Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was second with McLaren’s Jenson Button finished third. Alonso & Button had closed in on Vettel’s lead with less than one second between the three of them, but with seven laps remaining Renault’s Vitaly Petrov got caught in a pile-up and crashed into the barriers.

The race was then held up by the safety car for 20 minutes.  When the race reconvened and all three had changed their tyres, it was Sebastian Vettel who finished the fastest and with it extended his lead in the 2011 F1 championship.

F1 2011 Monaco Grand Prix Result
1.  Sebastian Vettel 2:09:38.373
2.  Fernando Alonso     +1.1 secs
3.  Jenson Button +2.3 secs
4.  Mark Webber +23.1 secs
5.  Kamui Kobayashi +26.9 secs
6.  Lewis Hamilton +47.2 secs
7.  Adrian Sutil +1 Lap
8.  Nick Heidfeld +1 Lap
9.  Rubens Barrichello +1 Lap
10.Sebastien Buemi +1 Lap

Once again Lewis Hamilton has found himself in trouble after being controverisal.  After being penalised in the Monaco Grand Prix Hamilton made a comment on his Twitter account which was allegedly a joke suggesting “Maybe it’s because I’m black. That’s what Ali G says.” Lewis Hamilton later apologised for the outburst.

F1 2011 Drivers Championship
1.   S Vettel 143 points
2.   L Hamilton 85
3.   M Webber 79
4.   J Button 76
5.   F Alonso 69
6.   N Heidfeld 29
7.   N Rosberg 26
8.   F Massa 24
9.   V Petrov 21
10. K Kobayashi 19

The next F1 Race is the Canada Grand Prix on 12th June 2011.

The former World Champion F1 driver also talks about the magic of Ayrton Senna as well as his views on the latest overtaking aids.

Williams FW32 - 2010

It has now been confirmed that the crash suffered by the Williams F1 driver Rubens Barrichello at the Monaco Grand Prix was in fact caused by a loose manhole cover.

Barrichello had been running in tenth place when he was seen losing control of his car as he headed to Massanet, and it has now been revealed that this was caused by the cover at turn 2.  The cover had come loose and spun up as the Brazilian drove over it, hitting the rear left wheel of the FW32.

Barrichello was lucky to have escaped the incident without injury but the car was severely damaged and the accident has now been reported to the FIA.

Sebastien Vettel - Red Bull Racing 2010

Following last weekends Monaco Grand Prix, the joint championship leader, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has fuelled rumours that he could be heading for a drive with the Ferrari team next season.

The German driver has made no secret of the fact that his ultimate aim would be to one day drive for the Ferrari crew although his team-mate Mark Webber and winner of Sunday’s race has also been linked to be the replacement for Felipe Massa’s seat in 2011.

Webber crossed the line to take the chequered flag for the second time in two weeks at the Monaco Grand Prix for the Red Bull team, followed by team-mate Vettel in second.

The incident packed race saw the safety car deployed four times after several accidents during the 78 laps but Mark Webber managed to stay ahead and focused after each slot to make it another Red Bull one-two.

The first yellow flag was seen being waved from lap 1 of the race after Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg crashed his car into the barrier of the tunnel causing the first deployment of the safety car.  Hulkenberg dropped back at the start of the race after suffering problems with his clutch on the formation lap.  It was later reported that his car had encountered a front wing mounting failure which will be investigated by the team.

Current F1 World Champion Jenson Button was out of the race by lap 3 after qualifying in eighth place on the grid.  Apparently a cooling cover had been left on the left-hand side pod and wasn’t spotted until the McLaren had already entered it’s grid position.  Following the deployment of the safety car, the McLaren engine began to overheat causing a small fire and ending Button’s race as he was forced to switch off his car.

The safety car entered the pit lane on lap 7 and the restart was underway with Webber again leading the race followed by Vettel and Robert Kubica in third.

Fernando Alonso was forced to start from the pit lane in his Ferrari after hitting the barriers in practice.  The Spaniard made a mistake at Massanet, only 20 minutes into the final practice session, damaging the chassis which meant that the car would not be available to him for qualifying on Saturday.

Alonso made an early pit stop as the race got underway, having passed Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok, Lucas di Grassi was defending his line and kept Alonso behind him until he made a mistake on lap 10, allowing the Ferrari to slip past.

Pedro de la Rosa retired his BMW Sauber on lap 24 after a long pit stop saw smoke billowing from the back of his car and he was pushed into his garage.

Lap 28 was the end of the race for the Virgin driver Lucas di Grassi and on lap 32 the safety car was once again on track after Rubens Barrichello crashed out and was stranded in the middle of the circuit at Massenet.  The Brazilian had been running in tenth place when he suffered a failure at the rear of his Williams, sending him into a spin and into the barrier and leaving him with front and rear wings missing and a broken suspension.

The race was again underway on lap 34 but was deployed again on lap 43 after it was reported that a drain cover was loose at turn 3.  After a brief investigation it was decided that it was safe to continue and the safety car came in the following lap.

Bruno Senna parked his HRT F1 in his pit garage on lap 63 of the race while on lap 66, Heikki Kovalainen suffered a problem with his gearbox resulting in a long pit stop while the crew battled to try and get him back on track.

On lap 74, the safety car was deployed yet again after a huge incident at La Rascasse as Jarno Trulli’s car went over the top of Chandhok’s as both cars fought for the line.  Trulli had tried to put his Lotus up the inside of the HRT of Chandhok but the two touched wheels resulting in the Lotus jumping over the HRT as Chandhok was seen trying to protect his head.

With only two laps of the race remaining it looked as if the drivers would finish the Monaco Grand Prix behind the safety car but it exited the track just before the final lap to see Webber cross the line to take the greatest victory of his career.

Michael Shumacher was given a 20 second penalty after the race after it was deemed that he had broken regulations by overtaking.  The rules state that the drivers must take the chequered flag in the order they have been running in if the safety car has been deployed.

Here are the results;

1. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 78 laps 1hr 50m 13.355s
2. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault +00m 00.4s
3. Robert Kubica Poland Renault-Renault +00m 01.6s
4. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 02.6s
5. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes +00m 04.3s
6. Fernando Alonso Spain Ferrari-Ferrari +00m 06.3s
7. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +00m 06.6s
8. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes +00m 06.9s
9. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy Force India-Mercedes +00m 07.3s
10. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari +00m 08.1s

11. Jaime Alguersuari Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari +00m 09.1s
12. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +00m 25.7s
13. Vitaly Petrov Russia Renault-Renault +5 laps [DNF]
14. Karun Chandhok India HRT-Cosworth +8 laps [DNF]
15. Jarno Trulli Italy Lotus-Cosworth +8 laps [DNF]

Rtd Heikki Kovalainen Finland Lotus-Cosworth 58 laps completed
Rtd Bruno Senna Brazil HRT-Cosworth 58 laps completed
Rtd Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth 30 laps completed
Rtd Kamui Kobayashi Japan BMW Sauber-Ferrari 26 laps completed
Rtd Lucas di Grassi Brazil Virgin-Cosworth 25 laps completed
Rtd Timo Glock Germany Virgin-Cosworth 22 laps completed
Rtd Pedro de la Rosa Spain BMW Sauber-Ferrari 21 laps completed
Rtd Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes 2 laps completed
Rtd Nico Hulkenberg Germany Williams-Cosworth 0 laps completed

Fastest lap:

Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1m 15.192s lap 71

all results unofficial

Button speaks about his own frustration with his performance in Barcelona last week, but looks forward to a repeat of the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix when he was victorious at the iconic circuit.

Button gives the ‘inside track’ ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Australia has now been chosen as the second round, allowing the race to begin at 5pm to fit in with the television broadcasters who favour racing in ‘twilight’ rather than the dark.  However, the Singapore round will still be under full floodlights when it takes place in late September.

Although as yet no contract has been signed, the Canadian Grand Prix has been pencilled in for the 13 June, if the contract fails again this year the Turkey Grand Prix will be held later to compensate.

South Korea is a new circuit on the calendar, set to take place in mid-October with the final round being held in Brazil as usual but it will be held in November.

Here is the calendar;

Australia          March 28
Malaysia           April 4
China              April 18
Spain              May 9
Monaco             May 23
Turkey             May 30
Canada*            June 13
Europe (Valencia)  June 27
Great Britain      July 11
Germany            July 25
Hungary            August 1
Belgium            August 29
Italy              September 12
Singapore          September 26
Japan              October 3
Korea              October 17
Abu Dhabi          October 31
Brazil             November 14

*Subject to the completion of contract negotiations with Formula One Management. If these are not completed then the Turkish Grand Prix will be moved to 6 June.

Note: The race in Australia will start at 1700 local time, in Malaysia at 1600 local time, in Singapore at 2000 local time, and in Abu Dhabi at 1700 local time.

Jenson Button - Monaco Winner 2009

The Brawn GP Team Formula One driver Jenson Button, claimed his first victory at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday, after winning his fifth race out of the six so far this season.

Button had qualified in pole position followed by the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, team-mate Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull.

Button dominated the race from the start as the cars headed to the first corner, with Raikkonen dropping back to third as Barrichello slipped past to follow his team-mate.

On lap 2, Button and Barrichello were followed by Raikkonen, Vettel, Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari, Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren, Mark Webber in the second Red Bull, Fernando Alonso in the Renault, Kazuki Nakajima for Williams and Nelson Piquet in the second Renault.

Lewis Hamilton in the second McLaren, started from the back of the grid after crashing during the qualifying session and then needing a gearbox change, but by lap three he had moved up to sixteenth place.

Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber pitted on lap 3 with a right rear puncture but ended up retiring from the race on lap 31.

Vettel was running six seconds slower than Raikkonen by lap 7 and continued to hold up Massa, Nico Rosberg and Kovalainen, who were looking for any opportunity to get past.  Massa made a move by taking to the escape road but was forced to not only let Vettel back in front but was also squeezed out by the Williams of Rosberg.

As Vettel’s tyres deteriorated rapidly, the queue behind continued to grow leaving the cars ahead free to extend the gap until he finally pitted on lap 11,

Sebastian Buemi in the Toro Rosso ran into the back of Renault driver Nelson Piquet on the first turn of lap 11 putting both drivers out of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, as Hamilton came in for his first pit stop.

Barrichello then began to struggle with the grip on his tyres and was 2 seconds a lap slower than his team-mate, as he slowed further Raikkonen was unable to pass giving Button even more of an advantage to build his lead.

Raikkonen pitted on lap 16 and rejoined in seventh place ahead of  Alonso while Vettel lost the rear of his Red Bull and crashed at Sainte Devote, ending his race.

Button came in for his first pit stop on lap 17 and rejoined in second behind the Williams of Rosberg but ahead of Massa and Kovalainen.  Rosberg pitted on the next lap putting Button back in the lead and the Williams driver back behind Alonso.

Webber in the Red Bull pitted on lap 23 and rejoined behind Massa but ahead of both Rosberg and Kovalainen, gaining two places.

Alonso in the Renault was on a long first stint and finally pitted on lap 29 while in fourth place but rejoined behind Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India in tenth.

Button lapped Hamilton on lap 37, the Mclaren driver was still only ahead of Adrian Sutil in the second Force India.

Massa began to gain on Raikkonen who was chasing down the second Brawn GP car but was yet again warned over his team radio not to cut the chicane in the process.

On lap 51. Barrichello pitted while the race leader goes in for his final stop on the following lap and slots in behind Raikkonen, who had yet to stop.

On lap 53, Kovalainen ran into the wall exiting turn 14, careered across the track and ended up at the Swimming Pool after running in seventh place.

Raikkonen made his final stop on lap 54, taking the softer tyres and rejoined in fifth place as Button led Barrichello by a gap of 13 seconds.

The Williams driver, Kazuki Nakajima ran his car into the tyre wall on the penultimate lap after running in the top ten all weekend and leaving him to finish down in fifteenth place.

Another Brawn GP first and second on the street circuit of Monaco followed by Raikkonen on the podium for the first time this season.

In fourth place was Massa, ahead of Webber in an impressive fifth, Rosberg in sixth, Alonso in Seventh, Bourdais in eighth, Fisichella in ninth and Timo Glock for Toyota completing the top ten drivers of the day.

Button is now leading the championship with a 16 point lead and with 11 races still to run.  Barrichello is running in second while the Red Bull driven by Sebastain Vettel is still Button’s main contender, only 28 points behind.

Here are the results;

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  1h40:44.282
 2.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes     (B)  +     7.666
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    13.443
 4.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +    15.110
 5.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +    15.730
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    33.586
 7.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    37.839
 8.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:03.142
 9.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  1:05.040
10.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:15.154

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)    52
Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)    31
Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)    16
Piquet        Renault               (B)    11
Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)    11

World Championship standings, round 6:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:
 1.  Button        51        1.  Brawn GP-Mercedes      86
 2.  Barrichello   35        2.  Red Bull-Renault       42.5
 3.  Vettel        23        3.  Toyota                 26.5
 4.  Webber        19.5      4.  Ferrari                17
 5.  Trulli        14.5      5.  McLaren-Mercedes       13
 6.  Glock         12        6.  Renault                11
 7.  Alonso        11        7.  Williams-Toyota        7.5
 8.  Raikkonen      9        8.  BMW Sauber              6
 9.  Hamilton       9        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari      5
10.  Massa          8
11.  Rosberg       7.5
12.  Heidfeld       6
13.  Kovalainen     4
14.  Buemi          3
15.  Bourdais       2       

All timing unofficial

Nico Rosberg - Williams 2009

As the Formula One cars and drivers head to Monaco for one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar, rumours are yet again rife on whether Nico Rosberg will remain with the Williams team when his contract expires at the end of the season.

The 23-year-old German driver allegedly said after the Spanish Grand Prix, that he is looking at his options for 2010 but would be happy to stay with the team if they can continue to give him a good car or an even better one!

So far this season, Rosberg’s inconsistency in the races has puzzled not only his fans but also members of his team.

The Grove team are currently running eighth in the constructors’ championship ahead only of the Toro Rosso team and Rosberg himself is in tenth place in the drivers championship.

The Monaco streets of the circuit are open to the public on Friday and so the practice session takes place on Thursday, with the normal qualifying session on Saturday and the race on Sunday.

In last years race ,Rosberg qualified in sixth position at his home town, living only 100 metres away from the circuit.  Unfortunately he crashed out on lap 62 at Piscine, hitting both sides of the track and spreading debris across the circuit, bringing out the safety car.  The German was unhurt but was seen at both the track medical centre and at the local hospital before being given the all clear.

Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima qualified in thirteenth place and after an impressive drive finished in seventh place for the Williams team.

Rosberg has always held the Williams team in high esteem and it is with the very same team that his father Keke Rosberg won the championship back in 1982, but will that be enough to keep the young German’s enthusiasm?

He made his feelings perfectly clear at the beginning of the season that 2009 would be his decision year, to stay with Williams or to look at other teams.  Despite the new car showing some encouraging performances there still seems a long road ahead to get the team back to challenging some of the front runners.

Rosberg has shown much potential over the years but has he now lost that edge or is it solely down to the car he is driving, perhaps now is the time to find out as further developments are expected at the Monaco round to the FW31, hopefully giving the teams more points, as for Nico, we’ll just have to wait and see!

Sutil was in fourth place as the safety car came into the pits with Raikkonen behind him as they exited the tunnel.  Raikkonen made a mistake as they entered the chicane and slammed into the back of Sutil, ending the Force India drivers race with only a few laps left to run.

Sutil was inconsolable after the race and the team boss Colin Kolles told Autosport “After the race he was in tears, but it was not only him, there were a lot of people.  I told him ‘You are the hero of the race’.  That’s my opinion and I think people will recognise this.”

Raikkonen finished in ninth place for the Ferrari team and said “I said I am sorry for him and his team because, probably, they are not going to be often in the position to score a fourth position.  Plus it was Monaco, so it was harder for him than for me.  But it was a racing incident and I could not go anywhere.  There wasn’t much space and I could not slow down.”

He added “It was just a racing incident.  I just locked the rear brakes on the bump and you cannot really slow the car after that.  There was nowhere to go, and not enough space to try to avoid him.  Basically, I just think my brakes were a bit too cold and I locked the rear.  I nearly lost the car but unfortunately I hit him – and it is sad for them.  I feel sorry for him, but I could not do anything.  I tried to slow down, but there was nowhere to go and nowhere to slow down – and I lost fifth place.”

Raikkonen has now lost the lead in the championship points and follows Lewis Hamilton by three points followed by Felipe Massa.

The rain started to fall 20 minutes before the race was due to start but fortunately it stayed reasonably light. Heikki Kovalainen stalled on the grid and had to start his race from the pit lane.

Hamilton sneaked up the inside of Kimi Raikkonen to take second place behind Felipe Massa at the start of the race. Nico Rosberg in the Williams made contact with the back of Fernando Alonso at the hairpin on the first lap and on the next, Jenson Button run into the back of Nick Heidfeld.

Nico Rosberg pitted on lap five to have a new front wing as Timo Glock in the Toyota, lost the front end of his car and span, he kept the engine running and rejoined the track but had lost several places.

By lap six, David Coulthard who had been penalised five places for a gearbox change, had worked his way up into tenth place as the rain got heavier and Lewis Hamilton slid across the track and hit the wall, and headed straight back to the pits for a new tyre.

Haikkonen was in second place by lap seven thanks to Hamilon’s error with Robert Kubica on his tail. Hamilton rejoined in fifth place as a pile up happened at Casino Square. Alonso hit the barrier and damaged his suspension while Coulthard and Sebastien Bourdais made contact, bringing out the safety car. Coulthard and Bourdais were out of the race but Alonso rejoined as the safety car came in.

Alonso was on a charge as he overtook Mark Webber to go sixth and then tried to do the same with Nick Heidfeld, but the inevitable pile-up occurred sending him back to the pits for his third nose cone.

Raikkonen was in for a drive through penalty on lap sixteen as his tyres had apparently been fitted after the pre-race deadline, moving him back to fourth place.

Massa went off track after running wide at the end of the start-finish straight and Kubica took advantage and led the Monaco Grand Prix for the next ten laps. Massa kept his car running and was straight back on track and chasing Kubica.

Raikkonen ran wide and damaged his front wing and returned again to the pits where he took on enough fuel to finish the race

The Force India driver, Adrian Sutil was in fifth position as Massa pitted and Hamilton took over the lead. Timo Glock span, narrowly missing Jenson Button and Rosberg.

Giancarlo Fisichella did not have a good race and he went out of the race with a gearbox problem.

Massa was stuck behind traffic as Hamilton extended his lead ready for his pit stop. Meanwhile Alonso came into the pits and put on dry tyres after warnings that more rain is due in minutes.

Nelson Piquet also came in for dry tyres and on the next lap went straight on at St Devote and was out of the race.

Kovalainen, Webber, Sutil and Hamilton were all on dry tyres with Hamilton rejoining in the lead after his pit stop.

Kovalainen then hit the back of Button sending him spinning as Massa returned once again to the pits to try the dry tyres and leaving Kubica to take the second place.

Hamilton built up a lead of 39 seconds over Kubica until Rosberg smashed into the barriers at the swimming pool section bringing the safety car back into action as debris was swept of the track.

With only ten minutes left of the race, Raikkonen smashed into the back of Sutil taking the Force India driver out of the race but there didn’t seem to be a lot Raikkonen could do to miss him. The Ferrari driver rejoined, yet again, in ninth position.

Lewis Hamilton took the victory followed by Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa in an exciting race on the streets of Monte Carlo.

The race did not go the full distance today as it hit the two hour time limit

Here are the results: