Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Live text
Formula 1 Monaco GP

2015 Monaco Grand Prix Sunday - Monaco Grand Prix

Live Text

Sort by
A personal best lap for Merhi and a slow lap for Stevens means the two Manors swap places and then the Spaniard maintains the position. That's P17.
Hamilton has just made his way through Ericsson, Sainz and Hulkenberg, without losing any time. Now it's Rosberg's turn.
Lead gaps:

1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg +4.2
3 Vettel +5.8
4 Kvyat +13.7
5 Ricciardo +17.3
6 Raikkonen +18.3
EDD STRAW: "Alonso has a 25.5s advantage over Nasr. If he holds that until he stops, that should be enough to stay ahead. But Nasr should have the pace to hack into that lead."
Hamilton asks for another update on his brakes, and he's told "we are approaching the limit".
Stopwatch
Another fastest lap for Hamilton - 1m19.807s pushes him 4.6s clear of Rosberg.
EDD STRAW: "Hamilton is now in a position where he would come out in sixth place if he pitted - but pretty close behind Raikkonen. He will want to keep going on this set of tyres though."
Looks like the advantage is swinging towards Verstappen in his fight with Perez - he's back to taking chunks out of the Force India's gap and is now just 2.7s behind.
Kvyat is told: "Solid job so far, keep it smooth, keep it consistent."
Rosberg has appeared to get Vettel back under control, easing away to 1.7s clear of the Ferrari after it was down to 1.1s a few laps ago.
EDD STRAW: "Alonso is in a position where he could pit, serve his five-second penalty after changing tyres, and still re-emerge just in the points. McLaren still in a good position for its first points of the year, especially with Button ahead of him in ninth. The problem Alonso has got is that, as he's on softs, he'll want to go longer. But Nasr is chipping away, 26 seconds behind.""
"Brakes are now under control," Hamilton is told.
Rosberg ups his pace in response to that radio message, but Hamilton has found even more pace and pulls away by another three tenths.
Bottas has joined the fight for 11th, he's right behind Grosjean - who is 1.7s back from Nasr. There may yet be points on the cards for Williams, which has endured a difficult trip to Monte Carlo.
Hamilton is told that he doesn't need to lift and coast as much right now, while Rosberg is told that he needs to start closing the gap in case of a safety car.
LAWRENCE BARRETTO: "Hamilton is doing a better job of clearing the traffic than Rosberg, the Briton taking 1.3s out of Rosberg last time round."
Hamilton continues to pull away - his lead is up to 4s on lap 20.
EDD STRAW: "This track is a good example of how much of a nightmare it is to be in a car that gets lapped regularly. Merhi just lost a couple of seconds in sector one alone being lapped."
Raikkonen, 1.1s behind Ricciardo, says "there is no point to go closer to the car in front".
Nasr reacts to that Grosjean pitstop and stops in his Sauber.
EDD STRAW: "The brake concern Hamilton is managing is having an impact on his pit-stop window. He would still come out seventh were he to pit now."
Ricciardo is told "the window is open, and so is virtual safety car window".
Grosjean pits the sole remaining Lotus from 12th.
Stopwatch
Fastest lap for Hamilton - 1m20.077s. That's 0.7s quicker than Rosberg, so the gap is out to 3.3s.

Vettel is still closing on Rosberg, he's only 1.1s behind.
The Ferrari is only 4.1s off the lead at the moment, keeping the Silver Arrows honest.
Fastest first sector of the race so far for Max Verstappen. The Toro Rosso youngster has shone on his first visit to Monaco.
Hamilton is told "we're not puling the gap to Vettel quite as quickly as we need".
EDD STRAW: "Fastest overall first sector of the race from Verstappen there. He's really pushing on to try and reel in Perez for seventh."
Sainz has cleared the two Manors after his stop but Hulkenberg's having a less enjoyable time - although he's got ahead of Roberto Merhi.
There's nothing in it in laptimes at the front right now, the top five are all lapping between 1m20.4s and 1m20.6s.
A couple more pitstops now - Bottas and Ericsson were line astern in 13th and 14th and they've been in and out again.
Perez responds to the Verstappen pressure with a new personal best, and he pushes his advantage to 5.2s. This one might ebb and flow.
"What can I do to save these brakes, I'm driving so slowly," Hamilton says. He's told that rear temperatures look safe so he can move the brake balance rearwards if he thinks he can handle the car in that state.
Verstappen's winding his Toro Rosso up now - he took almost a second out of Perez on that last lap and the gap is down to under five seconds now in the fight for seventh.
Leading gaps:

1 Hamilton
2 Rosberg +2.6
3 Vettel +4.2
4 Kvyat +8.7
5 Ricciardo +11.4
6 Raikkonen +13.0
Vettel is keeping Rosberg honest at the moment, staying within two seconds of his countryman. He's had 0.3s out of him on lap 13.
EDD STRAW: "Verstappen in eighth is chipping away at seventh-placed Perez. Last time round, Verstappen gained eight-tenths."
Carlos Sainz pits from 15th.
Hulkenberg, last but one of those still running, will soon be in Manor territory. His pace would easily be good enough to be in the top 10 without his first-lap drama.

By: Scott Mitchell, Edd Straw, AUTOSPORT staff, Glenn Freeman, Lawrence Barretto

Published: