Mercedes’ Hamilton holds on to prevail in tense Monaco GP ahead of aggressive P2 Verstappen; but Red Bull driver pushed off podium by pit penalty to elevate Vettel & Bottas

Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton drove one of the most tense and nervy races of his illustrious career to earn his third Monaco GP victory on the tight and twisty streets of Monte Carlo on Sunday. Saddled with increasingly worn and ineffective Medium Pirelli tires since way back on Lap 12 of this 78 lap street fight Hamilton was also boxed in by a mandatory one-stop strategy, as all his nearest rivals were running a run-stopper but also with the benefit of being on the more durable Hard Pirelli rubber. There was a surprising lack of pace difference between the two compounds — and also a lack of durability difference in the Soft tires compared to the other two tires. That enabled teams up and down the order to gamble but it almost paid the greatest jackpot for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Running on the hardest tires on offer, Vertspappen hounded Hamilton at nearly every corner of this legendary circuit for lap after lap in the second half of the race. But at Monaco it is also legendarily difficult to pass and despite Hamilton’s increasingly desperate radio communication with the Mercedes pit wall about the impossibility of finishing the race on his blistering, grip-less rubber his engineers talked him through his most panicky moments and reminded the English 5-time World Champion that catching and passing are two completely different things in Monte Carlo. Thus, even as Verstappen reeled him in as the laps wound down, finally making a dive to the inside on Lap 77 as the two cars screamed out of the tunnel and towards the Nouvelle Chicane, Hamilton was able to close the door abruptly on the Dutch hard-charger, sending the Red Bull spearing offline through the chicane while Hamilton still had enough grip to get beak on line and on form for the high speed swimming pool section. After all that white-knuckle race and tire management from the front that was the race and Hamilton held on for a hard-earned win on a weekend where the Formula 1 world mourned the loss of 3-time champ and all around legend Niki Lauda, whose ties to the current Mercedes team run deep. It was a fitting and fittingly gritty tribute to the great Austrian champion and also secured Hamilton his most decisive points lead of the season.

Pics courtesy GrandPrix247.com

Verstappen was really only able to hound Hamilton from that P2 position because his team released him prematurely on a fateful Lap 11 Safety Car scramble for fresh rubber that saw Vertsppen launch into the other Mercedes driver, Valtteri Bottas, as he was heading down pit lane. That led to an extra stop for Bottas for Hard tires after his brand new Mediums suffered a slow puncture due to the contact with the hasty Red Bull. It also led inevitably to a 5-second time penalty for the Red Bull man that insured that even though Vertsppen finished the race in P2 he was demoted off the podium and was classified as the fourth place finisher. That redounded to the benefit not only of the victimized Bottas, who was elevated to the podium and P3, but also Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who inherited Vertspapen’s second place finish.  Vettel, who seemed to be lurking behind Hamilton and Verstappen waiting for the dicing duo to take each other out and thus inherent the lead, was nonetheless content with his P2, which somewhat saved the day for the Scuderia.

Their young, talented and somewhat erratic number two driver Charles Leclerc had a miserable weekend all around and failed to finish on Sunday. After the team bolloxed up their qualifying strategy on Saturday leading to Leclerc getting bounced in Q3 and having to start from P15 on the grid, the Monegasque drove like a man possessed to start his home Grand Prix. Leclerc made a good pass on Haas’s Romain Grosjean at Rascasse to move up the order. But, being young and lacking patience and experience at Monaco, thought he could pull the same trick on Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg a few laps later. This time, though, Hulkenberg closed the door slightly and Leclerc banged his right rear into the barriers, causing a puncture that only revealed itself after he had passed the nearby pit entrance. So Leclerc had to make a journey around the entirety of the circuit and compounded his misfortune by going far too fast in his impatience and anger. The tire delaminated badly and began to tear apart his Prancing Horse, leaving so much carbon fiber debris that the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 11 and badly wounding the floor of Leclerc’s Ferrari. Inevitably the 21-year-old’s impetuous decision-making led to his retirement on Lap 18 and sealed a poor points haul for Ferrari with Vettel’s 18 giving the legendary team from Maranello cold comfort on a day when mighty Mercedes scored 40 Constructors’ points.

Vertsppen’s less heralded Red Bull teammate Pierre Gasly had a strong race of his own and came home P5 giving them more total points than Ferrari on then day. Carlos Sainz had an excellent drive for McLaren to score very valuable points with his best-of-the-rest P6 finish, a fine result for the Spaniard and the inconsistent team. Toro Rosso were fast all weekend and their drivers drove without any mistakes for a change. That led to Daniil Kvyat finishing in P7 ahead of his teammate Alexander Albon in P8, which was still very well done by the Thai rookie in his first Monaco F1 race. Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Haas’s Romain Grosjean finished in the points in P9 and P10 respectively but certainly both men and both squads were hopeing fo better results. However, they were part of a train stuck behind Kimi Raikkonen as the veteran Finn nursed his Alfa Romeo’s Soft tires for an inordinate amount of time in an effort to gain track position but ultimately to no effect other than holding up a gaggle of faster cars behind him.

Top 10 finishers of the Monaco GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks time at the beautiful Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. With the wind firmly at his back after his nervy win in Monaco, Lewis Hamilton will be looking to further demoralize his opposition with what would be his third win on the trot. His teammate Valtteri Bottas and his rival from Ferrari will be looking to prevent that outcome at all costs. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!