As the red lights went out, Webber maintained his pole position, while Vettel got the jump on Kubica, with Felipe running fourth. The Safety Car was immediately deployed after Hulkenberg destroyed his Williams in the tunnel. Fernando having started from pit lane, after not taking part in qualifying on Saturday afternoon, as a result of his accident in free practice, immediately made his one compulsory pit stop so that he would use both types of tyre. Button was another casualty, parking his McLaren at the side of the track. At the restart, Felipe was pushing Kubica, with Hamilton hot on the heels of the Ferrari. Meanwhile, Fernando began a climb up the order, sweeping by the slower cars one per lap, going into the chicane at the exit of the tunnel. He was up to sixteenth on lap 15 and then found himself behind Hamilton when the Englishman changed tyres. Felipe made his only stop on lap 19 dropping to ninth, by which point Fernando was up to twelfth place, before finding himself tenth two laps later, just two places behind his team-mate. The pair were fifth and seventh respectively on lap 27 and Felipe inherited his finishing position, fourth, when Rosberg was one of the last to change tyres one lap later, which meant Fernando was now sixth.

Yet another Safety Car was required when Barrichello crashed heavily on lap 31 and again on lap 43 when a drain cover in the track came loose and had to be fixed. Then, with just a couple of laps remaining the final Safety Car, caused when Trulli and Chandhok blocked the road at Rascasse, had an effect on Fernando Alonso’s brilliant performance. As the Safety Car peeled off into pit lane, just along from the corner in question, Michael Schumacher squeezed past the Ferrari man to drop the Spaniard down to seventh at the flag. However, the Stewards later judged this was an illegal move, penalising the German Mercedes driver: he was given a drive-through penalty, but as this cannot be purged on the final lap, it was converted to a 20 second time penalty. Therefore the final order for the points finishers was Webber, Vettel, Kubica, Massa, Hamilton, Alonso, Rosberg, Sutil, Liuzzi and Buemi.

Stefano Domenicali: “First and foremost, I want to congratulate the team and the drivers who did a perfect job today. Felipe drove impeccably, pushing hard when he could and running at the same pace as the leaders. Fernando produced an amazing climb through the field: starting from pit lane and finishing sixth is a great result, which came courtesy of a drive that was as aggressive at the start as it was well judged at the end. The chosen strategy, to immediately stop and change tyres proved to be absolutely the right one. After a Saturday that was not up to our expectations or potential, today we showed what we could do. Even if one team has the edge in terms of performance, both championships are still very open. We must continue to develop the car and work hard to reach our objectives.”

Felipe Massa: “On this track, if you don’t make up places at the start, it is difficult to pass other cars, especially if they have a similar race pace. You need to be patient and then exploit any eventuality such as others making mistakes. I ran almost all the race behind Vettel and Kubica and finished in the same position from which I had started: I don’t think I could have done more. This weekend, the car was very good and the tyres worked well: now we must ensure that is the case at all tracks and with all types of tyre. Today’s points are very important in the classification, but now we must ensure we are as well prepared as possible for the Turkish Grand Prix, one of my favourite races.”

Fernando Alonso: “This result is a morale booster. To start from pit lane and finish sixth is way more than we could have expected. It was a difficult Sunday for me and much of the credit for this result goes to the team, which chose an aggressive strategy and worked hard to build the car for the race, starting from almost zero: to finish a race like this without having problems is the result of a super job. I lived through the initial passing moves with a bit of frustration: when you are behind a slower car and there is no room to pass, it’s difficult. Coming out of the tunnel was the best place to do it and some drivers were good about it, others less so. I passed five or six cars on the track and another dozen thanks to a nice strategy. On Thursday I only did twelve laps on these tyres and today I did 77 and the car still worked well throughout. It’s hard to say what might have been, if I had taken part in qualifying: I was definitely on form and pole was within our reach. We must stay calm and work well: the results will come and it was clear to see today how talented our team is. At the end of the nineteen races in the championship we will see who is strongest. If it’s not us, it will mean someone else did a better job, not because we haven’t tried our best.”

Chris Dyer: “A difficult race as usual at this track. Felipe started fourth and finished the race in the same position: overtaking is almost impossible here. There was a bit of degradation on his softer tyres and we stopped a few laps earlier than planned, but we still managed to maintain position. Fernando got a great result. We had planned right from the start to stop on the first lap to change tyres and we managed, also thanks to the race being neutralised, to make up several places when other drivers pitted, after also passing a few cars on track. Then, for Fernando, the main job was to look after the tyres and the car, given that he did practically the whole race on the same set of tyres. He did it perfectly and always remained in touch with the quickest guys, ready to make the most of any eventual problems.”

Race details:

Driver Position Time Gap Laps Chassis
F. Massa 4th 1:50.16.021 + 2.666 78 284
F. Alonso 6th 1:50.19.696 + 5.712 78 282