Seven days after his untouchable performance in Barcelona, Mark Webber produced another invincible drive to be the toast of Monaco’s glamorous principality. He coasted home around the demanding streets of Monte Carlo to lead home a Red Bull Racing 1-2, and with it, and equal share for the lead of the drivers’ championship.
As Webber was back-flipping into the swimming pool at Red Bull’s hospitality lounge, doused in the victory champagne, a bigger storm involving an old Formula One rivalry is sadly, the talk of the town. Though not racing on the track anymore, the bitterness is still felt between Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher, nearly sixteen years after that infamous collision in Adelaide, which decided the 1994 World Championship. Tonight, Schumacher and his Mercedes team have every right to be aggrieved with the FIA stewards, which Hill was on the panel for this weekend, as what looked to be wonderful piece of opportunism in the dying stages on Fernando Alonso has been rewarded with a 20-second penalty and a relegation to 12th place in the final classification.
All the drama began with four laps to go, when a daft overtaking attempt by the experienced Jarno Trulli ended with his Lotus embedded on Karun Chandok’s Hispania at the tight La Rascasse hairpin, the scene of Schumacher’s famous roadblock during qualifying for the 2006 event. The Safety Car was sent out and came in on the last lap, but Schumacher spotted an opportunity and a loophole in the new FIA 2010 Safety Car regulations. Exiting the hairpin, Alonso got a slide on his evil-handling Ferrari and Michael drew alongside, completing his overtaking move into the final Anthony Noades bend. However, onboard footage definitely sees the Spaniard ahead of the Mercedes as he crosses the ‘white line’ overtaking zone. Ferrari claims that this regulation is nullified on the final lap, whilst Mercedes and Ross Brawn disagree venomously and have served an intention to appeal. This issue will drag all the way to Istanbul in a fortnight’s time.
It is a shame that this controversy takes the gloss on another perfect weekend from Webber, who led every tour of the 78-lap spectacular. Despite four Safety Cars, he was in total command throughout. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel was outclassed again by the more experienced Aussie, but his pass on front-row starter Robert Kubica at the start was all needed to secure a fabulous 1-2 for the Austrian registered team, based in Milton Keynes. Vettel and Webber share the lead in the drivers’ championship, as Alonso battled to an (as it stands) 6th place finish, from a pitlane start. Previous championship leader and 2009 winner Jenson Button had a nightmare weekend, only qualifying 8th, dropping to 11th on the first lap, then was out on lap three, with a cooked engine, caused by some cooling device not removed by his McLaren team before the installation lap. Unsurprisingly, he was far from impressed with this fundamental error.
On a track where he normally delivers, Lewis Hamilton could only manage 5th, exactly where he started, as McLaren has a poor time of things, managing tyre temperature. Despite losing second off the line to Vettel, Kubica capped a fine weekend off with his second podium of 2010, completing a Renault grand slam of the rostrum for the first time since the 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix. Felipe Massa had a better weekend, finishing a solid 4th for Ferrari, with Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sebastian Buemi benefiting from Schumacher’s demotion to all score valuable points. In Liuzzi’s case, it was a reminder of his talent, as he is under severe pressure to hang onto his seat at Force India and for Buemi, his first score of a troubled campaign.
Attrition was high in Monaco, with only half the starters finishing. Amongst the DNF’s were all six of the three new teams, and both Williams cars of Nico Hulkenberg and Rubens Barrichello, retiring through spectacular shunts which deployed two Safety Cars and leaves the Grove team with a race against time to rebuild both chassis for Istanbul in a fortnight’s time.
It is a shame when fantastic and brave overtaking is not rewarded, especially in a sport that craves for it under the new regulations, and Damon Hill’s position and integrity must come under question, as his interference must have something to do with Michael Schumacher’s downfall, considering their previous biased history. However, for Mark Webber and Red Bull Racing, it was the ultimate tour de force, and their dominance here could well be a fair reflection on how the rest of the season will shape up. Ferrari and McLaren’s message is clear, ‘Catch us if you can!’
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