Lewis Hamilton wasn’t the only person to be especially pleased with his qualifying performance at Monaco.
“I’m really happy and excited with seventh place today,” said Sergio Perez, who lines up behind the Mercedes, Ferraris and Red Bulls. “I always say qualifying in Monaco counts for 90% of your final result, so it was important to be strong.”
Hamilton was quick to discount the suggestion that, having taken pole position, his job was half-done. But it’s a fact that ten of the last eleven Monaco Grand Prix winners have started there, so it’s not that much of an exaggeration to suggest he’s got one hand on the trophy.
What he can’t afford is a repeat of the dismal start he made in Spain. That dropped him behind Sebastian Vettel and the Ferrari driver is once again perfectly placed to take advantage of any problem for the Mercedes drivers.
“It could be possible to jump one of the cars ahead,” said Vettel, “two is more difficult, but then Lewis, too, should have a good start, otherwise he may be blocking the way.”
Hamilton may draw some comfort from the fact it’s been 13 years since the Monaco Grand Prix pole sitter was beaten to turn one. It’s still possible though – Ferrari junior driver Raffaele Marciello squandered his pole position advantage in today’s GP2 sprint race, allowing Richie Stanaway through to take advantage.
Vettel qualified the best part of three-quarters of a second off Hamilton’s time. He had expected to be closer, but cloudy conditions during qualifying took the edge of the temperature, causing problems for some teams.
“Today it looked like everybody was struggling to get the tyres to working temperatures – which is funny, because they call them super-softs – and the Mercedes cars were the ones which probably suffered the least from this problem, so this is why the gap looks bigger,” Vettel explained.
He wasn’t the only driver with this problem. Max Verstappen ended up last of the Q3 runners, one of a trio who failed to improve their times in the final segment of qualifying.
“Q1 and Q2 were okay, even though I was already starting to struggle with the tyres,” he said, “but in Q3 it was really difficult to get the tyres up to temperature.”
“I had no grip at all and started to lock-up a lot, and in my last run I was only eight hundredths faster with a new set of tyres.”
Kimi Raikkonen seemed to struggle with the cooler temperatures too, and also blamed traffic for only managing sixth on the grid, beaten by both the Red Bulls.
“Here there is a big chance to remain stuck behind other cars for the whole race and overtaking is really difficult,” he reflected, “that’s why the result of today is very disappointing.”
Strategic options are very limited at Monaco. A one-stop strategy is the standard strategy as tyre degradation is low and overtaking is extremely difficult – so much so that the leaders have the luxury of easily being able to slow the chasing pack if they need to.
Of course the big variable is the possible appearance of the Safety Car or – in an innovation for 2015 – the Virtual Safety Car. The VSC has already been used in three GP2 races so far this year without trouble, although the hapless Marciello spun his car after one deployment at the Circuit de Catalunya as he was caught out by how quickly the race resumed.
Last year Hamilton rued not taking the initiative of gambling on the Safety Car coming out by pitting when Adrian Sutil crashed at the chicane. Unless Rosberg can make a blinder of a start, his best chance to win may be to make that kind of gutsy call, though it brings with it a significant degree of risk.
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Qualifying times in full
Driver | Car | Q1 | Q2 (vs Q1) | Q3 (vs Q2) | |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’16.588 | 1’15.864 (-0.724) | 1’15.098 (-0.766) |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’16.528 | 1’15.471 (-1.057) | 1’15.440 (-0.031) |
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1’17.502 | 1’16.181 (-1.321) | 1’15.849 (-0.332) |
4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1’17.254 | 1’16.706 (-0.548) | 1’16.041 (-0.665) |
5 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | 1’16.845 | 1’16.453 (-0.392) | 1’16.182 (-0.271) |
6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’17.660 | 1’16.440 (-1.220) | 1’16.427 (-0.013) |
7 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1’17.376 | 1’16.999 (-0.377) | 1’16.808 (-0.191) |
8 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | 1’17.246 | 1’16.762 (-0.484) | 1’16.931 (+0.169) |
9 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | 1’17.630 | 1’16.775 (-0.855) | 1’16.946 (+0.171) |
10 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1’16.750 | 1’16.546 (-0.204) | 1’16.957 (+0.411) |
11 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1’17.767 | 1’17.007 (-0.760) | |
12 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1’17.492 | 1’17.093 (-0.399) | |
13 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1’17.552 | 1’17.193 (-0.359) | |
14 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1’17.679 | 1’17.278 (-0.401) | |
15 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1’17.778 | 1’26.632 (+8.854) | |
16 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1’18.101 | ||
17 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1’18.434 | ||
18 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1’18.513 | ||
19 | Will Stevens | Manor | 1’20.655 | ||
20 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | 1’20.904 |
Sector times
Driver | Sector 1 | Sector 2 | Sector 3 |
---|---|---|---|
Lewis Hamilton | 19.732 (1) | 34.904 (1) | 20.391 (1) |
Nico Rosberg | 19.884 (2) | 35.116 (2) | 20.416 (2) |
Sebastian Vettel | 19.942 (3) | 35.182 (3) | 20.721 (5) |
Daniel Ricciardo | 20.066 (5) | 35.339 (4) | 20.520 (3) |
Daniil Kvyat | 20.068 (6) | 35.343 (5) | 20.732 (6) |
Kimi Raikkonen | 20.073 (7) | 35.350 (6) | 20.764 (7) |
Sergio Perez | 20.229 (10) | 35.698 (10) | 20.881 (9) |
Carlos Sainz Jnr | 20.217 (9) | 35.729 (12) | 20.815 (8) |
Pastor Maldonado | 20.058 (4) | 35.724 (11) | 20.911 (12) |
Max Verstappen | 20.075 (8) | 35.760 (13) | 20.685 (4) |
Romain Grosjean | 20.231 (11) | 35.527 (7) | 20.908 (11) |
Jenson Button | 20.323 (14) | 35.578 (8) | 20.901 (10) |
Nico Hulkenberg | 20.310 (12) | 35.658 (9) | 21.007 (13) |
Felipe Massa | 20.310 (12) | 35.887 (14) | 21.040 (14) |
Fernando Alonso | 20.346 (15) | 36.090 (15) | 21.119 (15) |
Felipe Nasr | 20.552 (16) | 36.319 (17) | 21.166 (16) |
Valtteri Bottas | 20.745 (18) | 36.503 (18) | 21.178 (17) |
Marcus Ericsson | 20.624 (17) | 36.186 (16) | 21.702 (18) |
Will Stevens | 21.274 (19) | 37.441 (20) | 21.853 (19) |
Roberto Merhi | 21.516 (20) | 37.383 (19) | 21.866 (20) |
Speed trap
Pos | Driver | Car | Engine | Speed (kph/mph) | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Felipe Massa | Williams | Mercedes | 294.3 (182.9) | |
2 | Sergio Perez | Force India | Mercedes | 293.6 (182.4) | -0.7 |
3 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | Mercedes | 292.8 (181.9) | -1.5 |
4 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | Mercedes | 292.6 (181.8) | -1.7 |
5 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | Ferrari | 292.6 (181.8) | -1.7 |
6 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | Mercedes | 292.3 (181.6) | -2.0 |
7 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | Ferrari | 291.8 (181.3) | -2.5 |
8 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | Ferrari | 291.4 (181.1) | -2.9 |
9 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | 290.4 (180.4) | -3.9 |
10 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | Ferrari | 290.3 (180.4) | -4.0 |
11 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | Mercedes | 290.1 (180.3) | -4.2 |
12 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | Mercedes | 288.4 (179.2) | -5.9 |
13 | Jenson Button | McLaren | Honda | 285.3 (177.3) | -9.0 |
14 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | Renault | 284.6 (176.8) | -9.7 |
15 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | Honda | 284.2 (176.6) | -10.1 |
16 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull | Renault | 284.1 (176.5) | -10.2 |
17 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Toro Rosso | Renault | 283.5 (176.2) | -10.8 |
18 | Will Stevens | Manor | Ferrari | 283.3 (176.0) | -11.0 |
19 | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso | Renault | 282.8 (175.7) | -11.5 |
20 | Roberto Merhi | Manor | Ferrari | 281.0 (174.6) | -13.3 |
Over to you
Has Hamilton got the race 90% won? Will McLaren finally take their first points? And where can Carlos Sainz Jnr recover to from his pit lane start?
Share your views on the Monaco Grand Prix in the comments.
2015 Monaco Grand Prix
- Verstappen rebuffs Massa criticism over Monaco crash
- Hamilton “couldn’t care less” about Monaco
- ‘Moral victor’ Hamilton wins Driver of the Weekend
- Hamilton’s strategy splits opinion on the Monaco GP
- 2015 Monaco Grand Prix team radio transcript
Scalextric (@scalextric)
23rd May 2015, 17:58
Just one cut tyre at the start, a front wing hitting a rear going into St Devote for example, and the championship lead could change.
hzh (@hzh00)
23rd May 2015, 18:18
Rosberg can really be creative.
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
23rd May 2015, 22:36
let’s say he’s got a number of options at his disposal ;)
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
23rd May 2015, 22:39
Hamilton’s Options ;))))))
hzh (@hzh00)
23rd May 2015, 23:07
Hahahahaha.
Or we might witness the PRIME time of Hamilton’s weekend :P
Michael Brown
24th May 2015, 1:12
I don’t think Rosberg is prepared with a plan. He might just WING it
David-A (@david-a)
23rd May 2015, 17:59
Yep, especially considering who the 11th winner was.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
23rd May 2015, 18:50
Haha. :)
evered7 (@evered7)
23rd May 2015, 18:03
Rosberg has to make sure he is second after the first corner let alone take a place from Hamilton.
I think Vettel will go for glory into T1. His only chance of gaining anything from the race greater than 3rd.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
23rd May 2015, 18:11
@evered7 Vettel is smarter than that. A normal start and his third is guaranteed. A better than normal and he could go for second. First is out of the question unless Hamilton makes a really bad start.
evered7 (@evered7)
23rd May 2015, 18:41
@xtwl True that Vettel needs a better start to get P2 at T1 but considering that he lacks the pace versus Mercedes, it gives him extra initiative to go for it at the start. But he also needs Hamilton to have a proper start else he would just be blocked I guess.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
23rd May 2015, 21:43
@evered7 I remember in 2012 (?) when both Webber and Vettel from P4/3 had massive starts but just could not go anywhere. Even when Vettel has a great start he might not even be able to pass any Mercedes car if they are alongside each other.
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
24th May 2015, 1:28
It was 2013. The problem for VET and WEB was that HAM and ROS were almost side by side so they had no way to pass.
@xtwl
bola
24th May 2015, 3:04
But also he has someone alongside him who will be risking everything for a podium. Ricc said “legitimately” he should have been 3rd. A bit rude I think.
Duc Pham (@ducpham2708)
23rd May 2015, 18:23
At the middle/back, it’ll be interesting to see the McLarens fight for scores. Considering the Honda engine this season, if they can’t score points here (or in Singapore), they’re not likely to score points anywhere else.
And also interesting to see if the Red Bulls are capable of putting the pressure on the Mercs/Vettel. Because if they can’t, they’ll have to face a big threat from Kimi right behind them.
JohnNik (@johnnik)
23rd May 2015, 20:51
Assuming they all make it through the first corner I can see Kimi using good tyre management to clear one RedBull.
But as you say the other one could well be an hour of Kimi applying pressure but going nowhere. Unfortunately another sub par Saturday has most likely cost him a podium.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
23rd May 2015, 21:46
@johnnik – You’re already assuming he would beat Vettel. Which with all respect for Kimi does not seem likely given past races where he, just like Alonso before him, left him far behind. The Ferrari is much better than last year but Kimi is just no longer what he used to be. Only good on his good days.
JohnNik (@johnnik)
23rd May 2015, 22:03
Sorry, I agree.
I should have said a podium chance, rather than podium outright, meaning if he makes it to the fight he’ll be too late to do anything about it.
Becken Lima (@becken-lima)
23rd May 2015, 18:33
A fair, square and dominant pole to Hamilton, taking back what was rightfully his in 2014.
Looking back to FP’s, Lewis was always faster than Rosberg on race sims, so the German will need the Lady Luck – a safety car, perhaps – to beat Lewis this weekend.
And Perez was mega; he is convincingly destroying all the hype around Hulkenberg…
Palle (@palle)
23rd May 2015, 19:26
Hulkenberg was sliding a lot during qualifying, as if setup was far from ideal.
anon
23rd May 2015, 19:50
Hulkenberg’s not really shown great pace in any of the practise sessions either, and was complaining of set up issues in FP3. All in all, he’s just struggled a bit to get the car to his liking this weekend and not really quite got it under control.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
23rd May 2015, 21:49
@becken-lima – How? He did not set a lap quicker than Rosberg so you would never know his lap was going to be good enough on the ground of one sector. For all we know he was destined to crash and not start Sunday and Rosberg saved him, poof.
If it was anybody else but Rosberg nobody would’ve thought for a second it was on purpose…
lockup (@)
24th May 2015, 7:56
Au contraire @xtwl, at the time everyone liked Nico and nobody wanted to believe it could be deliberate.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
24th May 2015, 10:48
@lockup I guess you experienced it way different then…
If you’d go back to the particular topics you’ll see plenty of threats towards Rosberg and many many people straight out believeing it was on purspose even before the stewards were aware…
lockup (@)
24th May 2015, 11:33
Well okay @xtwl I guess there were people each way and it’s not easy to work out the proportions.
Still I think it’s easy to forget that Rosberg was basically pretty well liked at the time. I do think lots of us were enjoying the story of the boyhood friends ending up in the same team and making it work. Personally I wasn’t convinced it was deliberate until the Sky midweek report showed the head-on footage.
TomMK (@tommk)
24th May 2015, 1:52
I think the hype around Hulkenberg is justified. Perez is just also that good; his drive in Bahrain was epic as well. Force India have a great driver pairing.
Slava (@)
24th May 2015, 12:00
I do not understand all the hype around Perez. he is a terrible driver, and he proved that multiple times.
I am pretty much sure he will crash today. BTW, he is good only a couple times in a whole year.
Sonics (@sonicslv)
23rd May 2015, 19:24
For Hamilton its quite easy, just keep the normal race plan, keep the pace down a bit so he can save fuel and tires while all the people behind him suffer worse degradations from dirty air and just react to undercuts. The biggest risk is unexpected safety car.
For Sainz though, except the two Manors, probably Saubers, and people who retired I don’t think he can make any progress beyond that. It almost certain his best bet are starting on Soft and betting for the safety car.
Speaking of safety car, the start could be more interesting in the middle pack than the front. We have Maldonado in P8 with a kind of slow starting Perez in front of him and a rookie in quicker car behind him. There also out of place Williams and Grosjean further back. Personally I think Williams really don’t suit Monaco so maybe they not really out of place, but who knows if Massa or Bottas feels they should be more aggressive than usual since they’re out of points anyway. I just hope Button and Alonso can have a trouble free race. It will be nice to see the true McLaren race pace and if they can really get some points this week.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
23rd May 2015, 20:20
Perez starts just behind Raikkonen- I can hardly wait to see what happens!
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
23rd May 2015, 20:21
(Remembering last year’s race…)
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
23rd May 2015, 21:47
@ferrox-glideh “I want to punch him in the face”
bola
24th May 2015, 3:06
LOL :D
Polo (@polo)
23rd May 2015, 21:12
In an interview after qualifying, Toto Wolff (IIRC) said that Hamilton’s bad start in Spain was mainly down to the team. Andrew Benson reported it was a “systems malfunction”, but not sure on his sources.
Hopefully Hamilton/Mercedes are aware of whatever caused it and have amended it for this race. Ever since the start of these new regulations in 2014 Hamilton has seemed to be consistently very good at starts, the only bad starts I’ve seen him make were Australia 2014 (due to losing an engine cylinder on the formation lap, which soon after caused his retirement), Monza 2014 (due to a glitch in his start procedure), and Spain 2014 (due to a “systems malfunction”).
As was mentioned though, Marciello was beaten to turn one by Stanaway in the GP2 sprint race, so there’s no doubt it will be an important start.
lockup (@)
23rd May 2015, 22:14
Yeah @polo I think this was part of how ‘the team made it a bit difficult’ for Hamilton last race. I reckon the start should be okay this time, but Lewis will surely want a good gap before the stops…
Patrick (@paeschli)
23rd May 2015, 21:31
Perez will make this race worth watching, unless he crashes out on the first lap
nickpkr251
24th May 2015, 6:01
to be fair last year was Button mistake !
Slava (@)
24th May 2015, 12:01
Nope, it was totally Perez’s fault last year.
rampante (@rampante)
23rd May 2015, 22:32
Are mounting rockets to his car being ‘creative’ enough?
Peter (@boylep6)
23rd May 2015, 23:03
you mean surface to surface rockets?
Daniel (@dstaplet13)
23rd May 2015, 23:22
I suppose sabotaging Lewis’ car would be one option (remove 2 cylinders from the engine right before the race and make it a V4, put superglue on the steering wheel so he can’t adjust anything on the wheel).
But in all seriousness, it is pretty simple: Hamilton needs to get a bad start, Rosberg a good one; Hamilton needs to have a massive meltdown with his pit crew; or some unforeseen problem needs to happen (mechanical etc).
dragoll (@dragoll)
24th May 2015, 5:43
While I agree Hamilton has one hand on the Monaco trophy, it isn’t a simple race, and nor is it a race that is kind to equipment
pSynrg (@psynrg)
24th May 2015, 9:06
@dragoll It’s the least stressful race of the season for drivers and cars.
dragoll (@dragoll)
24th May 2015, 9:47
@psynrg There is no where for the drivers to take a break, there are no straights, they’re forever having to be weary of bumps, lines, armcove barriers, and they’re the things that don’t move. Traffic is a nightmare around this circuit.
Because the road is so bumpy, it puts a lot of stress on suspension, and generally all fixings on the car. Then take into account that the heat generated on the black ashphalt gets trapped in between the armcove barriers and the cars aren’t travelling at 300+km’s to generate massive amounts of air to cool the engines and components.
Another argument is, there is very little overtaking, however, there are some brave/foolish drivers that throw caution to the wind and attempt a dive exiting the tunnel or into lowes, sometimes we see great manouvres, other times we see collisions, whats to say Rosberg doesn’t get desperate and lunge inside Lewis?
My final point is, drivers cannot remain 100% focused throughout the entire race and can easily make mistakes without any pressure, look at Senna in 88 who was leading by a country mile and binned it late in the race and when interviewed was open about the fact that he let his mind wander about other things and it caught him out.
These are the factors that make monaco a truly epic experience for F1 drivers, while its not exciting for spectators from the outside looking in, it is an enormous challenge for the drivers.
kpcart
24th May 2015, 7:55
I thought Rosberg had the pace advantage over Hamilton, just ruined it in q3. he might still have a pace advantage in the race also.the start will be the most important, whovever is first in turn1. also vettel might just rosberg for p2 at the start, then it will be easy for hamilton.
Luca Nuvolari (@nuvolari71)
24th May 2015, 17:14
Creativity can come from many different places:) The nicest ones are the unexpected ones!
Slowhands (@slowhands)
24th May 2015, 20:07
@nuvolari71 You beat me to it! Would be funny if it weren’t so sad.