While Hamilton and Rosberg’s rivalry has been on everybody’s lips since the start of the season, this race developed into a fascinating battle between the Brit and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
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That mistake would prove to be what handed Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton victory at the race, the first race victory this year for the double reigning world champion.
The race rolled off in wet conditions behind the safety vehicle, and when the cars were released after seven laps, Ricciardo got away to a great start, with Rosberg struggling and Hamilton boxed in behind his teammate. The Australian remained glued to Hamilton’s gearbox for the remainder of the race, but couldn’t find a way past.
On lap 23, Ricciardo pitted for a set of intermediate tyres, but Mercedes chose to let Hamilton stay out for longer. It was a blunder, which the Red Bull team later blamed on a “miscommunication”, and one which would ultimately cost Ricciardo his first victory in almost two years. On twisty streets where overtaking is nearly impossible, Ricciardo was quicker than Hamilton on old tires, but could not pass.
“Unfortunately when we fitted the soft tyres, I made a mistake and hit the wall”. So we waited for quite a while and gave him more laps for the tyres to come in, but it didn’t.
“I went to have a beer with some friends”, Hamilton said, explaining how he snapped out of his torpor. “I prayed for a day like this and it came through, so I feel truly blessed”.
“They couldn’t get to the auto in time, which cost probably about 10 seconds in the stop”.
Horner said Verstappen had apologised to the team and will use the experience of Monaco – where he also crashed in his Toro Rosso a year ago – to keep learning. He looked set to finish sixth but was passed by Force India’s other driver Nico Hulkenberg on the final lap and thus had to settle for seventh.
It was Verstappen’s third shunt of a error-prone weekend, bringing him firmly back down to earth after his Barcelona heroics. “I’ve had a lot of races so it’s hard to recall all of them, but this one I feel in my heart that I earned it. It sucks. It hurts”, he told reporters. I didn’t make the call.
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“It’s been a long time coming to get this win – not only in the season but here at the Monaco Grand Prix”, said Hamilton, whose only other Monaco win was in 2008 for McLaren. This mean that when Ricciardo arrived for tires, they weren’t ready.
