As an example, you have the way in which Lewis Hamilton lost the victory due to a mistake from the team in 2015 and the numerous battles and overtakes in the midfield and late drama in 2014.
This race in 2016, has not broken the rule...
The start was a calm affair, as the rain that had fallen hours before had left the track wet and thus forced the race to start under the safety car, to ensure that no accidents happened, because at that moment the spray caused by the standing water in the track impaired the visibility of the drivers.
A lot of people criticized the decision of starting under the safety car, for not letting the drivers fight it out in the rain, but being honest, this was a good choice from race direction, a first corner under such conditions would've been a catastrophe.
So the race had to flow that way until lap 8, when the safety car came in, after race direction considered that there was enough distance between each car for the spray not to be a difficulty for the drivers, which was their main objective in starting with the safety car.
Right at the restart, Jolyon Palmer lost control of the front and crashed out at Sainte Devote, causing a Virtual Safety Car, which would stay until lap 10.
But that wouldn't be the only incident in this stage of the race, as only two laps later, Kimi Räikkönen understeered at the Hairpin and hit the wall lightly, damaging his front and blocking Felipe Massa's way.
The Finn was able to continue racing, unintentionally closing the door at Grosjean's face in the next corner, even with his front wing under his car, dragging the wing across the track, leaving a bunch of debris and finally pulling out of the track at the chicane, having realized that trying to get the car to the pits would cause a risk for the other drivers due to the debris.
A costly mistake for Kimi when he was trying to make a recovery from a 5-place grid penalty that he had received for a gearbox change.
Now, one would think that the fact that the drivers had to be separated from each other that eventually led to Ricciardo gaining a lead of more than ten seconds would mean that this race would turn into one of those 'overtake-less' parades that are usually related with this street circuit, and honestly that's the course followed by the race in the first part of it, with very almost no drivers daring to make any moves on these conditions and few overtakes, with the exception of Mercedes' team order which pushed Lewis Hamilton ahead of Nico Rosberg, a move which I'll talk about later on.
However, as the track started to dry and the times started to get lower, the thrills and actions started, only a preview of what was to come. Several drivers, like Ricciardo, Perez and Vettel decided to switch to intermediate tyres, given that the track was still wet but not as in the start. Only Wehrlein, Kvyät and Hamilton decided to stay out in full wets.
As the track continued to dry, around late 20s and early 30s laps, drivers started to come in and switch for slicks, which is where strategies started variating, majority of the drivers opting for either super or ultra softs and with Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel being the most notable exceptions, fitting sets of soft tyres, most likely planning to take them to the end of the race.
Meanwhile at the front, since Hamilton stayed out while almost everyone else made the switch to inters, he managed to get ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, whose fresh intermediates helped him move across the track in a quicker and smoother way than Hamilton, started hunting down Hamilton, rapidly eating up the Briton's lead, while Hamilton was still in full wets, skillfully driving around the small dry patches that the track had.
Lewis finally decided to pit on lap 32, along with teammate Rosberg, both of them fitting ultra softs, the only difference being that Rosberg's were used.
On the very next lap, Ricciardo made his own switch to slicks, choosing a set of used super softs. It was a normal stop until the disaster broke loose, the pit crew had forgotten to take out the set of tyres that were to be fitted, because they weren't fully ready to receive him, thus causing a sizable delay on the Australian's pit stop and ruining his opportunity of undercutting Hamilton after his quick in lap. However, his harder compound could provide him with more opportunities to be quicker later on in the race, so despite the low overtaking chances, the race was not over yet.
The Aussie driver who had just claimed his maiden Formula 1 pole on Saturday, was forced to spend the rest of the race hunting down race leader Hamilton, with fastest laps shifting between them; Hamilton set a record, Ricciardo followed, Ricciardo set it, Hamilton beat it.
The rest of the action happened right behind the two, as Rosberg endured his worst race this year, or at least the worst race in which he's driven more than one lap.
Alonso and Perez had undercut him while they switched to slicks and Vettel beat him in the pit lane, a consequence of Mercedes' double stop, putting the championship leader all the way back in sixth place.
Now him, like Ricciardo, would have to hunt down the man behind him to reduce the damage received in the race, being in the middle of a group of three drivers, with Alonso in P5, Nico in sixth and Nico Hulkenberg in P7, while Checo Perez had a safe 3.5 seconds lead over Vettel in third, with a shot at claiming his first podium of the year and the sixth in his career.
Around this point in the race, is where some people in the paddock, most notable McLaren strategists, talked about the possibility of rain a few minutes before the end of the race, which mean that the race for the win could still be wide open.
Back at the front, Ricciardo kept on fighting to regain the lead that he had unfairly lost, staying less than a second away from Hamilton, sometimes cutting the lead to half a second, 0.4 or 0.6 seconds.
His biggest chance at taking control of the race came on lap 36, when he had a go at the inside of Lewis in the chicane, consequently Lewis went wide, which Daniel took advantage of to put his car right next to Lewis' in the exit of the chicane, he tried on the outside but Hamilton was quick to aggressively close that small gap, a move that was deemed by many as punishable. I'll give you an analysis of my own later on.
This maneuver proved to be an important point in the race, just as Ricciardo pit stop woes, pivotal in the development of the result.
Daniel didn't put his hands down, he kept on pushing as hard as he could. He responded with quick lap times to each of Hamilton's fast laps, he cut his gap in a few sectors and laps and was most of the time right on the Merc driver's rear.
Even two Virtual Safety Cars (caused by the Saubers and debris), helped his cause in not allowing Hamilton to build a gap.
Ricciardo still had the strategy on his side, as his harder tyres would give him a better speed than that of Hamilton's in the last laps.
There was also the threat of rain, but in the end the rain did not appear until 4 laps before the end, and it was just a light drizzle.
In the end, Ricciardo lacked the pace to catch Hamilton in the race and had to conform with second.
No words can describe the disappointment in his face after the race, a win that he had almost guaranteed from the start, lost due to no mistake of his own, and a very stupid one.
One cannot even imagine the things going through his mind. Him and many of us know that he did everything he could to cover the team's terrible error.
However, this race and the pace shown in qualifying is only a sign that the team is quickly improving and is a serious contender for victories in the races remaining in the calendar.
Interesting to remember, Hamilton lost the race here last year in a similar fashion, leading for a big part of it and losing it in the pits.
Behind Daniel, it is a whole different thing. Sergio Perez is noticeably happy with the result, as he managed to hold off Vettel to check a podium in Monaco in his to do list, getting his sixth overall podium and third top three finish with the team.
Starting from eighth, the Mexican did an excellent job along with his team, who laid out an effective strategy for him, which allowed him to undercut some of the drivers ahead of him.
Besides, keeping behind a four-time world champion in a demanding track such as this one is one heck of an achievement, rightfully earned today by Perez.
Now, on to the winning driver...
Lewis Hamilton has struck the jackpot in this race.
He came into it with almost no chances of winning, starting in third on rainy conditions in a narrow track like this, and came out on top.
Not only that but this win has served as Lewis' breaking of a winless streak of eight races and has re-opened his championship chances that were up until the end of last race pretty limited, with his teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg losing another position in the race to finish 7th, earning only 4 points, hence leaving the point difference in the championship between the two at only 24 points, less than one race's maximum gain with 15 races to go.
What a way for the Brit to shift the momentum on his side, however it is very possible that Nico will do whatever he can to regain it as soon as he can.
Still, today's disappointing result is a big blow for the German as he loses vital championship points to his teammate in a track where he is used to win.
Hamilton has said that he does not feel a sense of luck revolving around this race, because he earned it himself.
I beg to differ for a few reasons.
1. His path towards second place and only a part of it towards the eventual lead was carved out with a team order. As Nico Rosberg struggled with the weather, brakes and tyres, and was not going to be able to catch Ricciardo, the team took the decision to have Rosberg pull over to the side to let Lewis pass, as he had more chances of reaching the leader.
I'm not criticizing their decision, it's completely legal and valid.
I'm not implying that the team tried to purposely help Lewis in beating Rosberg, no, it is completely understandable that they would want his quicker of the duo to have a better shot at winning, it is a known fact that teams are more interested in the constructors championship rather than the drivers'.
The only thing I'm saying is that the team's actions inflicted in Lewis' quick rise to second place.
2. The move on Ricciardo.
Contrary to what many other think and say, the maneuver he put on Ricciardo on lap 36 was a legal one, because as Ricciardo's front wing had not yet crossed the middle of Lewis's car, Hamilton still had the right to close the gap available without being hit with penalties for reckless driving or aggressive/irresponsible driving.
That is the basis they have followed in similar cases.
For example, three years ago in this very same circuit, Sergio Perez attempted a late overtake on Kimi Räikkönen in the chicane and the Finn, following his racing line, closed the door on Perez, causing damage to both cars, and came out without a penalty as Perez's front wing was not past the middle of Kimi's car. Still, Räikkönen was not to blame for the overly optimistic overtake Sergio tried at the time.
3. Red Bull's terrible mistake in the pits. Last and most importantly, the best proof that a big part of this victory for Lewis was a product of external factors rather than his own talent/speed/pace/you name it.
Hamilton took the lead of the race thanks to his unconventional strategy, not stopping until lap 32, but was destined to fall behind Ricciardo, in the hypothetical situation in which the Aussie's fast in-lap and the team's effective pit stop helped him to undercut Lewis and regain the lead, forcing the current world champion to spend the rest of the race behind the car ahead (just as Ricciardo was forced to do), and this time, without anyone to tell the driver ahead to let him through. A guaranteed win for Daniel.
However in reality, shit happens and what happened in that pit stop, we already know.
A team which is one of the best in pit stops and very rarely commits mistakes in them, even the slightest ones, commits the most unusual one, the most down right stupid one.
How can a team have a driver who is leading the race come into the pits and just casually forget about bringing the newer tyres out, with the team's first win in almost two years at stake?
No words can describe how stunned many fans are because of this mistake.
Without considering this mistake, Ricciardo closes a positive weekend for the team, claiming his first pole position and sealing Red Bull's second consecutive podium finish.
Max Verstappen continued to show his speed on the car by recovering from 21st all the way into point scoring positions, but his weekend was plagued with crashes and the race was not an exception, as the Dutchman crashed out of the race on lap 35 whilst driving in a point scoring position, a result which would've meant another good haul of points for the team.
On fourth place, only less than two seconds behind Perez, is Sebastian Vettel.
The German started in that same position but lost a few spots in the start and during the pit stops, spots which he would recover in the next pit stop, the notorious gain being when he got past Rosberg in the pits.
Vettel could've aimed at more but it was different from him to be able to put on a move on Perez.
As I have mentioned, Kimi Räikkönen's attempt at recovering the positions he lost with a poor qualifying and with the grid penalty was cut short on lap 12, as he locked the rear and went straight onto the barrier in the Hairpin. Best position he could've aspired to in this type of race could've been 7th but still, it's a lot better.
This result confirms that Ferrari is having a tougher season than they and many of us expected as they still haven't been able to beat the Mercedes to the win as they did last year. This is far from the promising season that we thought they had ahead of themselves at the winter, with possibilities of even challenging the reigning champions for the constructors title.
But then again, there's still plenty of racing to go.
Putting together Sergio Perez's podium and Nico Hulkenberg's late overtake on Rosberg to finish sixth, Force India has squeezed a total of 23 points out of this Grand Prix, their best haul of points since the 2014 Bahrain a Grand Prix, where Sergio Perez also finished in third place.
This is a great result for the team, a good harvest of points to keep on progressing through the season.
Crazy how this team only got its first points finish of 2016 two races ago in Russia.
The surprise man of the day was Fernando Alonso. With Fernando in P10 (P9 due to Räikkönen's penalty) and Button in P13, both McLarens were impressive, according to their possibilities, in qualifying.
On race, Fernando made a good job in undercutting drivers ahead of him and Jenson benefitted from Daniil Kvyät's and Räikkönen's retirements, and brought their cars home in P5 and P9, respectively.
I'm not completely sure on this one but I believe this is the best haul of points for the team since the Hungarian GP last year.
Just inside the top 10, Felipe Massa came up as Williams' top driver, just ahead of teammate Bottas in eleventh.
The results of the qualifying for them (14th and 11th) meant that they could only aspire to fight for the points and first point scoring positions.
With this, Williams disappointing season continues. They began the year with the goal of giving Ferrari a run for their money for the runner up spot, but they have not been able to stand in the podium in any race and have been far away from matching what a underperforming 'Scuderia' has done so far.
A victim of Perez's great start, Carlos Sainz lost one position from his starting spot of seventh, eventually finishing in eighth.
A good result for him, that could've been better had it been combined with a point scoring finish from Kvyät, who was forced to retire after a very aggressive attempt at overtaking Kevin Magnussen.
For Renault and Sauber it was an accident packed race. As it was mentioned above, Palmer was the first retiree of the race after hitting the wall in lap 10, however his teammate also suffered a couple of other collisions, one of them being with Kvyät and the last one being the one that ultimately left him out of the race.
On the other side, Sauber had a mess out there on the track. They gave out team orders to Felipe Nasr, telling him to let teammate Marcus Ericsson through, as the Brazilian did not follow them, Ericsson asked the team for permission to attack him, which was granted. However Ericsson chose the wrong place to make his move, as he tried to get on the inside of Nasr at La Rascasse, a maneuver which left Nasr in the wall and caused some damage on Ericsson's car, prompting him to retire later on.
This is exactly the opposite of what the team needs on race day, given their economical situation.
That's it for this race's recap and review! I hope you have enjoyed it.
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