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By Stephen Burns
Red Bull continued their dominant form as Mark Webber won the Monaco Grand Prix, his second victory in a week. The fast but previously fragile RB6 proved the class of the field as team mate Sebastian Vettel beat the Renault of Robert Kubica into the first corner to ensure a Red Bull one two finish.
From the lights Webber sped away from the rest of the field as his team mate was squeezed towards the pit wall by the Renault of Kubica starting second, but Vettel managed to pass the Polish driver and was in second place by the first corner. Hamilton was also pushing from the line but was unable to pass Massa's Ferrari and remained in fifth. The second Ferrari of Alonso was yet to start after crash in Saturday's practice session wrecked the chassis preventing him from taking part in qualifying. Button's start was less positive as he slipped down to 11th place.
From the lights Webber sped away from the rest of the field as his team mate was squeezed towards the pit wall by the Renault of Kubica starting second, but Vettel managed to pass the Polish driver and was in second place by the first corner. Hamilton was also pushing from the line but was unable to pass Massa's Ferrari and remained in fifth. The second Ferrari of Alonso was yet to start after crash in Saturday's practice session wrecked the chassis preventing him from taking part in qualifying. Button's start was less positive as he slipped down to 11th place.
Half way round the first lap the Williams of Nico Hulkenberg speared straight on in the tunnel leaving debris all over the track and resulting in the first deployment of the Safety Car. This further added to Button's woes as having left the pits to go to the start, his McLaren team had left a radiator cover on the car. The Safety Car's reduced speed led to the Mercedes engine, already marginal on cooling, starved of cool air. On the third lap it expired in a cloud of smoke leaving last year's winner to watch from the side of the track. Alonso took advantage of the early Safety Car to change to the harder tyres, leaving him with 75 laps to do one one set.
With the debris cleared from the circuit the race resumed at the start of lap seven and Webber was immediately setting the pace with Vettel close behind. Alonso was also in the mood for a race and by lap sixteen had passed the two Virgin Racing cars and the Lotus of Trulli and was up to 17th place behind Kovalainen. A lap later Hamilton was in for his pit stop from fifth place and rejoined the track in 15th ahead of Alonso, starting a cascade of pit stops.
Webber's pace was such that when he turned into the pits at the end of lap 23, he was able to resume the race still in the lead with Rosberg in second place having yet to stop. The second Red Bull of Vettel was third ahead of Kubica, Kobayashi in the Sauber, Massa, Hamilton and then Schumacher. The positions remained this way until Rosberg's stop on lap 29 from which he returned to the fray behind his Mercedes team mate.
A lap later the Safety Car was out on track again after Barrichello's Williams hit the wall after a left rear suspension failure, Barrichello's feeling on the crash were made clear as he threw the steering wheel from the cockpit only for Hamilton to run over it. Webber's lead was negated by the safety car and when it returned to the pits Webber again set off to build a gap to the rest of the field and had pulled out a ten second gap when the Safety Car was again out on track with reports of a loose drain cover at turn three, a possible factor in the crash of Barrichello.
The race re-started with Vettel still behind team mate Webber. The Renault of Kubica was third with Hamilton between the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso. Schumacher led Rosberg in the sister Mercedes with Sutil and Liuzzi in the Force India completing the top ten. Hamilton's position was under threat as the team radioed him to inform the Hertfordshire born driver that the brakes on his McLaren were suffering from higher than expected wear.
Lap 75 saw the Safety Car out on track again after Trulli tried a desperate move on the Hispania Racing driver Karun Chandhok into the first turn. The optimistic move ended with the Lotus parked on top the Hispania car. With only three laps left to run there was speculation that the race could end behind the Safety Car but at the end of the final lap the Mercedes SLS Safety Car peeled into the pits for the final time leaving a short sprint to the finish line. Webber was uncatchable and took his second successive victory with team mate Vettel in second and Kubica's third meaning that the podium was a lockout for the Renault engine. Massa was fourth for Ferrari and the surviving McLaren just behind. Schumacher managed to pass the Ferrari of Alonso before the finish line however the place was far from certain as the stewards locked themselves away to hear evidence from the Ferrari and Mercedes as the drivers in sixth and seventh place. Rosberg in the second Mercedes and the Force India of Sutil and Liuzzi filled the last three points paying positions.
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