 Fernando Alonso gave McLaren their 150th Grand Prix victory, leading
teammate Lewis Hamilton to a dominant one-two around the streets of
Monte Carlo.
Kimi Raikkonen had to start from 16th position on the grid after a rare mistake during qualifying. The Ferrari moved up to 12th
at the start, but had to wait until the pitstops before making further
progress.
Alonso led home teammate Hamilton in a formation finish, having
dominated the whole afternoon. Third-placed Felipe Massa was a minute
adrift of the McLarens by the flag, and the rest of the field was
lapped...
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The world champion established a seven-second lead over Hamilton in
the opening laps before hitting traffic. That allowed Hamilton to close
in, and having run three laps longer than Alonso in the first stint,
the young Briton was only three seconds behind his teammate following
the pit stops.
But Alonso pulled away again as the stint unfolded - his lead
extending to nine seconds before his final pit visit. He then eased off
following the stop, and the McLaren drivers proceeded to cruise to the
flag in tandem, a result that gives them a shared championship lead.
Although Massa was never in contention for victory, he had no trouble staying clear of the rest of the pack.
Giancarlo Fisichella had a similarly lonely run to fourth, a
two-stop strategy working well for the Renault driver as he quickly
escaped from the cars behind in the opening stint and gained enough
space to make his additional stop.
A 45-lap opening stint helped Robert Kubica jump from the bottom of
the top ten to fifth, ahead of BMW teammate Nick Heidfeld, who ran an
inverted strategy and used the super soft tyres for the first 32 laps
before making an early single stop.
Alex Wurz came from 11th to seventh for Williams, holding off the
closing Kimi Raikkonen in the final laps. The Ferrari moved up to 12th
at the start, but had to wait until the pitstops before making further
progress.
Another excellent start took Scott Speed up to 13th and the Toro
Rosso then had enough pace to run close behind Raikkonen in traffic
throughout the race. He eventually took ninth after the team's most
competitive race yet.
The Hondas ended up 10th and 11th on an unusual two-stop strategy
with a very long first stint and short final run on super-soft tyres.
Nico Rosberg's two-stop strategy went badly wrong - stuck behind the
heavier Heidfeld after losing ground at the first corner, he dropped
straight back into traffic after his first stop and could only finish
12th.
In a race of remarkably little incident, only Vitantonio Liuzzi and
Adrian Sutil found the barriers, while gearbox problems made Mark
Webber the only retirement among the top ten contenders.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Alonso McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1h40:29.329
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 4.095
3. Massa Ferrari (B) + 1:09.114
4. Fisichella Renault (B) + 1 lap
5. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 1 lap
6. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 1 lap
7. Wurz Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap
8. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
9. Speed Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
10. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1 lap
11. Button Honda (B) + 1 lap
12. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap
13. Kovalainen Renault (B) + 1 lap
14. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) + 2 laps
15. Trulli Toyota (B) + 2 laps
16. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) + 2 laps
17. Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) + 2 laps
18. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda (B) + 2 laps
Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:15.284
source: autosport.com
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