Monaco Grand Prix Review

It's 5 out of 6 for Button and now he really is on his way to becoming Formula One World Champion. Other drivers to win 5 out of 6 races at the start of the season include Nigel Mansell, in 1992 and Michael Schumacher in 2002 and 2004, and they went on to dominate their respective seasons.

It was another faultless drive from the Englishman, he wasn't immediatedly happy with the car and was struggling to reach the top 5 in thursdays practice sessions. But, as he is frequently doing, builds up his pace over a weekend and reaches his pinnacle when he needs to, q3 and the race. His q3 lap was a fantastic lap, only just being Kimi Raikkonen's ferrari to the pole but the Brawn had more fuel onboard.

Barrichello again failed to really deliver when it mattered and wound up 3rd, ahead of a very lightly fuelled Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull who had his qualy lap ruined by Nakajima's Williams.


THe start would be crucial, if Raikkonen got ahead of Button then he had every chance of victory, as it was, Raikkonen had a slow getaway and was beaten into St.Devote by Barrichello.

Amazingly no front wings were damaged, and in the early laps Rubens hustled his team mate constantly, no more than a second behind, yet 10 laps in,he had slipped to over 5 seconds behind. Button again dealing with the super softs better than anybody else. Rubens was struggling, and thus, holding up the soft tyred Ferrari of Raikkonen, if Kimi could have got passed, he could have attacked Button, but it was't going to happen.

There was ovetaking further down the field however, Vettel's super softs had gone off horribly after just 5 laps, losing 3 seconds a lap on the leaders, Massa was all over him and twice got caught out at the chicane, which allowed Rosberg, to squeeze, literally, passed the Brazilian into tabac, it was a fantastic move which Massa would use himself on Vettel a few laps later.


This had left Massa 20seconds behind Button, and although he had the pace to match the Brawn's, being so far back ruled him out of it.

After the first round of stops, such was Barrichello's struggle on the super softs, that Button had a 15 second advantage, one he would not relenquish.

THe race was rather processional after the Vettel hold up. Buemi had rammed Piquet off the track at St Devote, an incident which looking back cost Piquet a point or two.

Bourdais would take advantage of this incident to pick up his second point of the season, holding off a strong challenge from Fisichella in the Force India in what was the team's best grand prix weekend yet.

Vettel ended his weekend in the wall at St. Devote, a lot of mistakes and incidents from the young german this season, ones that have cost him points, Melbourne, cost himself a podium, Malaysia he spun and stalled, and now Monaco. Couple that with bad starts in Bahrain and Spain, and you see how and why he is 28points behind the rampant Button.

Kovalainen capped off a miserable race day for Mclaren by losing it on the exit of the first part of the swimming pool. He would have finished 7th.

Rosberg and Alonso got the most out of their machinery to finish 6th and 7th.

While right at the back, Toyota and the BMW's had a weekend they want to forget in a hurry. Toyota should be right back in the points in Turkey, BMW however, will be bringing a new diffuser, what advantage it will bring, remains to be seen.

The Ferrari's have really caught up with the leaders in terms of raw pace and it will be interesting to see where to fit in in Turkey.

Red Bull again made mistakes which cost them, they should have put Vettel into more space in qualy3, he had to get the pole on such a light fuel load, while Webber's lap was poor. During the race Webber was strangely inconsistent, at times being the fastest man on the track, but others, losing up to a second a lap.

A third 1-2 for Brawn, the second in succession, and they now have double the points of their nearest challengers in the constructors race. With Ferrari now on the pace of Red Bull and Toyota still around, they are likely to take points off each other rather than Button. Only a few DNF's would give anyone a chance now.

Turkey next, a track which shud suit Red Bull and Ferrari, you can overtake, and KERS will have a role to play. The challengers have to start here to start taking points off Button.

. BUTTON Brawn 1h40m44.28s

2. BARRICHELLO Brawn +7.7s

3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +13.4s

4. MASSA Ferrari +15.1s

5. WEBBER Red Bull +15.7s

6. ROSBERG Williams +33.6s

7. ALONSO Renault +37.8s

8. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +63.1s

9. FISICHELLA Force India +65.0s

10. GLOCK Toyota +1 lap

11. HEIDFELD BMW +1 lap

12. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap

13. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap

14. SUTIL Force India +1 lap

15. NAKAJIMA Williams +2 laps

R. KOVALAINEN McLaren +27 laps

R. KUBICA BMW +50 laps

R. VETTEL Red Bull +63 laps

R. PIQUET Renault +68 laps

R. BUEMI Toro Rosso +68 laps

Fastest lap: MASSA 1m15.154s (lap 50)

Drivers Championship

1. Jenson Button Brawn GP 51
2. Rubens Barrichello Brawn GP 35
3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 23
4. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 19.5
5. Jarno Trulli Toyota 14.5
6. Timo Glock Toyota 12
7. Fernando Alonso Renault 11
8. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 9
9. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 9
10. Felipe Massa Ferrari 8
11. Nico Rosberg Williams 7.5
12. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 6
13. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 4
14. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 3
15. Sebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 2



1. Brawn GP 86
2. Red Bull Racing 42.5
3. Toyota 26.5
4. Ferrari 17
5. McLaren Mercedes 13
6. Renault 11
7. Williams 7.5
8. BMW Sauber 6
9. Scuderia Toro Rosso 5