But when you consider that the 2007 and 2008 championships were settled by a
solitary point, you fear for what it might cost Hamilton eventually.
Still, at least he is not Jenson Button. Hamilton’s team mate started 12th,
got off to a poor start, stayed out for ages hoping it might rain and then
retired from 15th position trying to overtake the not-so-mighty Caterham of
Heikki Kovalainen.
Button has now scored just two points in his last three races and admits he
hasn’t the foggiest what is going on. “It’s my leanest period since the old
Honda days but —- happens,” he said. “We are still learning.”
Button’s mood matched the dark clouds and rain falling outside McLaren’s
paddock home but the day had started so positively.
Blue skies and sunshine greeted race fans as they converged on Monaco’s famous
harbour for the start of the race. The champagne was flowing and the
celebrity count seemed up on last year.
The grid was positively groaning with stars; Antonio Banderas hugging Alonso,
Jools Holland and Eric Clapton checking out Felipe Massa’s sleek red Ferrari.
Hamilton had his own A-list entourage. After waving goodbye to his Pussycat
Dolls singer girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger, he ventured to the grid where
Hollywood actor Will Smith, a guest of McLaren’s over the weekend, joined
him.
He was more than hopeful at that point of becoming the Fresh Prince of Monte
Carlo for a second time, following that memorable win in his world
title-winning season of 2008.
Hamilton said he had studied previous Monaco races and noticed that the person
starting third often picked off the person in second by turn one. “My plan
was to jump [Nico] Rosberg and challenge [Webber] for the lead,” he said.
Instead, a change to his clutch settings on the formation lap saw him get
bogged down. “I took the team’s advice — I have to rely on them — and let
the clutch out and it just didn’t go. There was no torque, no drive. I said
to them afterwards ‘we can’t have everyone else making great starts and us
not’. I was lucky not to lose third.”
Worse was to come. After a sluggish stop on lap 29, far slower than the Red
Bulls and Ferraris, he lost third place to Alonso. In truth, that
was more down to the fact that the Ferrari was much quicker than the McLaren
and Alonso, who stopped one lap later, simply drove away from him.
But he felt he could certainly have avoided losing fourth spot to Red Bull’s
Sebastian Vettel, who waited until lap 46 to make his pit stop as Webber
backed up the traffic for him.
The German emerged just half a second ahead of Hamilton, who was promptly on
the radio asking why he hadn’t been alerted to the fact that Vettel had been
primed to overtake him.
“I was conserving my tyres,” Hamilton explained. “I could easily have pushed.”
Thereafter, as is so often the way in Monaco, the race developed into
something of a procession. Only the rain, which fell intermittently,
threatened to spice things up.
The top-six cars were separated by six seconds by the end, but no one risked a
passing move around Monaco’s famously tight, twisting track.
In truth, it wasn’t a classic but it remains an enthralling season. A sixth
winner in six races, which Webber celebrated with the now traditional leap
into Red Bull’s pool on their floating Energy Station before bundling Sky’s
Martin Brundle in as well.
But it’s Alonso who leads. “He is the dark horse and he’s driving for
the dark horse,” Hamilton remarked. “I’m not surprised. He is a two-time
world champion and probably the best driver here.
“As for us we just have to hope we have a weekend where nothing goes wrong.”
Results:
- 1. Mark Webber (AUS/Red Bull Racing) 1hr 46min 06.557sec
- 2. Nico Rosberg (GER/Mercedes) at 0.643sec
- 3. Fernando Alonso (ESP/Ferrari) 0.947
- 4. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Red Bull Racing) 1.343
- 5. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/McLaren Mercedes) 4.101
- 6. Felipe Massa (BRA/Ferrari) 6.195
- 7. Paul di Resta (GBR/Force India) 41.537
- 8. Nico Hulkenberg (GER/Force India) 42.562
- 9. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Lotus) 44.036
- 10. Bruno Senna (BRA/Williams) 44.516
- 11. Sergio Perez (MEX/Sauber) at 1 lap
- 12. Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA/Scuderia Toro Rosso) at 1 lap
- 13. Heikki Kovalainen (FIN/Caterham) at 1 lap
- 14. Timo Glock (GER/Marussia) at 1 lap
- 15. Narain Karthikeyan (IND/HRT) at 2 laps
- 16. Jenson Button (GBR/McLaren Mercedes) at 8 laps
- Reasons for retirements
- Romain Grosjean (FRA/Lotus): spin 1st lap
- Pastor Maldonado (VEN/Williams): accident 2nd lap
- Pedro de la Rosa (ESP/HRT): mechanical problem 3rd lap
- Kamui Kobayashi (JPN/Sauber): mechanical problem 6th lap
- Vitaly Petrov (RUS/Caterham): mechanical problem 16th lap
- Michael Schumacher (GER/Mercedes): mechanical problem 64th lap
- Charles Pic (FRA/Marussia): mechanical problem 65th lap
- Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Scuderia Toro Rosso): mechanical problem 66th lap
- Jenson Button (GBR/McLaren Mercedes): spin 71th lap (classified)