Sunday, May 25, 2008

MONACO GP - LAP-BY-LAP REPORT

MONACO GP - LAP-BY-LAP REPORT

The celebrations begin for Hamilton.

FINISH: Hamilton now leads the Drivers' standings by three points over Raikkonen and fourth over Massa

FINISH: Pole position man Felipe Massa is third ahead of Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello, Kazuki Nakajima and Heikki Kovalainen takes the final points-paying position

Lap 76: Lewis Hamilton wins the Monaco Grand Prix with Robert Kubica coming home in second place

Lap 76: This could be the last lap as the 2 hour mark is reached

Lap 75: In fact everyone from Webber is fourth place is having an outstanding race, running higher in the points than usual - except eighth place Kovalainen who was undone at the start by stalling on the grid

Lap 74: Vettel is on course for a fifth place finish here this afternoon. Great race for Toro Rosso

Lap 73: Kovalainen is doing a great job keeping Raikkonen a safe three seconds behind him

Lap 72: Raikkonen is pushing hard trying to catch Kovalainen for eighth place. But he's 3.7s behind with 4 minutes or eighth laps left to play

Lap 71: Hamilton is flying. He already has a 4.1s ahead of Kubica. Massa is a further 1.8s behind

Lap 70: Vettel, Barrichello, Nakajima and Kovalainen are all in the points now

Lap 69: Raikkonen runs into the back of Sutil. Both drivers have to pit. Sutil is out the grand prix while Raikkonen gets a new nose and goes back out. Replays show Kimi got out of shape at the top of the hill and just couldn't stop himself from hitting Sutil

Lap 68: Time is running out as Hamilton leads from the restart. He gets the jump off Kubica. Massa is right behind the Polish driver. Sutil keeps Raikkonen behind him but the Ferrari driver is right there

Lap 67: Safety Car in this lap

Lap 66: And finally here comes Heidfeld. Who looked to be intent on staying ahead of the Ferrari of Raikkonen

Lap 66: Kovalainen now unlaps himself. Is he wasting time? Only 12 minutes left on the clock

Lap 65: Neither Kovalainen or Heidfeld are unlapping themselves. Are they doing it to protect their team-mates who are higher up the order?

Lap 64: Lapped cars are now allowed to overtake and make their way around to rejoin the back of the field - strange rule

Lap 63: Pitlane is open and Heidfeld quickly dashes in

Lap 62: The Monte Carlo marshals are quick to start cleaning up as the Safety Car leads the drivers round the track, bunching up the field

Lap 61: Rosberg lost it through the Swimming Pool section, hitting the barrier on the one side of the track and bouncing over to hit it on the other. He's okay but there is debris all over the track and the drivers are having to thread their way through

Lap 61: Safety Car is out as Nico Rosberg suffers a huge shunt

Lap 60: Track continues to dry out

Lap 59: Rosberg is challenging Nakajima for ninth place

Lap 58: Kovalainen and Rosberg, who are 11th and 10th, are the two fastest men out on track

Lap 57: Raikkonen pits from fourth place. He puts on the dry tyres and comes out ahead of Webber

Lap 56: Ferrari ready for one of their two drivers. It's Massa. He comes in for 8.8s and comes out behind Kubica who easily passes him as Massa tries to warm his tyres up

Lap 55: Button is tagged by Button, which puts Button into a spin

Lap 54: Hamilton pits for dry tyres. He was in the lead and rejoins in the lead

Lap 53: Kubica pits from third place for dry tyres. Sutil pits from fourth. He comes out just ahead of Raikkonen. Raikkonen, though, easily slides through and takes the place off him

Lap 53: Raikkonen is having a disappointing afternoon. The reigning F1 Champ is losing time every lap to Force India's Adrian Sutil!

Lap 52: Kovalainen pits and McLaren put in on dry tyres. The team are using him to see how the tyres work before swapping Hamilton

Lap 51: Button and Glock both pit. Kubica has closed right up on Massa in the battle for second place. They are half a minute behind race leader Hamilton

Lap 50: Piquet Jr is out the grand prix. He lost it out of Ste Devote and stuck his car in the barriers

Lap 49: Webber pits from fourth place. Heidfeld goes off track. Webber puts on dry tyres, he was in for 9.1s

Lap 48: Not sure if Renault have made the right choice as Alonso is sliding around the track

Lap 47: New fastest lap for Kubica as he closes in on Massa. Button now takes Piquet Jr but the Renault driver is heading into the pits. He puts on dry tyres

Lap 46: Piquet Jr, Rosberg, Button and Kovalainen are tussling for 10th place. The drivers are literally within touching distance of each other - Rosberg passes Piquet Jr through the tunnel

Lap 45: Rain is expected in six minutes according to race control. Alonso pits for dry tyres... this should tell the other teams whether the track is ready for them

Lap 44: Webber is going faster and faster. Renault are asking Alonos is he thinks it's time for dry tyres as the Renault mechanics come out. Alonso, though, tells them it's still too risky

Lap 43: Rosberg using the waved blue flags for Massa to slide through and take 11th place of Button at the Grand Hotel hairpin

Lap 42: Hamilton is a comfortable 23s ahead of Massa as the Brazilian fights his way through traffic. This is one of the big problems is Monte Carlo

Lap 41: Barrichello sets a new fastest lap but Hamilton beats it moments later. Teams will soon be thinking of moving to dry tyres

Lap 40: Glock has his car checked and is back out in the race

Lap 39: Glock pits and Giancarlo Fisichella retires from his 200th grand prix. The Italian was complaining of gearbox problems

Lap 38: Glock spins at Mirabeau and hits the barrier with the rear of his car. While spinning back the right way he almost takes out Kovalainen

Lap 37: Trulli pits from what was eighth place as Hamilton goes fastest

Lap 36: Rosberg takes 15th place off Alonso as Sutil does a new fastest lap in the Force India

Lap 35: Piquet Jr and Vettel are having a great fight for 11th place. Now it's for 10th place as Kovalainen pits

Lap 34: Hamilton is leading and does a new fastest lap of the race

Lap 33: Massa pits for 11.7s and puts on intermediate tyres. He comes out in second place ahead of Kubica

Lap 33: Ferrari mechanics are out, probably for Massa

Lap 33: And now Massa slowers the benchmark as Massa is badly held up by the backmarkers

Lap 32: Webber now sets a new fastest lap time of the race, a 1:30.388

Lap 31: Webber, who is P4, sets a personal best lap time as a dry line starts to form. He is 27s behind Kubica and 7s ahead of Sutil

Lap 30: Trulli, Barrichello, Nakajima and Kovalainen have only 2.2s separating them with Trulli leading the way in seventh place

Lap 29: Massa is leading but traffic is holding him back. The Brazilian is soon going to need to come in for fuel, though, which is when we will see how his battle with Kubica and Hamilton starts to pan out

Lap 28: Raikkonen pits. Gets fuel, new nose, tyres, the whole load. He comes out behind Sutil in sixth place

Lap 27: Raikkonen has gone straight on Ste Devote and damaged his front wing. He going as fast as possible back to the pits but with the damage very fast isn't very fast

Lap 26: Kubica, though, comes into the pits for fuel, leaving Massa to take the lead. Kubica pits for intermediate tyres. He was in for 8.7s. He comes behind Raikkonen

Lap 25: Hamilton and Raikkonen are being dropped by the leading two drivers. Kubica is 1.8s ahead of Massa

Lap 24: Kovalainen has passed Piquet Jr for 11th place at the Mirabeau

Lap 23: Sutil is having a blinder. He started P18 and is now running in sixth place

Lap 22: The track is drying quickly and the lap times are starting to tumble. Massa is the new fastest man out on track with a 1:32.703

Lap 21: Piquet, Vettel and Kovalainen are all fighting over 10th place - only 1.2s separate the three drivers

Lap 20: Massa was a flying 1.2s quicker than Kubica on that lap and has closed up on the BMW driver who is leading the race after Massa's earlier mistake

Lap 19: The rain has stopped but the track is still wet. BMW tell Heidfeld, who pitted the previous lap, that the reason he was so slow was because he had a slow puncture

Lap 18: Barrichello has taken eighth place off Nakajima

Lap 18: Kubica already has a 2.5s lead over Massa. Heidfeld pits for intermediates and, you guessed it, a new nose

Lap 17: Webber takes fifth place off Heidfeld and moments later Sutil takes sixth place off Heidfeld. Great race for the Force India driver

Lap 17: The only man behind him on the track is Rosberg, who had to pit for a new nose

Lap 16: Alonso is down in 17th place now after damaging his front wing when he hit Heidfeld. He had to pit for the second time already today for repairs

Lap 15: Massa goes too deep in Ste Devote and has to spin his car around to get back on track! He loses the lead to Kubica

Lap 15: Alonso tries to overtake Heidfeld but instead T-bones the BMW as Heidfeld turns in for the corner. Webber taps his nose against Alonso's rear and Nakajima also got involved. All three drivers continue

Lap 14: Raikkonen takes his drive-through penalty - he comes out just behind Hamilton

Lap 14: Alonso is now harassing Heidfeld for fifth place. Alonso, though, almost swipes the barrier as he hassles Heidfeld

Lap 13: The earlier Safety Car means Raikkonen is now just 3s behind Massa. However, the Finn still has to come in for his drive-through penalty

Lap 12: Alonso pulls off a passing move on Webber and is back up into sixth place

Lap 11: Raikkonen has been given a drive-through penalty for not having tyres fitted to his Ferrari after the three minute signal was given

Lap 11: Safety Car is back in and the race is underway

Lap 10: Kimi Raikkonen is under investigation

Lap 9: Safety Car is out after a collision at Massenet involving Coulthard and Bourdais. Both are out the race. Just moments before Alonso suffered a puncture when he glanced the outside barrier at Massenet

Lap 8: Raikkonen appears to be struggling and is now 11.5s behind Massa

Lap 7: Kubica is hounding Raikkonen for second place. Hamilton is now fifth after his unscheduled stop

Lap 6: Lewis Hamilton has hit the barriers in Tabac and pits because his McLaren with a damaged rigth rear tyre

Lap 5: Glock damaged his front wing when he spun earlier. He heads to the pits for a new nose

Lap 4: Rosberg pits for new nose - he damaged front wing earlier in the race. Timo Glock's also looks damaged

Lap 3: Massa continues to lead in Monaco. He has a 1.3s advantage over Hamilton while Raikkonen is a further 1.9s adrift

Lap 2: Button is now the last driver out on track with Kovalainen one place ahead of himafter the McLaren driver stalled on the grid

Lap 1: Button and Heidfeld make contact as Button gets too close to the BMW driver. Button pits for a new nose

Lap 1: No major incidents in the opening stint of the first lap even though the conditions are very slippery

Lap 1: Massa leads from pole position while a slowish start from Raikkonen allows Hamilton to take second place. Kubica and Alonso are fourth and fifth as the drivers tip-toe around the circuit

START: And it's go in Monaco!

13h04: The drivers line-up on the grid ready for the start of the 78-lap Monaco GP

13h01: Heikki Kovalainen has stalled on the grid. He will have to start from pitlane if he starts at all

13h00: The formation lap is underway. Most of the drivers are using the intermediate tyres

12h58: The rain is coming down a bit harder now as the grid is cleared and the drivers prepare for the formation lap

12h53: The track temperature is 21c, with 20c ambient

12h50: Rain is falling lightly over the circuit with some of the drivers yet to decide which tyres to start the race on. They arrived at the grid on intermediates but could yet change

12h45: Official weather forecast says there's a 60 percent chance of rain at the hour mark

12h40: With 20 minutes to go to the start the track continues to dry out, and there are only a few damp patches around, however, the threat of rain during the race is very high

12h35: David Coulthard, who crashed in qualifying, Giancarlo Fisichella, who needed a new gearbox after Saturday's practice, and Sebastian Vettel, who is racing the new STR3, have all been hit with five-grid slot penalties for changing their gearboxes ahead of today's race. Under the 2008 rules all gearboxes have to last four grands prix

12h30: The pits are now open

12h25: The McLarens, who were expected to take pole position, are on the second row of the grid. However, Ron Dennis has hinted that Lewis Hamilton, who is P3, could be heavily fuelled

12h20: The Brazilian beat his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen to the coveted grid slot - Ferrari's first Monte Carlo pole since 2000

12h15: The wet track, though, won't be as big a problem at the start for those at the front of the grid - especially pole position man Felipe Massa

12h05: The main talking point in the build-up to this afternoon's race is the weather. Showers throughout the morning have left the track very wet and given that it's already a precarious circuit to race on some drivers have voiced their concerns. But a wet, tight, twisty street circuit and a lack of traction control could yet yield a brilliant race!

12h00: Welcome to cover of race day in Monte Carlo - this is the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix!



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