Mark Webber doubles the stakes in Monaco

After qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix, dominated by motorized drivers Renault, the big moment of departure finally arrives. This is going perfectly, with no incidents to report. The pilots Red Bull flow perfectly. Mark Webber keeps the lead and Sebastian Vettel manages to overtake Robert Kubica. The Pole is even under threat from Felipe Massa but, thanks to the Sainte Dévote turn, he can retain his third place.

But the first accident already occurs after a few hundred meters. Nico Hulkenberg (Williams), into the Tunnel, drives onto the dirty side of the track, pulls straight, and destroys his car against the rails. The safety car is out and that of the young German is evacuated. It was under the yellow flag that Jenson Button (McLaren) gave up, his engine failing him at Sainte Dévote. The Briton, victim of overheating, thinks about a mechanic?s error before the start of the race.

Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), starting from the pit line, takes advantage of the appearance of the safety car to return to his pit. The Spaniard put on hard tires for the rest of the race and took the gamble of moving up the peloton when the other drivers stopped. Fernando Alonso emerges behind the drivers of the new teams and must work, lap after lap, to overtake them.

At the restart, Mark Webber escaped and took advantage of the clear track to string together the best laps. 1?19??625, 1?18??865, 1?18??325? The Australian quickly opened up a significant gap on his pursuers, Sebastian Vettel, Robert Kubica, Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton. Followed, much further, Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg.

The first pit stops occur, one of the moments of truth of this legendary race. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), who was fifth, opened the ball on the 18th lap. He emerges just ahead of Fernando Alonso, who has already changed tires and therefore had an excellent operation thanks to the early appearance of the safety car.

Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher and Tonio Liuzzi stopped in turn, while Mark Webber continued to post the best laps in the race (1:17:593) and increased his lead over Sebastian Vettel to almost ten seconds! Third before his pit stop, Robert Kubica is 12??9 behind while Nico Rosberg, who took advantage of the stops of his predecessors to gain four places, is 27??5 from the race lead.

The leading drivers stop in their turn and Mark Webber emerges in first position, just ahead of Nico Rosberg, who wants to take advantage of his soft tires to set good times. After his stop on the 28th lap, the German driver emerged in ninth position, behind Michael Schumacher, his original position.

Mark Webber returns to the track with his motivation intact, before a second intervention from the safety car. Rubens Barrichello (Williams) finds himself in the middle of the circuit at Massenet, after making a mistake, for no apparent reason. Angry, the Brazilian throws his steering wheel onto the circuit, a steering wheel on which another car is driving?

At the restart, Mark Webber takes his solo rider and once again increases his lead over his pursuers but finds himself stopped again in this exercise. The safety car reappeared on the track due to a sewer problem in the Massenet corner, where Rubens Barrichello made a mistake. After two laps, the safety car returns to the pits and the race can resume.

The leader of the Monaco Grand Prix once again maintains his advantage at the restart. In the Port Chicane, Felipe Massa, under pressure from Lewis Hamilton, cuts through the curbs but keeps his position. If he fails to catch up with his teammate, Sebastian Vettel shows that he can be fast in the principality, by setting the fastest lap (1:17:330), before Robert Kubica in turn stands out ( 1?17??036).

With hot tires and emptying tanks, the gaps widened less than at the start of the race. But, lap after lap, Mark Webber manages to let go of Sebastian Vettel by stringing together the best laps: 1?16??505 (50th lap), 1?15??999 (53rd), 1?15??906 (57th), 1?15??832 (59th). Five seconds from there, Sebastian Vettel has to cope with growing pressure from Robert Kubica, who seems more and more comfortable as his car gets lighter.

At the head of the race, Mark Webber continued to be the fastest (1:15:318), before receiving the order from his team to preserve his car and, above all, its brakes. A week ago, in Barcelona, ​​his teammate Sebastian Vettel suffered in this sector after breaking a brake disc. Driving in 1?16??, the Australian gets back into line and maintains the gap on Sebastian Vettel at five seconds.

Behind Webber, Vettel, Kubica and Massa, the gap is widened. Lewis Hamilton is almost twenty seconds behind with eight laps to go, and still ahead of Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. But a fourth appearance of the safety car will allow one last change.

Jarno Trulli (Lotus Racing) and Karun Chandhok (HRT) collide three laps from the finish. The Italian driver, who was making the rope at Rascasse to pass Karun Chandhok, climbed the Indian's car when the latter closed the door on him in the Antony Noghes corner. Both drivers escaped without damage but the safety car still appeared.

The safety car returns to the pits just before the last crossing of the finish line. Michael Schumacher takes advantage of this period of doubt to perform a daring, daring but apparently legal overtake on Fernando Alonso, who falls back to seventh (update 18:45 p.m.: Michael Schumacher receives a 20-second penalty for this maneuver, More information). At the front, Mark Webber can celebrate his victory, which sends him to first place in the World Championship standings.

Second, Sebastian Vettel secures the points for second place, ahead of Robert Kubica (Renault), who obtains his second podium of the season and climbs to fifth place in the championship. Fernando Alonso, who started from afar, managed to score valuable points and remained in contact with the Red Bull drivers. Despite the unchallenged domination of Red Bull, everything is still open. But the other teams must quickly catch up, otherwise the Milton Keynes cars will slip away.