Kimi Raikkonen, who had led from pole for almost half the race, stared straight ahead on the podium after the Monaco Grand Prix and set about glugging the champagne as soon as he could.”The rule of thumb, if you qualify ahead you get priority at the first stop”, he said later.
If Vettel had finished second behind Raikkonen it would only have a 18-point lead and not 25.
Ferrari’s first one-two since Hockenheim 2010 extended his championship lead.
“Unbelievable. It was a very tense race“, Vettel said. “I’d hoped at the start to get a better launch by Kimi, but he got a better one”.
On cold tyres, Lewis Hamilton had a moment heading through Massenet and Casino Square as his back end stepped out but he was able to catch it before it pitched into the fence.
What had been a processional race, with the wider new cars making overtaking more hard, turned into sudden drama with a collision between Jenson Button’s McLaren and Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber at the tunnel entrance. I can stop the vehicle if I want to. His first manoeuvre on restart was that on Stoffel Vandoorne that sent the Belgian into the barriers, while the second one was on Daniil Kyvat which is being investigated.
“This weekend is hazardous for us”, Bottas agreed, “about Mercedes“. Further back, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes was in seventh place but being held up by the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr. – the son of the former world rally champion from Spain. Of course the run was bound to end at some point, but with just 13 drivers left at the finish – including both Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon – you would have bet on at least one Force India finishing inside the top ten.
Hamilton’s frustrations behind Kyvat were clear before he complained on team radio. He lost just one place, to Sainz, but did not have the performance to pass the Spaniard even when the field bunched up behind the safety auto.
“We can always say “If” as much as we want but it doesn’t change things”, Raikkonen said, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m very happy about it today but I can understand he’s upset”.
“Obviously there are reasons for whatever we do”, he said. It allowed Vettel to stay out longer and pick up speed with no traffic in front of him and then, with his extra speed gained, come out of the pits ahead of Raikkonen and cruise to a 45th career victory.