2015 Monaco Grand Prix result

2015 Monaco Grand Prix

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Pos#DriverCarLapsTime/gapDifferenceReason
16Nico RosbergMercedes781hr 49m 18.420s
25Sebastian VettelFerrari784.4864.486
344Lewis HamiltonMercedes786.0531.567
426Daniil KvyatRed Bull-Renault7811.9655.912
53Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-Renault7813.6081.643
67Kimi RaikkonenFerrari7814.3450.737
711Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes7815.0130.668
822Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Honda7816.0631.050
912Felipe NasrSauber-Ferrari7823.6267.563
1055Carlos Sainz JnrToro Rosso-Renault7825.0561.430
1127Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes7826.2321.176
128Romain GrosjeanLotus-Mercedes7828.4152.183
139Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari7831.1592.744
1477Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes7845.78914.630
1519Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes771 lap1 lap
1698Roberto MerhiManor-Ferrari762 laps1 lap
1728Will StevensManor-Ferrari762 laps3.682
Not classified
33Max VerstappenToro Rosso-Renault6216 laps14 lapsAccident
14Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda4137 laps21 lapsTransmission
13Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Mercedes573 laps36 lapsBrakes

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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87 comments on “2015 Monaco Grand Prix result”

  1. Trenthamfolk (@)
    24th May 2015, 14:56

    Nice finished first but is no winner…

    1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
      24th May 2015, 14:57

      @trenthamfolk say that to the team, this time Nico was not involved in the outcome at all.

      1. Trenthamfolk (@)
        24th May 2015, 15:01

        No need, they know it already…

      2. @trenthamfolk @omarr-pepper Exactly. Not Nico’s fault the team decided to shot themselves in the foot so hard…

    2. Yes he is the winner, won through no fault of his own..

      1. Haha like his celebration showd classless.

        1. You wouldn’t celebrate if you won the lottery?

    3. Nico’s the winner, he came first. There’s no denying that fact. :/ I’m just gutted.. almost had it! Its been a long time that a sports related incident has gotten me this upset. :(

    4. Was Perez not 7th what is he doing on 13th place?

  2. Trenthamfolk (@)
    24th May 2015, 14:57

    *Nico lol

  3. Time for lewis to rip up his new contract Mercedes are the most ridicoulous strategists completely stupid. Sick of mercedes.

  4. This was the worst job by steward I’ve ever seen!
    – Fixed result to let ROS win it
    – Way too mild penalty for Alonso for ruining Hulkenberg’s race. If it was anyone else but Alonso it would’ve been at least Stop & Go penalty
    – Apparently you can crash into others as long as you have wide smile. Ricciardo pushed Kimi out, and no penalty?!?

    I don’t mind DRS, Pirelli tires or bad-sounding engines, but awful stewarding is really an issue for the sport.

    1. Yeah, the stewarding was bad. Now everyone gets the signal that you can elbow a car wide and gain a place and not get penalised for it…

      1. Well, Bianchi did the same one year ago and it’s called the drive of the year.

        Double standards?

    2. Do not get it. Accept that Merc messed up or both Lewis and Merc messed up. Dont blame a race-fixing here.

    3. @huhhii What a lot of nonsense! The stewarding we have today is a lot better than in the past couple of years where, if anything, they were blamed for being overly officious. I am aware your comment was made in the heat of the end of the race but to imply a race was fixed is utterly beyond me. If Verstappen was seriously injured the stewards would have been strung up for not going to the safety car. Especially in light of recent Bianchi news, it is far, far better to be safe than sorry. Hamilton’s team simply let him down as they did in Malaysia. Tough Luck, that’s motor racing.

      As for the Alonso incident I think that was called pretty fairly. Yes, Nico’s race was ruined but it was an obvious mistake from a car significantly ahead on the first lap of a street race. Letting Alonso off with it would not reflect Hulkenburg’s loss and penalising heavier would infer Alonso was behind/done it maliciously. Clearly, neither are true. As for Raikkonen, he did not leave a car’s width for Ricciardo to go through. That was the reason for the contact so the blame can only be 50-50 in my opinion.

      1. @rbalonso – Surely my first comments were written at the heat of the moment, and a couple of beers also had some effect on them. I now take my words back about fixing the final result between the two Mercedes, but I keep my words about everything else.

        Please honestly answer me, if Ericsson, Maldonado, Nasr, Grosjean or some other well-known nuthead would’ve ruined Hülkenberg’s race, would they’ve been given the most lenient penalty available? Surely not, and this is very obvious double standards by the stewards. Alonso’s mistake wasn’t huge, but the ending result of his mistake was fierce for HUL, hence he should’ve been penalised way harder. Drive-through penalty would have been fair.

        As for RIC-RAI case, you don’t have to leave any space if the driver is clearly behind you, and besides, Kimi didn’t shut the door but drove completely normal racing line. RIC’s move was silly divebomb (his front tires hitting Kimi’s rear tires proves that) and he should’ve at least gave the position back to Kimi.

        1. @huhhii. I think that Monaco, rightly or wrongly, has to have its own set of rules. This season the only overtakes of note have been completed by DRS or a really late divebomb and that makes overtaking in Monaco as hard as ever in my opinion. Everything you say I agree with in the context of a normal race but I think in Monaco, especially in the first lap, contact is going to happen. I can hardly think of race where there hasn’t been some form of lap one incident. I think that given Alonso completed a fair move but lost the rear that any greater penalty would be unjust. A drive through penalty completes destroys someones race and the reason its not used is because it is too harsh in many situations. Adding five or ten seconds to a stop is much fairer imo. Although I will agree that if it was later in the race that a greater penalty should apply.

          We can argue all day and all night about how the stewards would react to another driver but as I say I don’t think it was a brain fade move from too far back that was never on. The stewards don’t seem to follow fans perceptions and judge every incident in isolation imo.

          I have re-watched the Ric Rai incident and I think you’re right on that one. DR should have conceded the place to Kimi but the stewards obviously read it as a 50-50.

  5. Lucky win for Rosberg, although I prefer Rosberg to win the WC than Hamilton.I see Its more like a gift from Mercedes, cause it basically useless for Hamilton to pit in safety car.

  6. I actually feel numb, can’t believe this… Lewis was in a class of one today. Before the safety car he had a 25 second lead… he had pole, fastest lap, had led every lap and was on for a certain victory… a grand slam becomes a third place by no fault of his own…

  7. I have that tingly feeling like I’ve just seen one of those amazing moments in F1 history.

    The drama. Formula 1. Flipping hell.

    1. Trenthamfolk (@)
      24th May 2015, 15:02

      It’s the worst of F1… all that unlapping business…

    2. @willwood This is definitely something people will talk about and reference for years to come, for sure.

  8. Rosberg = classless. He actually celbrated like it was earned never do you see that with top drivers. That must feel so hollow, yet look at him. Ah well it is ok, Nico is so slow lol. Was outclassed.

  9. I have been been so angry and upset with a race result before. Mercedes completely screwed this up for Lewis. And for once Lewis should have used his brains and not stopped. Mercedes got this absolutely ass backwards. This will create trust issues between Lewis and his side of the garage.

  10. For the people saying the result was fixed…
    Get. Real.

    It was a stupid, blundering error… But of course it wasn’t intentional. My goodness, get a grip.

    I completely understand Lewis’ anger, and fair play to him to show face after the race with Nico on the podium.

    1. @cgturbo I’ve not heard anyone actually saying that yet, but it was clear from Lauda and Toto’s reactions that it was not fixed. They were fuming too.

  11. Fikri Harish (@)
    24th May 2015, 15:04

    Nice gift Lewis got from Mercedes for extending his contract there.

    Verstappen is one hell of a driver by the way but he still has still a few kinks to be ironed out.

    Nice quip from Vettel at the end.

    1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
      24th May 2015, 15:07

      @fihar what did Vet say? I couldn’t hear but people in other blog were laughing at it!

      1. He said “I’m happy!”

        1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
          24th May 2015, 15:17

          @njoydesign is that so hilarious?

          1. @omarr-pepper I think it was the thing of the moment that went really well. With Brundle implying that noone on the podium is really pleased with how it ended, Vettel just jumps in with that huge smile saying “I’m HAPPY!”. So yeah, I think it was quite fun.

          2. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
            24th May 2015, 15:22

            @njoydesign now I get it. Thanks man!

      2. Michael Brown
        24th May 2015, 15:15

        Vettel said, “I’m happy,” because the podium didn’t exactly have a happy atmosphere.

  12. Must say, I was really enjoying how well Verstappen was doing until that rookie move.

    Okay, in the race he had hit the other Lotus, but all in all, that was a solid drive. I could see that collision coming, as it happened, but I am so glad it did as I was falling asleep. Thank you Max.

    1. Also, funnily enough, one of my pre-race predictions was that Verstappen would not finish here due to an accident.

    2. I have absolutely no problem with that move. That was his chance. It was a millisecond timing thing and VES missed his brake point because of how late he had to make his move. But Grosjean shares blame– VES would not have hit him if Grosjean had not early-braked him. I would lay money that his telemetry shows a significantly earlier lift and/or braking point than the previous laps.

      “…you are racing with other people, and if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver.” –Senna

      1. @slowhands What I found very interesting was how Grosjean reacted to it. Considering when he was in his first full year, he caused no end of collisions, he doesn’t have much room to talk. That said, I do understand his frustration towards what happened.

        1. @strontium unfortunately I haven’t seen Grojean’s reaction, but it’s always going to be frustrating to have a slower car due to tires around Monaco, knowing the car behind has a significant tire and pace advantage and is racing you, and hoping that the narrow confines of the track help to prevent the inevitable. You are forced to defend at every corner just to maintain position. But there were too many laps left for VES to exploit. In that situation, as the leading car, you just have to do your best, make the faster car work for and earn the position, but accept the move when it comes. It was inevitable VES was going to make a very assertive move given the smallest opening, the pace difference was so great. At that point the leading car has to make the difficult and yes, frustrating, mental switch to go into damage limitation mode, fall in behind and keep the rest behind. Having said that, I agree 100% with all you said.

          1. @slowhands sorry, I should have mentioned I was talking about his immediate reaction on the radio

      2. Verstappen should be more careful. He in faster car with faster tire. He knew Grosjean is in slower tire and worn out one, so braking earlier is expected. I just say it’s just the lack of experience and he should be a better driver after this.

        1. @sonicslv Yes, I agree. He will learn from this. But I like his pluck and style, and he has the talent and skills to refine his moves. But watching the replay compared to others taking the corner, I believe Grosjean early braked by a much larger margin than was necessary for his tires. He was driving in his mirrors, went back to the racing line rather than closing off the inside, and braked early as a means of defense. The risk with that early brake is that you catch the following driver by surprise and risk contact ending your own race. Which is what happened. Grosjean should have kept the inside defensive position, which VES can see, rather than moving outside and braking early, which without brake lights VES cannot adjust to.

          1. Was Grosjean defending? The racing line for that corner has cars drift from the middle of the road to the left, due to the entry of the corner. I think Verstappen was banking on Grosjean to follow the racing line, but misjudged the closing speed, or Grosjean braked early.

          2. I don’t think Grosjean moves any different than usual racing line, but I agree that he seems braked way earlier. I think he try to get much better acceleration out of St. Devote so Verstappen is not in range when they approach the hairpin. Verstappen himself seems trying to pass from the outside, expecting Grosjean to cover inside like you suggesting, however he caught by surprise and its a little too late to switch to the inside. I think more experienced driver can “read” Grosjean move earlier. Honestly I was also surprised when the accident happened, since we got the best camera angle :)

        2. @sonicslv I think another thing that VES has to learn is that most people can’t or won’t brake as late as he can and will. I think since he is the new kid on the block paying his dues in the ultimate category, he expects everyone to have the skills and attitude he does. He is as good on the brakes as anyone since Senna, and that includes Schumacher, Alonso, and Lewis. He seems to be able to go blasting into a corner and still get the car slowed down and under control on exit. He is going to have to learn to account for this difference between him and the other mid pack guys until he moves up to a better ride.

        3. I can’t blame Verstappen on this. You say he knew Grosjean was on worn tyres and should be careful but Grosjean braked a lot later in previous laps. Grosjean really seemed to come still a lot earlier than anyone would expect.
          I think even experience drivers would have been caught and hitting his back.

  13. How incredibly inept and stupid does one have to be to mess up as bad as Lewis’ engineer did? I’d get fired for screwing up that bad at work. Unbelievable!

  14. Haven’t seen such a big blunder from a team for quite a while. Even if the gap was enough, why risk it? In Monaco, the one place where track position is paramount, you pit the race leader with 10ish laps to go. Go figure..

    1. Mercedes has such a huge advantage that they think they can get away with poor strategy calls.

      1. I wonder how many times it’ll happen before they realise they need to get another strategy guy on the pit wall, like other teams… Well, this is a good chance to hire an additional strategist ;).

        1. Or a technical director.

  15. Max and stupid(creative?) Mercedes pit wall saved the race.

  16. A blunder of this magnitude form a team like Mercedes is simply unbelievable. Looking at the circumstance surrounding it, it simply makes no sense; on ANY level! Whoever made this mistake needs to be sacked – and that is no understatement.

  17. Nico is a chump and celebrating way too hard for a victory he should be embarrassed of.

    Ridiculous ricciardo didn’t have to give back place to kimi.

    Verstappen certainly showed his inexperience

    What a forgettable race

    1. I think he gave it back to Kyvat who had let him by to catch the front runners. Fair play by Ricciardo.

      1. yeah, he was ordered by the team to give it back to Dani. His incident with RAI should not have been left unpenalised though, in my view.

      2. I think it just agreement between the walls that Kvyat “lent” the position and see what Ricciardo can do with his better pace. If he can’t go past anyone ahead it’s agree he will give the place back, so I won’t call it fair play.

    2. @chaddy Why should Nico be embarrassed? It wasn’t his mistake. He won it, regardless of why, so he should be allowed to celebrate.

    3. Chump is right. It’s one thing to inherit the win but why celebrate like he earned it? He looks like an ass the way he carries on.

    4. Having watched the live timing throughout the race, Lewis was 0.2-0.3 faster than Nico on pretty much every single lap, sometimes as fast as 0.6s faster. Even when Lewis was managing his brake problem and Nico was pushing hard, Lewis was still able to prevent Nico closing the gap. Hamilton was about 27s ahead of Nico before the safety car. He also had the fastest lap at that point, and having taken pole in qualifying he look set for a grand slam. Nico meanwhile could barely even pull a gap from Vettel for most of the race.

      Lewis was on a separate level today, this was the most dominant display I’ve seen at Monaco since Schumacher in 1994 or Senna in 1989.

  18. Rosberg should celebrate, but NOT like someone who won a race on merit. Your teammate was 25secs ahead of you for petes sake. This is the same way he celebrated last year when his convenient “mistake” gave him pole. He really has no shame!

    1. Agree. I don’t think he shouldn’t celebrate or be happy for winning but at least have some decency not to over exert yourself. The guy seems to celebrate more with things like this that when he wins normally.

  19. Why pit at all!!? So what if ROS came in for tires? He wasn’t going to get by. I mean, there was no upside and a variety of catastrophic risks. Sticking wheel gun, getting hit by a car pulling out, etc. just incredible idiocy there with that stop. I can’t believe what I just saw.

    1. +1. You said it: too many mundane risks, including the tight confines of the pit lane, release slowed by another car, etc etc etc. Classic example of “overthinking.”

      1. HAM knew all that and chose to pit rather than look bad if they jumped him on track after a restart.

  20. Oh my giddy aunt! Mercedes what just happened?
    On another note: glad Verstappen is ok.
    Feel bad for Lewis….

  21. Jess (@justblowingofsteam)
    24th May 2015, 15:13

    In between bouts of eyes closed and 10 second dozes, it seemed to me a forgone conclusion until Verstappen overstepped the mark, and launched into turn 1.
    Then for some reason, a Mercedes brainwave altered the result and took the win away from the winner, allowing his rivals to benefit.
    I do hope Rosberg hasn’t rubbed his nose in it, as it wasn’t a deserved victory. 50 odd years ago when men were men, the front two would probably have let him pass, it’s called sportsmanship. I wish it was still important.

    1. @justblowingofsteam So you think Nico and Seb should have just let him through? No, this is a competitive sport.

      1. Let cars pass you if they were pitted and you didn’t pit? Racing must have been different 50 years ago then.

    2. @justblowingofsteam nope. when men were men, if you pitted, you had to live with that. If HAM had got out in front of Seb, then Merc would likely have asked Nico to give back the position. With Seb in P2, no way Merc could work that switch. Sometimes you win races by being in the right place at the right time when someone else screws up, happens quite often. It’s still a win. You don’t gloat about it, but you take home the trophy and put it up on your wall, and admire it just the same. Being lucky is part and parcel of competition, it doesn’t devalue anything. Part of winning is decision making, if you screw it up, you lose. Simple as that. No one’s going to step out of your way because you had a mental lapse. It is just as valid to take advantage of a mental lapse as a physical one. In fact, most champions in any sport will tell you, at this level, it’s as much as 80% mental. Making the right decisions in the heat of the moment. Wars have been won and lost on mental, tactical, and strategic mistakes. You have to get it all right to win. Just the way it is.

      1. Guy Coldwell
        24th May 2015, 19:13

        All well and good but Lewis did not make the decision to pit. He was merely following orders and it may well have been against his better judgment. Once the radio transcripts are released we will know more.

        It is one thing to screw up from your own decision but when you are a contractually obligated participant and you are handed down a bad call, imagine what the ramifications might be it you ignore that order.

  22. I think the table is from some other race…not today’s one.

  23. Alex McFarlane
    24th May 2015, 15:15

    Strategy is by far the weakest point of Mercedes, if they had any real challengers some of the decisions made in the last two seasons could have lost them championships.

    Still, I think Lewis will bounce back and is still my favourite for the championship.

    1. It must be great not giving a toss about strategy because your advantage is so absurdly large.
      Such arrogance cost them Malaysia.

  24. Bottas finished 4th!!?

  25. Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. Lost for words.

  26. Verstappen P 11?

  27. I still can’t get my head around it. Shocking brain fade from Mercedes.

  28. When i spend my limited free time watching F1 for entertainment i shouldn’t be left feeling bored after 60+ laps of little action and annoyed at an unjust ending which feels wrong, this is why F1 is losing viewers, not because of the small details but because the engaging narrative is completely wrong. I could have went to the cinema with friends instead and at least left feeling satisfied.

  29. Hamilton is very good at getting screwed by bad calls from the pit wall – McLaren did it to him often and threw in lousy pit stops as well. Mercedes seems better at the stops but really are a class act when it comes to making wrong strategy decisions. It’s about time that Hamilton learned how to say, “No”.

  30. I confess to being a Max Verstappen fan. Thirty years ago another young rookie entered F1 and stirred things up with outrageous speed and controversial incidents. On that desperate day in 1994 when he was taken from us during the San Marino GP, I thought I’d never see his like again. Today I think I may have been wrong.

    1. @clive-allen +1000. Thinking exactly the same thing. I love that Max went for that move. In fact, I was out of my seat, urging him on. I saw that move coming a lap earlier, as did Grosjean, who rather than being smart and defending the inside, instead responded by brake-checking him, which is what caused the contact. Max may still have outbraked himself into the barrier, but THAT was a racer’s move. I am now strongly in his camp– his previous overtakes had me liking him more and more, but that move made me a bonafide Max fan. nothing like an old school racer to shake up the status quo.

  31. Today I lost a massive chunk of respect for Grosjean. A driver who not too long ago was labeled as a first lap nutcase and was banned for a race for him to blame Verstappen for that crash is a bit unfair

    1. @f1freek +1. Grosjean knows he brake-checked him.

    2. I generally don’t even count what drivers say over team radios anymore in regards to how I like them. I’m a big fan of Kimi the driver, but would very much like it if he stopped yelling about blue flags. Same with Alonso calling his penalty stupid, he nearly took out Hulkenberg.

      I’m a fan of both Max and Romain and frankly, think Max ‘missed’ Romain’s earlier breaking and Romain went kind of dodgy in the breaking zone as well, but these things happen. Monaco tends to make it more spectacular looking, though.

  32. DOTW for Perez.

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