The complete 2011 Monaco GP review

PRACTICE

Practice one

A typically competitive opening Monaco session involved the top spot being exchanged repeatedly in the final minutes as the track conditions improved, and in the end it was Sebastian Vettel who emerged in front for Red Bull ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

But while one Red Bull led the way, the other propped up the order - a gearbox problem meant Mark Webber did not get to set a time at all.

Nico Rosberg was third for Mercedes, followed by Felipe Massa's Ferrari and the two McLarens. The sister Mercedes of Michael Schumacher took 10th despite the former champion slewing into the Sainte Devote barriers after making a late decision to drive up the escape road.

Schumacher was one of only two crashers in the session, the other being Vitantonio Liuzzi. The Hispania driver lost control of his car on the bump between the tunnel and the chicane, albeit in rather less dramatic style than subsequent crashes at the same spot.

Practice two

Alonso claimed first place in the afternoon, leading the way on both the soft and super soft tyres as he beat Lewis Hamilton by 0.1s.

Rosberg was third again, with morning pacesetter Vettel down in fifth behind Jenson Button. Webber got some mileage this time and was eighth fastest.

Again the crashes came at the tunnel exit and Ste Devote, with Vitaly Petrov and Jaime Alguersuari having the accidents at the respective locations.

Liuzzi did not get out at all after his morning crash, while Force India's Paul di Resta was forced to park with a loss of drive just over half an hour in.

Practice three

Alonso was quickest again when practice resumed after the traditional Monaco Friday break. The Ferrari had a clear 0.5s margin over the competition, led by Button and Massa, in the final session. Red Bull appeared to be taking things fairly easy in fourth and seventh places.

After his impressive Thursday, Rosberg's Saturday started in destructive fashion with a massive accident at the chicane. Having lost control at the tunnel exit, his Mercedes slammed into the right-hand Armco and then only just missed the barrier in the centre of the chicane as it skidded down the track and finally halted on the straight towards Tabac.

Liuzzi was in trouble again too, doing a lot of damage to his Hispania with a late crash at Ste Devote.

QUALIFYING

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-1

You could say Vettel was lucky on Saturday, with Sergio Perez's shunt all but ensuring that no one could beat his time despite the session being restarted with over two minutes remaining. The world champion set his fastest time just as the session was red-flagged, and the end result was another pole, and a crucial one too.

2. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-4

The Briton was delighted after securing his second front row start of the season. Like Vettel, Button had luck on his side, as his rivals - and himself - were unable to improve in the final rush following Perez's accident.

3. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-5

Webber did not have the best of starts to the weekend, having to play catch-up after a problem with his car meant he could not run in first practice. The Australian conceded that Vettel and Button had done a better job in what he labelled as a messy session.

4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-0

Alonso looked like a challenger for pole after setting the quickest time both in Friday's and Saturday's practice sessions. Come qualifying, however, the Ferrari driver was not in contention, although he was not helped by the stoppage either. Nonetheless, he was pretty happy with the result, which equalled his best of the season.

5. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-5

Schumacher admitted seventh place would have been a more realistic position for him given the pace of his car, but the German also benefited from the red flag to leave some rivals behind him. For the first time this season he also managed to outqualify Rosberg.

6. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-6

Massa was left with mixed feelings after qualifying. He was pleased to have solved the oversteer problems he had during practice, but a mistake at Rascasse meant he lost a couple of positions on the grid. He conceded starting from sixth things were not looking fantastic for the race.

7. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-2

Hamilton was one of the most disappointed men on Saturday afternoon, having been the driver most affected by the stoppage. The two minutes at the end of the session were not enough for Hamilton to get a decent lap and, on top of that, he had his best timed deleted after having jumped the chicane during his lap, which would demote him to ninth on the final grid.

8. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-1

Mercedes did a great job to build Rosberg's car following his crash in final practice, and the German looked set for a strong result until the red flag. He, like Hamilton, was badly hampered by the stoppage, something that meant starting from a disappointing eighth.

9. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-3

The rookie showed his three victories at Monaco in GP2 and Formula Renault 3.5 were no coincidence, performing strongly right from the start of qualifying. He was consistent in Q1 and Q2 and reached Q3 for the second time in a row in impressive fashion, also outqualifying Barrichello in the process.

10. Sergio Perez, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-3

Before crashing hard in Q3, the Mexican had put on an impressive performance, not only managing to get into the final session, but also outqualifying his more experienced team-mate. Luckily he escaped serious injury, but was unable to take part in the race.

11. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-1

Petrov was baffled about why he was unable to get more performance from the super soft tyres, the Russian just a tenth quicker with the softs. There was clearly something not quite right with the Renault, with the team having expected to be able to fight at the front.

12. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-3

The Brazilian was rather disappointed with his position after he struggled to get new tyres working properly during the session. Barrichello felt his car performed better with old tyres, but that meant losing valuable time that caused him to be knocked out in Q2 while his team-mate made it to Q3.

13. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-3

Kobayashi was not happy with the handling of his car during practice, and things did not improve much in qualifying, where he was unable to match the performance of Perez. The Japanese said the Sauber was bouncing too much around the circuit.

14. Paul di Resta, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-1

Di Resta had to admit that his position was a fair reflection of the pace of his Force India, with the car not capable of much more at the moment. It was still a decent showing by the Brit in his first grand prix in Monaco, and he once again outqualified Sutil.

15. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-5

Sutil was disappointed with his position but, like di Resta, said there was no more speed in the car. The German could have done a bit better, but he found a slow Petrov in front during his final run and lost time as a result.

16. Nick Heidfeld, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-5

Heidfeld completed a very disappointing day for Renault, which had talked up its chances of fighting with Red Bull during the weekend. Qualifying, however, turned out to be a slap of reality for the team, with Heidfeld admitting the bumps were hurting the squad's performance.

17. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-1

Although he enjoyed a better day than his team-mate Alguersuari, Buemi was bitterly disappointed with the pace of his Toro Rosso around the streets of the Principality. The Swiss never looked in contention for a spot in Q3 on a difficult day for the Faenza squad.

18. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-0

Despite not managing to emulate his Spanish GP performance, Kovalainen was rather pleased with his day thanks to the gap to the cars in front. The Finn admitted his first run had not been good at all, but he felt better in the second, although it wasn't enough for another Q2 effort.

19. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-6

Trulli was at a lost to explain why he couldn't extract more performance from his tyres in his second run, as he felt he could have gone much quicker. However, the car did not respond as he had expected and he had to settle with being very close to his team-mate.

20. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-5

The Spaniard was furious after going out in Q1, having found traffic on his final run, when he believed he was going 2s quicker, enough to be in Q2 comfortably. As it was, however, he found Kobayashi nearly stopped after Rascasse, resulting in contact between the two.

21. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-2

Unfortunately for Glock, not even what he labelled as a perfect Saturday helped him escaped the usual penultimate row of the grid, his Virgin team still fighting in no man's land. Nonetheless the German was happy with his day after enjoy what he said was his best ever qualifying at Monaco.

22. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-4

It was a difficult day for the Belgian, who was far from his team-mate's pace after struggling with his car. D'Ambrosio admitted he had gone backwards rather than forward since Thursday and the end result was a distant 22nd position.

23. Narain Karthikeyan, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-6

There was no qualifying for Karthikeyan either, as the Indian's car suffered a suspension problem that could not fixed in time. He also felt he could have qualified easily.<

24. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-0

Liuzzi was unable to set a time in qualifying after his team could not repair his car in time following his accident during final practice. The Italian, however, had been sufficiently quick in practice to show he deserved to be in the race and so he was allowed take part.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time            Gap   
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m13.556s  
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m13.997s  + 0.441
 3.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m14.019s  + 0.463
 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m14.483s  + 0.927
 5.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m14.682s  + 1.126
 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m14.877s  + 1.321
 7.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m15.280s  + 1.724
 8.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m15.766s  + 2.210
 9.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m16.528s  + 2.972
10.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       No time
Q3 cut-off time: 1m15.545s                                   Gap **
11.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m15.815s   + 1.540
12.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m15.826s   + 1.551
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m15.973s   + 1.698
14.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m16.118s   + 1.843
15.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m16.121s   + 1.846
16.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m16.214s   + 1.939
17.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m16.300s   + 2.025
Q3 cut-off time: 1m16.813s                                     Gap *
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m17.343s   + 2.136
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m17.381s   + 2.174
20.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m17.820s   + 2.613
21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m17.914s   + 2.707
22.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m18.736s   + 3.529
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         No time
24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         No time

107% time: 1m20.471s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2

RACE

For a while last Sunday afternoon, it looked entirely plausible that any one of three drivers could win the most exciting Monaco Grand Prix of the last decade. With less than 10 laps to go, the one-stopping Sebastian Vettel, on soft rubber that was long past its best, had been caught by Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, both of whom had significantly more grip to play with. A grandstand finish was assured.

Or at least that's what the throngs of beautiful people that had turned up to watch the race from their yachts thought. Instead, they were denied the inevitable attempts by Alonso to wrest the lead from the Red Bull as red flags flew for a dramatic accident involving three soon-to-be-lapped cars - just yards ahead of the leaders.

Vitaly Petrov was mercifully uninjured after nudging Jaime Alguersuari up the rear end at the Swimming Pool with six laps to go, an incident that also damaged the support on Lewis Hamilton's rear wing, and was caused as cars attempted to weave past Adrian Sutil's puncture-stricken Force India.

However, the Russian was concussed in the car after careering into the barriers hard and removing him took longer than expected. Stopping the race and getting a medical crew to the scene was the only option.

When the lead trio resumed their fight - with each one's car now fitted with new tyres - the sting had gone out of the battle and Vettel was able to hold off his rivals for a fifth win of the year; one that further-enhanced his credentials for back-to-back titles.

From the word go, there were only ever three drivers in contention for victory, although you'd have been hard-pushed to have looked beyond Vettel when he built up a four-second lead before the cars had even crossed the start/finish line for a third time.

His pursuers Button and Alonso, however, were merely biding their time, making sure that they did not destroy the Pirelli super soft rubber that they had started the race on. That would be catastrophic.

As the stint wore on the silver McLaren and red Ferrari both came back at the navy Red Bull however, and that left Button free to pounce when the Milton Keynes-based squad made a real hash of Vettel's first pitstop on lap 16.

The world champion's right side tyres were still in their blankets as he stopped on his marks, leading to a stationary time of 6.9s - almost twice as long as Button had taken a lap earlier. The net result was that Vettel's 2s lead had become a 4s deficit to the man that shared the front row with him in qualifying.

Significantly, however, Vettel had been equipped with soft tyres rather than super softs by mistake. While this was not in the plan, it effectively meant that he would not have to stop again while Button, who had started on super softs and now had another set, would. With 62 laps still to go though, and Pirelli having stated that the harder of the two compounds on offer were good for no more than 45 laps, failing to stop again was not a serious option. Or was it?

"Not at that point," said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. "We had a plan to box both drivers on the same lap, but the radio got jammed so the guys never got the call. That's why the tyres weren't ready."

Ferrari didn't think it was an option either, and switched Alonso to softs immediately, a move that kept him within sight of Vettel. Neither could do anything about Button though, who was using the 1s per lap advantage of new super softs to full effect and pulled out a 14s lead.

By the time he stopped for a second time on lap 34 (and another set of super softs), the race was in the bag. Yes, he would have to run a final stint on softs while Vettel and Alonso came back at him on super softs, but with track position king at Monaco, the 2009 world champion would surely be able to cover off any advances and take his first win for over a year.

Just two laps later, the dream strategy turned into a nightmare. Felipe Massa's heavy crash in the tunnel (more on that later) brought out the safety car and meant that the time lost by Vettel and Alonso during their stint on the softs had effectively been nullified, while Button would still have to endure it later in the race.

The time was nigh for quick thinking. Ferrari reacted immediately by bringing in Alonso for super softs - dropping him back behind Button - but Red Bull made what looked to be a serious strategical error by leaving Vettel out on track.

"It was my decision," said Vettel. "I thought that staying out was the only opportunity to win the race, and besides, my tyres felt fine."

When racing resumed, Vettel had his rear mirrors full of McLaren, while Alonso dropped as far as 7s adrift. For Button though, there was no way through and the Briton opted for a final stop - and a switch to softs - on lap 48.

Fastest lap after fastest lap followed, and the 26s deficit accrued by his stop was down to just 10s within five laps and 4s after five more. Button's problem though, was that there was a pesky little Spaniard in a red car between him and his prey; and he was looking racy too.

With eight laps to go, the trio were tied together, with Vettel's tyres having been on his car for 54 tours, Alonso's for 35 and Button's for only 22. Based on recent history, Vettel could not possibly hang on.

Then came the red flag and the confusion. Were you allowed to change tyres during a race stoppage? The answer was yes, and while it may not have been the single factor that prevented Alonso from attacking for victory, it's certainly what safeguarded Vettel's lead.

"Maybe we lost the victory at the red flag," said Alonso. "I really think in the last eight or nine laps, the tyres on the Red Bull were struggling a lot - certainly in the last part of the circuit. There was nothing to lose for me. I am not leading the championship. I will try and win the race and if we crash, we crash."

While the podium positions did not change after the red flags, there was some significant action behind concerning Mark Webber.

The Australian had run fourth early on, but was affected far worse than his team-mate as Red Bull's communication mix-up led to a 15s stop "although they had called me in."

From then on he was on a mission and battling back. It was never going to be easy however, especially with the one-stopping Sutil, Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi all gaining track position during the mid-race safety car.

He was one of the few drivers to make significant progress late in the race. Eighth after his final stop on lap 55, he passed Pastor Maldonado, Petrov and Sutil as the trio faded on their worn rubber and then got by Kobayashi's Sauber after the restart when the Japanese driver missed the chicane and was forced to cede position to avoid a penalty.

While Webber's finishing position was merely one place lower than he started, Kobayashi was in celebratory mood as his fifth place was not only the best of his F1 career, it was also Sauber's highest finish since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix of 2009.

Next up was Hamilton, whose weekend was a story of what might have been. After his qualifying penalty, the McLaren driver became stuck behind Michael Schumacher's Mercedes early on and lost huge chunks of time when the German's tyres went off significantly inside the first 10 laps.

Schumacher, who would later retire with an airbox fire while driving slowly behind the safety car, said: "He hit me at the start, which damaged my nose and that caused the tyres to go off earlier than normal because I had less aero."

Whether Hamilton had a hand in his own destiny was a point that would be revisited on more than one occasion during the afternoon. His first indiscretion came on lap 34 when he tangled with Massa at Loews hairpin, for which he was given a drive-through penalty. An avoidable incident, said the race stewards.

"It's a frickin' joke," said an irate Hamilton. "He holds me up in qualifying and I get a penalty. He turns in on me and I get a penalty."

Whoever hit whom, the fact was that Massa's Ferrari had been damaged, and two corners later, as Hamilton passed him - cleanly this time - through the tunnel, the Brazilian crashed heavily after running onto the marbles.

"He tried to overtake when it was not possible. It's unbelievable some of his driving, not just with me, but with other drivers too. I think he needs to be penalised by the FIA in a good way, so he doesn't do it again."

It wasn't the end of Hamilton's troubles. His tyres weren't ready for him when he made his final stop, and, following the restart, he was judged to have put Maldonado's Williams in the wall - the result, 20s added to his race time, which did not, as it turned out, affect his finishing position.

Sutil - who needed a new right-rear after his puncture, was a lapped seventh ahead of Nick Heidfeld (Renault), Rubens Barrichelllo (Williams) and Sebastien Buemi (Toro Rosso).

Paul di Resta could, no, should have been in there too, but he admitted that "optimistic" driving had been his downfall. He was right too. A drive-through penalty for hitting Alguersuari at Loews (an incident in which he damaged his own nose too) put paid to any points hopes and dropped him to 12th by the end, while Rosberg, who ran fifth early on, had to be content with the spot one ahead of him.

Not that any of this mattered to his countryman Vettel, who has now won seven of the last eight races (including two at the end of 2010). Hamilton, second in the championship but now 58 points behind, perhaps put it best post-race: "He's just walking away with it, isn't he?"

RACE RESULTS

The Monaco Grand Prix
Monte Carlo, Monaco, Monaco;
78 laps; 260.520km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           2h09:38.373
 2.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +     1.138
 3.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     2.378
 4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    23.100
 5.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +    26.900
 6.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    47.200
 7.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
 8.  Heidfeld      Renault                    +     1 lap
 9.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
10.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
11.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +     1 lap
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +    2 laps
13.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +    2 laps
14.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +    2 laps
15.  D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
16.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps
17.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps
18.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +    5 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:16.234

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Petrov        Renault                      68
Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari           68
Massa         Ferrari                      33
Schumacher    Mercedes                     33
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              31
Perez         Sauber-Ferrari               DNS


World Championship standings, round 6:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel       143        1.  Red Bull-Renault          222
 2.  Hamilton      85        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          161
 3.  Webber        79        3.  Ferrari                    93
 4.  Button        76        4.  Renault                    50
 5.  Alonso        69        5.  Mercedes                   40
 6.  Heidfeld      29        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             21
 7.  Rosberg       26        7.  Force India-Mercedes       10
 8.  Massa         24        8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          7
 9.  Petrov        21        9.  Williams-Cosworth           2
10.  Kobayashi     19       
11.  Schumacher    14       
12.  Sutil          8       
13.  Buemi          7       
14.  Perez          2       
15.  Barrichello    2       
16.  Di Resta       2       

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM-BY-TEAM

Red Bull

Another pole and win for Vettel, but this certainly was not a dominant weekend, despite the champion's early burst of speed in the race. A poor pitstop and an accidental switch to soft tyres earlier than planned left him behind Button, but when the McLaren's strategy caused it to relinquish the lead, Vettel took a punt on going the distance without another tyre change. That meant huge pressure from Alonso and Button, but he was holding on until the red flag gave him chance to change tyres and make certain of victory.

Webber missed all of first practice with gearbox problems yet still qualified third. He lost out to Alonso at the start, then suffered high tyre wear and was caught up in the Red Bull pit confusion, all of which dropped him deep into the midfield. He fought back well to finish fourth.

McLaren

A superb weekend for Button began with him qualifying on the front row and ended up with him in the race lead after Vettel's slow pitstop. The McLaren charged away for a while on the super softs, but a three-stop strategy was not the right one and left him behind Vettel and Alonso at the end.

Hamilton had a wild time. He was hugely frustrated to end up only ninth on the grid after going out for his first Q3 run just as the session was red-flagged, and then being adjudged to have cut the chicane on his compromised lap after the restart. In the race he was hit by Schumacher and Alguersuari, and hit Massa and Maldonado himself, the latter moves earning Hamilton penalties and leaving him sixth.

Ferrari

Alonso was quickest in two out of three practice sessions but only fourth on the grid, two places ahead of Massa. But Alonso was a lead contender throughout the race, getting up to third immediately and spending the afternoon dicing with Vettel and Button. His two-stop strategy was more successful than Button's three-stopper, but not as ideal as Vettel's one-stop, though he was all over the back of the Red Bull until the red flag rescued its tyre situation. Second was still Alonso's best result of the year. Massa lost time stuck behind Rosberg's slow Mercedes at first and then crashed in the tunnel after a hit from Hamilton two corners earlier that he felt had damaged his car.

Mercedes

Rosberg and Schumacher both showed good pace in practice, though both had incidents too - in Schumacher's case a light slide into the Ste Devote barriers on Thursday, and in Rosberg's case a massive crash at the chicane early on Saturday morning.

Despite this, Rosberg still jumped straight to fifth in Q1 in his repaired car and qualified seventh, two places behind a satisfied Schumacher.

The race was terribly. An early first tyre stop dropped Rosberg almost to the back of the field and, feeling that both he and his car were off the pace, he could only get back to 11th. Schumacher lost several places at the start when his anti-stall kicked in, damaged his nose section running into Hamilton (leading to extreme tyre degradation), but then began making good progress through the field until he was stopped by an airbox fire during the mid-race safety car period.

Renault

Given its usual Monaco form, Renault expected great things from the weekend, but would be sorely disappointed, with Petrov and Heidfeld struggling to 11th and 16th on the grid.

Petrov had the stronger race and was chasing Sutil and Kobayashi for fourth and fifth when he was caught up in the chain reaction shunt at the Swimming Pool and had a heavy impact with the barriers. Reporting leg pain, he was taken to hospital for checks but given a clean bill of health. Heidfeld made low-key progress to eighth.

Williams

Maldonado maintained the excellent form he had always shown in Monaco in the feeder categories to get into Q3 again and take ninth, while Barrichello was puzzled by tyre quirks in 12th.

A strong race from the rookie put him on course for points throughout and he was running sixth at the final restart, only to be tapped into the barriers in a collision with Hamilton. Barrichello was ninth, feeling the timing of the mid-race safety car spoiled his strategy.

Force India

Qualifying was the usual story for Force India: its cars 14th and 15th on the grid, di Resta ahead, and not capable of much more at present. But a one-stop strategy worked very well for Sutil in the race and got him as high as fourth, albeit with cars queuing behind him as his tyres faded. That eventually caused him to tag a barrier and pick up a puncture (and to inadvertently trigger the Hamilton/Alguersuari/Petrov shunt as the pack tried to dodge around him). He got back to the pits for repairs and still managed to finish seventh. Di Resta was 12th after tangles with Alguersuari and D'Ambrosio that cost him a front wing and two drive-through penalties.

Sauber

Perez flew on his first visit to Monaco in an F1 car and reached Q3, while Kobayashi could only manage 13th. But the Mexican rookie's impressive weekend came to a violent end with a massive crash at the chicane in the final part of qualifying. He escaped with concussion and bruising, but was kept in hospital for checks for the rest of the weekend.

Kobayashi made another long-stint Sauber strategy work well to progress to fourth, via a brush with Sutil along the way, and though he lost out to Webber in the final moments, he still finished fifth.

Toro Rosso

A poor qualifying result left Buemi and Alguersuari only 17th and 20th, the latter blaming traffic for his Q1 exit. Buemi stayed out of trouble and progressed to 10th, but Alguersuari's race ended when he ran into the back of Hamilton and then the barriers in the traffic chaos at the end of the race.

Not quite the street circuit giant-killing that had been hoped for, though the gap to the midfield was encouragingly small again as Trulli and Kovalainen qualified ahead of Alguersuari in 18th and 19th. Strategy quirks amid the safety car period got them stuck behind D'Ambrosio for a while before they came through to 13th and 14th places.

The HRT F111 didn't look like the most comfortable car to drive around Monaco, and Liuzzi crashed his twice in practice. That left him sidelined for Q1, as was Karthikeyan after a suspension problem was discovered. The stewards gave them dispensation to race because their practice times had been adequate, and they had off-the-pace runs to 16th and 17th with Liuzzi ahead despite power steering issues.

Once again, Virgin was somewhere lonely between Lotus and Hispania. Glock was the team's frontrunner until his rear suspension broke in the race, but D'Ambrosio made the flag in 15th. He had run ahead of the Lotus duo for a while thanks to his strategy, but as his tyres faded both came past.

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)