MOTOR SPORT:SEBASTIAN VETTEL survived failing tyres, intense pressure from the double threat of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button and a late-race red-flag stoppage following Vitaly Petrov's crash to take his first Monaco victory and his fifth win of the year.
The Red Bull Racing driver began an incident-packed race from pole position and having held his lead at the start, quickly established a four-second lead over second-placed Button and the fast-starting Alonso, who had passed Mark Webber when the red lights went out.
It was a gap that looked like keeping the title-leading German out of trouble but in the latter stages, gambling on a one-stop strategy and an ability to keep a set of soft compound tyres alive and defensively capable through the closing laps, he began to slowly fall back into the clutches of two-stopping Alonso and chasing Button, who had opted for three-stops.
It was the cue for a fascinating final third of the race as Button, on the freshest tyres, devoured a 10 second or more gap to Alonso, and began to harry the Spaniard, who himself had erased a six-second gap to Vettel as the trio came to within 15 laps of the end.
In the lead, Vettel slithered through the streets on tyres he had taken on as early as lap 16, the championship leader having to balance nursing his car to the end against the need to outpace his rivals.
Just four tenths of a second behind him, Alonso feinted and dived, snapping at the Red Bull’s heels like a shark as his drag reduction system allowed him to close within striking distance of Vettel on the run towards the Sainte Devote corner.
But all the while, it was Button who looked most comfortable, his fresher soft tyres giving him a pace advantage that allowed him to press Alonso, the McLaren driver poking and prodding in the hope of forcing an error.
And then they hit traffic. On lap 69 the trio came up to the rear of a pack of back markers and attempted to slot through the blue flags and slower drivers. Metres ahead, though, the outcome of the race was being decided for them.
A chaotic sequence saw Force India’s Adrian Sutil crash out, forcing Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari to take evasive action. He hit Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren and behind them Renault’s Vitaly Petrov braked hard and then arced into the barriers. As the ambulance rolled on to the track, the race was red-flagged.
Petrov would later be given the all-clear by hospital staff but in the long minutes between the Russian being taken to hospital and the track being cleared the top three sat on the grid and plotted their next move.
Ultimately it was stalemate. With new tyres available for all three, Vettel was able to extinguish his disadvantage to his rivals and the German hung on until the end to take his first win.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said afterwards. “I saw the only chance to win was to stay out on those tyres. It was really close, though. I had, I think, about 20 laps under big pressure. And the final six laps would have been very difficult. But we caught that group and they crashed. And then with everyone on new tyres it was easier to keep the gap.
“There were some times (during the race) when I was like 15 seconds behind Jenson, I thought the win was gone, but this is a crazy place. I think the roulette (wheel) spun a lot last night and it kept on spinning during this race, so it’s crazy and I’m really happy, a fantastic result. It’s an extreme honour to put my name down the list of previous winners here.”
Alonso, meanwhile, insisted that had the red-flag incident happened he could have stolen the lead. “I was 100 per cent ready to try,” he said. “He (Vettel) was having problems with the tyres. But the last 10 laps never came. I was ready to attack, but obviously it’s difficult here as there’s not much space. There is the risk of 50 per cent you overtake and 50 per cent maybe you crash, but that’s Monaco.”
Behind the top three, it was an equally busy afternoon, mostly for Hamilton. The Briton, who started ninth, attempted to hustle his way through the pack yesterday but succeeded only in being slapped with a drive through penalty for colliding with Felipe Massa, who soon after crashed out. Hamilton was investigated again after the race following a collision with Williams’ Pastor Maldonado in the closing stages.
Vettel, meanwhile, could enjoy the dramas visited upon him. His fifth win from six races means the Red Bull driver is now 58 points ahead of Hamilton and a further six points clear of his own team-mate, Mark Webber.
It was, Vettel said, reward for an aggressive strategy he will continue to pursue.
“We’re on a good run,” he said. “We try to take every race on its own and be ready to attack and go for it. We fully deserved to win today and we took the reward. We have to be aggressive, to look for these risks. We tried our best and we achieved to the optimum.”
1 Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull - Renault 2:09:38.373
2 Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari +00:01.138
3 Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 00:02.378
4 Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 00:23.101
5 Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber - Ferrari 00:26.916
6 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 00:27.210
7. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
8 Nick Heidfeld (Germany) Renault 1 lap
9 Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Williams - Cosworth 1 lap
10 Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1 lap.
DRIVERS: 1 Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull 143 points; 2 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 85; 3 Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 79; 4 Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 76; 5 Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 69; 6 Nick Heidfeld (Germany) Renault 29; 7 Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes GP 26; 8 Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 24; 9 Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Renault 21; 10 Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sauber 19.
CONSTRUCTORS: 1 Red Bull-Renault 222 points; 2 McLaren-Mercedes 161; 3 Ferrari 93; 4 Renault 50; 5 Mercedes 40; 6 Sauber-Ferrari 21; 7 Force India-Mercedes 10; 8 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 7; 9 Williams-Cosworth 2; 10 Lotus-Renault 0.
