Lewis Hamilton had a near perfect weekend at Monaco, at least until the last stint of the race. The Brit first posted a brilliant lap taking pole position comfortably ahead of team-mate and then followed it up with a brilliant start to the race. The reigning champion was running well and had a comfortable lead ahead of second placed Nico Rosberg. But not for long. When the Safety Car came out on track in the last stint of the race, Mercedes called the race leader into the pits, when Rosberg and third placed Vettel stayed out on track. This dropped the two-time champion down to third while Rosberg took the lead and an eventual win. Hamilton was understandably unhappy with the strategic blunder as this result reduces the points gap between the team-mates to just 10 points.
Seb takes Second
Sebastian Vettel was comfortably running in third and didn't quite have the pace to move ahead of either of the Mercedes cars. But aside from Rosberg, the four-time champion too benefitted from the Mercedes pit-stop slip-up. After Hamilton dropped to down to third, it was rather easy for Vettel to defend his second place from Hamilton on the narrow Monaco circuit. Kimi Raikkonen though wasn't as lucky. The Finn was running comfortably in fourth place before he was nudged from the back by Daniel Ricciardo thanks to which he lost two valuable positions. The accident was under investigation but no action was taken.
Red Bull gets wings
The Red Bull racing team hasn't been in the best of forms this season, but their race in Monaco was quite different. With a fourth and fifth place for Daniil Kvyat and Ricciardo respectively, they walked home with 22 points. Starting from fourth place in qualifying Ricciardo drove aggressively especially towards the end of the race. The Australian escaped a penalty when the stewards thought that the nudge to Raikkonen's car was a racing incident. Kvyat allowed Ricciardo to pass him knowing that he had a chance to fight for the podium, but when the Red Bull no.1 couldn't pass he was asked to give the position back to Kvyat. This was the best finish for the energy-drink team this year.
McLaren gets off the mark
After failing to score a single point in the first five races, the McLaren F1 team finally got off the mark in Monaco. In fact, at a stage in the race, the team looked set for a double points finish with Alonso running in ninth. But once again, Alonso lost gears and had to retire from the race on lap 42. However, Jenson Button fought hard throughout the race and successfully managed to bring home four points for the team thanks to a eighth place finish.
Battle intensifies
Thanks consecutive race wins for Nico Rosberg and the Mercedes pit-lane howler the points difference between him and Lewis Hamilton has now been reduced to 10 points. And with Vettel consecutively finishing on the podium, he too has been catching up on the drivers' championship table. But for him to get close to either of the Mercedes drivers, the German will have to get a race win under his belt. Meanwhile, the fight for the constructors' championship table is a lot more straight forward with Mercedes comfortably leading the charts.
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