Formula 1 2019 Monaco Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton believes that his Monaco Grand Prix win was one of his greatest, most hard-fought victories of his career. For a race with no on-track overtakes between the top four drivers, it had a lot of suspense. <br>After the only safety car phase of the race, Hamilton led Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas but, he was the only driver on the medium-compound tyre, with his ...

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While the German was able to finish second in Monaco behind race winner Lewis Hamilton, he is well aware that the result was helped by Valtteri Bottas suffering a puncture and Max Verstappen getting a penalty.<br>But while not having the pace to win, Vettel thinks that Ferrari's car is not as far away from Mercedes as results this year suggest – and thinks a push to add downforce to his car will ...

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Bottas was running second behind teammate Lewis Hamilton when the safety car was triggered early in the Monte Carlo race, and a slightly faster pitstop meant Red Bull released Verstappen into Bottas's path in the pitlane.<br>The two made contact and Bottas was forced to nudge the wall on his right-hand side, breaking his wheel and forcing him to make a second stop.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Monaco ...

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The Spaniard had qualified ninth at Monte Carlo and got away well before getting boxed in at Ste. Devote, which allowed Alex Albon to get alongside him on the run up the hill.<br>But Sainz braved it out and then, as Albon backed off for the left hander, the McLaren daringly also managed to go around the outside of Daniil Kvyat too.<br>Reflecting on the first lap, Sainz said: "That was a really ...

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Magnussen started fifth and best of the rest in Monaco, but lost a place to Daniel Ricciardo at the start.<br>However, along with Ricciardo and others, he then fell down the order when he pitted under the early safety car, while rivals stayed out.<br>He eventually crossed the line in 12th, but lost two further places for gaining an advantage while battling with Sergio Perez.<br>Magnussen realised ...

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Verstappen was told to move to 'Torque 12' as he entered the pitlane for his sole pitstop under the early safety car, then change to 'Torque 6' as he exited.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Hamilton says Monaco one of his "most strategic drives" ever<br>Was Hamilton's Monaco win ever in real jeopardy?<br><br><br>However, moments after leaving the pitlane Verstappen radioed to say: "Shit, I didn't do the ...

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Mercedes said Hamilton "saved" the team after it chose to switch him to medium tyres during an early pitstop under the safety ca and completed 64 flying laps on the mediums, with his rivals being on the more durable hard compound.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Monaco GP: Hamilton wins despite tyre drama<br>Hamilton planned to "crash or finish" in "hardest" race<br>Verstappen was "really reserved" in ...

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Formula 1’s premier technical artist, Giorgio Piola, has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to allow fans of the sport a direct-to-consumer opportunity that will allow you to put his art on your own walls.<br>Piola, who has attended more grands prix than anyone in history, is launching his newest line of fine art prints on a limited endeavor basis being offered first through crowdfunding site ...

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Leclerc, who had started 15th after a strategy error from Ferrari saw him eliminated in Q1 from Saturday, was on an early charge through the field and passed Romain Grosjean for 12th with an audacious move down the inside of La Rascasse before coming up on Hulkenberg.<br>He tried to overtake Hulkenberg at the same right-hander a lap later, but ran out of space, clipping the wall on the right-hand ...

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Verstappen finished second on the road after his attempt to pass Hamilton in the closing laps at the chicane saw contact made but the two drivers continue in the same positions.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Monaco GP: Hamilton wins despite tyre drama<br><br><br>Verstappen has been carrying a five-second time penalty after an unsafe release into the path of Valtteri Bottas at his pitstop under the ...

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The German car manufacturer went it alone in moving on to the medium compound during the early safety car that was called out to clear debris left on the track from Charles Leclerc's flailing tyre.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Monaco GP: Hamilton wins despite tyre drama<br>Hamilton planned to "crash or finish" in "hardest" race<br><br><br>It decided against switching to hards as the pursuing Red Bull ...

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The Racing Point driver had emerged from a tyre change and was accelerating out of the pits when he encountered two marshals running across the track before Ste. Devote.<br>One marshal managed to get across in front of his car to the inside barriers, while a second managed stop – and fortunately Perez was able to get between them without incident.<br>Speaking on his team radio immediately after ...

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Hamilton led the way from pole but was forced into an early stop by a safety car for debris left by Charles Leclerc's accident at La Rascasse.<br>The reigning champion was equipped with medium tyres during his sole pitstop, which committed him to a 67-lap stint on the C4 compound – while his rivals behind had taken on fresh sets of hard rubber.<br>Hamilton began to struggle with his tyres well ...

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Hamilton resisted more than 60 laps of pressure from Verstappen to hold on to victory despite having to manage softer tyres than his pursuers.<br>As Verstappen was not able to get past the Mercedes and edge clear – despite a late dive at the chicane two laps from the end – he fell from second to fourth at the flag because of a five-second time penalty.<br>Verstappen picked that up for an ...

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As Mercedes non-executive chairman, Lauda made his first contact with Hamilton during 2012 to help lure the Briton to the team from McLaren, when Mercedes was struggling to establish itself as a leading team and McLaren was still winning races.<br>Since the move Hamilton has won four world titles and 55 grands prix, while McLaren has not won a race since the end of the 2012 season.<br><br>Read ...

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F1 CEO Chase Carey has made it clear that with Vietnam and the Netherlands added next year a stable total of 21 races will mean that two current events will be dropped.<br>The races in Mexico, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain are all out of contract after this season, and all are still in discussion over their futures.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>The fight to cling on to an F1 calendar ...

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A miscalculated "cut-off time" to make it into Q2 gave Ferrari false confidence that Leclerc would not have to run again in the first part of qualifying.<br>He remained in the garage, saving a set of tyres for Q2, as rivals improved and dumped him out.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Leclerc says he questioned Ferrari Q1 strategy<br>Ferrari concedes Leclerc Q1 risk was "not worthwhile"<br><br><br>Ferrari ...

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With the French car manufacturer having had to wind back its engine settings in recent races because of reliability concerns, it has only been since an upgrade was introduced in Spain that it has had the confidence to push again.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Ricciardo: "Brave" set-up led to best grid position of 2019<br>Renault was running reduced engine power due to conrod issue<br><br><br>And with ...

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Lauda died shortly before the Monaco Grand Prix, and Mercedes paid tribute with the red three-pointed star on its car's engine cover, a red halo and a facsimile autograph on the nose.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>The full extent of the void left by Lauda<br><br><br>While the German car manufacturer has confirmed that the red halo is a one-off, team boss Toto Wolff says the red star will remain.<br>"We ...

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Both Racing Point drivers have been short of pace throughout the weekend in Monte Carlo, resulting in Perez and Lance Stroll exiting qualifying at the first hurdle - ending up 17th and 18th on the timesheets.<br>Asked if rain was key to his team's fortunes during the race, Perez replied that "it's the only way" to potentially leave Monaco with a result.<br>"Hopefully the rain can help us and we ...

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The Woking-based team is one of several outfits that has looked to minimise drag as much as possible, but is now pondering whether an alternative approach of chasing out-and-out downforce is better.<br>Mercedes has shown to good effect how focusing on downforce not only helps improve performance in corners, but has also proved beneficial for getting tyres into the right operating ...

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The start-line getaway<br>The Monaco Grand Prix start is probably one of the most important in Formula One and, in some cases, it can decide the outcome of the event. Valtteri Bottas will be hoping that his Spanish Grand Prix start-line issue is resolved in order to challenge his team-mate into turn one.<br>Likewise, could either Max Verstappen or Sebastian Vettel get the jump on one of the ...

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The Australian made the most of some aggressive changes to his front wing settings to set the seventh fastest time, before getting moved up a position thanks to Pierre Gasly's penalty for impeding.<br>Having bounced back from a particularly difficult practice day on Thursday, Ricciardo said the team was left with no choice but to be adventurous with how much downforce it was willing to put at the ...

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Leclerc will start his home grand prix from 15th on the grid after being knocked out in Q1 when Ferrari failed to send him back out for a second run as rivals improved. <br>Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto arranged an unscheduled media briefing to explain a “misjudgement” with the cut-off time to make it through to Q2, and the decision not to react despite Leclerc questioning whether he ...

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All three drivers missed the call to stop for the weighbridge during qualifying, but in all three cases their teams did not work on the cars, which were quickly returned to the FIA weighbridge.<br>In Azerbaijan, Pierre Gasly had to start from the pitlane because after missing the weighbridge call, his Red Bull team changed his tyres, which counts as working on the car.<br>The FIA accepted that the ...

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Grosjean was baulked by Gasly in the closing stages of Q2 exiting the Casino right-hander, prompting an expletive-filled radio rant from the Haas driver, who complained: “Honestly, people don't give a s**t”.<br>The incident cost Grosjean a final chance to improve his laptime and left him consigned to 13th on the grid, as he was eliminated in Q2 while teammate Kevin Magnussen advanced to the ...

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Hamilton had led teammate Valtteri Bottas through Thursday practice, but trailed both the Finn and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on Saturday morning.<br>He rebounded during the final segment of qualifying, turning the tables on provisional pole-sitter Bottas with a lap 0.086s faster.<br>Hamilton had an emotional outburst over the radio on his slowing-down lap, and once he was out of his car he ...

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While Lewis Hamilton managed to eke out his best lap of the weekend on his final run in Q3 to grab the top spot, both Bottas and Verstappen had to abort their runs after tyre temperature woes hit them.<br><br>Read Also:<br><br>Monaco GP: Hamilton on pole as Leclerc goes out in Q1<br><br><br>Both men had far from ideal out-laps as they had to work their way through traffic, and that meant their ...

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Bottas had an advantage of 0.231s over Hamilton after the first runs in Q3 but was unable to improve on his second set of Pirellis softs.<br>Hamilton then put in a lap of 1m10.166s to outpace Bottas by 0.086s, with his stunning pace through the first sector crucial to his advantage.<br>Bottas held on to second place as Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was also unable to improve and stayed in third ...

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The Monegasque driver was knocked out of qualifying for his home event by a run of late improvements from rival drivers, including teammate Sebastian Vettel.<br>Leclerc was unable to respond after Ferrari elected to keep him in the pits, and it is something that he said he did not understand.<br>"I asked whether they were sure [we were in], they told me 'we think we are'," Leclerc told Sky. "I ...

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Leclerc’s Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel crashed into the barriers at Ste Devote just minutes into the third practice session on Saturday.<br>The car was too badly damaged to return to the pits, but the incident was dealt with under Virtual Safety Car conditions since there is an extraction crane at that corner.<br>During VSC periods drivers must not only slow down, but remain above a minimum ...

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Leclerc ended the session 0.053s faster than Bottas, with Lewis Hamilton a fraction behind, as circumstances conspired to prevent the rapid Red Bull of Max Verstappen from setting a more representative time. Verstappen ended the session fourth ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly.<br>Bottas set the pace in the early running with a 1m12.238s, just a few tenths up on Vettel and Leclerc, but since ...

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Hamilton was rocked by the passing of Lauda earlier this week, with the pair having built up a close friendship since they worked together at Mercedes.<br>But while Hamilton cancelled his media commitments on Wednesday because of Lauda's death, Stewart reckons that the reigning champion will easily be able to put his emotions to one side when driving – just as he himself was able to do at Monza ...

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With the French car manufacturer having already been distracted by engine reliability issues caused by a conrod failure, its progress had been further hampered by it not managing to get upgrades moving swiftly enough from the design office onto the car.<br>Recent changes to its infrastructure have now helped it speed matters up, and Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul says that parts that ...

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The team was expected to not only consolidate its fourth place in the constructors' championship, but bridge the gap to F1's 'big three' teams in 2019.<br>Yet it currently lies eighth in the standings, and admitted during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend that earlier in the season it adopted "containment measures" that meant its engine was run at reduced power in the Chinese and Azerbaijan ...

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F1 had issued an invitation to tender February as it sought a single supplier for gearbox cassettes for its next technical regulations cycle from 2021 to 2024.<br>It was known to have received four bidders for the gearbox supply deal, with specialist company Xtrac the only one to publicly confirm its bid.<br>However, the sport's governing body FIA has now announced that the WMSC has voted against ...

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While Sainz’s current McLaren team has enjoyed a step forward in form this year and lies fourth in the constructors’ championship, Renault has endured a disappointing start to the campaign and languishes eighth overall.<br>Renault has not been helped by reliability dramas, but Sainz thinks that one of the big changes from when he drove for the outfit is that F1’s competitiveness no longer ...

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