
Eventually, Michael Schumacher went past Fernando Alonso at the last corner to get another position, causing a severe pain for the stewards, who may yet promote Alonso back to the sixth. Webber momentarily built up a lead of six seconds but was soon eased off by his team. This permitted second place Vettel to squeeze the gap a little more but Webber still took control to head for victory.
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