2017 Monaco GP – Vettel cruises home to a Ferrari 1-2

Thrills and spills dotted the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, which saw Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen romp home to claim a 1-2 finish for Ferrari. The German secured the Scuderia’s first victory at the Principality since 2001, and took maximum advantage of title rival Lewis Hamilton’s misfortune this weekend.

A blistering lap around the street circuit on Saturday gave Räikkönen pole position, and an uneventful start enabled the two Ferraris to lead the pack throughout the first stint. The Finn set the early pace and looked to have the measure on his teammate, while further back Hamilton’s Mercedes was stuck in 12th place – the Briton had an unfortunate qualifying in which he did not make the cut for Q3, ending up 13th on the grid.

Before long, the red cars began to lose pace as they came up to traffic, and were caught by Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas and the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. The five cars continued in a train until lap 32, when Verstappen peeled off into the pits, followed by Bottas a lap later. Räikkönen moved to cover the advances of the two by making his stop on lap 34.

But it was the strong pace of the two frontrunners that sealed the fate of the race, as those who pitted earlier ended up struggling in traffic. Ricciardo leapfrogged both Verstappen and Bottas by pitting on lap 38 – much to the dismay of his Dutch teammate. A lap later, Vettel swung in to swap his ultrasoft tyres for a fresh set of supersofts, and emerged ahead of Räikkönen to take the lead.

From then on, Räikkönen simply could not stay onto the tail of the other Ferrari, looking dispirited after it appeared that he was given the short end of the strategy stick. Meanwhile, Hamilton stayed out as others ahead of him pitted or were caught up in incidents or mechanical troubles, putting him as high as sixth. He pitted only on lap 46, coming out seventh behind Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz.

Only in the closing stages of the race does the drama unfold in earnest. McLaren’s Jenson Button (sitting in for the Indianapolis 500-bound Fernando Alonso) had spent the entire race last – stuck behind the Sauber of Pascal Wehrlein – after yet another replacement of components on the troublesome Honda power unit dropped him from a strong ninth in qualifying to the back of the grid.

Button saw an opening coming into Portier on lap 60 and took it, only for Wehrlein to close the door. The resulting collision tipped the Sauber on its side and into the barriers, and while Wehrlein was thankfully unscathed, it meant that both cars were out of the race.

It also meant that the safety car had to be brought out, and the dropping tyre temperatures caused by the low speeds caught a couple of drivers out. Marcus Ericsson in the other Sauber slid into the Ste Devote barrier while trying to unlap himself while under the safety car; he was followed swiftly by the other McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne as racing resumed, robbing the Woking team of its first point of the season.

Business carried on as usual at the head of the order, with Vettel ending up crossing the finish line some 3.1 seconds ahead of a downtrodden Räikkönen. Behind them, Ricciardo caused a bit of a stir by brushing the barriers coming out of Ste Devote after the safety car returned to the pits; while that dangled a tasty podium position for Bottas, the Australian recovered to claim that third place, 5.5 seconds ahead.

Finishing behind Bottas and Verstappen was Carlos Sainz, who impressed by holding off a strong challenge by Hamilton, while Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Williams’ Felipe Massa came home eighth and ninth respectively. Grosjean’s teammate Kevin Magnussen put a puncture behind him to take the final point, marking the first time the American team managed to get both of its cars in the points.

Haas’ gain was Force India’s loss – not only did Monaco break the team’s 14-race points streak, it was also the first time it failed to get both cars in the points this season. Esteban Ocon finished 12th behind Renault’s Jolyon Palmer after suffering a puncture early on, while 13th-placed Sergio Perez was involved in not one, but two collisions – with the last one forcing the other Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat out of the race.

With three race wins under his belt, Vettel has extended his lead over Hamilton in the drivers’ championship to 25 points, with 129 points versus the latter’s 104. Bagging the maximum allotted 43 points has also pushed Ferrari ahead of Mercedes in the constructors’ standings, with the scores totting up to 196 and 179 points respectively.

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