Mercedes’ mistake costs the team a One-Two finish

There was huge confusion during the safety car period, even Mercedes couldn’t seem to find the answer to it. By Jerrica Leong

The Mercedes AMG team were enjoying a brilliant day at the office, the sun was shining and their cars were at their top performance. While Lewis Hamilton had maintained the lead when the five red lights went out, Nico Rosberg had found it tough to shake off the scarlet Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

It was a relatively quiet race for both drivers which are usually unheard of at the Monaco GP, while the field enjoyed a number of awesome overtaking action the only threat the Mercedes drivers, or more accurately Nico Rosberg who was racing in second place, faced was a very consistent Vettel. There were even moments where Vettel had looked set to overtake Rosberg before he started suffering from tyre degradation.

Just as we thought that Hamilton had the win in the bag, Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso made a mistake which saw him collide into Romain Grosjean’s Lotus and crashing head on into the barriers of turn one. Verstappen’s crash brought out the Safety Car, and Mercedes saw fit to bring in Hamilton for a change of tyres.

Unfortunately for Hamilton, the team had sorely miscalculated the situation which saw him exit the pit lane behind both teammate Nico Rosberg and rival Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton and Vettel had a minor scuffle for position at the pit-lane exit but Hamilton had to concede the place. Both drivers were then heard on the radio insisting that they were in front of the other. Replays later solved the confusion that Vettel was half a meter in front of Hamilton at the exit so no action was needed from the FIA.

At the restart, Rosberg was seen speeding off into the distance while Hamilton started piling on the pressure on the Ferrari. It was a heart stopping final six laps where Vettel masterfully defended his position. Daniel Ricciardo, who had pitted for new tyres during the safety car period, joined in the battle for second place. That saw Hamilton backing off Vettel’s gearbox to defend his third place. Nico Rosberg took home the chequered flag with a 4.486 margin to second place man Sebastian Vettel while Lewis Hamilton took home a close third. With this win, Rosberg joins the ranks of Aryton Senna who was the last person to do a hat-trick of wins at the Monaco GP. Congratulations to Rosberg on his hat-trick!

Photos and source credits to Mercedes AMG F1 media site