2007 Monaco Grand Prix

  2007 Monaco Grand Prix

Race details
Race 5 of 17 in the 2007 Formula One season
Date	May 27, 2007
Official name	LXV Grand Prix de Monaco
Location	Circuit de Monaco
Course	Street circuit 3.34 km (2.08 mi)
Distance	78 laps, 260.52 km (162.24 mi)
Pole position
Driver	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:15.726
Fastest lap
Driver	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:15.284 on lap 44
Podium
First	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes
Third	Felipe Massa	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The 2007 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race and was the fifth round of the 2007 Formula One season. It took place from 24-27 May at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo. The race itself commenced at 14:00 CET (noon UTC), Sunday, May 27, and lasted about 1 hour and 40 minutes. It was won by Fernando Alonso in a McLaren.

Report

Background

Testing started a week and a half before the race at Circuit Paul Ricard using the circuit's 2D SC configuration to replicate the Circuit de Monaco.^[1] Lewis Hamilton went on to score the fastest times on the days of testing whilst the circuit was in the Monaco configuration.

Hamilton, who had never lost a race on the Monte Carlo track (having won there in both GP2 and F3)^[2] played down his chances of winning the race, although he still remained "realistic" and optimistic, looking to fight for a win as is "the case with everything (he) competes in."^[2]

Practice

The final practice session on Saturday morning was heavily affected by rain. Adrian Sutil of Spyker topped the timesheets for this session due to the conditions.

Qualifying

Kovalainen in Monaco

Qualifying was dominated throughout by the two McLarens of Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Despite Hamilton setting fastest times for the first session, Alonso outpaced him in the final stages to take pole position, with Hamilton being held up slightly by Mark Webber. Felipe Massa of Ferrari qualified third fastest, posting a time after the clock stopped. Kimi Räikkönen made a mistake and hit the barriers coming out of the Swimming Pool Complex during the second qualifying stage, breaking his right steering arm. The damage inflicted could not be repaired and he qualified sixteenth. Despite provisionally making the top ten, David Coulthard was penalised for impeding Heikki Kovalainen and demoted to thirteenth.^[3] Coulthard's demotion allowed Jenson Button to participate in the final qualifying stage, but he failed to move up the field and finished the qualifying session in 10th place.

Of those whose qualifying went well, former Monaco resident Giancarlo Fisichella fared best, putting his Renault on the second row in fourth place. Nico Rosberg's performance marked a return to form for his Williams team; his fifth place was the British constructor's best qualifying position since Mark Webber's second place at the same track one year before in 2006. Webber himself also fared well, filling the second slot on row three, alongside Rosberg, in sixth place.

Race

The race itself was quite uneventful. From the starting line everyone got away for the first laps, with Hamilton diving in behind Alonso to defend any of the Ferrari's advances. After the race, FIA launched an investigation of the McLaren team for giving out team orders.^[4] Ecclestone said McLaren "could be excluded from the championship or they could have points deducted".^[5] McLaren were later cleared of any wrongdoing by the FIA.^[6]

No other car in the field could keep up with the sheer pace of both of the Mclaren-Mercedes, with Massa, after a competitive first stint in third place, dropping to sixty seconds behind Hamilton. Notably, he was the only car the two McLaren drivers did not lap during the afternoon.

Kimi Räikkönen came back up the field to eighth place to gain one championship point after his poor qualifying performance.

Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed out of the race on the second lap, a fate that befell Spyker driver Adrian Sutil in the second half of the Grand Prix. The other Spyker car, driven by Christijan Albers failed to finish the race due to a mechanical problem. The only other retirement was Mark Webber, whose Red Bull's gearbox failed in the early stages of the race.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	Name	Constructor	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3
1	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	1:16.059	1:15.431	1:15.726
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:15.685	1:15.479	1:15.905
3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:16.786	1:16.034	1:15.967
4	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:17.596	1:16.054	1:16.285
5	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:16.870	1:16.100	1:16.439
6	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:17.816	1:16.420	1:16.784
7	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:17.385	1:15.733	1:16.832
8	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:17.584	1:15.576	1:16.955
9	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:17.244	1:16.454	1:17.498
10	Jenson Button	Honda	1:17.297	1:16.457*	1:17.939
11	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	1:17.874	1:16.662
12	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:16.720	1:16.703
13	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:17.204	1:16.319*
14	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:17.686	1:16.988
15	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	1:17.836	1:17.125
16	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:16.251	no time
17	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:18.250
18	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:18.390
19	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	1:18.418
20	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:18.539
21	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:18.554
22	Christijan Albers	Spyker-Ferrari	no time

* David Coulthard was penalised for blocking Heikki Kovalainen and not allowed to take part in Q3, he was then given a two place grid penalty and started the race in 13th place. Jenson Button, who had qualified 11th in Q2, therefore inherited the final place in Q3.^[3]

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	78	1:40:29.329	1	10
2	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	78	+4.095	2	8
3	5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	78	+1:09.114	3	6
4	3	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	77	+1 Lap	4	5
5	10	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	77	+1 Lap	8	4
6	9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	77	+1 Lap	7	3
7	17	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	77	+1 Lap	11	2
8	6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	77	+1 Lap	16	1
9	19	Scott Speed	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	77	+1 Lap	18
10	8	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	77	+1 Lap	9
11	7	Jenson Button	Honda	77	+1 Lap	10
12	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	77	+1 Lap	5
13	4	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	76	Engine	15
14	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	76	+2 Laps	13
15	12	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	76	+2 Laps	14
16	11	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	76	+2 Laps	20
17	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	76	+2 Laps	21
18	23	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	76	+2 Laps	17
19	21	Christijan Albers	Spyker-Ferrari	70	Driveshaft	22
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	53	Accident	19
Ret	15	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	17	Gearbox	6
Ret	18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	2	Accident	12

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Fernando Alonso 38 2 Lewis Hamilton 38 3 Felipe Massa 33 4 Kimi Räikkönen 23 5 Nick Heidfeld 18

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 56 2 BMW Sauber 30 3 Renault 16 4 Williams-Toyota 7 5 Toyota 5

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

External links

• Detailed Monaco Grand Prix results