Nico Rosberg looked almost overwhelmed by his victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, 30 years after his father, Keke, had triumphed on the same tight streets. It was the 27-year-old’s second win of his career – following his victory in China last year – and he led from start to finish as he moved up to sixth in the championship.
Rosberg finished ahead of Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and on the day after an enthralling Champions League final it was a good time to be German. It was some weekend for Rosberg. He dominated all three of the practice sessions before winning the qualifying session on Saturday afternoon. And he had also taken pole in the previous three races.
He sprinted away but three times he was hauled back by the introduction of the safety car. However, the safety car might have helped because it allowed Rosberg to drive well within himself for several laps and that protected his sensitive tyres.
We may have to reassess the Leonardo Di Caprio lookalike from Wiesbaden. Lewis Hamilton, who often looked the quicker Mercedes man at the start of the season, has been pushed back into second place in the team.
Rosberg said: “This is the most special race for me to win, it was incredible, unreal. That is what is special about the sport, so unreal – all these emotions make up for the difficult moments. It is amazing. When I was quite young watching this race, my first memory was Ayrton Senna with the yellow helmet in the red and white [car].”
Rosberg, who is 60 points behind the championship leader Vettel, said: “I don’t want to talk about [the title] at all, because two weeks ago we were 70 seconds away [from victory]. Today we were in a much better position. It is a different track, and I had chance to take it easy, saving the tyres. We should not get overexcited for the next couple of races. We still have a bit of an issue with our race pace, and also with the development race, everyone is pushing forward.”
Hamilton, who was fourth behind the two Red Bulls, took his defeat on the chin. “It wasn’t the team’s fault, it was my mistakes. I was told to have a six‑ second gap and I had more. I lost out massively. That’s motor racing. Big congrats to Nico. I don’t put it down to bad luck. I just wasn’t good enough this weekend. I apologised to the team. I lost so many points.
“The whole weekend was a missed opportunity. Nico fully deserved it. He was much quicker and more on it all weekend. Good for him and the team. I’m really happy for them.”
But the real losers were Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who saw their championship challenges falter. Alonso was seventh, after failing to find his best form all weekend, while Raikkonen won a single point for his 10th place, though he maintained his points-winning sequence of races to 23.
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