Webber takes first race win of season in Monaco

Mark Webber crosses the line wo win his first grand prix of the season in Monaco on Sunday. Photo courtesy of Sutton Imagesports.

MONTE CARLO, Monaco- After taking advantage of pole position through a penalty by Michael Schumacher, Mark Webber took the race lead on lap 47, and managed to hold off a line of cars on a damp Sunday afternoon to win his second Grand Prix of Monaco in Monte Carlo. Nico Rosberg was second in his Mercedes, while Fernando Alonso placed third in his Ferrari and now holds a three point lead over both Webber and Sebastian Vettel in the World Championship standings.

‘It was great”. Said Webber afterwards.  “It was an incredible race, and it was just trying to get back to a gap and the next phase of the race was strange and it was very hard to get the soft tire warmed up. It was an amazing day for the team, for myself, so I am very happy to win again.”

As it always occurs, this race is well known for its attrition, and the beginning lived up to it’s name as right from the first corner, Schumacher touched the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, and spun the Frenchman around and out of the race for the fourth time in six races. But Schumacher was not so fortunate either. The seven time world champion retired later in the race on lap 65 with fuel pressure problems. Pastor Maldonado, who was so successful two weeks ago in Spain, was another victim as he parked his Williams on Casino square. HRT’s Pedro De La Rosa lost his rear wing and ended his day early. The safety car came out on lap two for the only time of the day and the race restarted moments later.

If the attrition was tough at the start, so was the threat of light rain, which touched the circuit by lap eight. But the heavy moisture never was much of a threat, and many cars were able to stay out as long as lap30, before they had to pit.

But Vettel was taking a chance as he remained out on the track,. And took the lead around lap 34 , maintaining his position over Webber by 11 seconds and maintained it laps later to nearly 15.8 seconds before realizing that the rain was not going to help him to force everyone to dive in for intermediates or wets. Vettel gave up on lap 47, realizing that his tires could do no more, and had to pit, giving Webber which was the lead, for good. But the Australian was not getting any breaks either, and with just a few more laps in the race, Webber had realized that his tire wear was bad too, and this gave Rosberg and Alonso time to catch up. But the attempt was futile, and even with the street circuit getting damper, along with the fact that passing in the principality is tough, due to the narrow roads, Webber just edged everyone out to become only the second Australian to win this event more than once since Sir Jack Brabham achieved it in 1959.

Vettel lead the rest of the chargers with fourth, while Lewis Hamilton was a few seconds behind in fifth. Felipe Massa finished his best race this season with sixth, while Sahara Force India drivers Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg took seventh and eighth, respectively. Kimi Raikkonen finished a disappointing ninth in his Lotus, while Bruno Senna took the final point spot in his Williams.

Although Webber was pleased with his first win of the season, he is hoping that the results are more regular.

“We are still a little bit beside ourselves.” He added. “It was a bit up and down with quali (qualifying) and it was very hard to predict. But for us, The Grand Prix is not very straight forward for us, and that is difficult for us. And I think it would be good for us to get to get the maximum.”

Mark Gero

A 12 year veteran writer who has covered race weekends for RIS for three years. Also did the same for motorsport.com.For the last two years, I have been a member of AARWBA.

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Volume 2012, Issue 5, Posted 11:29 AM, 05.27.2012