The glitz and glam off the track at Monte Carlo had definitely shined a bit of life into the Formula 1 drivers this weekend at the grand prix. Fans were treated to a real spectacle albeit for some unfortunate accidents that resulted in two drivers being hospitalised.
Formula 1 this year has been dominated by Sebastian Vettel's unbelievable ability to drive behind the wheel of that red bull car that everyone wants to try and take a look at to see what it is that makes the German so fast. But the truth of the matter is that we just have another great F1 driver in the making and he did his reputation no harm in winning a crazy and manic formula 1 race that nobody seemed to be fully in control of.
Lewis Hamilton was quickest in qualifying 1 and 2 on Saturday's session, but a risky move by the Mclaren team to send him out with 4 minutes to go to set a lap time backfired in the most unfortunate of cases: on his first flying lap Massa would not get out of his way causing him to give up on that lap and his second lap was halted by an almighty 100mph crash into the barriers for Sergio Perez resulting in Hamilton qualifying in 7th. To add further insult to injury the stewards deemed he ran over the chicane at turn 15/16 and got dropped to 9th. His race didn't prove much luck either with Hamilton on a mission he was pushing his car to the limit and was held up pretty much throughout the whole race by someone and on a circuit deemed Nye on impossible to pass he was never able to really overtake and storm through the pack. A drive through penalty was the kick in the teeth for Hamilton however as he was held back by Massa early on in the race he tried a sneaky move up the inside of Massanet and got cut off when Massa cut across him resulting in them touching and Hamilton getting the penalty. A race in which he was unlucky to finish 6th was mirrored by his team-mate who no doubt went home thinking if lady luck was on his side he would have gone home with the trophy.
Jenson Button had split the red bulls at the start of the grid and after pitting for his first stop he flew out the traps and took full advantage of a mix-up in the red bull garage which saw Button fly in the middle stint of the race into a commanding lead, but for some unknown reason Mclaren saw the need to pit him for a second time which in hindsight ruined his race as soon after he pitted the safety car was deployed and Button found himself 3rd. To his knowledge though he thought Vettel, who pitted only on the 16th lap, and Alonso who had his second stop on lap 34 would need to stop again because of the wear on the tyres. He was proved wrong, Vettel had somehow managed to preserve his tyres up until the 72nd lap where a big pile up where Alguersari and Petrov crashed out, Petrov ending up being hospitalised, and the race was stopped under a red flag but the race was to restart and Vettel and Alonso were both able to change tyres and then finish the race 1st and 2nd.
But a day which saw strategies the key to finding track positions saw sides like Sauber with Kobayashi, Adrian Sutil in the Force India and Pastor Maldonado in the Williams all used the safety cars to their full advantage and even though at the very end Maldonado collided with Hamilton and span into the barriers and Sutil was at the front of the pile up which caused the red flag Kobayashi was able to hold his nerve and finish a well deserved 5th place, no doubt in tribute to his team-mate Sergio Perez who was unable to make the grid due to his concussion.
The race was a real tribute to Formula 1 racing and even though there was some casualties, we saw some of the best contest across the field: the tightest finish for the top three, Hamilton's desire to get through the pack, the smaller sides jumping up the field to show they are here to challenge in Formula 1.
Monte Carlo has produced some amazing memories for every Formula 1 fan and for me this is going to be my amazing memory of Formula 1.
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