Sebastian Vettel passes Raikkonen in the pits to win Monaco GP
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel won the 2017 Monaco GP on the streets of Monte Carlo after leapfrogging his teammate Kimi Raikkonen during the round of stops. This is Vettel’s second win at Monaco, and Ferrari's first since Michael Schumacher in 2001.
Raikkonen had taken his first pole since 2008 on Saturday, and won the race into the first turn Sunday afternoon ahead of Vettel.
Raikkonen then led the first half of the race as the drivers found it virtually impossible to make a pass on the narrow streets in their wider cars.
As a result, on Lap 31 the race order was still Raikkonen, Vettel, then Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz.
On Lap 32, Verstappen started the round of stops up front but Bottas pitted one lap later and remained in front of him. However, with both of them pitting, Ricciardo - who had been in fifth - had clean air, and so he started resetting the fast lap of the race out on track until, once he made his stop, he came back out in third.
It was a similar story up front when, on Lap 34, Raikkonen pitted from the lead allowing Vettel to have clean air. As a result, once Vettel made his stop he found himself coming back out with the lead.
Lewis Hamilton employed a similar strategy. After a frustrating qualifying session, the Mercedes driver started 13th on the grid. Hamilton was the last driver to pit, and so was running as high as sixth before his only stop. When Hamilton rejoined, he found himself in seventh place where he finished.
The race was virtually incident-free until 18 laps to go when a crash between Jenson Button and Pascal Wehrlein turned the Sauber on its side. The safety car was deployed and Wehrlein’s teammate Marcus Ericsson then crashed out at Ste. Devote while unlapping himself.
The race was restarted for a 12-lap shootout, with Sergio Perez making aggressive passes to try and move himself up the order. He passed Stoffel Vandoorne for 10th in Ste. Devote on the restart. While there was no contact, Vandoorne ended up in the wall. Ten laps later, things weren't so clean, when Perez got into the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat. Kvyat was out while Perez was forced to pit with damage. This handed the final points-paying position to Kevin Magnussen and - with Romain Grosjean in eighth - the Haas F1 Team finished with both cars in the points for the first time in the team's history.
Unofficial race results:
1. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
2. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
3. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
4. Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes
5. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
6. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
7. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
8. Romain Grosjean - Haas
9. Felipe Massa - Williams
10. Kevin Magnussen - Haas
11. Jolyon Palmer - Renault
12. Esteban Ocon - Force India
13. Sergio Perez - Force India
14. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso - DNF
15. Lance Stroll - Williams - DNF
16. Stoffel Vandoorne - McLaren - DNF
17. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber - DNF
18. Jenson Button - McLaren - DNF
19. Pascal Wehrlein - Sauber - DNF
20. Nico Hulkenberg - Renault - DNF
