The glamour of legendary Monaco GP weekend was overshadowed by the passing of Niki Lauda, a triple world champion and an iconic character at the paddock. All teams paid tribute to the plain-spoken racing driver, who worked for Mercedes in his last years. Sebastian had a special red-painted helmet in honor of Niki Lauda and all Mercedes team members wore a black crape. A true racer and a unique talent is now gone, but he will never be forgotten.
Qualifying in Monaco is all about getting the right track position, as traffic is always the issue on the narrow streets of the Municipality. In a few previous years Monte Carlo has been Red Bull's and Ferrari's playground, but this year Mercedes converted the venue into their turf. Sebastian was struggling with the rhythm in the first session, and he was only 10th fastest after his first run. Teammate Charles had set more a competitive lap time, and the team were sure, that the time was fast enough to take Charles into Q2. As Sebastian came out at the end of the first segment, he set the screens purple in the first sector, but touched the wall in the second one! Sebastian was just barely able to start another time-lap in time, and he went fastest! His teammate faced a totally different fortune. The team didn't send the Monegasque out at the end, which proved a catastrophic mistake for the Red Team! As Sebastian went fastest, Charles was the first driver to be knocked out of Q2! A mistake, which the Red Team definitely wouldn't have been able to afford!
After Q1 the Silver Arrows were back in business. The crucial question was, whether Bottas would be able to claim his fourth successive pole position. The Finn set an impressive benchmark at the beginning of the last segment, grabbing firmly on provisional pole. Teammate Hamilton was two tenths down on the flying Finn. Verstappen was third and Sebastian fourth. On his second run, Sebastian once again set the screens purple in sector one, but touched the wall again in sector two! So no improvement for the German at the end. Hamilton pulled out a perfect lap and snatched pole from his teammate. Verstappen maintained his third place. This was the first time for Sebastian this year, having qualified out of the top three.
The lights out held no surprises. Pole-setter Hamilton managed to get away from his teammate, who was closely challenged by Red Bull's Verstappen. However, the Dutchman was wise enough not to try any venturesome moves, so Bottas held on to his second place. Sebastian was fourth, followed by Renault's Ricciardo, who had been able to overtake Haas' Magnussen at the start.
Leclerc, who had started to the race from P15, was hungry to gain positions right away. Monaco isn't known for overtaking opportunities, but Charles was stubborn. On lap 8 he was in P13 behind Haas' Grosjean. He made an audacious move on the Frenchman, and managed to get past! A lap later he was right at Hulkenberg's tail. He took another risk and tried a move on the German, which had costly consequences. Due to his move, Charles ended up hitting the barrier, which caused him a rear-right puncture. Pieces of the punctured tyre and the floor of his SF90 were flying off, as Charles limped into the pits. There was so much debris on the track, that safety car was deployed.
The pit stop roulette started right away. Mercedes called both their drivers in on the very same lap. Hamilton came in first, so teammate Bottas lost a little valuable time due to the procedure. The battle between Bottas and Verstappen really heated up during the pit stops. As Red Bull released Verstappen, Bottas was just driving past the Red Bull pit box. Verstappen hit Bottas' W10, which caused a puncture for the Finn. The aggressive Dutchman took second place by moving ahead of Bottas, who had to pit again for a new set of tyres. Also Sebastian was able to jump ahead of Bottas, due to the unlucky Finn's extra pit stop.
Hamilton was the only top four driver on the medium Pirellis; Verstappen, Sebastian and Bottas were all on the white-walled hard rubber. Meanwhile, Leclerc was really struggling with his performance; the floor of his SF90 was so severely damaged, that the Monegasque drove into the pits and retired the race. What a disappointing and frustrating race for Charles in front of his home crowd! Verstappen also faced a significant setback, as he was given a 5-second time penalty for the unsafe release.
Towards the end of the race, Hamilton was absolutely weary due to his dying medium tyres. Hamilton told on the team radio, that he was absolutely sure he wasn't going to make it till the end on those tyres. With 35 laps to go, Verstappen smelled his blood and put hard pressure on the race leader. They were within DRS distance from each other, but Max knew, that in Monaco there was no safe place to make a move. But typical of Max, he tried a move anyway, with only two laps to go. He attacked Hamilton at the swimming pool chicane, but the move was way too optimistic. The venturesome move led into contact between the two, but luckily there was no damage to either one of the cars.
Against all odds, Hamilton crossed the finish line as the race winner, in spite of his totally dead tyres! This was the Briton's 13th win in the last 20 races. Verstappen took the chequered flag as the runner-up, but due to his time penalty he was demoted to P4. Sebastian finished the race second, with Bottas completing the podium. It was about time to get another result than a Mercedes 1-2! Red Bull's Gasly finished fifth, and also got the extra point for the fastest lap time. The Frenchman's fifth place was secured at the end of the race, so he could afford an extra pit stop for a fresh set of soft tyres. Sainz finished 6th for McLaren and Kvyat 7th for Toro Rosso. Kvyat's teammate Albon was 8th, Renault's Ricciardo 9th and Haas' Grosjean 10th.
It was very heart-warming to see Sebastian on the second step of the podium. Championship-wise, it seems more and more likely, that the battle for the drivers' championship will be between the Mercedes teammates. It is the cold truth. Constructor-wise, Ferrari need a miracle to keep their championship hopes alive. In order to turn the tables, the Red Team need to turn a 118-point defeat into victory in just 15 races! However, Canada offers a fresh possibility to start catching up Mercedes! Forza Ferrari!
With passion for racing red,
Iina Huhmarniemi
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