Vettel heads 1-2 finish for Ferrari in Monaco

Sebastian Vettel is the winner of the Monaco Grand Prix what is a third win of the season for Ferrari driver and his second victory in the most prestigious Formula 1 race. The championship leader took the lead in the middle of the race and easily triumphed.

The top 8 standings remained unchanged after the start, with Kimi Raikkonen on the top and Vettel and Valtteri Bottas behind him. Kevin Magnussen started well and moved up two positions, to the 9th place, while Lewis Hamilton was able to move up to the 12th position.

The start of 2017 Monaco Grand Prix

The Ferraris were comfortable at the top after 15 laps, Bottas had a solid advantage to both Red Bull Racing’s drivers, while the Haas F1 Team could enjoy the fact that both their drivers were in points. It was all about waiting for errors or car failures. The first who was forced to retire was Nico Hulkenberg due to a gearbox problem. Soon after, Sergio Perez had an unscheduled pit stop whilst running 7th and then dropped to the 16th position.

The gaps between Ferraris and rest of the grid were somewhat reduced due to a traffic. Backmarkers slowed the race but still there wasn’t room for overtaking at the top. Verstappen was the first of top 5 who went in for tires change, Bottas followed him, as well as Raikkonen. Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo stayed longer on the track and they did an excellent job. The German took the lead in the race, while the Australian took the 3rd position, behind Raikkonen.

Daniel Ricciardo scored podium finish in Monaco

Lewis Hamilton pitted even later and moved up to the 7th place but was well behind Carlos Sainz Jr. With 20 laps to go, the only really interesting battle was for the 4th position. Bottas had the very small advantage to Max Verstappen.

On lap 61 the safety car was deployed when Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber went on its side at Portier after having a contact with Jenson Button in McLaren. It was a very nasty looking accident but luckily the German driver was unharmed. When the race was restarted, Stoffel Vandoorne crashed at Turn 1. One who profited most at that moment was Sergio Perez who moved into the points zone. With six laps to go, Daniil Kvyat crashed after contact with Perez and retired from the race while the Mexican had to pit due to a puncture and again dropped out of points.

Collision between Wehrlein and Button

Finally, Vettel triumphed in Monaco, for the first time since 2011, while Raikkonen finished 2nd what is first 1-2 finish for Scuderia after seven years. Daniel Ricciardo completed the podium while Bottas, Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton, Grosjean, Massa, and Magnussen picked the remaining points.