It was the Sunday that all motor racing fans look forward to, with two of the three races from the Triple Crown of motorsport happening just hours apart from each other. The FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2017 was up first. After watching the Formula One drivers navigate through the narrow streets of Monaco, fans got to enjoy the Indianapolis 500 just a few hours later, featuring our very own Fernando Alonso.
Monaco is the only circuit on the calendar on which the drivers practice on a Thursday, allowing them to have a break on Friday. The morning free practice session showed that the drivers were already pushing hard, as they experimented with braking points around the circuit to maximize their lap times. Lockups and close calls with the barriers are common at Monaco and this session was no exception. Lewis Hamilton got the weekend off to a start, narrowly outperforming Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull and Toro Rosso were also running strong at a circuit that suits their car well.
The afternoon session was led by Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, with Mercedes finishing well down the order. The session was not quite as trouble-free as the morning session, with many issues throughout. Esteban Ocon lost the rear of his Force India, putting it into the barriers. Marcus Ericsson did the same, as did Lance Stroll who brought out the red flags. Jolyon Palmer also retired early, but due to mechanical issues rather than a crash. Vettel led the session with a healthy half a second lead over the closest rival.
After taking a break from driving on Friday, the drivers returned to action Saturday morning for the final free practice session. Ferrari locked out the top two positions on the session leaderboard, with Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen nearly 0.5 seconds behind. The big incident of the session was a heavy crash for Ocon. The Force India driver grazed the inside barrier, breaking the steering on the car and crashing hard into the outside barrier. Daniel Ricciardo was another talking point of the session, with a brake failure near the end of the session.
The first qualifying session of the day was led early by Ferrari, before Red Bull took over, showing their strong performance in Monaco. The second qualifying session saw poor times from Hamilton, who was complaining about the lack of grip and almost lost control into the barriers. On the bubble near the end of the session, it was Stoffel Vandoorne’s late crash that would prevent Hamilton from advancing to Q3. Vandoorne’s accident was nearly identical to Ocon’s crash from the morning. Ferrari led the Q2 session. The shock of the Q3 session was Kimi Räikkönen’s superb performance, allowing him to earn his first pole position since the 2008 French Grand Prix. Vettel was close behind, but just not fast enough to beat his teammate. Bottas qualified just ahead of the Red Bull cars. Of course qualifying would not be complete without grid penalties for McLaren, with Vandoorne taking his three places from a collision in the previous round and Jenson Button taking 15 places for a power unit change.
The Monaco Grand Prix started for the 75th time on Sunday. The opening lap was quite clean, with the only contact occurring between the Red Bull teammates in the first corner, but no real damage was suffered. The order remained unchanged after the first laps. Nico Hülkenberg was the first retirement of the race, suffering a severe gearbox failure on lap 17 of the race. The Ferrari drivers began to lose time as they caught up to the rear of the field, allowing Valtteri Bottas to close the gap to the cars ahead.
When the pit window opened, Verstappen pitted to undercut Bottas, but the Mercedes driver still got out in front. Räikkönen was the first of the Ferrari drivers to pit, leaving Vettel in clean air to create a gap large enough to pit without losing the lead of the race. Ricciardo was also able to overcut his teammate and Bottas.
Pascal Wehrlein and Jenson Button brought out the first and only safety car of the day when they made contact heading into the tunnel. Button tried to make an overtake on the inside, but collided with the Sauber, sending Wehrlein head-first into the barrier and leaving the car sitting on its side. Both drivers walked away ok, but neither one was able to continue in the race. The safety car was prolonged, as Marcus Ericsson hit the outside wall in turn one when he was overtaking the safety car to unlap himself. The restart was clean in the front, but Vandoorne’s day came to an end in the first corner after being forced wide into the barriers by the Force India. The day’s drama was not quite over yet, with Sergio Pérez and Daniil Kvyat colliding. Lance Stroll also parked in the garage near the end of the race with a brake issue.
At the end of the day, Vettel was victorious with a comfortable lead over his teammate, allowing him to strengthen his World Drivers’ Championship lead and giving Ferrari their first Monaco victory since 2001. Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Bottas and Verstappen concluded the top five. After a dismal qualifying performance, Hamilton finished in P7.
With this year’s Monaco Grand Prix finished, all eyes will be on Fernando Alonso at his debut Indianapolis 500 in just a couple of hours. The next Formula One race will be in Montreal for the FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2017 on the weekend of June 11.
