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MONACO: FERRARI’S BEST RESULT OF THE SEASON
A week is a long time in Formula 1 and to prove it, just seven days on from a very disappointing Spanish Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso secured his and Ferrari’s best finish of the season, standing in second place on the podium in Monaco at the weekend (29 May 2011).
“This is my best result of the year and I think it is very important, especially for the team,” said Alonso at the finish. “A podium was needed, we needed to be fighting to the end for the win. Sure, this is not a typical circuit and we should not draw conclusions from a race that always produces its own story. We must close down the distance that separates us from the best: in Canada, we will have some updates on the car and we hope they will prove useful. I got a good start: if there had been a bit more room, maybe I could have done the same as in Spain. Then I tried to look after the tyres, before attacking Vettel at the very end, but then came the red flag and that meant it was over, because on new tyres, he was impossible to beat. Unfortunately, these sort of things can always happen here and they are part of the character of this Grand Prix. We must be pleased with this result and look to Montreal and Valencia, two races where we went well last year, with confidence. The gap in the championship is very big, but there is still a long way to go.”
Massa was heading for a good finish when he was pushed out of the race by Hamilton.
“I am very disappointed with the way my race ended,” explained Massa. “After Hamilton had tried to pass me at Loews, which is an impossible place to do it, hitting me and pushing me into Webber, the car was no longer right and I could not drive it properly, which is why he got on the inside of me inside the tunnel. That put me on the dirt and then I ended up in the barrier. At the start, I got away well, but at the first corner I found Webber and Fernando in front of me: I was on the outside and Rosberg managed to get inside me. That meant I missed out on the train that would have kept me up with the leaders, as I spent too much time behind the German’s Mercedes. Today, we were competitive and, given how things went, I could have finished fourth. Now, we head for Canada, where we hope to have a car capable of fighting, as was the case here. The fact we will have the same two types of tyre, the soft and supersoft, is definitely positive for us.”
The podium was not the only unusual thing about this street circuit on a day that produced yet another brilliant motor race. Sebastian Vettel took his fifth win of the year for Red Bull Racing, but he was pushed very hard by Fernando and third placed Jenson Button in the McLaren. The top three all adopted different strategies, changing tyres once, twice and three times respectively and at the chequered flag, just 2.3 seconds covered them. As for Felipe Massa, he too appeared to be heading for a good finish, but after Hamilton drove into him, maiming the 150º Italia, he crashed out in the tunnel and his race was over.
When the lights went out, Fernando nearly repeated his Spanish start, this time managing to move up just one place to third, by getting ahead of Webber. Felipe got caught out by Rosberg and this would cause him problems, stuck behind the slower Mercedes for too long to stay in touch with the leaders. In fact, it was Felipe’s misfortune which changed the character of the race: Having pitted on la 26, he dropped to 11th and found Hamilton on his tail and a few laps later, the Brazilian’s 150º Italia was damaged when the Englishman tried a totally impossible move as he attempted to pass the Ferrari man at the hairpin. With a damaged car, Felipe was powerless and the McLaren man forced him wide in the tunnel, onto the dirt and into the barrier. The Safety Car came out and the field bunched up with Button and Fernando chasing Vettel. On lap 48, Button pitted for a third time, which left Fernando 6.2 seconds behind Alonso. From then on the gap diminished until it reached 0.2 seconds on lap 61 of the 78 lap race. In other words, the Ferrari was all over the Red Bull, but Fernando was also having to watch his mirrors for Button.
Fernando was closing and attacking whenever he could, principally down the pit straight, but then, with just a few laps remaining a multiple shunt brought out the Safety Car again. There were concerns for Petrov who was still in his car and apparently in pain, therefore wisely, the race was actually red flagged. The cars formed up on the grid for what would effectively be a six lap sprint to the flag, but the conditions of the restart would not suit Fernando, as teams were free to work on their cars. This meant that Vettel, who had done a very long stint on the Prime tyre, which was fitted by mistake by his team at his only stop, was able to defend his lead on nice fresh tyres. Fernando’s chances effectively ended there, but nevertheless, a second place at Monaco is a wonderful result.
Behind the podium trio, Webber was fourth, ahead of Kobayashi, the Japanese Sauber driver thus taking his best ever F1 result. Hamilton was sixth, even though he was given a 20 second penalty for causing the accident with Felipe, but this did not change his position, as seventh placed Sutil was a lap down. Behind the Force India driver came Heidfeld eighth for Renault, with Barrichello and Buemi taking the final points.
“Going into this weekend, if we’d been told that we would finish second, eleven tenths off the winner, I would have signed up for it on the spot, but now there’s no denying there is a slight feeling of regret,” says Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari Team Director. “Fernando was fantastic all weekend long and today he fought for the win, right down to the final metre. The race had a deserving winner, but there’s no doubt the red flag towards the end deprived our driver of the opportunity to attack in the final laps, making the most of having tyres with slightly less degradation. At the restart, with everyone on new tyres, there was not much more we could do. There’s much regret for Felipe too, who was also capable of getting a good finish: the collision with Hamilton pretty much put him out of the running and then he immediately ended up in the barriers. It is only a week on from when we were lapped at the Catalunya Circuit and we have seen how quickly things can change, depending on the track characteristics and the type of tyre we are using. Clearly, the situation in both championships is getting ever more difficult, but we are not giving up: we are coming up to two races where, on paper, we should be competitive and then, before the summer break, we will see where we stand.”
Canada beckons in two weeks time and from the technical side, there will be some updates on the car which it is hoped will produce a further improvement in car performance and there is no denying that being able to use the Pirelli soft and supersoft tyres is a plus point.
2011 Monaco Grand Prix – Results
1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 78 laps 2hrs 09m 38.313s
2. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 01.1s
3. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes +00m 02.3s
4. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault +00m 23.1s
5. Kamui Kobayashi Japan Sauber-Ferrari +00m 26.9s**
6. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes +00m 47.2s*
7. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes +1 lap**
8. Nick Heidfeld Germany Renault-Renault +1 lap
9. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth +1 lap
10. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari +1 lap
11. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +2 laps
12. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes +2 laps
13. Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Renault +2 laps
14. Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Renault +2 laps
15. Jerome d'Ambrosio Belgium Virgin-Cosworth +3 laps
16. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy HRT-Cosworth +3 laps
17. Narain Karthikeyan India HRT-Cosworth +4 laps
18. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Cosworth +5 laps
DNF. Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault-Renault 67 laps completed
DNF. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari 66 laps completed
DNF. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 32 laps completed
DNF. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes-Mercedes 32 laps completed
DNF. Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth 30 laps completed
DNS Sergio Perez Mexico Sauber-Ferrari Did not start after accident in Q3
Fastest lap:
Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 1m 16.234s lap 78
* denotes 20-sec penalty for colliding with Pastor Maldonado.
** denotes handed a post-race 'reprimand'
F1 Drivers' Championship 2011 (after race 6 of 19)
POSITION / DRIVER / TEAM / POINTS1 / Sebastian Vettel / Red Bull Racing / 143
2 / Lewis Hamilton / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 85
3 / Mark Webber / Red Bull Racing / 79
4 / Jenson Button / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 76
5 / Fernando Alonso / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 69
6 / Nick Heidfeld / Lotus Renault GP / 29
7 / Nico Rosberg / Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team / 26
8 / Felipe Massa / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 24
9 / Vitaly Petrov / Lotus Renault GP / 21
10 / Kamui Kobayashi / Sauber F1 Team / 19
11 / Michael Schumacher / Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team / 14
12 / Adrian Sutil / Force India F1 Team / 8
13 / Sebastien Buemi / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 7
14 / Rubens Barrichello / AT&T Williams / 2
= / Paul di Resta / Force India F1 Team / 2
= / Sergio Perez / Sauber F1 Team / 2
17 / Pastor Maldonado / AT&T Williams / 0
= / Jaime Alguersuari / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 0
= / Jarno Trulli / Team Lotus / 0
= / Heikki Kovalainen / Team Lotus / 0
= / Narain Karthikeyan / Hispania Racing F1 Team / 0
= / Vitantonio Liuzzi / Hispania Racing F1 Team / 0
= / Timo Glock / Marussia Virgin Racing / 0
= / Jerome d'Ambrosio / Marussia Virgin Racing / 0
F1 Constructors' Championship 2011 (after race 6 of 19)
POSITION / TEAM / POINTS1 / Red Bull Racing / 222
2 / Vodafone McLaren Mercedes / 161
3 / Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro / 93
4 / Lotus Renault GP / 50
5 / Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team / 40
6 / Sauber F1 Team / 21
7 / Force India F1 Team / 10
8 / Scuderia Toro Rosso / 7
9 / AT&T Williams / 2
10 / Team Lotus / 0
= / Hispania Racing F1 Team / 0
= / Marussia Virgin Racing / 0
(ends)
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Release Number: Ferrari_546
Date of Issue: 30 May 2011. Time of Issue: 05:35:57