F1: Rosberg upsets Hamilton to win 2015 Monaco GP
Ryan Joseph Ramos May 24, 2015Nico Rosberg claimed his third-straight Monaco Grand Prix victory, after a questionable decision to pit Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton’s car when the safety car went out caused the latter to re-enter the race in third, putting the Briton’s dominating weekend to waste.
This marks the second consecutive race win for Rosberg, while the team is now six out of six when it comes to getting both drivers to finish on the podium.
Hamilton had once again built up a considerable gap from out in front, at least for a good first 64 laps until Max Verstappen’s accident prompted the safety car to come out. It was then that the decision was made for Hamilton to get a fresh set of tyres in the pit lane—a decision that the team later admitted was a huge mistake that cost Hamilton the win.
With this result, Rosberg now only trails Hamilton by 10 points after six races, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel—who finished second—is 18 points behind Rosberg.
“The team have been brilliant all year, so I don’t blame them,” says Hamilton. “We’ll analyse and work out what went wrong, but we’ll do that collectively and try to improve for the future.”
“Until the safety car Lewis has done a perfect job,” said Rosberg, adding that his teammate “definitely deserved the win.” Nonetheless, the German driver says he will celebrate the win regardless. “A win is a win.”
Here are the other top 10 finishers: the Red Bulls of Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo in at fourth and fifth, respectively; Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrai at sixth; Force India’s Sergio Perez at seventh; Jenson Button of McLaren at eighth for his first points of the season; Sauber”s Felipe Nasr at ninth; and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz at tenth.
There is indeed a lot to be discussed internally as far as this botched strategy goes. It better be soon, as the Canadian Grand Prix is just a couple of weeks away.
