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In
Monte Carlo this afternoon Ferrari secured its
first podium finish of the
season, thanks to Kimi Raikkonen’s determined drive
to third place and Felipe
Massa finished right behind
him, to give the Scuderia
its best finish of the
season. This solid result
in the famous Monaco Grand
Prix sees the Italian team move up to
fourth in the F1 World Constructors’
Championship. Jenson
Button’s incredible season
continues as the Englishman
took his fifth win from six
starts and his Brawn team
mate, Rubens Barrichello was
second.
As the cars
lined up on the grid, Kimi
was on the front row in
second place and Felipe was
on the pole side in fifth
place. Button was on pole in
the Brawn and Kimi was
starting with a lower fuel
load than the Englishman.
Glock was starting from the
pits in the Toyota.
Button and
Barrichello led the field
away, with Kimi down to
third, followed by Vettel
and Felipe, the German
almost squeezing past the
Ferrari off the line. Then
came Rosberg, Kovalainen,
Webber, Alonso, Nakajima,
making up the top ten. Lap 3
and Kimi was 3.1 down on the
leader, Felipe was 5.6 down.
Lap 6 and Massa, definitely
quicker than Vettel pulled
alongside the Red Bull on
the exit to the tunnel, but
could not get past.
One lap
later he tried again,
overshot the chicane and in
letting Vettel past again to
avoid a penalty, he also let
Rosberg go by, thus losing a
place for the Ferrari man.
Vettel’s tyres were in
trouble and he was holding
up the entire field,
allowing the two Brawns and
Kimi to pull away, with the
Finn 4.7 seconds down on the
leader Button. Vettel pitted
on lap 10, so that Rosberg
and Felipe moved up. The
yellow flags came out on lap
11 when Buemi crashed into
the back of Piquet putting
both men out of the race.
Lap 12 and
Kimi was putting the
pressure on Barrichello,
trailing by just 0.2
seconds. One lap later,
Felipe in fifth set the
fastest race lap so far,
until Rosberg in fourth, did
the same a lap later. Kimi
made his first refuelling
stop on lap 15, rejoining in
seventh. Vettel crashed at
Ste Devote on lap 16 and
retired. Barrichello pitted
then. Button pitted from the
lead on 17, promoting
Rosberg to the lead, but
more importantly, the
Englishman had managed to
get out ahead of Felipe, so
the top three was now
Rosberg, Button and Massa.
Button and Felipe moved up
to first and second as
Rosberg came down pit lane.
Kovalainen was now third
followed by Webber,
Barrichello, Raikkonen
sixth.
Felipe
refuelled on lap 20 and it
was a well timed stop as he
it brought him out in
seventh, getting him ahead
of Rosberg again. Kovalainen
pitted from third on 21 so
Felipe was now sixth, two
places behind his team-mate.
On lap 20, the order was
Button, 16.7 ahead of team
mate Barrichello, with Kimi
third 3.0 behind the
Brazilian. Next was Alonso,
yet to pit, with Felipe 5th,
23 seconds down on the
leader, followed by Webber,
Rosberg, Kovalainen,
Nakajima and Bourdais tenth.
When Alonso
finally refuelled, Felipe
moved up to fourth. On lap
31, Barrichello, Kimi and
then Felipe all set the
fastest lap. From now on,
the two Ferraris were the
fastest cars on track and by
lap 39, Kimi was 2.7 off
second placed Barrichello,
while Felipe was 2.8 behind
the Finn. Button had a
comfortable lead of 15.2.
Fifth was Webber, then came
Rosberg, Kovalainen,
Bourdais, Fisichella and
Alonso completing the top
ten. By lap 48, Kimi had cut
the gap to Barrichello to
1.9.
Barrichello
and Button pitted so that on
lap 52 Kimi led the grand
prix from Button,
with Felipe third ahead of
Webber. Then Kimi refuelled
on lap 53 dropping to fifth,
losing a bit of time with a
sticking wheel, so that
Felipe was now second, 0.9
behind Button, but yet to
make his second stop. The
Brazilian finally refuelled
on lap 56, at the same time
as Webber. With the leaders
all fuelled to the flag, the
order was now Button, Barrichello, Raikkonen,
Massa, Webber, Rosberg,
Alonso, with Bourdais eighth
in the last of the points
positions.
With ten
laps to go, the Brawns
looked invincible in front
of Kimi, while Felipe was
closing steadily on his team
mate. Webber was 4.0 behind
Felipe, with Rosberg, Alonso
and Bourdais in the
remaining points places.
From then on the order
remained the same to the
flag.
As well as
following his Scuderia Ferrari team mate home in fourth
place, Felipe Massa had the satisfaction of setting the fastest race
lap. Thanks to the eleven points picked
up today, the Scuderia has moved up to
fourth place in the Constructors’
Championship, while its drivers are
eighth and tenth in the Drivers’
classification, with Raikkonen and Massa
respectively.
Stefano Domenicali:
“The most important thing to come out of
today is the confirmation that our car
is back to being competitive, thanks to
the great amount of work that everyone
at the Scuderia, both back home and at
the track, has put in over these past
few weeks, without getting distracted by
everything going on around us. It's not
easy to work in these conditions and I
want to thank everyone for what they are
doing. Today, we got a third and a
fourth place which, given the difficult
start to our season, is a nice result,
but it’s still not the one we want. Our
aim is to be ahead of everyone and we
will do all we can to achieve that as
soon as possible. Of course the others
won’t remain idle but we must continue
to push as we have done in these recent
times.”
Kimi Raikkonen:
“I can’t be happy with third place, as
my aim is always to win, but all the
same, this podium is very satisfying for
the entire team after a very difficult
start to the season. However, I am happy
that we are back competing at the front
again. Over the past few weeks we have
made a real step forward in terms of
performance and this result confirms it.
We still have work to do to catch up
with the best, but we are moving in the
right direction. This weekend, if some
details had worked out differently, the
result could have been different – I’m
thinking of missing out on pole by a
whisker or of my second pit stop when I
lost a few seconds. But overall, we have
to be pleased.”
Felipe Massa: “I
am very happy with today’s performance.
The car was very competitive: it’s clear
we are on the way up and hopefully we
can soon be back to fighting for the
win. At the start, I lost a lot of time
behind Vettel and then, because I made a
mistake, I was also passed by Rosberg.
But after that I quickly got back up the
order and I think I could also have
passed Kimi. In the three laps I had
longer than him, at the second pit stop,
I found myself right behind Button and
so I wasn’t able to exploit the
opportunity. Starting on the hard tyres
was the best choice: we still lack a bit
of aerodynamic downforce to be up with
the Brawns, but it is too early to claim
to be the second best team in the
championship. What is sure is that we
are working well and I am sure we will
see further results of that soon.”
Chris Dyer: “That
was a very interesting race today. In
the end, we are a bit disappointed, but
that’s a good sign, both because it
shows how much we want to get back to
being ahead of everyone and also
because, when you begin to think you
should have been able to do better than
a third and fourth place finish, it
means that you are back to being really
competitive again. If we had not lost
position at the start, probably we could
have attacked Rubens, if we hadn’t
encountered a problem changing the right
rear wheel at Kimi’s second pit stop.
What is reassuring is the pace shown by
the F60, especially in the second part
of the race, when despite having more
fuel than the leaders, we were always
quicker. We are very happy with the
performance of the car and we are
confident we can improve it further with
coming developments.”
Race Details
K. Raikkonen 3rd 1:40.57.724 + 13.442 78
Laps, Chassis 279
F. Massa 4th 1:40.59.392 + 15.110 78 Laps,
Chassis 276
Weather: air temperature 25/26 °C, track temperature 42/45
°C, sunny
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