The 2016 Monaco Grand Prix (formally known as the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2016) was a
Formula One motor race
A Formula One Grand Prix is a sporting event which takes place over three days (usually Friday to Sunday), with a series of practice and qualifying sessions prior to the race on Sunday. Current regulations provide for two free practice sessions ...
held on 29 May 2016 at the
Circuit de Monaco
Circuit de Monaco is a street circuit laid out on the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine around the harbour of the Principality of Monaco. It is commonly, and even officially, referred to as "Monte Carlo" because it is largely inside ...
, a
street circuit
A street circuit is a motorsport racing circuit composed of temporarily closed-off public roads of a city, town or village, used in motor races. Airport runways and taxiways are also sometimes part of street circuits. Facilities such as the p ...
that runs through the
Principality of Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Liguria ...
. It was the sixth round of the
2016 FIA Formula One World Championship, and marked the seventy-fourth time that the
Monaco Grand Prix
The Monaco Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Monaco) is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigiou ...
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 .
Nico Rosberg
Nico Erik Rosberg (born 27 June 1985) is a German-Finnish former professional racing driver. He competed in Formula One from 2006 to 2016, winning the World Drivers' Championship in with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport. The only child of Fi ...
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
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
driver
Kimi Räikkönen
Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One Wo ...
in the Drivers' Championship. Rosberg's team,
Mercedes, held a 48-point lead over Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship.
During Saturday's qualifying,
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Joseph Ricciardo ( "Ricardo", ; born 1 July 1989) is an Italian-Australian racing driver who last raced in Formula One driving for McLaren, under the Australian flag. He made his debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix with the HRT ...
, who was driving for
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull Racing, also simply known as Red Bull or RBR and currently competing as Oracle Red Bull Racing, is a Formula One racing team, racing under an Austrian licence and based in the United Kingdom. It is one of two Formula One teams owned ...
, achieved the first pole position of his career. In an eventful race, Mercedes's
Lewis Hamilton
Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Mercedes. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Mich ...
took victory ahead of Ricciardo, who had lost time during a
pitstop, when his engineers made a last second strategy call to swap to a different set of tyres while mechanics were already in the pit lane; as a result, the tyres arrived late to the car.
Sergio Pérez
Sergio Michel "Checo" Pérez Mendoza (; born 26 January 1990), is a Mexican Auto racing, racing driver who races in Formula One for Red Bull Racing, having previously driven for Sauber, McLaren, Force India, and Racing Point. He won his first ...
completed the podium for
Force India
Force India Formula One Team Limited, commonly known as Force India and later Sahara Force India, was a Formula One racing team and constructor based in Silverstone, United Kingdom, with an Indian licence. The team was formed in October 20 ...
, the team's first appearance in the top three of the season and their first since the
2015 Russian Grand Prix.
Background
![Monaco Port and Track](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Monaco_Port_and_Track.jpg)
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
Nico Erik Rosberg (born 27 June 1985) is a German-Finnish former professional racing driver. He competed in Formula One from 2006 to 2016, winning the World Drivers' Championship in with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport. The only child of Fi ...
and
Lewis Hamilton
Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January 1985) is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Mercedes. In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Mich ...
. The team was adamant that such an incident could not be repeated, with their head of motorsport
Toto Wolff
Torger Christian "Toto" Wolff (, born 12 January 1972) is an Austrian billionaire motorsport executive, investor, and former racing driver. He holds a 33% stake in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and is Team Principal and CEO of the team.
Wo ...
saying: "We cannot afford to drop the ball, so we must remain united, remain strong and hit back hard this weekend." With a win, Rosberg would have been able to become the only driver other than
Ayrton Senna
Ayrton Senna da Silva (; 21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver who won the Formula One List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions, World Drivers' Championship in , , and . Senna is one of three Formula One drivers fro ...
to win the
Monaco Grand Prix
The Monaco Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Monaco) is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigiou ...
four times in a row, while Hamilton had suffered a string of bad results at the circuit, having won only once
in 2008.
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.
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso Díaz (; born 29 July 1981) is a Spanish racing driver currently competing for Alpine in Formula One. He won the series' World Drivers' Championship in and with Renault, and has also driven for McLaren, Ferrari, and Mi ...
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
is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...
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. During the two-day testing session that took place after the previous Grand Prix at the
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya,
Renault
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
introduced an updated version of their power unit, which was used during the test to the satisfaction of driver
Kevin Magnussen
Kevin Jan Magnussen (born 5 October 1992) is a Danish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Haas F1 Team.
He is the son of four-time Le Mans winner and former Formula One driver Jan Magnussen. Kevin Magnussen came up through McLa ...
, 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. Renault chose to do so, however, they were only able to hand out one updated unit to both their works team and
Red Bull
Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...
, who used them under the name
TAG Heuer
TAG Heuer S.A. ( ) is a Swiss luxury watchmaker that designs, manufactures and markets watches and fashion accessories, as well as eyewear and mobile phones manufactured under license by other companies and carrying the TAG Heuer brand name. ...
. The two units were eventually given to Magnussen at Renault and
Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Joseph Ricciardo ( "Ricardo", ; born 1 July 1989) is an Italian-Australian racing driver who last raced in Formula One driving for McLaren, under the Australian flag. He made his debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix with the HRT ...
at Red Bull.
The race saw the competitive début of
Pirelli
Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational tyre manufacturer based in Milan, Italy. The company, which has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, is the 6th-largest tyre manufacturer and is focused on the consumer production of tyre ...
's new ultrasoft tyre compound, which was provided alongside the supersoft and soft compounds. Per the regulations of the 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. From this race onwards, the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; en, International Automobile Federation) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. It is the governing body for ...
allowed drivers to choose alternative helmet designs for one race weekend per season, 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
Felipe Massa (, born 25 April 1981) is a Brazilian racing driver. He competed in 15 seasons of Formula One between 2002 and 2017, where he scored 11 Grand Prix victories, 41 podiums and finished as championship runner-up in 2008 by one poin ...
's helmet featured extensive artwork by graffiti artist
Os Gêmeos
OSGEMEOS (also known as Os Gemeos or Os Gêmeos, Portuguese for ''The Twins'') are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo (born 1974). They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in gall ...
, teammate
Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Viktor Bottas (; born 28 August 1989) is a Finnish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Alfa Romeo, having previously driven for Mercedes from to and Williams from to . Bottas has scored race wins and podiums. H ...
featured
casino-inspired imagery and
Haas driver
Romain Grosjean
Romain David Jeremie Grosjean (; born 17 April 1986) is a Swiss-French professional racing driver, competing under the French flag in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 28 Honda for Andretti Autosport. Grosjean had previously spent nine ...
sported a tribute to the late
Jules Bianchi
Jules Lucien André Bianchi (; 3 August 1989 – 17 July 2015) was a French motor racing driver who drove for the Marussia F1 Team in the FIA Formula One World Championship.
Bianchi had previously raced in Formula Renault 3.5, GP2 and Form ...
on his helmet. The race marked a reason for celebration at
McLaren
McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...
, as the team had started their first ever Grand Prix at Monaco
fifty years earlier.
Going into the weekend, Nico Rosberg led the
Drivers' Championship with 100 points, followed by
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
's
Kimi Räikkönen
Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One Wo ...
with 61 points. Lewis Hamilton followed in third, a further four points behind, with
Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel (; born 3 July 1987) is a German racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2007 to 2022 for BMW Sauber, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Toro Rosso, Red Bull Racing, Red Bull, Scuderia Ferrari, Ferrari, and Aston Martin in Formula One ...
in fourth with 48 points, level with Daniel Ricciardo in fifth. In the
constructors' standings, Mercedes led with 157 points, 48 points ahead of Ferrari, with Red Bull Racing in third with 94 points.
Free practice
![Vettel Monaco 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Vettel_Monaco_2016.jpg)
Per the regulations for the 2016 season, two ninety-minute practice and one sixty-minute session were 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,
in order to minimise road-closure disruptions to local residents.
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 Bull cars of Daniel Ricciardo and
Max Verstappen
Max Emilian Verstappen (; born 30 September 1997) is a Belgian-Dutch Auto racing, racing driver and the 2021 Formula One World Championship, 2021 and 2022 Formula One World Championship, 2022 Formula One World Champion. He Formula One drivers ...
respectively.
Daniil Kvyat
Daniil Vyacheslavovich Kvyat ( rus, Дании́л Вячесла́вович Квят, p=dənʲɪˈil vʲɪtɕɪˈslavəvʲɪtɕ ˈkvʲat; born 26 April 1994) is a Russian professional racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2014– ...
, driving for
Toro Rosso
Scuderia Toro Rosso (; literal translation of "Red Bull Racing Team"), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One racing team. It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Re ...
, in sixth was the last driver to get within a second of Hamilton's time.
He was the only one of the front runners to set his time on the supersoft instead of the faster ultrasoft tyres. 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
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super GT ...
's
McLaren MP4-31
The McLaren MP4-31 is a Formula One racing car designed by McLaren to compete in the 2016 Formula One season. The car was driven by and World Drivers' Champion Fernando Alonso and World Champion Jenson Button, and reserve driver Stoffel Van ...
, causing the practice to be
red flagged, ultimately ending the session.
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. 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
Rio Haryanto (born 22 January 1993) is an Indonesian racing driver and a former Formula One driver for Manor during 2016 season. He last competed in the 2019-20 Asian Le Mans Series and in the Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia for T2 Motorsp ...
touched the inside barrier at the same spot and later after Kevin Magnussen crashed at the final corner.
In the third practice session on Saturday morning, Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time, about one hundredth of a second faster than Hamilton. Nico Rosberg and Daniel Ricciardo followed, both also within two tenth 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.
Qualifying
![Red Bull RB12 Monaco 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Red_Bull_RB12_Monaco_2016.jpg)
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.
In the first part of qualifying (Q1), the session got interrupted shortly after it had started, as
Felipe Nasr
Luiz Felipe de Oliveira Nasr (born 21 August 1992) is a Brazilian racing driver. He is the 2018 IMSA Sportscar champion and won the 2019 12 Hours of Sebring.
After a year as the official test driver for Williams in 2014, he joined Sauber a ...
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 two at
Force India
Force India Formula One Team Limited, commonly known as Force India and later Sahara Force India, was a Formula One racing team and constructor based in Silverstone, United Kingdom, with an Indian licence. The team was formed in October 20 ...
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
Manor cars of Rio Haryanto and
Pascal Wehrlein
Pascal Wehrlein (born 18 October 1994) is a German-Mauritian racing driver for the Porsche Formula E Team. He previously raced in Formula One for the Sauber and Manor teams. Holding dual nationality of Germany and Mauritius, he raced under the ...
, as well as Jolyon Palmer and
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus Thorbjörn Ericsson (; born 2 September 1990) is a Swedish professional racing driver. He competes in the NTT IndyCar Series, driving the No. 8 Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing and is the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner. Ericsson previously ...
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.
![Ricciardo Monaco 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Ricciardo_Monaco_2016.jpg)
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
Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (; born 5 August 1991) is a Mexican racing driver currently representing Mercedes in Formula One, Formula E and esports and Inter Europol Competition in World Endurance Championship.
Previously from 2013 ...
, Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean and Magnussen.
![Alonso Monaco 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Alonso_Monaco_2016.jpg)
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
In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...
by Ricciardo, who was almost two-tenths of a second faster than second placed Rosberg, with Vettel following in fourth almost a second slower.
Nico Hülkenberg
Nicolas Hülkenberg (, born 19 August 1987) is a German professional racing driver who is scheduled to make a full-time racing return to Formula 1 with Haas F1 Team in 2023, after serving as a reserve driver for Aston Martin F1 Team for the yea ...
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.
Carlos Sainz Vázquez de Castro (; born 1 September 1994), otherwise known as Carlos Sainz Jr. or simply Carlos Sainz, is a Formula One drivers from Spain, Spanish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari. He is th ...
,
Sergio Pérez
Sergio Michel "Checo" Pérez Mendoza (; born 26 January 1990), is a Mexican Auto racing, racing driver who races in Formula One for Red Bull Racing, having previously driven for Sauber, McLaren, Force India, and Racing Point. He won his first ...
, Daniil Kvyat and Fernando Alonso rounded up the top ten.
Ricciardo's pole position was the first for a Renault-powered turbocharged car since Ayrton Senna's front-of-the-grid start at the
1986 Mexican Grand Prix
The 1986 Mexican Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Mexico City on October 12, 1986.
The first Mexican Grand Prix since 1970 was held at the newly renamed Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, located in the Magdalena Mixhuca recreational ...
for
Lotus.
[
]
Post-qualifying
After qualifying, the race stewards decided not to give a penalty to Magnussen for ignoring the red light at the end of the pit lane during Q1, since it had only changed to red 0.55 seconds before he crossed the pit exit line. 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.
Qualifying classification
;Notes:
* – Kimi Räikkönen
Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One Wo ...
received a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
* – Felipe Nasr
Luiz Felipe de Oliveira Nasr (born 21 August 1992) is a Brazilian racing driver. He is the 2018 IMSA Sportscar champion and won the 2019 12 Hours of Sebring.
After a year as the official test driver for Williams in 2014, he joined Sauber a ...
and Max Verstappen
Max Emilian Verstappen (; born 30 September 1997) is a Belgian-Dutch Auto racing, racing driver and the 2021 Formula One World Championship, 2021 and 2022 Formula One World Championship, 2022 Formula One World Champion. He Formula One drivers ...
failed to set a time within 107% of the fastest lap during Q1. They had to apply to the stewards for permission to start the race. Both opted to start the race from the pit lane. Verstappen started in front, as he had set a time in qualifying, ahead of Nasr, who did not set a time.
Race
With rain shortly before the race, the start was taken behind the safety car, forcing all drivers to start the race on the full wet tyres. As Ricciardo led the field behind the safety 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 made a pit stop 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 came into the pitlane for intermediate tyres over the following laps. On lap eleven, Kimi Räikkönen damaged his front wing on the guardrail at the Loews hairpin, resulting in his front wing getting caught under his front tyres, 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. Mercedes issued team orders demanding Rosberg let Hamilton past on lap 16, but the gap had by then grown to 13 seconds.
On lap 21, Rosberg made a pit stop 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
A racing slick or slick tyre is a type of tyre that has a smooth tread used mostly in auto racing. The first production slick tyre was developed by M&H Tires in the early 1950s for use in drag racing. By eliminating any grooves cut into the tr ...
. 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, producing fastest laps on inters, 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 changed to slick tyres. When Ricciardo followed suit a lap later, his pit crew was in position to equip a set of slick tyres. However, a last-second change of mind by his engineers to not equip slicks led to a long stop, as crews scrambled to fetch the proper tyres. Hamilton managed to capitalise on Riccardo's long stop, and held him off for the remainder of the race. 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 Hamilton successfully defended his position.
Another virtual safety car period ensued on lap 35, 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.[ 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.] On lap 50, the two Sauber cars collided at Rascasse corner, after Felipe Nasr had ignored instructions from the pit lane to let his teammate Ericsson behind him pass. Another VSC period was called while both Sauber drivers made pit stops to repair damages, only for both to retire some laps later.[ In front, the race carried on in the same order. On lap 68, the fourth virtual safety car period occurred when a large plastic sheet fell onto 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
Racing flags are traditionally used in auto racing and similar motorsports to indicate track condition and to communicate important messages to drivers. Typically, the starter, sometimes the grand marshal of a race, waves the flags atop a flag s ...
fell. Hamilton crossed the finish line to take victory ahead of Ricciardo and Pérez. This win for Hamilton marked his second at Monaco, the other being in 2008. Vettel hung on to fourth, followed by Alonso in fifth. Rosberg lost his sixth place to Nico Hülkenberg on the very last lap.
Post-race
At the podium interviews, conducted by former Formula One driver Martin Brundle
Martin John Brundle (born 1 June 1959) is a British former racing driver, best known as a Formula One driver and as a commentator for ITV Sport from 1997 to 2008, the BBC from 2009 to 2011, and Sky Sports since 2012.
Brundle contested the 19 ...
, Hamilton thanked his team and expressed satisfaction about how the race went. He pointed to the problems of driving on the full wet tyres for such a long distance, saying that they were about to "drop off", meaning to lose much of their grip to the race surface, when he came in to change. He complimented Ricciardo on driving "phenomenally all weekend". Ricciardo himself lamented his misfortune in losing the race during his second pit stop. In regard to his team's error and their different strategy at the previous race in Spain, which he felt had cost him a chance at victory there as well, he said: "Two weekends in a row I've been screwed now. It sucks. It hurts." He emphasised that it had not been his decision to pit at that time, but that the team had called him in and criticised them for not being ready when he arrived. Sergio Pérez on the other hand was "extremely happy" with the performance by him and the team, saying that the race was his favourite podium finish while driving for Force India.
Speaking about the moment when Nico Rosberg let him past in the early stages of the race, Hamilton told the press that he had thanked his teammate for "being a gentleman". When asked how painful it had been to be asked to let Hamilton go by, Rosberg said: "It was more painful the feeling that I had in the car. That was the worst. Around Monaco, that's not a nice feeling to have. I had no confidence at all. The second thing eam orderwas just a consequence of that." Mercedes's motorsport director Toto Wolff also praised Rosberg for working for the team and moving to the side without questioning the team's decision. Rosberg was however unable to give an explanation for his slow pace during the early stages. He pointed to the possibility that his car's tyre and brake temperatures had been particularly affected by the period behind the safety car.
Following their intra-team collision, Sauber's team principal Monisha Kaltenborn
Monisha Kaltenborn ( Narang; born 10 May 1971) is the former team principal of the Sauber Formula One team and held a 33.3% stake in the outfit until it was taken over by Longbow Finance S.A. in July 2016. She was the team's chief executive office ...
put blame on both drivers. The stewards penalised Ericsson for the incident, handing him a three-place grid penalty for the following race in Canada as well as three penalty points to his licence. Felipe Nasr was adamant that the team orders he had received prior to the accident had been uncalled for, since his slower pace was due to low tyre temperatures. He also claimed that Ericsson had ignored team orders himself on two occasions in the previous season. Ericsson in turn had a different view and said that the team had told him for "seven or eight laps" that they would swap the positions of the drivers before he decided to go for the pass himself. Valtteri Bottas and Pascal Wehrlein also received penalties during and after the race. Bottas was handed a ten-second time penalty and two penalty points on his licence for causing a collision with Gutiérrez, while Wehrlein received two separate ten-second penalties: the first for exceeding the allowed lap time under VSC conditions and the second for ignoring blue flags. He was also given two penalty points each for both incidents.
Following the Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg retained first place in the Drivers' Championship with 106 points, but his lead over the second-placed driver, now Hamilton, had decreased to 24 points. Daniel Ricciardo moved up to third with 66 points, five points ahead of Räikkönen. In the Constructors' standings, Mercedes extended their lead over Ferrari to 67 points, with Red Bull in third another nine points behind.
Race classification
;Notes:
* – Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Viktor Bottas (; born 28 August 1989) is a Finnish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Alfa Romeo, having previously driven for Mercedes from to and Williams from to . Bottas has scored race wins and podiums. H ...
originally finished 11th, but received a ten-second time penalty after the race for causing a collision with Esteban Gutiérrez
Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (; born 5 August 1991) is a Mexican racing driver currently representing Mercedes in Formula One, Formula E and esports and Inter Europol Competition in World Endurance Championship.
Previously from 2013 ...
.[
* – ]Pascal Wehrlein
Pascal Wehrlein (born 18 October 1994) is a German-Mauritian racing driver for the Porsche Formula E Team. He previously raced in Formula One for the Sauber and Manor teams. Holding dual nationality of Germany and Mauritius, he raced under the ...
received a ten-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags, and another ten-second time penalty for speeding under the virtual safety car.[
]
Championship standings after the race
;Drivers' Championship standings
;Constructors' Championship standings
* Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also
* 2016 Monaco GP2 Series round
Notes
References
External links
Official website
{{F1GP 10-19
Monaco Grand Prix
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
Monaco Grand Prix
The Monaco Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Monaco) is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigiou ...