Hamilton smiles again, Alonso takes meritorious fifth place

In one of the most interesting races in recent years, Fernando Alonso claimed fifth place, his best finish since he returned to McLaren, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Nico Rosberg. Lewis Hamilton won, despite the difficult condition on the track. He thus breaks Rosberg’s three-race winning streak. Daniel Ricciardo came in second and a surprising Sergio Pérez made third, having been a key figure in a spectacular race in his Force India. Rosberg, currently the leader, came in seventh and lost some important points that he may rue later in the championship.

The rain played an important part in this Monaco GP, the most awaited race of the season, which started off with the drivers following the safety car owing to the conditions on the track. Water is one of the most dangerous elements on a circuit like the one in Monaco, where the fact that the route goes between buildings slows down the drying of the track. For that reason, nobody was able to put on the dry tyres until the 30th lap, even though it had actually stopped raining just before the race started.

Hamilton, the smartest one on the track

Until that moment, there had been five retirements (there were eventually seven in total), the most noteworthy being Max Verstappen’s. The winner of the Spain GP crashed again, very close to where he had in the qualification rounds, while attempting to fight back from the pitlane and when he had reached twelfth place. In the eearly laps the fight was between Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg had a problem with his brakes and lost second place to Hamilton, who clearly knew what was the best strategy to follow. While everybody was putting on the medium wet tyres, he decided to continue with the full wet ones until the conditions on the track were right for him to come in and change to dry tyres, missing out completely on the medium ones. To make the race even more exciting, he put on the super soft tyres, like Ricciardo, that in theory should not have lasted until the end but actually lasted for no fewer than 46 laps. Ricciardo was always close to Hamilton, but he lost the chance of winning when he made a pit stop in which his mechanics did not have the tyres ready.

Alonso’s fifth place

Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz both put in a great race, an excellent one in the case of the Asturian driver, who was intelligent in the use he made of the safety cars and in his tyre changes, getting his McLaren into a position that possibly does not reflect the true potential of the car. However, the conditions in Monaco were ideal for the McLaren to perform at its best, where the power and maximum speed are not as important as having a good chassis. Carlos Sainz, for his part, came in a deserved eighth after starting seventh and having problems during his pit stop.