As always, the Grand Prix of Monaco provided a fairly spectacular showing, likely one of the few in this year’s F1 series. As most would expect, Circuit de Monaco lap-time record holder and five-time winner, Michael Schumacher took the pole position, but officials forced him back five grid positions after he caused a collision during qualifying. With the technical nature of Monaco, that pole position is very important and Schumacher’s penalty was an ominous sign that this would not be a good race, as he retired due to fuel issues 63 laps in.
Schumacher’s penalty propelled Red Bull’s Mark Webber into the pole position. Webber held onto that pole position, despite a lead change during a pit stop, and took home the checkered flag on a rain-coated Circuit de Monaco. As we said in our preview of the 2012 Grand Prix of Monaco, this race had some serious overall points influence, as the leaders were only separated by a few points each.
This victory for Webber places propels him up to a second place tie with Sebastian Vettel at 73 points and puts Fernando Alonso, who finished third, in the points lead at 76. An impressive run by Nico Rosberg placed him in second, just behind Webber, proving that his wide margin of victory in China was not just a one-time deal. This superb finish by Rosberg jumps him up two slots to fifth place overall.
From the looks of it, this season is shaping up to be a rather close points race with a few new faces near the top. Unfortunately, the leader board, for the most part, looks identical to the 2011 and 2010 seasons. The lack of parody in F1 has really been its Achilles heel in recent history. An overall points victory by Nico Rosberg would certainly be a push in the right direction for F1, so we’ll keep a close eye on his performance.
Click past the jump to see the complete placement board for the 2012 Grand Prix of Monaco and the overall points standings.
2012 Grand Prix of Monaco Results:
Pos |
No |
Driver |
Team |
Laps |
Time/Retired |
Grid |
Pts |
1 |
2 |
Mark Webber |
Red Bull Racing-Renault |
78 |
1:46:06.557 |
1 |
25 |
2 |
8 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes |
78 |
+0.6 secs |
2 |
18 |
3 |
5 |
Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari |
78 |
+0.9 secs |
5 |
15 |
4 |
1 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull Racing-Renault |
78 |
+1.3 secs |
9 |
12 |
5 |
4 |
Lewis Hamilton |
McLaren-Mercedes |
78 |
+4.1 secs |
3 |
10 |
6 |
6 |
Felipe Massa |
Ferrari |
78 |
+6.1 secs |
7 |
8 |
7 |
11 |
Paul di Resta |
Force India-Mercedes |
78 |
+41.5 secs |
14 |
6 |
8 |
12 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India-Mercedes |
78 |
+42.5 secs |
10 |
4 |
9 |
9 |
Kimi Räikkönen |
Lotus-Renault |
78 |
+44.0 secs |
8 |
2 |
10 |
19 |
Bruno Senna |
Williams-Renault |
78 |
+44.5 secs |
13 |
1 |
11 |
15 |
Sergio Perez |
Sauber-Ferrari |
77 |
+1 Lap |
23 |
0 |
12 |
17 |
Jean-Eric Vergne |
STR-Ferrari |
77 |
+1 Lap |
16 |
0 |
13 |
20 |
Heikki Kovalainen |
Caterham-Renault |
77 |
+1 Lap |
17 |
0 |
14 |
24 |
Timo Glock |
Marussia-Cosworth |
77 |
+1 Lap |
19 |
0 |
15 |
23 |
Narain Karthikeyan |
HRT-Cosworth |
76 |
+2 Laps |
22 |
0 |
16 |
3 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren-Mercedes |
70 |
accident damage |
12 |
0 |
Ret |
16 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
STR-Ferrari |
65 |
Steering damage |
15 |
0 |
Ret |
25 |
Charles Pic |
Marussia-Cosworth |
64 |
Electrical |
21 |
0 |
Ret |
7 |
Michael Schumacher |
Mercedes |
63 |
Fuel pressure |
6 |
0 |
Ret |
21 |
Vitaly Petrov |
Caterham-Renault |
15 |
Electrical |
18 |
0 |
Ret |
14 |
Kamui Kobayashi |
Sauber-Ferrari |
5 |
Accident damage |
11 |
0 |
Ret |
22 |
Pedro de la Rosa |
HRT-Cosworth |
0 |
Accident damage |
20 |
0 |
Ret |
18 |
Pastor Maldonado |
Williams-Renault |
0 |
Accident |
24 |
0 |
Ret |
10 |
Romain Grosjean |
Lotus-Renault |
0 |
Accident |
4 |
0 |
Overall Points 2012:
Pos |
Driver |
Pos |
Team |
Driver |
|
1 |
Fernando Alonso |
Spanish |
Ferrari |
76 |
+1 |
2 |
Sebastian Vettel |
German |
Red Bull Racing-Renault |
73 |
-1 |
3 |
Mark Webber |
Australian |
Red Bull Racing-Renault |
73 |
+2 |
4 |
Lewis Hamilton |
British |
McLaren-Mercedes |
63 |
-1 |
5 |
Nico Rosberg |
German |
Mercedes |
59 |
+2 |
6 |
Kimi Räikkönen |
Finnish |
Lotus-Renault |
51 |
-2 |
7 |
Jenson Button |
British |
McLaren-Mercedes |
45 |
-2 |
8 |
Romain Grosjean |
French |
Lotus-Renault |
35 |
0 |
9 |
Pastor Maldonado |
Venezuelan |
Williams-Renault |
29 |
0 |
10 |
Sergio Perez |
Mexican |
Sauber-Ferrari |
22 |
0 |
11 |
Paul di Resta |
British |
Force India-Mercedes |
21 |
+1 |
12 |
Kamui Kobayashi |
Japanese |
Sauber-Ferrari |
19 |
-1 |
13 |
Bruno Senna |
Brazilian |
Williams-Renault |
15 |
0 |
14 |
Felipe Massa |
Brazilian |
Ferrari |
10 |
+3 |
15 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
German |
Force India-Mercedes |
7 |
0 |
16 |
Jean-Eric Vergne |
French |
STR-Ferrari |
4 |
-3 |
17 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Australian |
STR-Ferrari |
2 |
-1 |
18 |
Michael Schumacher |
German |
Mercedes |
2 |
0 |
19 |
Heikki Kovalainen |
Finnish |
Caterham-Renault |
0 |
+3 |
20 |
Timo Glock |
German |
Marussia-Cosworth |
0 |
-1 |
21 |
Charles Pic |
French |
Marussia-Cosworth |
0 |
-1 |
22 |
Narain Karthikeyan |
Indian |
HRT-Cosworth |
0 |
+2 |
23 |
Vitaly Petrov |
Russian |
Caterham-Renault |
0 |
-2 |
24 |
Pedro de la Rosa |
Spanish |
HRT-Cosworth |
0 |
-1 |
Biggest position increases:
Felipe Massa
Felipe finished sixth overall, rebounding from his 15th place finish in Spain. This netted him a much needed eight points and helped him go from 17th overall the 14th overall in the F1 standings.
Heikki Kovalainen
Heikki’s 13th place finish in Monaco did not earn him any points, but it did give him a placement advantage over the remaining 0-point drivers this year. This helped him jump three places from 22nd to 19th place in the overall 2012 standings.
Biggest position decreases:
Jean-Eric Vergne
Jean-Eric tumbled a total of three positions in the 2012 overall standings, going from 13th place to 16th place. This tumble comes following back-to-back 12th place finishes in Spain and Monaco.