Monaco Grand Prix Round Up - Mark Webber Marches On!

...4 Safety Cars Later

4 May 2010

I hope you were all watching the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend? Crashes and breakdowns came to the rescue of a rather processional Monaco Grand Prix

, keeping Mark Webber's lead to a modest amount throughout. The Red Bull's have been impressive all year with only their reliability letting them down, but they seem to have worked out the issues and are now running the show. Interestingly, although Vettel came in second he really didn't look that impressive throughout the race and certainly wasn't as fast as Webber, who looked in a league of his own. The news wasn't great from the off for McLaren and British fans as Jenson button's car overheated on the first lap. It became clear they team had left a side-pod blocking plate in on the car which prevented air cooling the car down on the parade lap and was compounded by the safety car right after the start. A series of unfortunate events for Button, it just wasn't meant to be this year it seems. Overtaking was at a premium, as ever with Monaco, and we had to look to the out of position Alonso for alot of the action as he hassled the Virgin racing and Lotus cars to work his way back into contention. A 2nd lap Pitstop to make the mandatory change of tyres proved inspirational from the Ferrari boys getting Alonso into the points.

If you cant go round them go over them...

....seemed to be the moto of Jano Trulli as he tried to pass Karun Chandhok 3 laps from the end but instead crashed right over him. In fairness Chandhok claims it looks far worse that it was and no-one was hurt, but it looked pretty tasty when it happened! Other Jokers in the pack were Rubens Barrichello as his rear wing failed, he decided to throw a bit of a  tantrum and fling his steering wheel out of the car, narrowly missing another. Then Barrichello's team mate, Nico Hulkenberg, crashed in a big way going into the tunnel after his front wing broke. It was a pretty frustrating day for Lewis Hamilton as he battled all race but made no ground at all and finished 5th. The real talking point happened on the very last corner, Michael Schumacher saw his chance to make a position as the safety car entered the pits on the final lap and nipped past Alonso taking 6th place, however this was later penalised and Schumacher was deducted 20 seconds, putting him back to 12th! The rules were a little cloudy on this, one suggested he was fine to do it past the safety car line and another suggested that a safety car on the last lap meant no overtaking what-so ever. whatever the actual decision 20seconds penalty seems very harsh to me! I can get round Gosport in that time!:) Monaco is always a blast, and this race was no different, i just hope that we get more overtaking in the coming races as i don't really fancy these pole to victory runs too often!