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Lewis Hamilton has won the Monaco Grand Prix despite suffering from front tyre issues throughout the race.
The Briton held off Max Verstappen for much of the race, with the Red Bull driver under a second behind the five-time world champion for over 60 laps.
Verstappen had a five-second time penalty to his name after an unsafe release early on in the race, involving Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas.
The leaders all pitted on lap 11 after a safety car was deployed to clean up Charles Leclerc's tyre, which fell apart after he made contact with the barrier when trying to overtake Nico Hulkenberg.
Leclerc, who was attempting to recovery after being knocked out in Q1 on Saturday, eventually retired from the race with major car damage.
Bottas, who was running in second place before the safety car, backed up into Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel in order to not get held up when he made his stop.
However, Verstappen got the job out of his pit box, and contact was made between the Mercedes and Red Bull - both cars suffered minor damage, and Verstappen was handed a five-second penalty.
Bottas then slipped behind Vettel when he pitted again on his next lap for the hard tyres, having originally put on the mediums like teammate Hamilton.
Hamilton soon discovered that the medium compounds dropped off quickly, and came under pressure from Verstappen on the hards behind, with Vettel in third also on the same compound.
Verstappen tried a move on Hamilton in the final handful of laps on the exit of the tunnel section, with the two touching wheels, forcing Hamilton across the chicane. When the chequered flag fell, Verstappen was demoted to fourth with his penalty, moving Vettel and Bottas into second and third respectively.
Pierre Gasly secured fifth place and the fastest lap of the race, pitting with 15 laps to go for a fresh set of soft tyres.
Carlos Sainz claimed his third consecutive points finish and his best result of the season, crossing the line in sixth for McLaren.
The Spaniard only finished marginally ahead of the Toro Rosso pair of Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon, who bagged seventh and eighth for the Red Bull junior team.
Romain Grosjean did 51 laps on the soft tyres from the start of the race and managed to re-emerge in the points after his pitstop, claiming ninth for Haas.
Daniel Ricciardo stopped early on in the race after running in fifth, but got caught up in traffic during his second stint, which halted any chance of a strong points finish. However, the Australian claimed the final point on offer for the Renault team.
Monte Carlo - 26 May 2019
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Replies (4)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
This season really ain't what I thought it could be, is it? Merc' even winning out in Monaco. Props to hammy for keeping the lead with poor tyres, but I didn't feel the same excitement this year as I did last year, when Ric won with 180p hp short and with everyone enacting F1 on Ice.
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Nice race, enjoyed that
Kean
Posts: 692
Another boring race. I propose a rule change: The races where it’s deemed close to impossible to overtake, skip friday practice.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
How would it help though? Merc' has it all sorted. They would still come out of it smelling like Petronas-fed roses, and Monaco wouldn't be a more overtakeable track. All it would lead to would be less data for the midfield teams.