Rosberg takes win and championship lead in Monaco

2014 Monaco Grand Prix summary

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Nico Rosberg secured his second consecutive Monaco Grand Prix victory and retook the lead of the Drivers’ Championship after leading every lap around Monte Carlo ahead of his team mate Lewis Hamilton.

In a dramatic and incident filled race, Hamilton only just held off Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo after suffering from apparent vision issues in the closing stages. But the most remarkable result was Jules Bianchi finishing ninth to secure the first ever world championship points for Marussia.

At the start, Rosberg successfully reached Sainte Devote ahead of team mate Hamilton as a great start by Kimi Raikkonen saw him jump into fourth while Daniel Ricciardo fell to fifth. Contact between Sergio Perez and Jenson Button at Mirabeau left the Force India stranded and saw the Safety Car deployed before the end of the first lap.

When the race resumed at the start of Lap Four, Sebastian Vettel was passed by Raikkonen for third before slowing with an apparent gearbox problem that left him cruising back to the pits. The reigning champion resumed in last a lap down, but immediately complained of being stuck in first gear. He was later told to retire the car.

As expected, the Mercedes immediately began to pull away from Raikkonen’s Ferrari with Hamilton remaining within a second of his team mate before dropping back to around 1.5 seconds after complaining of rear tyre wear.

By Lap 24, the Mercedes had caught traffic, allowing Hamilton to close up the gap to his team mate ahead. But then the Safety Car was deployed for the second time when Adrian Sutil lost control under braking for the Harbour Chicane, crashing into the inside barrier and sliding to a stop along the escape road.

The leaders were immediately called into the pits, with Hamilton forced to queue behind Rosberg but able to rejoin in second. Despite pitting under the Safety Car, Raikkonen was brought into the pits for two consecutive laps, dropping him from third to 13th and promoting Ricciardo back up to third.

The race resumed on Lap 31, with Hamilton told that he would not be required to stop again for the remainder of the race and that tyre degradation would be the key. Kevin Magnussen appeared to pass Jean-Eric Vergne before the Safety Car line at Rascasse at the restart, before being passed himself by Nico Hulkenberg with a superb move into Portier.

Once again, the Mercedes disappeared into the distance leaving Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso to circulate behind them. Rosberg was informed that he would need to use longer gears to avoid his fuel level becoming critical by the end of the race.

Jean-Eric Vergne suffered an apparent engine failure from 13th place, putting him out on Lap 53, while in the lead, Rosberg was told he was now back on target with his fuel usage. Valtteri Bottas then fell victim to an engine failure of his own, stopping at the Hairpin. The Williams was cleared without the need for a third Safety Car.

On Lap 62, Esteban Gutierrez spun exiting the Rascasse, taking him out of the race and promoting Jules Bianchi’s Marussia into tenth place. However, the Frenchman was under investigation for taking a five-second penalty under the Safety Car and would receive an additional five second penalty added to his race time.

With just over ten laps remaining, Hamilton began to drop back significantly from Rosberg ahead before complaining to his team over the radio that he was suffering with vision problems due to not being able to see out of one eye. This allowed Daniel Ricciardo to close up the margin to Hamilton dramatically with the Mercedes almost two seconds off the pace.

With the tension mounting, there was yet more drama when Kimi Raikkonen dived down the inside of Kevin Magnussen into the Hairpin, putting both cars into the tyres and forcing them both out of the points. This elevated Bianchi up to eighth with Magnussen too far behind to make up the gap.

Despite catching the second Mercedes, Ricciardo was unable to pass Hamilton and was forced to settle for third. Alonso finished fourth, with Nico Hulkenberg fifth in the sole remaining Force India ahead of Jenson Button’s McLaren.

Although he recieved an additional penalty, Jules Bianchi was classified ninth, officially securing Marussia’s first ever points finish in their 84 race history.

2014 Monaco Grand Prix

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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205 comments on “Rosberg takes win and championship lead in Monaco”

  1. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
    25th May 2014, 15:02

    salute to Bianchi and Marussia

    1. incredible! I’m very happy for them!

    2. Brilliant drive from him.

    3. DOTW for me, Marussia will celebrate that!

  2. Chilton deserves a punch in the face!

    1. Chilton will just call his dad to work things out.

    2. I wouldn’t recommend starting into a fight with him. He will finish it, long after you stop.

      1. He’d finish it by accidentally knocking you out, maybe by falling into you, then walking away unscathed.

  3. Bianchi is a stud, hope this performance palpably contributes to his potential future with Ferrari.

  4. Oh, Lewis didn’t want to know about Daniel but he almost passed him. That Red Bull really comes alive towards the end. Keep pushing Red Bull (and Renault) we need more people mixing with Mercedes.

    1. I found Lewis’ reaction on the radio incredibly vile…
      Pretty much on the same level with Vettel’s cucumber comparison a few years ago.

      1. I’ve always been curious about why people make such a big deal about the cucumber comment.

        It definitely wasn’t the nicest thing to say, but “vile”? Kinda overreacting a bit, don’t you think?

        1. I don’t think one should comment on the performance of other cars in such a way. He had all the right to be annoyed by Karthikeyan’s move, depending on your view of the situation, but in that moment at least, he was basically saying the slower cars aren’t worth being in the same race, pretty much. At least that’s what I heard out of it.

          1. if slower cars shouldn’t race, then the grid would only have 2 cars.

          2. Making a big deal out of something little, aren’t we?

      2. Yeah his reaction was weird but if you’ve something stuck in your eye and you’re driving around Monaco, I don’t think you can think clearly anymore.

      3. Yes, it was under the couch. Thanks for the helpful comment.

      4. @dennis Lewis has been vile continuously on the radio the past two races, not to mention his evil comments about taking a page out of Senna’s book. It doesn’t compare with calling a poor F1 driver a cucumber, which was rude but understandable. I wish we had a transcript for the Spain GP.

      5. Do you expect him to be all cool and calm, whilst driving his heart out around a twisting circuit at breakneck speed. & being told the wrong info? he did say please.
        I suspect some people think everything that comes out if his mouth is vile, no matter what the context.

        1. If Ricciardo managed to overtake Lewis, he would have lost some more much needed points on Rosberg. I don’t see at all how that info was wrong. Especially given Lewis’ record on complaining about how nobody told him certain things before they happened…

          1. +1 well said.

      6. You thought his comment was vile? Ridiculous. Of course Lewis is more concerned with the gap to Nico, he’s the only real threat he has in the championship at the moment.

        1. You need to keep everything around you in mind. Not only the guy ahead. He would have lost way more points on Rosberg if Ricciardo did a surprise attack and managed to get by.

      7. +1,

        what i find vile is how much people jump all over Hamilton after every possible comment, i think its shows your inner, vile, motivations.

        1. Perhaps you should stop reading the comments then.

      8. @dennis I wouldn’t call it vile. Alonso sometimes responds to gap calls yelling “I don’t want to know”… Seb’s comment was in a different context.

      9. Schumacher used to swear at Brawn over the radio. I recall a couple of times. Hamilton’s polite compared to that.

        Get over it.

    2. @jcost Lewis as always being so annoying on the radio… nothing they tell him is good for him…

      He’s a beast of a driver, but drawing a comparision with JB. Jenson strategic mind always amaizes me, he’s always the first one to dive into the pits when a SC is out, on difficult conditions he raises ahead of the rest, and his chat with his engineers is always calm and relevant. With Lewis, it’s always “tell me about the gap, man!”, “tell me about the tyres, man!”, “I’m trying man!”… so annoying !

      1. Well, even if Lewis wanted to dive in, Toto Wolf said that he would not have been served by the team. Wolf said the drivers aren’t allowed to make their own calls.

        1. And that’s rubbish. Through the whole last part of the race I kept thinking what if: Lewis had got on the radio and said, “Listen to me I’m coming in. Get the tyres ready”. If he’s fast enough to think of it or willing to make the gamble then he should be allowed to. MB have already won the constructors.

          I’d like to see the pit crew _not_ service the car if it came in. That would not look good at all.

          1. @bazza-spock That’s why this is a team sport . Like it or not , MB have rules and they go by rules . Same goes for any team .They spend the money , they build the car , they pay the driver . All these stunts may look great to watch on TV but will hurt the morale.

          2. @Hamilfan Yeah I’m not really mad it didn’t happen but it was insteresting to think about for a bit. I did kind of come to the same conslusion – that even though the drives put out this hugely individualistic vibe about it all, even when they think they have what it takes to win, it still depends on what the team says.

            Due to Monaco being so hard to pass, the win was basically decided at the end of qualifying.

            (PS. I couldn’t reply to you directly because there was no reply button there. weird.

          3. @bazza-spock Yeah , the win was decided in Q3 and sealed during that SC .

  5. What a race, at Monaco no less.. I need to calm down a little!

    As I said in the live chat, this could well be the best Monaco GP I’ve seen since starting in 1998.

    1. Really? I thought it was rather boring. Overtaking is so hard in an F1 car here, it was really a non-battle between ROS and HAM, and later RIC. Kudos to Marrusia though.

    2. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
      25th May 2014, 15:12

      2004 (crash everywhere), 2005 (Alonso’s problem with tyre), and 2008 (rain, action packed, Kubica performance, Sutil’s heartbreak) is great though, not sure that this one is better than them.

      but good race indeed

    3. It was dull and as with last year the only interesting part of it (the pitstops) was nullified by a safety car. Monaco is only interesting when it rains, everyone knows this, otherwise they just finish in starting order barring crashes/reliability.

    4. The 2011 race was miles better than today’s race!

  6. Daniel shows us again he is the hungrier Bull on the GRID!

    1. Yes, he must be really proud of beating a teammate with terminal mechanical issues while he was free of such gremlins; from that it’s indisputable that Ricciardo is by far the superior driver #sarcasm

      No don’t get me wrong, I respect his skills and I acknowledge he will make Vettel sweat but he is not miles ahead.

      1. I meant in respect of the race.. He pulled out some great lap times on those same tyres in the end.

        1. @manohar
          Yeah OK but since Vettel wasn’t there to say anything about it, there really isn’t any basis for comparison to claim he’s ‘hungrier’… given that Vettel was actually ahead of him before his car went kaput, I’m not especially impressed unlike his performance in Bahrain or Shanghai.

          1. right…but i also knew thats how most of the people gonna look at it anyway as they see the stats so officially you can call him that.. and officially his quali stats speaks the same too. in the contrary i support vettel :)

        2. If he was hungrier late in the race that’s only because Vettel had probably had a snack when he got out of the car. Or do you mean that if Vettel had been hungry enough he could have got his car working just by willing it?

          1. i put it how its gonna look according to the stats ;)

          2. LOL. It does seem to be what some people are suggesting. I mean, Ricciardo in his massive hunger never would have let that happen to his engine!

          3. Stats factor in retirements if you look at them properly.

          4. you gotta appreciate the guy putting faster lap times than mercedes in laps 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73 and 78. yes u can say he was the only bull but that will still justify the statement wouldnt it? just to make clear i didnt mean that vettel is not hungry enough or not capable, he is my fav guy on grid as you can see my pic.

      2. Maybe those conspiracy theories of Red Bull sabotaging Mark Webber’s car will be revised due to successive failures experienced by Vettel. That’s the definition of “tough luck”…

        1. A.K.A karma… but that shud hv affected his luck while going for long winning streaks

    2. Did he? He had a somewhat disappointing performance. Had Raikkonen and Vettel not have issues, he would have finished 5th. Not bad, but after starting 3rd is a little weak.

      1. agree his start put alonso behind kimi… but he came back in the end

    3. @manohar well he was the only bull on track – wasn’t he?

      1. He was faster than mercedes in few of the ending laps which is just great.. but yea such a shame Vettel didnt get to finish his 100th GP :(

    4. How? his teammates car broke down, what race did you watch?

      1. watched him putting fastest lap on lap 70 ..dont tell me you left your chair after the SC.

        1. Hum… fastest lap went to K. Raikkonnen on alp circa 75… Don’t tell me you followed only one car :-)
          Glad you enjoy the race; have a good evening.

          1. yea after getting new tyres.. daniel went fastest on same tyres than leading mercedes.. you gotta give him credits for that.

          2. Well, I don’t give good points or bad points: new tyres is a fact, but that’s the race. I mean: RIC had a reason to try and go fast at the end of the race (i.e. when the cars have less fuel, hence are faster). Maybe, e.g., ROS had no reason to push at lap 70. Does that mean that RIC’s quickest lap on 70 was not good? Surely not you’d say. Just because some drivers are not pushing at the end because they have nothing to gain shouldn’t be taken into account.

            So same the other way: New tyres ok, but that’s race. Similar: ROS & HAM for instance were pushing at the beginning but the car was full of fuel…

        2. @manohar well no sh#t sherlock, that’s usually what happens and fastest lap only is recorded. You can praise it yourself all you want, but won’t be in any statistics when we later look back.

          1. i didnt say he was fastest in race.. he was fastest on same tyres and on same league, why bother bringing kimi with top battle.. he had terrible day, all i said is daniel did awesome job matching mercedes’s time.. he went faster than them again on lap 75..so i gotta clap for him there.

          2. that was lap 73*

    5. Vettel got him at the start, and I don’t doubt he may have been able to hold him off had his car not failed on him yet again.

      1. frankly i fed up by taking in account that “what could have happened” specially after that disappointing qualify..

  7. I was screaming out of joy when Mag and Kimi crashed !!!

    1. Because? You do that with all crashes?

      1. @lari
        Bianchi. Marussia. Points.

        Those 3 words should be enough to explain why :P

        1. I actually felt really bad for Kimi. He had a great start and first half of the race, on pace to outperform Alonso, but then he got a puncture thanks to a Marussia and now Marrussia got a puncture thanks to Kimi…. Ironic. Almost as ironic as Nico getting rewarded with pole while making a mistake under pressure! ;)

          1. Marussia got points thanks to Kimi, not a a puncture… sorry.

      2. Only with the ones that favour the underdogs :D

    2. So was I :) I’m a big RoGro fan but even I was hoping he would somehow finish behind Bianchi and I was bummed when I heard about his penalty… gotta thank Raikkonen and Magnussen for making it possible for Marussia to score their first points.

    3. I was also laughing because the crash looked quite comical, especially the first time one could see it.

  8. The spectacle was compromised for me on Saturday. Before the infinitely wise inform me my opinion does not affect the points…I am aware. Respect to Bianchi, always thought he was unfortunate to be in a Marussia. Had hoped Sutil would have continued his run of overtakes. Ricciardo gets love as well.

  9. Bianchi for driver of the weekend

  10. Congratulations Rosberg! Well done! Amazing!
    Also kudos for Marussia!

  11. Yeah well……

  12. Nothing worse than those post race interviews, far out.

  13. Am I the only one who bursted in laughter when I saw Raikkonen and Magnussen get stuck in the hairpin?

    1. No. That was my reaction too, and I’m a Kimi fan. Hell of a race…

    2. personally I cursed at them, especially Raikonnen, but I guess he will get a punishment of some kind for causing a collision. we will see.

    3. Same here

  14. Cant use dirty tactics all year, nico hasnt been faster legitimately all year and he wont be 2 weeks on arguably Hamilton s best track. Cant wait

    1. nico hasnt been faster legitimately all year

      Except for Bahrain & Spain you mean?

      And in Spain it look Lewis to run a more powerful engine setting against the instructions of the team to be able to stay ahead.

      1. And qualifying this weekend for that matter.

        The people who still believe Nico went off intentionally obviously know more than the stewards who have seen all of the data from Nico’s car.

        1. I watched his hands it was obvious, though not enough to give a penalty. Im glad he didnt get one to be honest but it was very unsporting

          1. So, you, by “watching his hands”, know more than the stewards that actually have access to the telemetry? Come on

          2. You should apply for a job with the FIA. You’re obviously more competent than the hugely experienced stewards and former racing drivers who currently have that role.

            Were you watching Rosberg’s hands when Lewis got dirt in his eyes? There could well be a connection there as well, and someone of your intellect is perfectly equipped to figure it out.

          3. Oh no! You watched his hands. We no longer need stewards.
            Please.

        2. lol just because the stewards cant prove something doesn’t mean he didnt do it, it just means he is good at cheating, all he had to do was take too much speed into the corner knowing that he’d either make it and get a quicker time or lock up take the run off and cause a yellow flag.

          1. So he was a able to fake that on the narrowest track, so precisely that he didn’t crash, and so convincingly that the stewards didn’t notice it?

            Damn, Rosberg must be the best driver of the past 20 years!

          2. I think the stewards and The BBC & NBC commentators miss Martin Brundle’s telling point that he (Rosberg) was guilty of reversing back on the track.

          3. Martin’s point was to further the intrigue of the story. He actually said that if Rosberg parked the car further down the run off, the yellow flags “may” have been taken down.

            “May”. Probably not. You can’t leave a car in a run off area, especially one that was as short the one at Mirabeau, which Brundle also brought up several times. Race Control isn’t going to let cars go full blast down to the Mirabeau with a car parked in the run off.

            The fastest way to clear a car is for it to back out, otherwise, you need to have a crane come in and pull it out, or even Marshall’s roll it out through an opening, and that’s not going to be done under green.

        3. People need to stop this crap of “you know more than the stewards”, the stewards looked many times ridiculous with their decisions, as one of the guys mentioned it yesterday, how long did it took the stewards to figure out that Nelson Piquet JR crashed intentionally in Singapoor 2008 ? Despite the fact that his telemetry data shows that the crash was done in purpose.
          Today it happened to Roseberg to lose the breaking point and to lock the tyres at Maribeau corner but instead he forced the car into the corner something he didn’t do yesterday

          1. @tifoso1989

            Today it happened to Roseberg to lose the breaking point and to lock the tyres at Maribeau corner but instead he forced the car into the corner something he didn’t do yesterday

            When I saw it, I was like “Oh, Nico has just learned how correct at that corner!” :)

          2. The stewards did not even see the deliberate crash of Nelson Piquet in Singapore 2008 to help Alonso. Rosberg can choose to carry the speed and lock up to pack his car where he did in a way that looked unintentional with the stewards not able to prove anything…..not saying thats what he did.

      2. I just heard about that when Brundle mentioned it. In a very real sense, that is exactly the same thing that happened between Vettel and Webber in Malaysia. But no vilification of Hamilton?

      3. Huh how was he faster in Spain and Bahrain, i suppose Ham was faster today then before he got stuff in his eye? I mean surely 1 second in monaco is as quick as guy in front. Ros had a circuit to try and pass and could not were as LH had zero chance to pass.

      4. Dean Reynolds
        26th May 2014, 13:03

        And in Bahrain nico used the same setting plus drs AND softer tyres and FAILED to get past. At least lewis used the setting successfully

    2. Get over yourself.

    3. Boring guy, go kiss your Hamilton poster above your bed and leave your hollow speculations at home

    4. Like it or not, if Nico fails to beat Lewis fair and square in one of the coming races (preferably Canada or Austria) voices saying he can beat his teammate under normal conditions will get even louder. Nico needs back-to-back wins to regain momentum, he cannot afford another Lewis hack-trick in the next few races.

      1. To be fair, the only reason Nico is up 4 points in the standings now, is that Lewis failed to finish in Australia. If Hamilton would have finished 1st or 2nd there he’d be up 15 to 20 points on Rosberg. In the races Lewis did finish, he beat Rosberg fair and square except today, where Nico beat him fair and square (in the race, not talking about quali)

  15. I have to say, I laughed when Lewis “Blind” Ham appeared. With one eye only he finished second in Monaco!! He has to be the DOTW! Ahahahahah…so funny that guy…
    Congrats to Nico, Ricciardo and ofc Bianchi. Again, though luck fot Vettel.

    1. “I don’t care about Daniel, I only care about Nico” -LH

      He might have come to other thoughts a few laps later and respect his engineer more.

      1. That was a bit arrogant of him. The engineer clearly saw that Ham was slower than Ric, so when asked about the gap, of course they would told him the gap to Ric. If I was the engineer, I would told him that you’re much slower than Ric.

        1. Exactly, it’s as if Hamilton didn’t believe his engineer it was significant to know the gap to RIC. I’m sure his engineer wouldn’t say it if it’s not important. If I was the engineer, I’d responded “Forget Nico, you have no chance against him anymore. Now, again, RIC is closing the gap, you need to focus on him.”

    2. I don’t understand. What’s funny about it? Unless you’re trying to imply that he was pretending?

      But that would quite a silly thing to suggest, so I’m sure you wouldn’t. :)

  16. Does anyone really think Lewis had something in his eye? If you think Nico rigged qualifying you should be all over this conspiracy too.

    1. Nico sprayed oil into his visor in an illegal manner, MUST CALL FOR INVESTIGATION! :)

      1. LOL !!!! @lari don’t give ideas to Lewis he will come up with a reason to whine and claim that he was a victim of Mercedes – Totto – Nikki grand Sabotage theory !!!!!

        BTW I don’t think those days might not be far when Lewis will start complaining that he is marginalized by the German team & German bosses favoring a German driver !!!!!

        1. Lol, although both Totto and Niki sind Austrians and Austrians are even less German fans than we Brits :)

          1. It’s funny how only the british always see some kind of national motivation behind everything. Nowhere else in the world there’s so much talk about how driver X is from country Y and is therefore getting a better car or strategies…

            Strange you guys can’t get over that. The teams and drivers certainly did.

    2. Why would he lie about that? If he was having tyre issues the best thing he could do is let his team know so they can make suggestions.

    3. Hair product?!

    4. Dean Reynolds
      26th May 2014, 13:15

      What is there to conspire against? He got something in his eye lost massive amounts of time and finished where he started…… whats the conspiracy? ??

    5. I’m sure he had something in his eye, it was tears. That’s why it cleared later.

  17. Did Nico Rosberg do a Grand Chelem ?

    Who did the fastest lap of the race ?

    1. Aditya (@adityafakhri)
      25th May 2014, 15:20

      Raikkonen snatched the fastest lap with set of supersoft in the end

      1. But RAI snatched it from RIC, not ROS.

    2. I believe it was Raikkonen, as he put a set of new tires after the contact with Magnussen.

    3. Oh Kimi….. if not for that puncture during the safety car…. We could have seen a good fight for 3rd !!!!

      1. Yes, and puncture that was caused by Chilton. I’d like to see video footage of it, since SkySports just completely ignored it, just stating RAI had to pit again and it’s awful.

        1. I’m not sure they broadcasted the contact between the two of them, but I did see a Marussia in the pits right behind Raikkonen.

        2. @lari

          SkySports only broadcasts the feed sent out by the FIA – I’m sure if they had the footage, they would have showed it.

  18. Ricciardo showing that RB10 has the pace if not for the engine. Tough luck that Vettel got into problems. Really wish to see what can he do with the car.

    1. @ialtair

      Tough luck

      hahaha, I bet it was unintentional to type that ;-)

  19. Unfair not to disq, Bianchi . Caterham pushed really hard to close gap because they knew that he most take the punishment, then they ignored and just got 5sec ! scandal and robbed Caterham to score their first points !!

      1. Marussia ignored the last stop and go, thereby ruin any chanches for Caterham to get to point place, Caterham playing fair game, Bianchi/Marussia not playing fair game and FIA not taking correct action in the aftermatch, Bianch should have a bigger time reduced from his finishing time.!

  20. Hamilton didn’t half have a race full of complaints, did he?

  21. “Rosberg wins Monaco Grand Prix as Hamilton suffers from vision failure”

  22. Hamilton did have something in his eye: a huge tear for realizing Nico had fairly been faster all the race,
    What’s wrong with the guy? No congrats to Nico? He has to remember “have a steel fist in a silk glove”, it’s to sad to see this guy loose control of himself like that

    1. Did Rosberg congratulate Hamilton on the last race? I don’t think so …

    2. “Hamilton did have something in his eye: a huge tear for realizing Nico had fairly been faster all the race”

      Easily the most horrendous comment of the weekend.

    3. Nico wasn’t faster all race. That’s an outlandish comment to make. They traded fastest times throughout, and Lewis’ were done running less than a second behind Nico in the turbulent air, which further proves that the two were pretty equally matched on race pace. That was obviously until lap 56 when Lewis got whatever it was in his eye and was hindered because of that.

      I agree that Lewis lacked composure during the podium ceremony, but you have to understand that he felt cheated out of pole position yesterday, which ultimately proved the most deciding factor in Rosberg’s win. And whilst it would have been nice to see him congratulate Rosberg, Rosberg not only failed to do so when the show was on the other foot in China and Spain.

  23. I was going to give it an 8, but Bianchi’s result bumped it to 9. Congratulations to Marussia!

  24. As much as it pains me to say it, good job to Rosberg. If he lost this one, I think the championship would effectively be over already ,but Rosberg has hit back hard with good drive. But the man of the moment, has to be Bianchi. His great race has pretty much destroyed Caterham, and possibly Sauber.

    1. Yes, I’m happy Nico won to keep the championship alive. Imagine if Lewis didn’t have a problem with his car and finsihed in Australia (1st or 2nd doesn’t matter) ánd got pole and the win here. The season would be dead boring.

      For me it’s clear Lewis is the better driver but a DNF here or there, inter teammate controversy and the epic faillure that is the 50 point final race should keep this close and interesting for us fans!

      1. I’d have to disagree. Hamilton might be the more talented driver but overall Nico is better. Nico doesn’t get into all sorts of incidents when his personal relationships aren’t great. I don’t recall Nico having to retire in the pit lane either which Lewis managed to do twice China 2007 and Canada 2008 albeit Nico smacked his front wing off in the latter incident due to the carnage that Lewis caused.

        1. @mcquiz lol yeah 4wins to 2 and 4 poles to 2 sure means Ros is better what a silly silly comment.

        2. Dean Reynolds
          26th May 2014, 13:29

          Behave yourself! Lewis is, and will always be remembered as, one of the greats. Nico is decent but the last 5 races tell you everything about their respective abilities so please pull yourself together.

  25. Alex McFarlane
    25th May 2014, 15:33

    Haha, Bianchi even swears on live TV, DOTW. Shame about the start position mistake, but ultimately I think things balaced out, can’t argue with a bit of luck for Marussia :-)

  26. I’ll be honest here. I’ve secretly always rooted for Lewis since 2007 (never been biased though). For some reason, I really love the guy. Unfortunately today, I lost a bit of respect for the driver I’ve always secretly rooted. Yesterday, it was a very bad coincidence that happened and Lewis lost out a crucial lap. You’ve to give the benefit of doubt to Nico because, (a) The stewards cleared him (unlike Michael in 2006), (b) Nico doesn’t have a history of any wrongdoing in the past and (c) We haven’t seen everything what stewards saw.

    During the gridwalk, Niki Lauda said that Lewis used some power settings that he shouldn’t have in Spain in order to keep Nico behind and he later apologised. However this weekend, he just seemed very bitter.

    Yesterday I posted questioning Lewis’ mental attitude and most didn’t appreciated that but I still stick by it. This one incident has rattled him more than Nico getting rattled by Lewis in the last four races.

    Today, he didn’t even shook hands with the winner and just seemed bitter about the whole thing. He is playing a pivotal role in spoiling the Mercedes environment. I am utterly gutted at his attitude this weekend.

    1. nj (@zigizigi26)
      25th May 2014, 20:44

      You aren’t a true hamilton fan. I am fully convinced Rosberg cheated, why should he shake hands with a cheat. If Hamilton would have got pole in such circumstances, I know he would have made a big deal of apologising and wouldn’t have celebrated so visibly. As for the power settings, what a ridiculous excuse not to like Hamilton, when Rosberg did exactly the same thing in Bahrain. Saying he didn’t shake hands with the winner is also irrelevant because Rosberg didn’t want to shake his hand either.

      Hamilton to destroy Rosberg in his backyard in 2 weeks time. Make 3 into 4.

    2. @neelv27 Your a Ham fan you say? It don’t sound it what about Nico after Spain you miss that?. Or what about guaranteeing to win the Spain GP on the China podium?. But yes Lewis is bitter(rolls eyes)

    3. I agree. I’m a bit disappointed in Hamilton this weekend. But he’ll make me feel better by winning Canada! :)

  27. Hamilton didn’t show us that he was more hungry than Nico! If he had dived into the pits after Sutils crash to get a new set of tires even if none of them had been called into the pits, then he could maybe have won the race and proved a point about the hunger.
    I believe it was Herbert who said/asked that Mercedes would have fitted a new set of tires on Hamiltons car, had he dived into the pits not waiting for the call. Toto wiped the question of by stating that isnt the way the Mercedes team work, to let the driver decide when to pit. The driver is called into the pits! I bet they had worked frantically to find his next set of tyres and change them. With a bit of luck he would have come out on top. With bad luck it would have cost him a serious delay and the podium.

    1. Hamilton can not have it both ways, in previous races he was called in first as he was infront of nico, now it was nicos turn to get called in first because he was infront of lewis. he should not be bagging the team for that.

  28. Lewis is acting like a spoilt brat again.

    He had to use a more powerful engine setting in Spain, Against the instructions of the team & the engine people in order to stay ahead of Nico. He apologized to Nico & the team 7 his apologies were accepted.

    This weekend Nico apologized for causing the yellow yesterday yet apparently Lewis has since refused to speak to him, didn’t attend the post qualifying team debrief & did nothing but whine & cry about everything during the race & refused to acknowledge Nico afterwards.

    Its been the same with Lewis since 2007 when he whined about been told to hold back from Alonso at Monaco & went off crying to the media about how that wasn’t f1 & how he was considering quitting if he was put into that position again.
    Then you had the nonsence here in 2011 ‘maybe its because im black’ after he got a penalty for pulling a stupid move.

    Lewis always comes across as been very high maintenance & does nothing but whine & cry when he doesn’t get his own way.

    He should be a man, Accept Nico’s apologies & move on.

    1. Lewis is way too emotional and if he doesn’t resolve the issue and move on, his championship effort would unravel.

    2. What are you going on about regarding Hamilton’s engine setting in Spain? Each driver can change their setting according to what their garage recommends.

      1. What are you going on about regarding Hamilton’s engine setting in Spain? Each driver can change their setting according to what their garage recommends.

        They have been saying on Sky today & Niki Lauda confirmed it on the grid when Brundle asked him that during the Spanish Gp Lewis put the car into an engine mode that he wasn’t supposed to put it in & was specifically told by the team not to use.

        1. Can’t find any mention of that anywhere. I don’t see how engine mode is something to be apologized for if Nico could have just changed his. This sounds like a fishy story.

          1. it was mentioned by martin brundle during commentary

          2. Niki Lauda CONFIRMED the story to Martin Brunlde when asked about it during the gridwalk.

            Toto Wolff also confirmed the story to be true on Sky.

          3. He was specifically told not to. There can’t be one rule for him and another for Rosberg. Hence he apologised.

            Or are you accusing Niki Lauda of lying?

          4. Dean Reynolds
            26th May 2014, 13:39

            As usual dont let the truth get in the way of a good dig at Lewis. Nico used the same setting in Bahrain. Only difference was Lewis used it successfully. …. nico didn’t.

    3. I think he does set himself up for a fall sometimes. Saying he had “no excuse” to not get pole and that he would “take a leaf out of Senna’s book” is going to paint him into a corner if he doesn’t win.

  29. At first I thought Hamilton had hallucinations because of the dehydratation and the starvation when he complained about something in his eye.

    I was thinking of Sutils comments about losing weight and got a bit psycho a suppose …

  30. Lewis throwing toys out of the pram agai… all week he’s bee goig on about winning in Monaco as if it was already fait accompli, and his sour face on the podium does him no favours, is he ever going to grow up? and talk about emulating Senna, man was brilliant but could be a thug on the circuit. Luckily Rosberg doesn’t seem to be falling for LH’s mind games but we are probably only weeks away as previous poster remarked, from LH’s conspiracy hints, German manufactuer, chairman, team leader, driver… Well done to our Australian driver too, but hope that Canada will be more interesting.

    1. he already let one go today, saying they wouldn’t have bought him in to pit when he wanted to.

      1. Dean Reynolds
        26th May 2014, 13:49

        Jesus! What is it with you people? Ignore the truth and select the juiciest gossip about lewis. Worse than a coffee morning at WI. Lewis explained his comments about pitting. Merc have 1 strategist for both drivers THATS why he said what he did.

    2. Dean Reynolds
      26th May 2014, 13:52

      Sour face? Show me a good looser and ill show you a looser.

  31. Who is the lady that interviewed the drivers after the race for Sky? I can’t stand how she kept trying to get a rise out of Nico and Hamilton

    1. @trublu
      Natalie Pinkham Worst of Sky F1

      1. I don’t know about that. She’s got some strong competition. Lazenby’s level of competency is mirroring that of Jonathon Legard on the Beeb and Johnny Herbert is doing a stellar impression of Mark Blundell, but with a slightly less tortured command of the English language. There’s no need to ask him a question as the answer is always “Lewis Hamilton”. Or he’ll repeat the words of a question in a slightly different order.

        “Johnny, who’s going to be on pole?” “Lewis Hamilton.”
        “Johnny, who’s going to win the race?” “Lewis Hamilton.”
        “Johnny, do you see anyone other than Nigel Farage winning the UK European Elections?” “Well, Farage is a very strong candidate, but I can’t see past Lewis Hamilton.”

      2. What’s wrong with Nathalie Pinkham?! I think she does a fine job.

        1. In the past I’ve not been convinced by Natalie Pinkham, but I thought she did a great job interviewing Nico and Lewis this weekend. A bit sensationalist, but particularly in the case for Nico, she simply had to take the opportunity to press him hard on the matter, as we all wanted a chance to read his body language to help tell if he had deliberately lost it in qualifying (which disappointingly I think he did). In comparison, the BBC interviewer was far too nice and agreeable, giving him such an easy time in comparison – weak.
          Besides, the Sky anchor trio are hopeless – Its frustrating when BBC aren’t live, as I can’t switch over whenever those idiots are on screen. Then again, the BBC sacked their ultrabrain geek asset during F1’s most technical ever year – Gary Anderson, so that was a bit silly of them.

        2. Alex McFarlane
          26th May 2014, 0:21

          +1. I’d say she’s one of the better presenters on Sky F1, especially given she has no racing experience. I hear she’s very nice in person as well.

          If you think Sky or the Beeb’s coverage of F1 is bad, I watched the Indy 500 coverage on BT Sport after Monaco.. seriously cringeworthy. I don’t think the presenter or producers had much of a clue about motor racing, despite having an Indy 500 driver in Katherine Legge and an endurance racer whose name eludes me on the panel.

          Viewer question: how do indycars differ from F1?
          Response (not word perfect): indy cars are heavier and less aerodynamic but I essentially consider them to be the America’s F1 cars.

          Just…. no.

  32. Rosberg didn’t cheat, because stewarts now best but Lewis pretend he was blinded…because people over here knows best…
    See you in Canada in two weeks and we’ll see what you people have to say when Lewis recover the leadership.

    1. Leadership? I find imagining Lewis in a leadership position a funny scenario.
      Oh you meant the championship lead? That makes more sense.

  33. Nico & Lewis, Lewis & Nico – It’s bound to go back and forth like this until the very end of the season. Advantage to one or the other depending on the track or the day. Nico stays even keel mostly, Lewis is up and down emotionally. At least this season Lewis is more emotional about the racing than off track stuff.

    So, after Monaco it’s advantage Nico. After Canada it will be advantage… guess we’ll have to wait and see.

  34. Looks like Rosberg is the more senna-esque – 2 poles and 2 wins leading every lap on Senna’s best track – against the dude who wants to do a Senna on him.

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      25th May 2014, 16:28

      I’m sorry, so 4 wins in a row prior to this weekend isn’t “Senna-esque”?

      1. Nope. It’s not even Vettel-esque.

      2. not really no…. maybe button esque from 2009.

    2. Looks like Rosberg is the more senna-esque

      Mr 5 wins in F1 is still way off to be a Barichello-esque or a Massa-esque

  35. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    25th May 2014, 16:27

    Amazing how quickly the world of Formula 1 can change.

    Lewis wins 4 in a row, and everyone says Rosberg is desperate. Then Rosberg wins and everyone says Lewis is desperate.

    I’m sure next week it’ll switch again. They’ll go blow for blow all season.

    Buckle up :)

    This is turning into the rivalry that I was expecting the Kimi-Alonso partnership to be!

    1. “Lewis wins 4 in a row, and everyone says Rosberg is desperate. Then Rosberg wins and everyone says Lewis is desperate.”

      I wouldnt say everyone is saying Lewis is desperate, its just the same few knuckle-draggers who go silent when hes winning then come out in force when hes had a few issues.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        25th May 2014, 16:38

        Well yes, but you get my point.

        But yeah, a lot of people are really coming down hard on Lewis all of a sudden. Especially on this site.

        Sure I don’t think he’s handled today’s result the best. But some of the things people have said over the past few days about Lewis’s comments (which were actually construed and taken out of context by the media to make flashy headlines and get as many hits as possible) have been nothing short of pathetic.

    2. It’s the silly media people. Always blowing things out of proportion

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        25th May 2014, 16:39

        They really are. It’s almost comical. It’s kind of like they’re trying to get one of those Gossip magazines to play out in real life.

        1. Right. A lot of the reporters (and fans) are saying things like – if Lewis or Nico wins this race then they will have all the momentum to win the championship. As if everything is a one moment soap opera rather than a back and forth long season with drivers of great talent going head to head all season long.

          1. The press was talking about Lewis winning the WDC last year after his victory in Hungary. We saw how that worked out. Better to listen to your own thoughts.

            Over at the Autosport Nico/Lewis thread Nico is vilified and Lewis was robbed and never said anything improper. I worry about group-think.

      2. Sky F1 are being particularly annoying in this regard. But what would you expect?

  36. congrates Nico, well done,
    great drive Lewis,
    nice to see you back up on the podium Riccardo,
    i hate this track, yet each year i still watch it, just in case i might miss something,
    that something this year was Bianchi some how coming 9th.

  37. Reallly lovely Monaco race. A lot of tension boiling too.

  38. Would love to see Nico win the championship and become the first father-son world champion duo in Grand Prix history along with Keke…

    1. Other than Graham Hill and Damon, you mean?

      1. How often must I remind you that anything before Senna (or Schumacher) is before history began.

  39. Rosberg hitting back at Hamilton this weekend then, and the gloves are off. Hamilton In my opinion though shouldn’t have made that comment about ‘hunger’. Talk is cheap as they say. Nothing but respect for Hamilton but this weekend he’s made a joke out of himself.

  40. Does anyone know if kimi has been given a penalty for forcing magnussen to stop?

  41. I am not a Lewis fan, nor am I a Hamilton fan. I like supporting the people I feel are underdogs, therefor I like people like Grosjean, Bottas and Hulkenberg, and they get the most support from me as a fan.

    Now a lot of people here have strong oppinions about the two title contenders. Personally I believe Hamilton to be the more gifted racing driver of the two, and Rosberg perhaps the more consistent over the years because I feel he is the more emotionaly stable one.

    If you’d ask me who I think will win the title I wil say Hamilton. If you ask me which one I’d like to take the title I’d say Rosberg. Not because I dislike Hamilton, but because
    A ) I like the underdog, and
    B ) I would like to see a new champion instead of a repeat champion.

    Now I’d like to point out how the above was phrased: ” I think, I like, my oppinion”

    I find it sad that the commenters on this forum for a large part seem to have forgotten that they are just that , commentors. I have been a member if F1fanatic for many years. It has been a hallmark of this site that it is filled with intellegent racing fans. Lately though a lot of people seem to have fallen back on the time tried methods of “people of lesser intelligence” (as not to say stupid) those methods being;

    Yelling things a 100 time over and louder This does not make you right people..”

    I cringe everytime I read comments like “rosberg did it on purpose, i saw it” or “hamilton was faking his eye injury because he needed an excuse to be second” . These are not facts, no matter how many times you repeat them or how many times you put people who disagree with you down. They are oppinios backed up, hopefully, by a good arguement (mostly lacking sadly)

    We are all voicing our oppinions ang thoughts here. So lets all treat eachother with a bit more respect, and stop trying to make our oppinions into facts.

    I believe it would make for a much more agreeable read.

    1. Here,Here !

    2. Yelling things a 100 time over and louder

      Especially folks who just won’t let go of the engine noise issue.

  42. Man, if rosberg gets just one DNF its really game on.

    1. If Rosberg gets an DNF next race, Lewis be up 21 points.

      For all the praise Nico is getting for being so closely matched, fans and pundits alike seem to forget that it’s only this close because of Lewis’ reliability issue in Melbourne.

      1. True. But Lewis isn’t really leaving Nico in the dust either. They’re pretty closely matched weekend after weekend. I love it.

      2. I am surprised at how everyone has assumed that without LH’s DNF, he would have won in Australia. Everyone just naturally gravitates toward that assumption. Sure he was leading at the time but it was early in the race. And that’s racing. NR has also had telemetry and radio issues that affected one of his starts. And he may have a DNF yet. Now that we know LH used boost that everyone on the team agreed upon beforehand, to prevent NR from passing him, perhaps things are more even than some suggest. Certainly many around here should retract some of their comments and their thinking about NR having his chances yet continually failing to get past LH and therefore it being a foregone conclusion that LH will be WDC. I see chinks in LH’s armor that I didn’t see 5 or 6 days ago.

        1. Of course that should say used boost that everyone agreed beforehand not to use…

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