Monaco Grand Prix (2013): RESULT

Mercedes leading start of 2013 Monaco GP Photo

The two Mercedes out front at the start of the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix

With a Mercedes front row – and Rosberg on pole – can Mercedes finally turn their stunning qualifying in to a stunning result in Monaco?

Monaco can often be a bit of a procession, with limited opportunities to pass, and the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix was no different.

But it was so interspersed with accident and incident that it sidelined the boring bits to irrelevance and made for a cracking spectacle, a spectacle that ended, where it started, with Nico Rosberg taking a Mercedes win in his home Grand Prix.

Leading from start to finish in the Mercedes, Rosberg even had the run of luck when one of the safety car incidents allowed him a ‘free stop’ for a tyre change, but Hamilton, just seconds behind, lost out and fell from second to fourth, behind the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber. And that’s how it ended, but in between there was plenty going on.

Much of the incident was caused by the drivers nursing their tyres and bunching up, some was down to hot headedness, and it’s a mystery how Massa managed to do a perfect recreation of his crash in practice and put his Ferrari out.

Perez and Raikkonen had a couple of incidents, with a tussle on lap 53 seeing both cutting the chicane to stay on track, and a subsequent tussle sixteen laps later saw Raikkonen refusing to take evading action, which lost Perez a bit of his front wing and Raikkonen the air in his right rear tyre. That led to Perez subsequently retiring and Raikkionen – stunningly – managing to get back up to tenth by the finish.

Perez was also involved in an incident with Alonso – where Alonso was ordered to yield a place back to Perez after a tussle on the chicane – and Perez had to give a place back to button after cutting him up in the chicane. No one can accuse Perez of ‘coasting’ any more, although other accusation could perhaps be levelled.

The second safety car incident – the first was when Massa recreated his practice crash – was when Max Chilton in the Marussia and Pastor Maldonado in the Williams had a major coming together – Chilton moved across Maldonado – resulting in damage to the barriers at Tabac and a half hour stop.

The final safety car arrived after Romain Grosjean ran in to the back of Daniel Riciardo at the chicane.

So, plenty of incident and accident in between the processions, with Adrian Sutil grabbing fifth for Force India after Perez retired, Button getting sixth, Alonso a poor seventh, Vergne eighth and di Resta making a double points finish for Force India.

The 2013 Monaco Grand Prix was anything but boring. Well, most of the time.