One radio message sums up this race: “I’ve lost this race, haven’t I?”
Those words, spoken by Lewis Hamilton after his team brought his in for fresh tyres towards the end of the race – with 15 laps to go – don’t show the anger and frustration that he did afterwards. This race was undoubtedly his. His team-mate was too busy defending a challenge from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to try and grab the lead and so, with Nico Rosberg over 19 seconds behind, Hamilton could relax a little and cruise home to victory.
That was until a violent crash at the first corner and an unusual reaction from the Mercedes pit wall put a stop to all that winning business.
At the start of the race, Hamilton took the lead straight away. Vettel overtook Rosberg for second and Daniil Kvyat came very close to ramming the Ferrari of Vettel while grabbing fourth place from Daniel Ricciardo.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso pushed Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India into Mirabeau, the damage demanding that Hulkenberg stop for a new front wing, while Alonso would receive a five-second time penalty when he eventually make a pit stop.
Monaco is a tight and twisty circuit, making overtaking very difficult, even with a surplus of blue flags. As Hamilton and the leaders hit traffic around the Principality, Rosberg found it hard to despatch the back markers as quickly as Hamilton did. This meant he extended his lead to more than nine seconds. The pit stops in the middle of the race did little to shake up the order with the top three of Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel holding their positions.
Max Verstappen would be the one to shake things up though. When he had visited the pits – earlier than the leaders on lap 29 – his right-rear wheel stuck, costing him more than 25 seconds. He was on a charge then, needing to make up time and try to regain the points position that the team had thrown away for him. He made another pit stop for the super-soft tyres and in doing so fell a lap behind the leaders. He used this to his advantage though, using them to pass other cars which were being lapped – the best example being a pass on Williams’ Valtteri Bottas aided by Vettel.
Romain Grosjean‘s Lotus team had cottoned on to what Verstappen was doing and had been alerted to the threat. When Verstappen closed up to him – looking very capable of passing him setting lap times one and a half seconds quicker – Grosjean was struggling with brake wear.
All went wrong on lap 64. Verstappen claims he wasn’t trying to pass Grosjean at the time, and that the Lotus driver braked earlier than he expected. As the Lotus slowed to take the first corner, Verstappen dodged right and came very close to avoiding contact. But not close enough. The impact sent Verstappen on a terrifying ride into the protected barriers at Saint Devote and, amazingly, the Lotus was still able to race.
A Virtual Safety Car was called, but swiftly replaced by a more usual Safety Car period. This was where Hamilton lost the race. His team believed they could get him in and out of the pits without losing their lead. They were wrong. In came Hamilton, and he lost his victory, handing it to Rosberg. He was also passed by Vettel, the pair motoring side-by-side up the hill from the pits, before the Ferrari driver assumed second place as he was ahead of Hamilton across the Safety Car line.
The race resumed again on lap 70, the additional time causing havoc with the tyre temperatures on the lead two cars and destroying any hope that Hamilton had of regaining first position with his softer fresher tyres. Only Daniel Ricciardo made a place in this time, as he managed to squeeze by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. Red Bull also arranged a neat piece of team work as Daniil Kvyat was instructed to wave Ricciardo past so that the latter could use his fresher tyres to try and attack Hamilton. That came to nothing, so they switched positions again in a rare piece of fairness in this sport! Kyvat’s fourth place finish is his new career best result, improving on his five ninth places.
Sergio Perez ended up seventh for force India, Jenson Button put some points on the board for McLaren at long last with eighth (Fernando Alonso’s car failed to finish again though). These were the first points for a McLaren-Honda partnership since Gerhard Berger won at Adelaide in 1992.
Felipe Nasr scored for Sauber in ninth and Sainz capped an impressive recovery from a pit lane start to take the final point.
Hamilton’s lead in the Championship is down to ten points, but Rosberg certainly got lucky here to take his third consecutive Monaco victory – in doing so he joins a select group of drivers who have won here three times are more. They include Ayrton Senna (six), Michael Schumacher and Graham Hill (five), Alain Prost (four), Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart (three).
This was Rosberg’s tenth career win, putting him level with James Hunt, Ronnie Peterson, Jody Scheckter and Gerhard Berger.
2015 Monaco Grand Prix Result
| Position | Driver | Car-Engine | Laps | Time/Delay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 78 | 1h 49m 18.420s |
| 2 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 78 | +4.486s |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 78 | +6.053s |
| 4 | Daniil Kvyat | Red Bull-Renault | 78 | +11.965s |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 78 | +13.608s |
| 6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 78 | +14.345s |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 78 | +15.013s |
| 8 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Honda | 78 | +16.063s |
| 9 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber-Ferrari | 78 | +23.626s |
| 10 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso-Renault | 78 | +25.056s |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 78 | +26.232s |
| 12 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Mercedes | 78 | +28.415s |
| 13 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber-Ferrari | 78 | +31.159s |
| 14 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 78 | +45.789s |
| 15 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 77 | -1 lap |
| 16 | Roberto Mehri | Marussia-Ferrari | 76 | -2 laps |
| 17 | Will Stevens | Marussia-Ferrari | 76 | -2 laps |
| - | Max Verstappen | Toro Rosso-Renault | 62 | Collision |
| - | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Honda | 41 | Gearbox |
| - | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Mercedes | 5 | Brakes |