2018 Monaco GP : Drivers of the Day

The Monaco Grand Prix was a tense race characterised by the leader and eventual race winner having to manage the race with a few faster drivers behind, but the tight confines of the street circuit made overtaking virtually impossible. Of the 22 drivers, who cashed in at Monte Carlo?

5. Alessandro Farina

For once, Alessandro Farina wasn’t able to make the most of his superior race pace and spent the majority of the race stuck behind other drivers, notably Kevin Magnussen and Tomas Gonzalez. The latter driver ended up delaying Farina to the point where he was jumped by his own teammate during the second round of pitstops. Nevertheless, Farina was able to continue his destructive start to the season with his fifth podium finish in five races, in part thanks to late race issues for Vaino Kimminen.

4. Tomas Gonzalez

It seems as if Tomas Gonzalez has rediscovered some of his previous speed that made him such a formidable driver back in the Tornado days after over three seconds between Friday Practice and Friday Qualifying, mostly thanks to some likely set-up focus for the race meeting, and he kept this up for a brilliant pole position, his and CBA Racing’s third of their careers. The start didn’t go to plan after Fernando Alonso caught him napping into Sainte Devote, but he kept the Spaniard honest during the first stint on a lighter fuel load. The following stints were more challenging as the Argentine’s unfavourable race set-up meant that he was eventually jumped by Kimminen and the two Gojira drivers. He regained 4th from the unfortunate Kimminen and held off Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages.

3. Sebastian Vettel

After a desperately unlucky start to the season where four mechanical problems resulted in four non-finishes in the first four races, Vettel needed a tonic, but it wasn’t looking promising with Andrew Racing curiously running the hard tyres for much of the meeting. Vettel’s usually excellent qualifying performance was therefore put on hold with a lowly 14th on the grid. For the race, Vettel took a contrary approach to the field by opting for a two-stop strategy and this came to life from around half distance with Vettel getting the jump on Kevin Magnussen and Charles Leclerc in the final round of pitstops. He couldn’t do anything about Gonzalez’s 4th place, but after the first four races, Vettel must’ve been delighted to finally score points.

2. James Clark

Qualifying doesn’t seem to be James Clark’s strongest suit as he was once again comfortably outqualified by his teammate, although not quite the seven tenths from Aragon. He could’ve therefore had an extremely long afternoon, particularly as he was behind the two Ajay drivers on the grid, but on lap 5, he pulled off a fantastic outbraking manoeuvre on Mattia Alfonsi into the Seafront Chicane, which was the catalyst to a great drive. His pit crew also played their part with Clark jumping Charles Leclerc during the first round of stops and then Magnussen, Farina, and Gonzalez during the second round of the stops to move up to 3rd. He was another beneficiary of Kimminen’s woes, but Alonso proved too much of a hurdle.

1. Fernando Alonso

After the disappointment of failing to finish his home race, Alonso was keen to bounce back on a circuit where in recent times, he has proved quick at with wins in 2013, 2014 and 2017, all with different teams and engines. A superb lap put him on the front row ahead of Magnussen, and an even better start put him into the lead ahead of polesitter Gonzalez. He steadily pulled out a lead during the first stint and built on that further to a high of over 17 seconds, but then his lead shrunk after Kimminen moved ahead of Gonzalez after the second round of pitstops. Both pitting on the same lap for the final stops helped Alonso keep track position, but then the two Gojira drivers came into play with one final stressful moment coming when Alfonsi’s broken down Ajay nearly brought Alonso to a complete standstill. Alonso kept his cool however and took his 35th career win, extending his Monaco record in the process.