Monaco: Race – Disaster for Kimi, relief for JPM

By McLaren Fans
May 28 2006

Kimi Raikkonen looked to be in with a shout of victory at Monaco, but his chances went up in smoke whilst behind the safety car. That left Juan Pablo Montoya to celebrate 40 years of McLaren with second place, his best finish of the 2006 season.

Before the lights went out Ferrari decided to start Michael Schumacher from the pit lane with the German forcing his way through the field on the opening laps until he got stuck behind the Honda of Jenson Button which hindered his progress. Fernando Alonso drove the wheels off his Renault during the opening stint after leading away from pole position, with Mark Webber losing his third place on the second lap to Kimi Raikkonen who stormed up to the back of Alonso’s gearbox. After the first round of pit stops and group of three were seconds apart until traffic problems detached Mark Webber from the action, and then a sudden retirement putting the Williams driver out of the race. The safety car came out to allow the marshals to move Webbers car, which in turn aided the retirement of Kimi Raikkonen whose McLaren stopped with smoke pouring out and a clearly frustrated Finn talking the long walk back to paddock. This allowed Alonso to take an easy victory, as Juan Pablo Montoya never looked threatening in second, although I’m sure he just wanted to make the chequared flag after an embarrassing race two weeks ago in Spain. Rubens Barrichello, Jarno Trulli and David Coulthard all took turns at heading up third place towards the end, but a drive through for Rubens and a late retirement for Trulli handed David Coulthard and Red Bull Racing their first podium, and Coulthard’s first since 2002! Michael Schumacher put the troubles of the last 24 hours behind him and drove his way through the field to finish an impressive fifth, setting the fastest lap in the process.

McLaren will look to improve upon their second place as the team heads towards its home Grand Prix at Silverstone in two weeks time.