2010 Monaco GP, Formula 1

An eventful GP this weekend, and for a lot of reasons.

Red Bull Racing went into Monaco on a high after having won at Spain, and they continue their streak of pole positions here with an impressive dominating performance in qualifying, with only Robert Kubica's Renault on the same pace. Fernando Alonso could only watch passively during qualifying, as his ultra-quick Ferrari, which was the only other car as quick as the leaders, bit the dust in the last practice session. He would be starting from the pits.

RBR's Mark Webber ran a wonderful race from the start, putting his stamp on the race by pulling away from his team-mate Vettel, who outdragged Robert Kubica into the first corner. Massa's Ferrari and Hamilton's McLaren pulled up the rear of the front-running pack at the start. Schumacher, Rosberg, Button and Hulkenberg lost out in the scuffle, but the pack was away from the first corner safely. Unfortunately, chaos ensued as Nico Hulkenberg, experiencing problems with his wing and clutch, shredded his Williams along the barriers in the tunnel. Fernando Alonso took this opportunity to pit on the very first lap, from 24th, to change from the soft option tires to the harder prime tires, which would get him all the way to the checkered flag.

Jenson Button's championship lead went up in a puff of smoke behind the first safety car, his McLaren burning itself out in the sluggish air and heat behind the safety car, McLaren's first engine failure of the season.

As soon as the green flags came out, Alonso began cutting up backmarkers, doing daring overtakes on less experienced F1 drivers into the downhill chicane out of the tunnel, sometimes on successive laps, making his way up to 16th. Alonso's pace prompted all the mid-pack drivers to change strategies, as they realized that they might not have enough time to pit and stay out in front of Alonso. A flurry of early pitstops ensued, but it was all for naught, Alonso was back in the top ten after the first round of pits, then up to P6 when everything sorted itself out.

This would trouble the top five little, however, as after the pittops for the front-runners worked themselves out, status quo remained, with Webber comfortably in the lead and piling on lap after blistering lap in front of Vettel. Perhaps he was trying to prove something.

And we would see Mark do this over and over again, as the race was punctuated by safety cars. While some of the backmarkers and lower-midfileders had to park their cars in the runoff or in the pits with mechanical problems, there were a number of spectacular failures. Barrichelo, en route to a fine result in the other Williams, having worked his way to 6th in the first lap scuffle, had his rear suspension disintegrate on him, bringing out another safety. He's sure to be docked some money on his paycheck, as he threw his steering wheel out into the track on disgust, where it was picked up by a passing HRT car.

By the 40th lap, everyone was comfortably where they would be till the end of the race, and the results seemed set in stone, but a loose drain cover forced another safety car. By this point of the race, Mercedes executives must have been jumping for joy. The sonorous exhaust note of the new gullwing Mercedes SLS AMG is sure to have sold at least a few dozen cars. After the third restart, Webber again pulled out a lead, and Vettel came under attack from Kubica. Alonso was also trying to put pressure on Hamilton, who was suffering from a brake issue (and quibbling with his pit wall about it). Yet near the end of the race, it became apparent that none of these battles would pan out. Vettel started picking up pace and despite Hamilton dropping pace from Massa due to his braking issues, Alonso didn't have the tires to take him on.

And then, with four laps to go, an incident between Trulli and Chandok almost ruined Mark Webber's race. Right at Rascasse, with Webber pulling up behind them, Chandok ran slightly wide, and Jarno made a move to pass the HRT on the inside line, which just happened to be several inches narrower than his Lotus. Wheels touched, and Jarno's car went over Chandok's head, taking a few layers of paint off of Chandok's helmet in the process. A horrified Mark Webber later stated that he thought that Trulli's car had taken Chandok's head off, since he couldn't see it. As it turns out, Chandok had seen the Lotus jump into the air, and ducked just in the nick of time.

The safety car finally came in at the end of the very last lap (selling a dozen more SLSs...), allowing the runners to cross the finish line at racing speed. Alonso's tired Ferrari moved a few millimeters too wide crossing the safety car line and Michael Schumacher took a bold lunge up the inside to just steal sixth place from him.

A place that he had to return, as despite new ruling allowing racing after the safety car line at the pit entrance, the old rule enforcing the "no racing until the finish line" was still in force in the event that the safety car comes in on the last lap. The 20 second penalty demotes Schumacher to 12th. Mercedes is appealing the decision right now.

But the big headline is Mark Webber's dominating performance at Monaco, and both Red Bull drivers now have a joint share of the driver's championship lead. Red Bull Racing is also now leading the constructor's championship by a healthy margin, taking over from McLaren. Ferrari's strong showing, despite Alonso's misfortune, puts them ahead of Mclaren by five points. Alonso is also now third in the driver's championship, overtaking Jenson Button, whose unfortunate turn puts him in fourth.