Race
Rosberg got the maximum potential from his Mercedes to sweep to a victory as dominant as any this season, leading every single lap of the race and what might have finished as a one-two had Hamilton not lost time during the first safety car. Vettel and Webber completed the podium comfortably, never really under threat from behind and sneaking past the second Mercedes to collect 30 constructors points as closest rivals Ferrari and Lotus suffered. Tyres played their part, but only as they should do, with no sign of the huge degradation of the past two Grand Prix at the slowest circuit of the year. The Front Runners After suffering tyre problems heavily in Barcelona, Mercedes showed they had the pace and the stamina this weekend as Rosberg delivered as close to perfection as Formula 1 can ask for. Finally converting their pace into his second victory, Rosberg became the first son of a previous Monaco winner to win the race himself, managing his tyres expertly and coolly controlling three safety car restarts ahead of the Red Bulls. Showing the kind of excellent head required to win championships, Rosberg showed his win in China 2012 isnt going to be a flash in the pan. Hamilton took second on the grid by less than a tenth of a second, and had strong race pace, but was caught out by the safety car, leaving too much of a gap as Mercedes pitted him immediately behind Rosberg, allowing the Red Bulls to slip past. Despite his pace and several attempts, he was unable to get past Webber at a notoriously difficult track and finished just off the podium, however generally happy with their much-improved race pace. Red Bull had a fairly uneventful afternoon in ways, taking second and third and never threatening Rosberg. Vettel had a great start but no space to use it into turn one, and Webber dropped in behind him. With no way past as Mercedes controlled the lap times, they would have followed them home had a safety car not given them the chance to beat Hamilton, getting lucky with their pit stop timing and taking strong points. Force India, having looked rather up-and-down for much of the weekend, broke through with strong race pace and aggressive overtaking from both drivers to bag fifth and ninth places for Sutil and Di Resta respectively. Sutil drove strongly from eighth position and showed that overtaking is possible in Monaco, working hard in the sprint finish following the red flag, getting past Button and Alonso at the Loews Hairpin and then gaining as Perez and Raikkonen faltered. Di Resta, after a very poor qualifying left him in 17th, drove with great pace early in the race after an early pit stop, hoping for a safety car when Pics Caterham broke down on lap ten. That didnt work out, but he stormed to the points late in the race with some overtaking moves, and collected ninth. A good weekend for Force India all round, bettering McLaren again. McLaren looked much better this weekend, far more competitive and in the action as they tussled with each other and then everyone else one way or another. Things went both ways though, as Button took a racy sixth place, and Perez a racy retirement with six laps to go. Early on they raced each other, and Perez sneaked past Button out of the tunnel after he touched Alonso at the hairpin. It looked like they were on for a big haul of points until Perez crashed into Raikkonen as he tried to dive down the inside into the Nouvelle chicane, damaging both cars. Button used Perez retirement to dive past Alonso in Rascasse, wrapping up a much improved weekend for McLaren. Ferraris weekend was rocky and ended poorly; they struggled for pace in qualifying and the race after debris hampered Alonsos downforce, and he was only able to get seventh place after being mugged by Mercedes-powered cars in an oddly subdued performance. He closed his gap to Raikkonen slightly, but lost significant points to Vettel, with the gap now at 29 points. Felipe Massa had a weekend to forget, suffering another heavy crash into Ste Devote on lap 28 due to a failure on the front left, injuring his neck slightly and bringing out the safety car. Torro Rosso had another weekend where they only finished one car, though the other way around this time. Vergne converted the cars good pace into an excellent eighth place for the team, though he couldnt make the inroads that Sutil managed ahead of him. Ricciardo however didnt have a good race, getting stuck in the pack and unable to use his pace, before being rear-ended by Romain Grosjean out of the tunnel on lap 63, ending his race and bringing out the second safety car. Raikkonens weekend ended in a blistering attack to make up five places and snatch the final world championship point on the last lap, getting away with speeding under the safety car in the process. They looked on for a solid fifth place finish, but after Perez ploughed into him on lap 69, he suffered a left-rear puncture and had to pit. Grosjean managed to find the barriers three times in the weekend, and then the back of Daniel Ricciardo, misjudging an overtaking manoeuvre and piling into the Torro Rosso to take them both out of the race. His return to old ways earned him a ten place grid penalty for Canada and summed up a poor weekend in Monaco for the team.