Christmas came seven months early for Nico Rosberg as the pit crew of his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton handed Rosberg the victory in the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix after a crucial miscalculation in the final stages of the race allowed Rosberg to pass Hamilton while he was exiting the pits. The miscalculation also allowed Sebastian Vettel to claim second with Hamilton finishing third.
The race began with the usual first turn silliness as Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg got into a kerfuffle with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso but none of the back-of-the-pack shenanigans affected Hamilton, who took one from his pole position and led the entire race and was well on his way to a victory when Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen got overly aggressive in his attempt to pass Lotus’ Romain Grosjean and plowed into the wall. Verstappen was okay but his crash set off the fateful chain of events that led to Rosberg’s win. Hamilton’s pit crew made a slight miscalculation in the timing between the virtual safety car activated by Verstappen’s crash and when the actual safety car got on the track. Holding on to a massive near-20 second lead over second-place Rosberg and third-place Vettel, Hamilton’s pit crew elected to pit, but that decision, combined with the safety car miscalculation allowed both Rosberg and Vettel to pass Hamilton as he was exiting the pit lane with 12 laps remaining. After running three laps under caution, Hamilton spent the final nine laps trying to pass four-time champ Vettel on the notoriously tough-to-pass course with predictable results as Vettel easily held Hamilton at bay.
With the results, Hamilton still maintains his overall lead in the 2015 Formula One points standings with 126 points to Rosberg’s 116 points and Vettel still holding his iron grip on third with 98 points.
The 2015 Formula One season continues with the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal at 11 a.m. [PDT] on NBCSN on June 7, 2015.
2015 Monaco Grand Prix
78 laps – 162 miles
Position Driver Points Time Avg. mph
1 Nico Rosberg – Mercedes 25 1:49:18.420 142.874
2 Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari 18 +4.486 Sec 142.776
3 Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes 15 +6.053 Sec 142.742
4 Daniil Kvyat – Red Bull 12 +11.965 Sec 142.614
5 Daniel Ricciardo – Red Bull 10 +13.608 Sec 142.578
6 Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari 8 +14.345 Sec 142.562
7 Sergio Perez – Force India 6 +15.013 Sec 142.547
8 Jenson Button – McLaren 4 +16.063 Sec 142.525
9 Felipe Nasr – Sauber 2 +23.626 Sec 142.361
10 Carlos Sainz Jr. – Toro Rosso 1 +25.056 Sec 142.33
11 Nico Hulkenberg – Force India 0 +26.232 Sec 142.305
12 Romain Grosjean – Lotus 0 +28.415 Sec 142.257
13 Marcus Ericsson – Sauber 0 +31.159 Sec 142.198
14 Valtteri Bottas – Williams 0 +45.789 Sec 141.883
15 Felipe Massa – Williams 0 – 140.418
16 Roberto Merhi – Marussia 0 – 138.206
17 Will Stevens – Marussia 0 – 138.129
18 Max Verstappen – Toro Rosso 0 – 145.957
19 Fernando Alonso – McLaren 0 – 145.544
20 Pastor Maldonado – Lotus 0 – 140.98