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Round Six of the 2013 Formula 1 season was nothing short of an amazing, long and entertaining race! Lets take a look at how the weekend panned out! There was lot of glitz and glamour this weekend. Amber Lounge parties, Yacht parties, Hollywood stars and of course Special helmets. Monaco Grand Prix has it all!
Practice
Only in Monaco do we have the first two of the three practice sessions on a Thursday! The day began with Mercedes on top and ended with them on top at the end on FP2. Mercedes clearly had the best setup this weekend, atleast for one-lap pace. Behind them Ferrari looked strong whereas Lotus and Red Bull were a little way behind. In FP2 it was the more or less the same order and Monaco had its first big crash for the weekend, Romain Grosjean crashed into the wall Ste Devote and his car was badly damaged! Mclaren seemed to have improved this weekend by quite a margin. Saturday Practice was again dominated by Mercedes and Rosberg ended the session on top again! Massa suffered a massive lock up going into turn 1 and ended up in the barriers, heavily damaging his Ferrari, which ruled him out of the Qualifying. Grosjean suffered another crash and so did Sutil in his Force India. Red Bull and Lotus were quicker on Saturday and this set up a great battle for pole!
Qualifying
Coming into qualifying Massa’s garage was shut as Lotus and Force India worked frantically to get Grosjean’s and Sutil’s car fixed in time! They did succeed while Massa was ruled out. Mercedes had the best car and Rosberg once again put his car on top. That’s 4 sessions in a row that he has been on top. Hamilton made it a second consecutive front row lock out for the team. Mercedes were clearly on fire! Behind them there were the two Red Bulls and Raikkonen and Alonso formed row 3. Perez managed to slot his McLaren in 7th with his teammate in 9th. Special mention to Van Der Garde who qualified in 15th and made it to Q2 for the first time. The team were really pleased with his performance.
Race
It was race day, stands were packed, people were ready with food and drinks on their yachts and then what came out was shocking. Mercedes had apparently had a private test with Pirelli after the Spanish Grand Prix with their current car. Pirelli say this was to evaluate the tires for next year but it sure did give Mercedes the pace they were looking for. Red Bull decided to protest after the race and Ferrari were looking to join in. FIA decided to handle the incident after the race.
The grid was ready to race on the streets of Monaco for the 60th time in history! And then it was lights out! 78 laps of one the best races ever.
If you look at it on the whole Nico Rosberg led every lap from start to finish and claimed his second victory and in some fashion. His performance wasn’t even slightly hindered after two Safety car periods and a red flag. Mercedes had improved in every possible way and finally had the race pace to take their cars to the top. A little help from the private test perhaps?
Rosberg’s teammate Hamilton started second but dropped down to 4th behind the Bulls after his first pit-stop. After the race Lewis accepted it was his mistake for not keeping up with his teammate and dropping back farther than he was supposed to. Lewis gave Webber a good fight to the finish but with uncertainty over when the tires will drop off, he backed off in the last few laps.
The Red Bulls came into this race looking to claim their fourth straight victory and they almost did it. Vettel was attacking Rosberg and had many chances to get past. But this being Monaco it was very difficult and so the team settled for a very impressive double podium.
Ferrari’s race was below par by all standards, Massa had a crash similar to his FP3 shunt and that was race over for him. Alonso, on the other hand was good in his first stint and then started falling away from the leaders. Perez passed Alonso on the hairpin in a move that wasn’t even slightly defended. Alonso and Perez had another moment down at the chicane after the tunnel and for this Alonso was asked to hand his place back to Perez after the red flag period. Alonso finally finished in 7th.
Mclaren had stepped up their performance this race. Button and Perez were battling together and had their moments. Button finished in 6th. Perez suffered damage to his suspension while making a move on Raikkonen and later retired a few laps before the end.
It was a weekend which Lotus might want to forget. Grosjean rammed into the back of Ricciardo and later retired. Ricciardo’s race was over when Grosjean took him out. Romain was handed a 10 place grid penalty for the next race. Kimi’s race started off well and he was attacking for 4th, however, the move by Perez cost him dearly. He suffered a late race puncture which forced him to pit. He dropped down to 16th and then made a late race charge in the last 5 laps to finish in 10th. That was an amazing performance put gave the team only one point!
Force India were looking to continue their good form in this race and after Thursday night’s yacht party on Mr. Vijay Mallya’s Indian Empress the team were upbeat. Di Resta started in 17th and then made his way up slowly to finish in 9th. The star of the team that day was Adrian Sutil who passed the Ferraris and Mclarens to finish in 5th.
The red flag was caused when Maldonado had his second collision of the day, this time with Max Chilton at the back of the grid. The William’s touched the rear wheel of the Marussia which momentarily launched his car into the air and then rammed into the barriers. The damage was major and it took the marshalls a while to clear up the debris. Chilton was handed a drive through penalty and Maldonado’s race was over.
Apart from Grosjean, Ricciardo, Maldonado and Massa and Perez, the other retirements were Bianchi with a brake issue and Pic with a gearbox issue.
Highlights
Nico Rosberg won the Monaco GP 30 years after his father Keke Rosberg achieved the feat making them the first father-son duo to achieve this. Another special reason is that Monaco is home to Nico Rosberg, so this is a kind of a home win for him. Mercedes would hope that they continue this good form.
Vettel got on the Podium for the 50th time in his Formula 1 career.
Kimi Raikkonen finished in the points for the 23rd consecutive race and if he repeats a points finish in Canada he will equal Michael Schumacher‘s record.
After the race a lot of drivers and team personnel visited the stewards. Kimi was called for over-speeding under the safety car and also for his clash with Perez. Representatives of Ferrari, Red Bull, Pirelli and Mercedes were called to discuss the “Tyre-Gate”, however, results of the Grand Prix were upheld.
See ya all in two weeks time for Formula 1′s North American adventure in the form of Canadian Grand Prix starting on 7th of June. Have a great time!
