Finally the 44th career win for Hamilton, taking victory in the rain at Monte Carlo. The race started under safety car, with the green flag n0t coming out until lap 8. A pitstop mistake for Red Bull lost Ricciardo the lead, allowing Hamilton to get ahead. Meanwhile, Rosberg struggled for pace and finished in 7th.
The safety car went in on lap 8 and Ricciardo made a great start – pulling ahead of the two Mercedes drivers. However, there was a crash almost as soon as the race began, with Jolyon Palmer smashing into the barriers at Ste Devote, bringing out the virtual safety car.
The race restarted soon after, only for Raikkonen to lose his front wing at the hairpin, colliding with Romain Grosjean soon after. However, the Ferrari made it off the circuit so no safety car was required. Meanwhile, the rain stopped and many drivers nearer the back of the pack began to pit for intermediate tyres.
However, none of the front car pitted and Ricciardo’s lead grew to over 10 seconds. But, with Hamilton clearly quicker than his teammate, Mercedes gave Rosberg to let him though. Fortunately for Hamilton, Rosberg obliged and he immediately went on the hunt to catch the Red Bull – lapping two seconds a lap faster than Nico.
Rosberg and Ricciardo pitted for intermediates on lap 21 and 23 respectively but Lewis Hamilton stayed out on full wets. However, Ricciardo soon caught Hamilton but opted to not go for the overtake. On lap 31, Lewis made his only pitstop of the race, changing from full wets to the ultrasoft slicks.
All seemed under control for Ricciardo as he came in to pit for supersofts. But, when he arrived in the pit box his tyres were not ready and it took over 10 seconds to complete the stop. He exited the pits side by side with Hamilton but lost the lead to the Mercedes.
Red Bull’s race got worse just a few laps later, when Verstappen’s race came to a premature end when he had a big crash at turn 3. This brought out the virtual safety car, as this ended Ricciardo went for an overtake on Hamilton. However, Hamilton just kept ahead, an aggressive move forcing Ricciardo to stay behind.
For the remaining laps, Hamilton managed to stay ahead – beginning to pull away with just 10 laps remaining. Rain returned on the final lap as Hamilton crossed the line to take victory. However, Rosberg lost out to Hulkenberg on the line, dropping back to 7th.
Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton P1, Nico Rosberg P7
Win 44 for Lewis Hamilton, as he takes his first win of 2016. After the disappointment of yet another reliability issue hampering his qualifying chances, he drove a faultless race to take victory. Frustrated in the opening laps as he was held up by teammate Rosberg, Hamilton was allowed past on lap 16, a move which he thanked Rosberg for after the race.
Hamilton was called into the pits at a similar time to his teammate but remained on track, knowing it was only a few laps until it was dry enough for slicks. Although staying on the full wets lost him time, he skipped a pit stop and importantly kept ahead of Ricciardo. The victory was his first since winning the championship in October and he was extremely happy with the result:
“This might be the best place ever to have win number 44 – it’s been eight years since I won here! What a special day… truly one of the hardest races I can ever remember having. To stay in the zone, not make any mistakes and come out on top is just unbelievable.
For Rosberg, however, the race was one to forget. In the wet conditions, he was unable to find the pace and dropped behind Perez, Vettel and Alonso. Even as the track dried he was unable to find a way past Alonso and came under threat from Hulkenberg behind. On the last lap, as rain began to fall, the threat from the Force India continued. And, on the line, Rosberg lost out on sixth place by the smallest of margins.
A fantastic race for Hamilton means his deficit to Rosberg has decreased to 24 points, less than a win.
Ferrari
Sebastian Vettel P4, Kimi Raikkonen DNF
A disappointing result for Ferrari, as Raikkonen became one of many to crash out in the treacherous conditions. He lost control at the hairpin and made contact with the wall, causing his front wing to fall off. It became lodged beneath the car, making it extremely difficult for him to go forwards, the damage forcing him to retire the car.
For Vettel, the race was frustrating. Although he believed he had the pace, he was unable to cut through the traffic to fight for a podium finish. However, he still picked up 12 points, so not a disaster.
Williams
Felipe Massa P10, Valtteri Bottas P12
Going into the race, Williams knew it would be one of the toughest of the year for them. Unfortunately, they only managed to pick up a single point, after Massa lost ground when Raikkonen crashed. Bottas was held up in the pits, when they encountered a problem with the rear jack. This put him out behind Wehrlein and lost him a lot of time and cost him track position. This compromised his race and he had to settle for 12th.
Red Bull
Daniel Ricciardo P2, Max Verstappen DNF
“Two weekends in a row now, I’ve been screwed”
Yet another error for Red Bull cost Ricciardo victory once again. In Spain, a poor strategy lost him the chance to fight for victory and now in Monaco, a pit stop blunder cost him the race. Completely in control of the race, he went into the pits and was set to stay ahead of Hamilton. However, when he arrived in the pits, no tyres were ready and he lost over 10 seconds.
He came out behind Hamilton and tried everything to get past, but in the end he was unable to get past and had to settle for second place. Ricciardo was disappointed to have lost out on victory again, but remains positive:
“I should be extremely happy, grateful and thankful. I’ve been fast now for two races and that’s the positive, but again no win so I’m a little bit sick of being fast and not getting any real rewards. I don’t like being the sad story. To end it on a positive note, we are fast in all conditions, which is good.”
Starting in the pit lane, Verstappen quickly made up for the lost ground and pulled off some fantastic overtakes. However, like last year, he failed to make it to the end. A mistake on the soft tyres caused him to lock up and he found himself sliding on a wet patch of track, sending him into the wall.
Force India
Sergio Perez P3, Nico Hulkenberg P6
After a fantastic qualifying on Saturday, Force India’s success continued into Sunday. A late change to intermediates allowed him to pass his teammate. Then, he made an early call for slicks, pitting before Rosberg and Vettel, allowing him to jump ahead. He managed the soft tyres well and kept ahead of Vettel to take a podium.
Hulkenberg also drove a good race, but poor timing for his stop left him behind traffic. This lost him a lot of time and cost him a potential chance for a podium. However, he made it past Rosberg on the final lap to take a brilliant 6th place and eight championship points.
Toro Rosso
Carlos Sainz P8, Daniil Kvyat DNF
Electrical issues for Kvyat put him a lap down before the race had fully got underway. He had to go through the pits twice before the problem was eventually fixed. However, in trying to catch up, he made a mistake and collided with Magnussen, putting him out of the race. He was given two penalty points and a three-place grid drop for Canada as a result of this.
Losing many positions in the pits, Sainz was disappointed by the result today as he believes he could have done better if the strategy was right. However, P8 isn’t a bad result, especially in conditions as tricky as they were.
Renault
Jolyon Palmer DNF, Kevin Magnussen DNF
A tough weekend and a double retirement for Renault in Monaco. Palmer’s race was over early on, as he crashed as soon as the safety car went in.
Magnussen made a good strategy call and was the first to pit for intermediates, he gained many places through this and was running well. However, he was then hit by Kvyat when the Toro Rosso driver attempted a pass. With his car damaged, he dropped down the order and had nothing to lose. So, he made an early call for slicks but he hit the wall and damaged the front wing. Already a few laps down and with a badly damaged car, he retired the car.
Sauber
Felipe Nasr DNF, Marcus Ericsson DNF
A collision between the two forced both drivers out of the race. Nasr was told a lap prior to the incident to let Ericsson through. He refused to do so and Ericsson tried and overtake through Rascasse, but it resulted in contact which damaged both cars. Monisha Kaltenborn was angry at the behavior of the drivers and said:
“It was unacceptable behaviour by both drivers. Today the work of the whole team ended in a collision. Marcus and Felipe both know how much work is put into every race weekend. They have the responsibility to make it to the end of the race”
As a result of the collision, Ericsson was given 2 penalty points and a three-place grid penalty.
McLaren
Fernando Alonso P5, Jenson Button P9
A good race for McLaren and their highest points score so far this season. Alonso and Button started the race 10th and 13th respectively but a good strategy and brilliant drives from both of them saw them work their way up the order. Alonso managed to keep Rosberg behind during the second half of the race, to finish an impressive 5th for McLaren.
It was a tough start to the race for Button as he struggled to get any heat into the tyres, but he made the right call for the change to inters and he managed to drive a strong race to finish 9th.
Manor
Pascal Wehrlein P14, Rio Haryanto P15
To get both cars home in the conditions was a great result for Manor after all the incidents. However, it was a tough race and Wehrlein would have had a stronger race if it wasn’t for the penalties. First, he got a ten-second penalty for speeding in the virtual safety car, then he received another for ignoring blue flags. Despite this, it wasn’t too bad considering this is one of their worst tracks.
Haas
Esteban Gutierrez P11, Romain Grosjean P13
Grosjean’s race was going well and he looked set to score points before Raikkonen’s crash which pushed him into the barrier. He lost position and a lot of time. He spent most of the race behind a Manor, unable to overtake. A disappointing result considering they had the pace to have scored points.
With good pace in the wet, Gutierrez was running well. But as the track dried, he lost positions and was unable to maximise the performance of his car. A tussle with Bottas for position resulted in a last lap collsion. Bottas got a penalty for this incident, which promoted Gutierrez to 11th.