The Monaco Grand Prix truly ignited the battle for the 2014
world championship. In the all Mercedes fight for the title Lewis Hamilton
looked to be in the ascendancy. Having taken the points lead in Spain after his
fourth successive win it was crucial for Nico Rosberg to strike back around the
streets he won on last year.
Rosberg duly took the victory from pole position, holding
off sustained pressure from Hamilton for most of the race. He made a perfect
start and despite fuel issues during the middle part of the race kept it all
under control to take his second win of the year and hit the front once again
in the championship battle.
If Rosberg had lost out to Lewis for the fifth time in a
row, then it was going to start looking rather sketchy as to whether he’d ever
manage to take the fight to Lewis. Have no doubts it was essential that he won
this race.
That meant he had to lead out from the start, the best place
to do that is to start at the front of the grid. He did this under, shall we
say, controversial circumstances. Every time the Formula 1 circus arrives in
Monaco there is mention of how Michael Schumacher supposedly parked his car at
La Rascasse in 2006 and blocked the track to prevent Fernando Alonso setting a
better time during qualifying.
No wonder there was immediate suspicion on Rosberg as knowing
he was down on his own provisional pole lap he locked up going into Mirabeau
and ran down the escape road bringing out the yellow flags. The pressure
certainly seemed to be getting to him at this point, but suddenly that pressure
was transferred to Hamilton.
Hamilton was behind Rosberg on the track, and after the
first laps had been set was just 0.059 slower. On the second run he was quicker
at the first sector but backed off as the yellow flags waved for his team mates
car, Hamilton’s chances of securing the most important pole position of the
year were over. Immediately he thought it had been done on purpose and from
there his head seemed to go, this was a race he desperately wanted to take pole at and win to demonstrate his dominance over Rosberg as he had intimated in the lead up. That it seemed like he'd been wrong in his efforts to do so struck him hard.
My initial reaction to the incident was it was just a
mistake, a driver pushing too hard knowing he was slower than his first lap and
knowing that Lewis often pulls it out of the bag on his final attempt, just
like he’d done in Spain. In fact Rosberg has had previous at messing up his
final attempt in qualifying a few times this year, perhaps it was no surprise
it should happen again.
I still think it was just a mistake, I don’t think Rosberg
is the kind of driver who would do this kind of thing deliberately. But when
you look at the replays it does at least look like he unsettles the car with a
few movements of the steering wheel before he actual locks up his left front
tyre. He just manages to guide the car down the escape road, but even with that
most drivers would know that would bring out the caution flags.
Only Rosberg knows but on this occasion you have to give him
the benefit of the doubt especially with regards to what has happened in
qualifying in previous races this year. What it did do is ignite the fire that’s
been smoking away for the past few races as the Mercedes drivers have come to
realise this title is going to be fought by themselves.
Hamilton particularly seems to be letting the pressure begin
to get to him despite his four wins this year. He knows he’s the quicker of the
two drivers, but he knows that with the advantage Mercedes have Rosberg is always
going to be there. So when on the occasions that Rosberg is quicker, and
amplified by Lewis’ non-finish in Australia, he knows Nico will stay close to
him on points and on weekends such as this can retake the points lead.
Lewis looked just utterly downcast, he obviously feels something
dodgy went on despite the stewards exonerating Rosberg from any wrong doing. He
even went so far to say that these two karting buddies were no longer friends.
He ignored Rosberg completely after qualifying and after the race too. Nico is
taking a more light hearted approach and saying they are still friends but this
battle is just going to get more and more intense.
I hope Lewis doesn’t let it get to him too much as in
reality this title is his for the taking. He is the better race driver, but he
has in the past sabotaged himself by not letting his driving do the talking.
Monaco could well have been a pivotal weekend in the championship.
Lewis’ driving can be affected by his emotions, when he’s in
a good place he’s brilliant, when he’s not it can start going wrong. He can’t
let any paranoia creep in. He already started questioning the team on the radio
for not pitting him earlier when the second safety car came out for Adrian
Sutil’s crash. But Mercedes have a policy of favouring the lead car as most
teams do, something he did actually acknowledge after the race.
Rosberg needed to steal the advantage this weekend and he
did just that. He was fast all through practice and looked in general to have
the edge over Lewis. He took pole position, he made a perfect start and never
let Lewis get to him despite two safety car periods. In the closing stages
Hamilton got something in his eye which cost him several seconds and left him
vulnerable to attack from the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, who hounded him to
the flag to make up the podium. Even during this period of the race Hamilton
was more concerned with how far away Nico was rather than the fast catching
Australian.
Whatever though, Rosberg took a fully deserved victory for
Mercedes and with it there will now be two very distinct teams within the
Mercedes garage. Canada can’t come soon enough for the next chapter in this
title thriller.
Final Result:
1. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
2. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
3. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
4. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari
5. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India
6. Jenson Button - McLaren
7. Felipe Massa - Williams
8. Romain Grosjean - Lotus
9. Jules Bianchi - Marussia
10. Kevin Magnussen - McLaren
11. Marcus Ericsson - Caterham
12. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
13. Kamui Kobayashi - Caterham
14. Max Chilton - Marussia
R. Esteban Gutierrez - Sauber - Accident
R. Valtteri Bottas - Williams - Power Unit
R. Jean-Eric Vergne - Toro Rosso - Exhaust
R. Adrian Sutil - Sauber - Accident
R. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso - Exhaust
R. Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - Turbo
R. Sergio Perez - Force India - Accident
R. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus - Fuel pump
all photo's taken from autosport.com
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