Red Bull boss Christian Horner explained the reasons behind the pit blunder that cost Daniel Ricciardo victory at the Monaco Grand Prix. He brought to an end a miserable run of luck this season.
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He then turned in a masterful defensive display to claim the 44th win of a career which began as an eight-year-old racing karts with the number 44. This allowed him to avoid a tire change to inters (intermediate wets), and thus swap straight to slicks.
“I can only speak on his behalf of being in that position before and, for sure, it was a bigger cushion before and it was much easier”, Hamilton was quoted as saying by Sky Sports on Tuesday. “I prayed for a day like this and it came through, so I feel truly blessed”.
With just 6 laps of the race remaining, Hamilton continued to stretch the lead from Ricciardo, and even clocked the race’s best lap time.
“It hasn’t been before the weekend and it isn’t after the weekend, as I said – I will just repeat it”. He was affected, as was Rosberg, by a fuel-pump issue in qualifying in Monaco, which saw him on the second row of the grid behind Rosberg and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. A last second call had been made to fit supersoft tyres to Ricciardo’s vehicle. But the Briton afforded him little room.
“We know how hard it is in Monaco to overtake and, effectively, the race was lost at that pit stop”. So he took only six points from the race to Hamilton’s 25.
The first accident, when he broke his car’s suspension on a kerb and hit the wall at the exit to the swimming pool complex, left him at the back of the field for a race which started behind the safety auto due to wet conditions. “They had the soft tyre ready and when the call came they couldn’t get the tyres to the auto, which probably cost 10 seconds”. Jolyon Palmer was the first driver to crash into the barriers, followed by Kimi Räikkönen. I was quick and I pulled away.
“But I didn’t know until he just told me here [during Rosberg’s briefing] so I said “thanks for being a gentleman”.
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Force India’s Sergio Perez completed the podium places, Sebastian Vettel was fourth for Ferrari, Fernando Alonso fifth and Jenson Button ninth in the sister McLaren, while fellow Brit Jolyon Palmer and Max Verstappen both crashed out.
