Monaco: post-race analysis

The race was tense rather than dramatic, and had quite a few cunning twists. The bet came off, more due to luck than judgement, but if fortune intervenes in my betting I'll not complain if it's the helpful sort.

Off the line Rosberg had a great start, for once, and Raikkonen had a flyer, getting ahead of his team mate and Vettel into fourth place before passing Ricciardo somewhere or other for third.

Maldonado failed to get off the line for the parade lap and had to start from the pit lane, behind Marcus Ericsson.

Vettel early on had a problem with his engine, then when he pitted and emerged he was stuck in first gear and forced to retire. A great shame.

The gap between the two Mercedes was less than a second for most of the race, particularly early on. When Sutil introduced his car to the barriers the safety car emerged (I think there was one earlier, but it was too early for pit stops), and everyone streamed into the pits. However, during the safety car running a Marussia struck Raikkonen and caused a puncture, so the Finn had to pit again, and Ricciardo was promoted to third, Alonso to fourth.

Massa was fifth, at this stage, ahead of Hulkenberg. However, the Brazilian had not pitted and was perhaps gambling on another safety car or wet weather forcing everyone else to stop as well. That didn't happen, and he was forced to pit, falling down the order to the outer reaches of the points positions.

The top four remained as they were. Hamilton, very unusually in F1, got something in his eye and the battle with Rosberg effectively ended there. Ricciardo narrowed the gap to half a second, but couldn't pass the Briton. Alonso, alas, was trundling around by himself, about 20 seconds or so off a podium place and 50 seconds or so ahead of Hulkenberg.

Everyone lower than Alonso was lapped. Raikkonen tried passing Magnussen at the roundabout, but got the angle slightly wrong, enabling Button to scamper off into the distance (eventually finishing 6^th) and putting Raikkonen out of the points. Magnussen recovered to 10^th, giving McLaren their first points for a while, and a double points finish.

Hulkenberg was struggling with tyre degradation but did well to hang onto 5^th. Perez had earlier been running well enough but crashed out.

Back to Massa: what with all the issues for Magnussen, Raikkonen, a drive-through for Vergne after his team released him unsafely and an engine problem for Bottas, the Brazilian ended up climbing all the way to 7^th. Not bad from 16^th.

However, after the Mercedes duel the most significant result was Bianchi's 8^th, on the track (9^th after a 5 second penalty was applied). This marks the first points for Marussia, which I cannot now refer to as a pointless team anymore, and means they are not only ahead of Caterham in the Constructors but also Sauber. That's pretty surprising. I expect Sauber to recover, but if not it'll mean millions of pounds more for Marussia.

Grosjean got promoted from 9^th to 8^th because of that. Lotus are still well off the pace, but at least they're gradually getting the odd point now and then. Maldonado retired, I'm uncertain, come to think of it, if he ever made it out of the pit lane.

After the race there was practically no eye contact, let alone handshakes, between the Mercedes drivers. I think it's a shame that any vestige of their friendship appears to have disappeared. It also emerged that Hamilton used an engine power mode in Spain he was not supposed to (for more horsepower) and apologised to Rosberg for it. Given Rosberg didn't kick up a fuss about that, it may be that Hamilton's being something of a prima donna. Hamilton was also quite grumpy on the radio, but was correct to lambast the team for not bringing him (or Rosberg, though he didn't say that) in a lap earlier after Sutil's crash necessitated a safety car.

A radio message that was not broadcast from Hamilton to Mercedes apparently included a line similar to: “I knew you wouldn't” in reference to pitting him after the Sutil crash but before the safety car emerged. This speaks of mistrust between himself and the team, perhaps indicating he feels they've sided with Rosberg over the controversial pole. However, Hamilton's not an automaton and he could've simply pitted and gotten on the radio to inform the team. Other drivers, such as Button, make such calls.

Rosberg now has a 4 point advantage over Hamilton. This was must-win for Rosberg, and keeps his title hopes very much alive. He's arrested Hamilton's formidable momentum, regained the lead and the impact upon Hamilton's mindset of both the defeat and the pole lap could be another advantage.

The next race is the fantastic circuit in Canada, where I'd expect Williams and McLaren to be a little stronger, relatively, and Hamilton to stand a strong chance of getting the title lead back. That's in a fortnight.

Morris Dancer