2016 Monaco Grand Prix

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Monaco  2016 Monaco Grand Prix
Race details
Race 6 of 21 in the 2016 Formula One season
Layout of the Circuit de Monte Carlo, Monaco
Layout of the Circuit de Monte Carlo, Monaco
Date 29 May 2016
Official name Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2016[1]
Location Circuit de Monaco
La Condamine and Monte Carlo, Monaco
Course Street circuit
Course length 3.337 km (2.074 mi)
Distance 78 laps, 260.286 km (161.734 mi)
Weather Wet at start, drying
Pole position
Driver
Red Bull-TAG Heuer
Time 1:13.622
Fastest lap
Driver United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
Time 1:17.939 on lap 71 (lap record)
Podium
First
Mercedes
Second
Red Bull-TAG Heuer
Third
Force India-Mercedes
Lap leaders

The 2016 Monaco Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2016) was a Formula One motor race held on 29 May 2016 at the Circuit de Monaco, a street circuit that runs through the Principality of Monaco. It was the sixth round of the 2016 season, and marked the seventy-fourth time that the Monaco Grand Prix had been held, as well as the sixty-third time it had been held as a round of the Formula One World Championship since the series' inception in 1950.

Nico Rosberg was the defending race winner having won the past three Monaco Grands Prix in a row and entered the race with a thirty-nine point lead held over Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen in the Drivers' Championship. Rosberg's team, Mercedes, hold a 48-point lead over Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship.

During Saturday's qualifying, Daniel Ricciardo, who was driving for Red Bull Racing, achieved the first pole position of his career. In an eventful race, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton took victory ahead of Ricciardo, who had lost time during a pitstop when his tyres were not fitted in time. Sergio Pérez completed the podium for Force India, the team's first appearance in the top three of the season. It was the first podium for Force India since the 2015 Russian Grand Prix

Report

Background

The swimming pool and Rascasse section of the track shortly before the race weekend

Fernando Alonso received a new, revised combustion engine for his car, his third of five allowed over the course of the season without receiving a grid penalty. Power unit supplier Honda stressed that they had not used any development tokens, a set of limited allowed changes to the units, but had instead only improved reliability. The team also equipped both cars with new batteries and electronics control units, set to improve the reliability of the cars as well.[2] During the two-day testing session that took place after the previous Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Renault introduced an updated version of their power unit, which was used during the test to the satisfaction of driver Kevin Magnussen, who declared that the new unit was a step forward in both power and driveability. He urged the team to pull the introduction of the power unit forward to the Monaco race, instead of the following Grand Prix in Canada as originally planned.[3] Renault chose to do so, however, they were only able to hand out one updated unit to both their works team and Red Bull, who used them under the name TAG Heuer.[4] The two units were eventually given to Magnussen at Renault and Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull.[5]

Following their controversial crash and double retirement at the previous race in Spain two weeks earlier, particular attention was on championship leaders Mercedes and their drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. The team was adamant that such an incident could not be repeated, with their head of motorsport Toto Wolff saying: "We cannot afford to drop the ball, so we must remain united, remain strong and hit back hard this weekend."[6] With a win, Rosberg could become the only driver other than Ayrton Senna to win the Monaco Grand Prix four times in a row,[7] while Hamilton had suffered a string of bad results at the circuit, having won only once in 2008.[8] At the race the year before, Hamilton had lost what he felt was a certain victory by a wrong decision to pit him during a safety car period.[9]

The race saw the competitive début of Pirelli's new ultrasoft tyre compound, which was provided alongside the supersoft and soft compounds. Per the regulations of the 2016 season, every driver needs to set aside one set each of the two softest compounds for the race and one set of the ultrasofts for Q3 (should they advance). The drivers have freedom of what other compounds they choose for the remaining ten out of thirteen sets.[10] From this race onwards, the FIA allowed drivers to choose alternative helmet designs for one race weekend per season,[11] a practice usually prohibited as they have to wear the same design to make them more recognisable to spectators and television audiences. As a consequence, Felipe Massa's helmet featured extensive artwork by graffiti artist Os Gêmeos, team-mate Valtteri Bottas featured casino-inspired imagery and Haas driver Romain Grosjean sported a tribute to the late Jules Bianchi on his helmet.[12]

Free practice

Sebastian Vettel was fastest in third practice.

Per the regulations for the 2016 season, two ninety-minute practice and one sixty-minute session are held before qualifying on Saturday. The first two usually take place on Friday, with Monaco being the single exemption, where those sessions are held on Thursday,[13] in order to minimize road-closure disruptions to local residents. [14] In the first session on Thursday morning, Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets with a time of 1:15.537, one tenth of a second faster than his teammate Nico Rosberg. They were followed by Sebastian Vettel, almost half a second down on Hamilton, and the two Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen respectively. Daniil Kvyat, driving for Toro Rosso in sixth was the last driver to get within a second of Hamilton's time.[15] He was the only one of the front runners to set his time on the supersoft instead of the faster ultrasoft tyres.[16] There were several incidents during the session: After twenty-four minutes, Felipe Massa hit the barrier in turn one, damaging his car and leading to a virtual safety car (VSC) period. Later, Lewis Hamilton had a brake lockup at the same spot, but was able to get into the run-off area without touching the guardrail. Several other drivers had dangerous moments in turn one as well, but the most severe incident of the session came three minutes to the end: A drain cover had come loose around the first corner, puncturing Rosberg's left rear tyre and damaging Jenson Button's McLaren MP4-31, causing the practice to be red flagged, ultimately ending the session.[15]

In second practice on Thursday afternoon, Ricciardo was fastest, setting a time of 1:14.607, more than half a second clear of Hamilton in second place.[17] Rosberg and Verstappen, in third and fourth, were the only other drivers to get within a second of Ricciardo, while the two Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa struggled, ending the session 14th and 16th respectively. At Ferrari, Kimi Räikkönen was fastest in seventh spot. His teammate, Vettel, had an incident-packed session that eventually ended with him setting the ninth fastest time. He spun at Mirabeau corner, damaging his rear wing, only to hit the wall in turn one after coming back to the track, albeit continuing with wheel rim damage. A VSC period occurred after Romain Grosjean crashed into the outside barrier at the exit of the tunnel. Two more VSC periods ensued when Rio Haryanto touched the inside barrier at the same spot and later after Kevin Magnussen crashed at the final corner.[18]

In the third practice session on Saturday morning, Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time, about one hundreth of a second faster than Hamilton. Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo followed, both also within two hundreths of a second of Vettel. Max Verstappen was fifth fastest although he had a minor crash coming up to Casino square, clipping the wall. Toro Rosso were again quick, getting both drivers into the top ten. Renault had different fortunes, as both drivers had accidents, with Jolyon Palmer hindering one of Hamilton's flying laps as he crashed at the swimming pool section.[19]

Qualifying

The wreckage of Max Verstappen's car is cleared off the track.

Qualifying consisted of three parts, 18, 15 and 12 minutes in length respectively, with six drivers eliminated from competing after each of the first two sessions.[13] In the first part of qualifying (Q1), the session got interrupted shortly after it had started, as Felipe Nasr came to a halt at the exit of the tunnel, caused by an engine failure. A red flag came out while the car was cleared off the track. When the running resumed, all drivers except for the Force Indias went out on the ultrasoft tyres to set their first lap times. Max Verstappen was the last to set a representative time, but touched the guardrail at the swimming pool chicane and crashed into the wall, causing another red flag period. As the session got back under way, it were the two Manors of Rio Haryanto and Pascal Wehrlein, as well as Jolyon Palmer and Marcus Ericsson who joined Nasr and Verstappen on the sidelines, as they were eliminated. Kevin Magnussen meanwhile barely made it into Q2, but was under investigation for exiting the pit lane while it was closed.[20]

In the second part, Lewis Hamilton quickly set a fast lap time, the quickest of the weekend up to that point, about half a second ahead of his teammate Rosberg. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo set his fastest lap on the harder supersoft compound tyre, meaning that he would be able to start the race on them, should it have stayed dry. On the back end, Williams struggled for pace and both Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa missed out on Q3 by qualifying 11th and 14th respectively. Also eliminated were Esteban Gutiérrez, Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean and Magnussen.[20]

Daniel Ricciardo achieved the first pole position of his career.

As Q3 started, Lewis Hamilton stopped in the pit lane with a loss of power and was pushed back into the garage. He was eventually able to go on track and qualified third, after starting several quick laps only to abandon them to leave his final run to the last moment. He was however beaten to pole position by Ricciardo, who was almost three-tenths of a second faster than second placed Rosberg, with Vettel following in fourth almost a second slower.[21] Nico Hülkenberg managed fifth ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, who was to serve a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change, leaving him eleventh on the grid. Carlos Sainz, Jr., Sergio Pérez, Daniil Kvyat and Fernando Alonso rounded up the top ten.[20][22]

Post-qualifying

After qualifying, the race stewards decided not to give a penalty to Magnussen for crossing the pit light, since it had only changed to red 0.55 seconds before he crossed the pit exit line.[23] Kvyat escaped penalty as well after his car failed the obligatory front floor deflection test. As the team pointed out, the irregularity was the result of an impact on track, allowing him to keep eighth on the grid.[24]

Race

Lewis Hamilton won the race for Mercedes.

With rain shortly before the race, the start was taken behind the safety car,[25] forcing all drivers to start the race on the full wet tyres.[26] As Ricciardo led the field behind the pace car, Daniil Kvyat had to come into the pit lane on lap two, complaining of technical issues. He rejoined with a new steering wheel, being a lap down on the rest of the pack already. The race started in earnest on lap seven, with Ricciardo defending his lead at the restart. Kevin Magnussen pitted for intermediate tyres at the end of the lap, but his teammate Jolyon Palmer proved just how slippery it still was when he crashed out just a lap later, being caught out by a wet zebra crossing and causing a virtual safety car period. More cars pitted for intermediates over the following laps. On lap twelve, Kimi Räikkönen damaged his front wing on the guardrail at the Loews hairpin, blocking Grosjean's way in the process. Räikkönen retired some corners later. Meanwhile, Ricciardo built a gap at the front, being ten seconds clear of Rosberg on lap 13. One lap later, Sebastian Vettel was the first of the front runners to change to intermediate tyres.[25] With Rosberg struggling for pace in second, he let Hamilton past[27] on lap 16, but the gap had by then grown to 13 seconds.[25]

On lap 21, Rosberg pitted for the intermediate tyres, leaving only Ricciardo and Hamilton at the front of the field on the full wet tyres. Ricciardo made the switch on lap 24, but Hamilton stayed out, opting to remain on the wet tyre until the track dried out enough to go straight to slicks. In the meantime, Verstappen had fought his way back into the top ten, after having started 21st. In the subsequent laps, Ricciardo was able to reduce the gap to Hamilton in the lead, edging as close as half a second by lap 28. Behind the leading pair, Rosberg was third ahead of Pérez and Vettel. The pivotal moment of the race followed on lap 31, when Hamilton pitted for slick tyres. When Ricciardo followed suit a lap later, his pit crew were not ready for him, resulting in a long stop, handing the lead to Hamilton, who stayed narrowly ahead of him.[28] Sergio Pérez was another driver who benefited during the second round of stops, emerging in third. Rosberg was left in sixth after both Vettel and Alonso also came out ahead of him after the switch to dry tyres. On lap 34, Ricciardo made an attempt to repass Hamilton on track, but the move was covered.[25]

Sergio Pérez recorded Force India's first podium finish of the season in third.

Another virtual safety car period ensued on lap 34, caused by Verstappen who crashed his car into the barrier after locking up his tyres. As the VSC ended on lap 37, Ricciardo once more failed in an attempt to regain the lead. At the chicane coming out of the tunnel, Hamilton misjudged the corner and backed Ricciardo off at the exit of the chicane, causing the latter to complain about the move on team radio. While the incident was investigated by the stewards, the decision was not to take action against Hamilton.[28] At that point, the order stood as follows: Hamilton, Ricciardo, Pérez, Vettel, Alonso, Rosberg, Hülkenberg, Sainz, Button and Gutiérrez. The top four drivers pulled away cleanly from the rest of the field behind them.[25] On lap 50, the two Sauber cars collided at Rascasse corner, after Felipe Nasr had ignored instructions from the pits to let his teammate Ericsson behind him pass. Another VSC period was called while both Saubers pitted to repair damages, only for both to retire some laps later.[25][28] In front, the race carried on in the same order. On lap 68, the fourth virtual safety car period occurred when an object flew on the start-finish straight. Hamilton was able to extend his lead over Ricciardo at that point, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 71. Three laps from the finish, rain started to fall again, although no driver changed tyres before the chequered flag fell. Hamilton crossed the line to take victory ahead of Ricciardo and Pérez.[29] Vettel hung on to fourth, followed by Alonso.[25] Rosberg however lost his sixth place to Nico Hülkenberg on the very last lap.[30]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Q3 Grid
1 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1:14.912 1:14.357 1:13.622 1
2 6 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:14.873 1:14.043 1:13.791 2
3 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:14.826 1:14.056 1:13.942 3
4 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:14.610 1:14.318 1:14.552 4
5 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:15.333 1:14.989 1:14.726 5
6 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:15.499 1:14.789 1:14.732 111
7 55 Spain Carlos Sainz, Jr. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:15.467 1:14.805 1:14.749 6
8 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 1:15.328 1:14.937 1:14.902 7
9 26 Russia Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:15.384 1:14.794 1:15.273 8
10 14 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1:15.504 1:15.107 1:15.363 9
11 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1:15.521 1:15.273 10
12 21 Mexico Esteban Gutiérrez Haas-Ferrari 1:15.592 1:15.293 12
13 22 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1:15.554 1:15.352 13
14 19 Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:15.710 1:15.385 14
15 8 France Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1:15.465 1:15.571 15
16 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Renault 1:16.253 1:16.058 16
17 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1:16.299 17
18 30 United Kingdom Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:16.586 18
19 88 Indonesia Rio Haryanto MRT-Mercedes 1:17.295 19
20 94 Germany Pascal Wehrlein MRT-Mercedes 1:17.452 20
107% time: 1:19.832
— 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 1:22.467 PL2 3
— 12 Brazil Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari no time PL2
Source:[31]

Notes

Race

Pos. No. Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts.
1 44 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 78 1:59:29.133 3 25
2 3 Australia Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 78 +7.252 1 18
3 11 Mexico Sergio Pérez Force India-Mercedes 78 +13.825 7 15
4 5 Germany Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 78 +15.846 4 12
5 14 Spain Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 78 +1:25.076 9 10
6 27 Germany Nico Hülkenberg Force India-Mercedes 78 +1:32.999 5 8
7 6 Germany Nico Rosberg Mercedes 78 +1:33.290 2 6
8 55 Spain Carlos Sainz, Jr. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 77 +1 Lap 6 4
9 22 United Kingdom Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 77 +1 Lap 13 2
10 19 Brazil Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 77 +1 Lap 14 1
11 21 Mexico Esteban Gutiérrez Haas-Ferrari 77 +1 Lap 12
121 77 Finland Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 77 +1 Lap 10
13 8 France Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 76 +2 Laps 15
14 94 Germany Pascal Wehrlein MRT-Mercedes 76 +2 Laps2 20
15 88 Indonesia Rio Haryanto MRT-Mercedes 74 +4 Laps 19
Ret 9 Sweden Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 51 Collision damage 17
Ret 12 Brazil Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 48 Collision damage PL
Ret 33 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer 34 Accident PL
Ret 20 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Renault 32 Collision damage 16
Ret 26 Russia Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 18 Collision/Electrical 8
Ret 7 Finland Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 10 Accident damage 11
Ret 30 United Kingdom Jolyon Palmer Renault 7 Accident 18
Source:[35]
Notes
  • ^1 — Valtteri Bottas originally finished 11th but received a ten-second time penalty after the race for causing a collision with Esteban Gutiérrez.
  • ^2 — Pascal Wehrlein received a ten-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags and another ten-second time penalty for driving too quickly under the virtual safety car.

Standings after the race

  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

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  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 25.5 25.6 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.


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2016 Spanish Grand Prix		 FIA Formula One World Championship
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2016 Canadian Grand Prix
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2015 Monaco Grand Prix		 Monaco Grand Prix Next race:
2017 Monaco Grand Prix
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