Before the lights went green I had a hunch that this was going to be Mark Webber´s day. And the Australian had a brilliant start and reached the first corner ahead of Mercedes´s Rosberg. Not every driver avoided a crash though! Grosjean crashed with Schumacher which lead to the Frenchman spinning and his race was over. Not the first time this season when something like this happens to Grosjean! Because of the incident some cars had no other choice but to shortcut the chicane to avoid hitting Grosjean´s car. Vettel was one of those who benefitted from that and he was in P4 after the first corner! This was investigated by the stewards but it lead to no further action. In my opinion that was also the right call because it would have been absolutely impossible to say how many positions Vettel for example should have given back... And a drive through penalty would have totally destroyed his race!
The teams knew there was a mild chance of rain during the race so the teams´ race strategies were based on the information that the rain would start to fall on lap 28. So it seemed it was going to be quite a long first stint for everyone because the teams wanted to change the intermediates at the first pit stop. But the rain didn´t come! Rosberg was the first top driver to come to the pits and everyone had to react on his move. Vettel on the soft tyres was able to stay out and maintain his excellent lap times. At first he managed to increase his lead over his team-mate but it never increased up to 20 seconds which would have been enough for him to maintain his lead after the pit stop...! Vettel rejoined the track right ahead of Hamilton and was 4th in the race!
There came a few drops but the rain kept away till the end of the race! The gaps between the first 6 drivers were absolutely minimal. The top 6 was separated by 6 seconds only: Webber took the victory and Rosberg and Alonso completed the podium places. Vettel finished 4th followed by Hamilton and Massa who drove an excellent race after the lousy beginning of the season. Though it was intense wheel-to-wheel battle, it was somehow lacking all the real excitement because in Monaco you just can´t overtake if your rival doesn´t make any mistakes... So in that way we saw the dullest race of the season so far no matter how tiny the gaps were!
Heikki Kovalainen in his Caterham drove a tremendous race, his very best of the season! Heikki was one of those lucky ones who benefitted from shortcutting the first chicane and he got past McLaren´s Jenson Button who had a poor start. And Heikki in his red Angry Bird helmet was able to keep the Briton behind him the whole race! After the pit stop he rejoined the track just ahead of Button but the Finn closely blocked Button´s all attempts to overtake him! Fantastic driving from Heikki who finished the race 13th! The another Finn Kimi didn´t have such a splendid day at the office... He was struggling with the lack of grip but managed to bring the E20 to the chequered flag in 9th place. Valuable championship points anyway!
So it´s Alonso leading the drivers´ championship but only by 3 points. The Red Bull team-mates Vettel and Webber share the second place with 73 points each... Once again when the Red Bull seems strong the other top teams have started talking about the legality of the RB8. Now the latest topic has been the spots in the floor of the chassis located near the rear wheels which are said to improve downforce. It just proves that the other teams experience Red Bull as a serious threat! ;)
Before the race I did have strong faith in Vettel´s chances to win the race! In the morning I went to a nearby beach with my sons and ex tempore they decided to go swimming though the water is only about 15 degrees at the moment! So I ended up going swimming as well, just in case if Vettel happened to win in Monaco! He didn´t this time but it doesn´t matter. Luckily there´ll be a whole new opportunity at Montreal in two weeks!
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