Mark Webber became the sixth driver on Sunday to win a Grand Prix this season, as he led the Monaco Grand Prix from start to finish, with few problems but a tense, exciting finish.
The Australian Red Bull driver beat Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg into second place, while Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso took third.
Alonso’s third place sees him take over the sole leadership in the drivers’ standings with 76 points. World champion Sebastian Vettel, who finished fourth on the day and his team-mate Webber are second on 73 points.
Webber, who won in a time of one hour 46 minutes and 6.557 seconds over the 78 laps, said he felt incredible after the win.
“It was a very interesting race,” he said.
“The start was reasonably straight forward, but then the weather was threatening. Later on, it became a bit crazy, as I had to manage Nico and then suddenly had to worry about Sebastian Vettel and make sure that he would not get the magical 21 seconds that would allow him to stay in front after a pit stop.”
German Rosberg said he was happy to get second place in one of his two home races: “I was surprised how strong we were. We probably had the fastest car out there and it could have been position one, but I am still very pleased.”
Webber won the start after having inherited the pole position from seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher after the German, who posted the fastest time in qualifying, had to start from sixth after having been given a five-place grid penalty at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Behind the leading pack though, there was chaos as Lotus’ Romain Grosjean touched Alonso’s Ferrari before nearly smashing into the Mercedes of Schumacher.
Grosjean could not go on and the safety car was deployed on the second row after Pastor Maldenado in a Williams smashed into Pedro de la Rosa.
Once the safety car withdrew though, it was business as usual as Webber, Rosberg and Alonso did their thing and managed to put some distance between themselves and the chasing pack.
Vettel, who started from ninth after not posting a time in the third qualifying session, moved into the lead after the leaders pitted for the first time.
Vettel, who started on hard tyres, stayed out much longer, but his hopes for rain were not met as he slipped down to fourth after his pit stop.
With some ten laps remaining, rain started falling slowly and the six leading drivers came together much closer, but there was not enough rain to cause any of the drivers to slip, thereby allowing those behind to overtake.
Webber, who won the race in 2010, held on to his lead to win from Rosberg and Alonso. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took fifth place behind Vettel, with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa in sixth.
Webber’s victory sees a new F1 record, as it is the first time in the history of Grand Prix racing that six different drivers have won the opening six races.
“It is pretty good to be part of the season, which is petty hard to predict. It is not straight forward to predict how races will develop and that makes it different from how it was in the past,” Webber said.
The next race is the Canadian Grand Prix on June 10.
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Hi Tristan - thanks for the encouraging re-welcome! And for asking about daughter Lily - she's now into her 15th month, walking everywhere, talking a bit (about half-a-dozen recognizable words) and generally makes the house that little more lively...
DavoRR
Guest
I am in northern Italy at the moment and an Aussie wins in Monaco & a Canadian wins the Giro. Who'd have thought!
Lazy Ted Failyou
Guest
Take that New Zealand!
Brendon
Guest
Wonder if Red Bull will screw Webber over like they did in 2010 when he had a shot. Its no secret that Red Bull much, much, much prefer Vettel winning over Webber. Red Bull is an Austrian team with a German driver and Germany is the biggest F1 market in the world and Webber comes from a far away country with only 23 million people that only have a moderate interest in F1.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Hi Ben - good to see you again mate. Hope all is well with the little'un. Was a great race - I lost my normal cool and cheered on Webber like old times as well. Great win for him. It's nice Vettel was outclassed.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
He ran out of tyres Chris, so while I was yelling at the Toro Rosso team in frustration as well, it emerged they basically decided that they had no option to try and get back into the top 10 but try intermediates. So it wasn't a gamble, it was a losing situation that they tried to do something with. No win.
zacbrygel
Roar Guru
It was a very entertaining race that was close all the way through. Hopefully now Webber can take control of F1 for the rest of the season.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
You know Chris, It was a big gamble, that flopped. If that rain had gotten heavier in the thirty seconds after he changed, he would have won the race when everyone else tried to skate around on dry tyres. But it didn't! let's not forget the big gamble they took earlier on in the race which catapoulted him into 7th. A bit of a gambling team really.
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Apologies for the above typo: basket! And the old black-and-gold Lotuses, too...! Nostalgic stuff indeed!
Chris
Guest
Great drive by Mark Webber. Really confirmed his place as one of Australia's greatest ever drivers. What the hell was Vergne and his team thinking? The only possible explanation I can think of is that he was instructed to pit by Red Bull so they could gather time data on the intermediate tyres. Even that is pretty far fetched.
Mark Young
Roar Guru
Hiya Ben No, you are spot on, the pit lane exit is very long. It is because the track delivers the pitlane exit RIGHT ONTO THE RACING LINE!!! So they shift it along, allowing the exiting car to skip St Devote, otherwise, you would have exiting cars and cars at full speed converging to the same piece of real estate with possibly disasterous results. It was a very exciting race, the race radio was excellent, listening to Hamilton moan, the weather predictions etc.
Ben Carter
Roar Guru
Hi all - a rare treat last night. i hardly ever find the time to sit through an entire F1 GP these days, but that for some reason felt just like old times... Monaco, a Senna, a Rosberg, a Schumacher (still), a bit of potential wet-weather driving, six different winners in the first six rounds for a change, etc, etc. With pole on the least-passable FIA circuit layout of the year surely Webber wasn't going to stuff that up. It was a steady, sensible drive really, plus a well-timed pit-stop strategy to out-class Vettel. It also means Webber doesn't get consigned to that occasional basked of slightly under-achieving sports people (e.g at various times the Aussie sporting public has probably tossed the likes of Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Mark Philippoussis, Lleyton Hewitt, the Australian Boomers basketball team, etc). Just one question (if anyone knows)... was it just my eyesight or is the pit-exit slip-lane at Monte Carlo overly long or what???
Steve
Guest
Agreed. I've had a go at Channel 10 in the past but it's excellent that they are now adopting line stream online, following SBS and ABC who have done it for a while. We just need Channel 9 (for the footy and cricket) and Channel 7 (for the footy and tennis) to follow.
Fivehole
Guest
Vettel normally gets the luck, and when they were predicting rain about lap 35 i thought the race was going to fall into his lap - Luckily it didn't. Good race Mark, Monaco is the track where being on pole helps most and he managed to convert. Oh, and loving ch 10's live stream online - awesome for when the wife is hogging the telly watching Eurovision