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Fernando Alonso has edged a few points clear
of his nearest rival at the top of the
Drivers’ Championship standings thanks to
another bravura performance which saw him
step onto the unique podium that awaits the
top three in the Monaco Grand Prix. |
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Fernando
Alonso has edged a few points clear of his nearest rival
at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings thanks
to another bravura performance which saw him step onto
the unique podium that awaits the top three in the
Monaco Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver finished third, in
a race that was won by Red Bull’s Mark Webber – the
sixth different driver to win in six races – with Nico
Rosberg second for Mercedes. Equally pleasing for the
Scuderia is the fact that Felipe Massa has shown a
strong return to form all weekend long and ended the
afternoon in sixth place, to bring home valuable points
for the team, which is third in the Constructors’
classification.
At the start, Fernando immediately moved up one place to
fourth behind the lead trio of Webber, Rosberg and
Hamilton. Felipe was right behind his team-mate having
gained two places, as Grosjean’s Lotus was sent into a
terminal spin when he was clipped by Schumacher’s
Mercedes on the run to Ste. Devote the first time. When
Maldonaldo crashed the Williams at the end of the
opening lap, the Safety Car came out for a couple of
laps. The places remained unchanged, but Fernando
progressively lost ground to Hamilton’s McLaren, the gap
extending to 4.2s on lap 16, while Felipe was always
around half a second behind his team-mate. After this,
the Spaniard picked up the pace, even setting a race
fastest lap at that point, so that the gap to third
placed Hamilton came down, while the distance to Felipe
increased, with the Brazilian comfortably ahead of
Vettel, who was destined to do a very long stint, having
started from ninth on the harder of the two Pirelli
compounds.
On lap 27, Rosberg was the first to change tyres on his
Mercedes and on 29, Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen and
others came in, while Fernando pitted on lap 30,
dropping to fourth, one lap before Felipe, who came out
in seventh place, although Schumacher ahead of him had
yet to stop. The two Ferrari men were on the same tyre
strategy, starting on the Pirelli Supersoft and making
just the single stop to fit the Softs. A few drops of
rain fell around half distance, but not enough for
anyone to consider rain tyres. Vettel who obviously led
at this point finally made his stop – nearly the entire
field opted for just one tyre change this afternoon – on
lap 46 and it was at this point that Webber inherited
the lead he would keep to the flag. He was followed by
Rosberg and then there was a bit of a gap to Fernando,
Vettel, Hamilton with Felipe sixth, in fact the order
that would be maintained for the remaining 32 laps. In
the closing stages, it began raining again, a bit harder
than earlier but still not enough to consider
Intermediate or Rain tyres. However it made for an
exciting finale because there was very little separating
the top four as they negotiated their way in the
slippery conditions, past the backmarkers. Behind the
Brazilian Ferrari driver, the remaining points went to
the Force India duo of Di Resta and Hulkenberg, with
Raikkonen ninth for Lotus and the final point going to
Senna in the Williams.
After just two races on the Old Continent, the F1 circus
heads for the New World and the seventh round of the
championship, the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal,
fortnight from today.
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