2010 Monaco GP: Webber cruises to victory, penalty for Schumacher

Mark Webber won the 2010 Monaco GP from pole position and led all 78 laps. Sebastian Vettel completed a one-two for Red Bull, while Robert Kubica took third in the Renault. The race was effectively decided at the first corner. After that, the main talking point was the final corner, where a last-lap overtaking move cost Michael Schumacher his points.

At the Circuit de Monaco the start often counts for more than anything else, and so it proved again. Webber got away cleanly from first place. Behind him, Vettel made a better start from third on the grid than Kubica. According to grandprix.com, the Pole's wheels spun on the dirtier side of the grid. Kubica tried to close the door on the inside into Sainte Dévote, but Vettel held his line and went past.

Webber had everything under control in the first stint. According to Vettel, the Australian was at times around ten seconds clear. grandprix.com reports that the gap had grown to about twelve seconds by the second Safety Car period. Four Safety Car deployments wiped out that cushion again and again, but Webber didn't put a foot wrong at any of the restarts. At the flag he was 0.448 seconds ahead of Vettel and 1.675 seconds ahead of Kubica (according to grandprix.com). Kubica had picked up a flat spot. By his own account, the vibrations made it hard to read his pit board and hit his braking points, and he couldn't find a way past Vettel. Vettel set the fastest lap of the race on lap 71 with a 1:15.192.

Further back, Felipe Massa finished fourth for Ferrari from fourth on the grid. Lewis Hamilton brought his McLaren home in fifth, also matching his grid position.

The race was neutralised right after the start, before it had really got going. Nico Hülkenberg lost his Williams in the tunnel after a front wing failure. He hit the barriers hard and didn't even complete the first lap. The first Safety Car was then deployed.

Key retirements and incidents:

• Jenson Button (McLaren) parked his car after 2 laps with an engine failure. According to grandprix.com and Wikipedia, a cover on the left-hand sidepod had not been removed on the grid, causing the engine to overheat. A bitter afternoon for Jenson Button.
• Pedro de la Rosa (Sauber) retired after 21 laps with a hydraulic problem, and team-mate Kamui Kobayashi after 26 laps with a gearbox failure. That meant both Saubers were out (Pedro de la Rosa, Kamui Kobayashi).
• Both Virgin cars also retired: Timo Glock after 22 laps with a track rod failure, Lucas di Grassi after 25 laps with a wheel problem.
• Rubens Barrichello crashed out after 30 laps with broken suspension. His Williams hit the barrier at Massenet and came to rest facing the wrong way. That brought out the second Safety Car. According to Wikipedia, Rubens Barrichello threw his steering wheel onto the track.
• According to grandprix.com, the third Safety Car period came around lap 43 because of a loose drain cover at Massenet.
• Bruno Senna (HRT, hydraulics) and Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus, steering) both retired after 58 laps. Vitaly Petrov gave up after 73 laps with brake problems.
• Three laps from the end, Jarno Trulli tried to pass Karun Chandhok on the inside at Rascasse. The Lotus climbed over the HRT. According to Wikipedia, a wheel narrowly missed Chandhok's head, but both drivers were unhurt. It all happened right in front of race leader Webber, who managed to avoid the wreckage. The fourth and final Safety Car followed. Trulli and Chandhok were both classified with 70 laps.

The man of the day behind the Red Bulls was Fernando Alonso. After a heavy crash in the third free practice session, Ferrari couldn't repair his car in time for qualifying. Alonso therefore had to start 24th from the pit lane. Ferrari made clever use of the first Safety Car: Alonso pitted at the end of the opening lap and switched from the super-soft to the hard tyres. He ran that one set all the way to the finish. In other words, he tagged onto the back of the field with his mandatory stop already done. According to Wikipedia, many teams then planned their stops around rejoining ahead of the Spaniard. Nico Rosberg stayed out longer to build a gap. It didn't work out, though, and the Mercedes driver rejoined behind Alonso and a whole group of cars.

The Safety Car came in on the final lap, and Schumacher passed Alonso for sixth at the last corner. Mercedes considered the move legal; Ferrari protested. The stewards, among them Damon Hill, handed Schumacher a 20-second penalty. He dropped from sixth to twelfth and lost all his points. Mercedes initially announced an appeal but dropped it after the FIA agreed to talks on the Safety Car rules (according to Wikipedia). Alonso thus regained sixth place, with Rosberg seventh.

Winners:

• Fernando Alonso gained 18 places from 24th on the grid to sixth, more than anyone else in the field.
• Force India scored a strong double points finish with Adrian Sutil in eighth (from 12th) and Vitantonio Liuzzi in ninth (from 10th) for the Force India team.
• Toro Rosso celebrated the point for Sébastien Buemi, who went from 13th on the grid to tenth, benefiting from Schumacher's penalty. Jaime Alguersuari gained six places to finish eleventh (Toro Rosso).

Losers:

• Michael Schumacher lost sixth place because of the penalty and ended up five places behind his grid position.
• Jenson Button, the reigning champion, was out after just two laps, apparently because of an avoidable mistake on the grid.
• Williams failed to get either car to the finish. Hülkenberg and Barrichello both crashed out following technical failures.

The one-two put Red Bull in the lead of the championship. Webber and Vettel now both have 78 points. Webber is ahead because he has two wins to Vettel's one. That lifted him three places. Alonso dropped to third on 75 points. Button slipped from first to fourth (70) after failing to score. Behind them come Massa (61), Kubica (59) and Hamilton (59).

In the constructors' standings, Red Bull now lead on 156 points ahead of Ferrari (136) and McLaren (129). You'll find all the numbers in the 2010 standings.

For Webber, it was his second win from pole in the space of a week, following the 2010 Spanish GP. After the race, according to grandprix.com, he spoke of the “greatest day of my life”. He is the first Australian since Jack Brabham in 1959 to win the Monaco Grand Prix. For Red Bull it was already the sixth consecutive pole position of the season (according to Wikipedia), and the one-two clearly showed how strong the car was. The debate over Schumacher's move had a sequel: according to Wikipedia, the FIA later admitted that the Safety Car rules had not been worded clearly enough.