Reigning Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton secures another victory for Mercedes-AMG F1 Petronas after winning at this year’s Grand Prix de Monaco.
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Lewis Hamilton has won the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix at Circuit de Monaco but had to thank rivals Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who gave him the opportunity when Ricciardo suffered a pitstop disaster.
“I haven’t even thought about it just yet”, Hamilton added when asked about cutting Rosberg’s lead. “I guess from the outside we put on a show”.
“The tyres are on heat both in the garage and behind the garage, and unfortunately the set of tyres that were called for were not readily to hand, and were at the back of the garage”.
We had the speed, we pulled away, pitted for inters…and then the pit stop was the pit stop.
By contrast, Hamilton who had not won since clinching last season’s United States Grand Prix was delighted, grabbing the race trophy from Monaco’s Prince Albert and tossing it up in the air.
Rosberg looked set to finish sixth, only to be passed by Nico Hulkenberg on the final lap – costing him two further points in the race for the drivers’ title.
With Rosberg – the championship leader – finishing seventh, Hamilton moved up to second overall in the standings, closing the gap on Rosberg to 24 points, while Ricciardo is in third spot.
Hamilton was delighted after his win, jumping out of his vehicle and throwing himself into the arms of his team engineers and getting congratulated by US pop star Justin Bieber. The move resulted in Sahara Force India driver putting out some best times on the firmer compound.
Ricciardo had built up a tidy lead at the start before Mercedes told Rosberg, then in second place, to let Hamilton through on lap 16 because the German was suffering from high brake temperatures. “It hurts. I don’t have anything else to say to be honest”, said Ricciardo, who led in Spain two weeks ago before a strategy change handed victory to his teenage team mate Max Verstappen.
Mercedes head of motorsport Toto Wolff confirmed Rosberg had received team orders to let Hamilton through. The Red Bull driver did get close at two Virtual Safety Car restarts, but Hamilton’s strong defence helped him cross the chequered flag first. Red Bull needed to change the Aussie’s tires into supersofts.
Red Bull’s Helmut Marko conceded that the team gave up a likely win – and said all he can do “is apologise”.
The Australian battled on gamely thereafter, getting his best chance to pass on lap 37 before Hamilton closed the door.
“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”.
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Next up was Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, with Jenson Button ninth in his McLaren ahead of Williams driver Felipe Massa. In the first minute of the race, Jolyon Palmer from Renault crashed out, bringing in yet another safety vehicle. The VSC came out every few laps because of the crashes of Magnussen, Kvyat, Gutierrez, Nasr and Ericsson.
