Webber wins close Monaco GP

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

Mark Webber won his second Monaco Grand Prix in three years after starting from pole and not making a single mistake all through the race. It wasn't however easy, the next 5 runners finished within the next 6 seconds. Nico Rosberg was closest as he finished second while Fernando Alonso completed the podium in third place.

The weather at the start of the race at Monaco is extremely favourable with the sun shining abundantly, as was the case on Saturday.

All top 10 drivers are starting on the softer option tyres, except for Vettel. He had the possibility to choose his tyre compound after not running in the final part of qualifying yesterday.

As the lights went out, Webber and Rosberg hold their first and second positions, but the battle behind unfolded fiercely. Hamilton had a difficult start and just nearly held on third position. Alonso settled for 4th, Massa 5th and Vettel 6th. Romain Grosjean tangled up with Alonso at the start, then went to the left and cut into Schumacher's line. Schumacher just held on to it and continued for 8th while Grosjean spun and abandoned.

More at the back, Button had a dismal start as he got involved in some hitting. After the first lap he is down into 14th, having dropped behind Kovalainen's Caterham. Pedro De La Rosa also saw his race ended when his rear wing came off in the events. Pastor Maldonado also ended up terminating his race as he broke off his front wing at the start as well. His car's position however required a safety car from lap 2 to lap 5. Kamui Kobayashi also abandoned as it seemed his coming together with Button was a little bit too much for his Sauber.

2 laps after the SC's departure, Webber is 0.8s ahead of Rosberg. Hamilton is a further 1.3s behind. Alonso and Massa are closely matched but cannot hold on to Hamilton. They see the gap increase by more than a second a lap.

On lap 14, after Pérez finally got past Jean-Eric Vergne, the Sauber driver set the fastest lap and immediately pressurizes Glock who was a second ahead of Vergne.

3 laps later Petrov is in the pits and gets rolled into the garage. This would already be the 5th retirement from the race.

One lap later Vergne is the first to make a regular stop, changing the super soft tyres for a set of yellow soft Pirellis.

At the same time Pérez moves up another spot as he passes Glock in tabac. Pérez was first alongside the Marussia in the braking zone of the chicane, but as Glock cut the chicane, he kept ahead, but only for a brief moment. He would have been required to yield the position anyway.

On lap 20 Alonso sets the fastest lap and is pulling away from Massa. That lap was also a full second quicker than Webber, Rosberg and Hamilton. At the start of lap 22 Alonso is again at 1.1s of Hamilton.

Meanwhile Raikkonen starts to struggle on his tyres and has dropped back on Vettel. Behind him, Schumacher at times is only a few tenths behind, followed by Hulkenberg and Senna. A few laps later Di Resta and Ricciardo have joined the group as Raikkonen continues his struggle.

Lotus are crucially keeping Raikkonen out of the box as rain is expected in the next 5 minutes. Nico Rosberg on the other hand pitted to change his supersofts to a set of regular softs.

In lap 29 Alonso is right on Hamilton's tail, just ahead of the McLaren's stop. Webber stops at the same time and stays ahead of Rosberg. Raikkonen then also pits, along with Hulkenberg and Senna.

Alonso pits one lap later and emerges back on track comfortably ahead of Hamilton. Alonso set purple times on all sectors before diving into the pitlane. Schumacher at the same time is trying to make use of some clear track with what is left on the supersoft tyres.

On lap 34, Sebastian Vettel is in the lead, still running on the yellow prime tyres he started with. He is actually quite a bit quicker than Webber who is currently in second place. His advantage is 14 seconds. Rosberg is 2 seconds behind Webber while Alonso has reduced the gap to Rosberg to approximately 1.5 seconds.

In lap 40 Pérez completes a drive through penalty for impeding Raikkonen. In fact Pérez decided very late to dive into the pitlane, unaware that Raikkonen was attempting a pass at the same moment. Although the Finn managed to avoid an incident, he still lost a place to a Force India that got past on the outside of Pérez.

That same lap, Button makes his stop to change from yellow to red Pirellis. He rejoins the track in 15th position, still behind the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen.

At the end of lap 46, Vettel comes into the pitlane for a set of option tyres. He rejoins the track fractionally ahead of Hamilton. It was extremely close, but Vettel immediately pulled ahead of Hamilton once out of the pitlane exit, not allowing Hamilton a way past.

At the start of lap 48, Webber is therefore back in the lead, ahead of Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and Massa. All six of them are approximately 1 second apart. Behind Massa there is a gap of 22 seconds to Schumacher who on his behalf has Vergne 2s behind him.

On lap 62 Schumacher starts to have a technical issue with the Mercedes engine. He is immediately passed by Vergne and two laps later also very easily by both Force India cars. Another two laps later, Schumacher is in the pits and steps out of his car.

Meanwhile very light rain is falling at Rascasse, but so far it doesn't seem to be an issue for any of the drivers.

On lap 68 Ricciardo is in the pits and gets pulled into the box as well. This is the 7th retirement of the day so far. There's 10 laps to go.

By lap 69 some areas of the track are increasingly getting damp, resulting in Webber slowing down slightly and packing the group behind him closer together. By lap 71 the pace has reduced by 6 seconds a lap.

While at the front nobody makes the switch just yet, Toro Rosso take the gamble with Vergne and switch their only remaining car to intermediates.

Button meanwhile overcooked it at Piscine and spins after trying to get past Kovalainen. The Caterham at the same time suffered a front wing failure, allowing Pérez to pass a few laps later on. Button eventually returned to the pits and retired from the race.

As the track dries up again and the pace increases, Kovalainen makes a pitstop for a new front wing. Vergne meanwhile realises he's now on the wrong tyres and has to allow everybody pass by.

Webber though didn't make any mistake, despite big pressure from a bunch of competitors behind him. This marks the third win in three years for Red Bull Racing.