2011 Formula 1 : Vettel wins Grand Prix de Monaco

S.A.S. Prince Albert II and Sebastian Vettel (GER), Red Bull Racing, RB7 race winner

MONTE CARLO, Monaco : May 29, 2011 - Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) finally added the elusive Monaco Grand Prix to his tally of victories, scoring five wins from six this season.

After a big accident in qualifying, there was another in the race, resulting in Russian Vitaly Petrov being hospitalised after a multiple-car pileup at the Swimming Pool complex.

The Monaco GP once again proved that the three-way influence of rapidly-wearing Pirelli tyres, KERS and DRS have turned Formula One on its head and is providing consistently exciting races.

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) made up for the humiliation of being lapped last weekend in front of his home fans in Spain, by finishing second, with early race leader Jenson Button third - three world champions on the podium.

Mark Webber, who won at Monaco last year, set the fastest lap of the race - 1'16.234 - on the final lap to finish fourth and was followed by Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren).

Vettel extended his lead in the drivers' championship with 143 points over Hamilton (85) and Webber (79). Red Bull also extended its lead in the constructors' title fight to 222 points over McLaren (161) with Ferrari falling away in third place on 93.

As the race got under way in the cramped streets of Monte Carlo, Vettel got away cleanly from pole into the lead, while further back in the pack, Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) got past ninth-placed Hamilton into the first corner. There was contact between the two cars and although both suffered damage, it did not appear to be critical.

Over the first few laps, Vettel made good use of an open track ahead of him to start to open up a lead.

Schumacher was holding up a clearly faster Hamilton for lap after lap before the 2008 world champion got alongside the seven-times champion down the main straight on lap 10 and got past into Ste Devote.

Two laps later, Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth) took delight in overtaking his former Ferrari team mate, muscling his way past Schumacher at Mirabeau. Schumacher pitted for fresh tyres on the next lap. He took on another set of super-soft tyres as well as a replacement front wing to replace the one he damaged when he drove into the back of Hamilton. Schumacher rejoined in 21st place.

Rosberg was holding up a high-speed train of cars as Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Pastor Maldonado (Williams-Cosworth), Vitaly Petrov (Renault) and Hamilton queued up behind him to try and get past. Massa made it just before the Swimming Pool complex and Maldonado cheekily followed him through.

On lap 15, Button pitted from second place and rejoined in fourth. A lap later, there was a mistake by the Red Bull crew as they fumbled in getting the wheels ready for Mark Webber's stop, costing him valuable seconds..

On lap 17, Button set a new fastest lap of 1'19.072 and after Vettel pitted for his fresh rubber, once again surprising the pit crew, Button went into the lead.

Hamilton was all over the back of Petrov trying to get past into sixth place. He pitted on lap 23 and similarly surprised his crew who were not ready for him, resulting in a nine-second pit stop.

Rookie Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) made a very untidy pass on Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari), taking off his front wing. Di Resta was given a drive-through penalty for his transgression.

Meanwhile Schumacher wrong-footed team mate Rosberg and scythed past into 14th place.

On lap 30 there was a frustrating train of four cars held up behind fourth-placed Barrichello who had not yet pitted and was lapping on tyres well past their best.

On lap 33 there was right-rear suspension damage for Timo Glock (Virgin-Cosworth) who became the first retirement. Barrichello made his first pit stop and Button his second

There was contact between Massa and Hamilton on lap 34 as the latter tried to force his way past at the hairpin. Seconds later, Hamilton got up the inside of the Brazilian inside the tunnel. Massa was out on the marbles where he lost traction, and he smashed into the barriers on the outside and limped out of the tunnel with the left front wheel of his Ferrari askew. Seconds later, Schumacher's Mercedes came to a stop in the centre of the track and was pushed into the pit lane and retirement.

With two dead cars on the track, the safety car was deployed while the cars were removed.

So on lap 37, with the filed circuiting slowly behind the safety car, Vettel was technically in the lead but had yet to make his second stop. He was followed by two drivers who had already stopped twice - Button, who was the virtual leader, and Alonso. Behind them came Sutil, Kobayashi, Webber, Hamilton and Maldonado who had all yet to make their second stops.

On lap 39, racing got back under way and the pack got back up to racing speed without incident.

Button had been out of position behind a number of back-markers, but he quickly caught up with Vettel and joined with the reigning world champion for a battle for the lead. Over the radio, Vettel's' team advised him to keep Button behind for a few laps after which the advantage of his newer, but faster-wearing, Pirellis would be negated.

Stewards then hit Hamilton with a drive-through penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Massa at the hairpin.

Di Resta had another incident at the hairpin, this time nerfing the back of Jerome d'Ambrosio's Virgin-Cosworth.

Vettel appeared to have blunted Button's charge, holding the gap between them at just under a second, with Alonso a further six seconds back.

Hamilton served his drive-through and rejoined in ninth place, 6.9 sec behind Petrov.

On lap 48, Button made his third and final stop, rejoining in third place and 19.9 seconds behind race leader Vettel, with a pit stop taking more than 20 seconds at this track. Team mate Hamilton made his third stop on the next lap.

Button set a new fastest lap of 1'17.894 on lap 51 of 78 and was lapping over a second a lap faster than Vettel, with the Red Bull pit yet to respond to the threat. On the next lap, Button improved the best lap still further by half a second, reducing Vettel's lead to 14.5 seconds.

Second-placed Alonso was the meat in the sandwich, but was also still due to stop one more time. Alonso was catching Vettel but was himself being overhauled by Button.

Webber pitted from seventh place on lap 56, and this time his crew was ready and waiting for him.

With 20 laps to go, Alonso was within a second of Vettel, with Button seven seconds behind and closing fast.

On lap 59, Alonso arrived on the tail of race leader Vettel, who had to start driving defensively, slowing the pair and allowing Button to catch them even faster.

With 15 laps to go, Button arrived behind Alonso and the top three cars, all driven by world champions, were covered by just 0.7 seconds as they closed in on slower traffic ahead!

The trio lapped nose-to-tail on the streets of Monte Carlo where, despite the aids of DRS and KERS, overtaking is all but impossible.

Alonso had the difficult job of trying to pass Vettel while simultaneously defending against Button. He made a mistake at the exit of the Tunnel and took a short cut across the chicane, but retained his position.

Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) and Petrov hit the wall at the Swimming Pool complex on lap 69 and in the melee, Hamilton was also tagged from behind by Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) damaging the McLaren's rear wing.

Petrov remained in his car and there was concern that he had lost consciousness. Sergio Perez (Sauber) suffered a big accident at the exit of the Tunnel during qualifying and was hospitalised, keeping him out of the race.

The safety car was deployed and the remaining 18 drivers formed up behind it for a final seven-lap dash to the flag, but the race was red-flagged on lap 71 and the cars formed up on the dummy grid with an announcement from race control saying that the race would be resumed once the track was clear.

McLaren mechanics took the opportunity to replace Hamilton's rear wing, normally a lengthy procedure.

Meanwhile Petrov, reportedly conscious and talking, was extracted from his wrecked Renault and transferred to a waiting ambulance for transport to the medical facility. He was reported to be badly bruised but not injured.

Activity began to hot up on the dummy grid as McLaren mechanics worked with even more vigour to complete Hamilton's wing fitment. With three minutes to go to the restart, there were still a few panels lift to be replaced.

Engines were restarted and wheels replaced and the mechanics left the scene.

The cars moved off from the grid with Vettel leading Alonso, Button, Kobayashi, Webber, Maldonado, Hamilton, Sutil, Heidfeld and Barrichello. The safety car withdrew on the first lap and the race was resumed.

Vettel held up the pack and then accelerated for the line, with Button caught napping

Hamilton got up the inside of sixth-placed Maldonado at Ste Devote at the end of the main straight and there was heavy contact between the two cars with the Williams punted off into the barriers. The incident came under the attention of the stewards.

Webber tried to get past Kobayashi as Hamilton closed up on them from behind. Webber banzaied the Japanese as they burst out of the dark Tunnel into the dazzling sunshine and forced Kobayashi to short-cut the chicane, thereby obliging himself to yield the position to the Australian.

Race result : 2001 Formula 1 - Grand Prix de Monaco

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	78	2:09:38.373	1	25
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	78	+1.1 secs	4	18
3	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	78	+2.3 secs	2	15
4	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	78	+23.1 secs	3	12
5	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	78	+26.9 secs	12	10
6	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	78	+47.2 secs	9	8
7	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	77	+1 Lap	14	6
8	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	77	+1 Lap	15	4
9	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	77	+1 Lap	11	2
10	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	77	+1 Lap	16	1
11	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	76	+2 Lap	7
12	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	76	+2 Lap	13
13	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	76	+2 Lap	18
14	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	76	+2 Lap	17
15	25	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	75	+3 Lap	21
16	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	75	+3 Lap	23
17	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	74	+4 Lap	22
18	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	73	Accident	8
Ret	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	67	Accident	10
Ret	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	66	Accident	19
Ret	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	32	Accident	6
Ret	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	32	Airbox fire	5
Ret	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	30	Suspension	20
DNS	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari		-	-

2011 Formula 1 : Drivers championship standings

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	143
2	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	85
3	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	79
4	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	76
5	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	69
6	Nick Heidfeld	German	Renault	29
7	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	26
8	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	24
9	Vitaly Petrov	Russian	Renault	21
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Sauber-Ferrari	19
11	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes	14
12	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	8
13	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	7
14	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	2
15	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	2
16	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	2
17	Jaime Alguersuari	Spanish	STR-Ferrari	0
18	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Lotus-Renault	0
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	0
20	Jerome d'Ambrosio	Belgian	Virgin-Cosworth	0
21	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Cosworth	0
22	Timo Glock	German	Virgin-Cosworth	0
23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	HRT-Cosworth	0
24	Narain Karthikeyan	Indian	HRT-Cosworth	0

2011 Formula 1 : Team - Manufacturers' Championship Standings

Pos	Team	Points
1	RBR-Renault	222
2	McLaren-Mercedes	161
3	Ferrari	93
4	Renault	50
5	Mercedes	40
6	Sauber-Ferrari	21
7	Force India-Mercedes	10
8	STR-Ferrari	7
9	Williams-Cosworth	2
10	Lotus-Renault	0
11	Virgin-Cosworth	0
12	HRT-Cosworth	0

[Source : F1, CRASH.NET, Supersport]