F1 2016: Ten talking points from the Monaco GP

Lewis Hamilton recovered from the mechanical issues that hindered him in qualifying to win a rain-hit Monaco Grand Prix from third on the grid, cutting the gap to teammate Nico Rosberg at the top of the championship by 19 points in the process.

Daniel Ricciardo looked to be in control having held onto his lead after the race had started under the safety car, but a disastrous pit stop from Red Bull saw him slip behind his Mercedes rival after the latter had opted for a different strategy.

With the track drying, Hamilton stayed out on wet tyres while Ricciardo pitted for intermediates. Even when the time came for both drivers to switch onto dry rubber it looked like the Australian would emerge in front, but a communication error meant that Red Bull didn’t have fresh tyres ready when the call to pit was made.

The wait cost Ricciardo more than ten seconds, allowing Hamilton to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish en route to the chequered flag.

Hamilton’s victory was made possible by an off colour Nico Rosberg, who could only finish seventh on a circuit where he was searching for his fourth consecutive win.

Mercedes reported that the German was managing a problem with his brake temperatures, although it’s not clear if that alone was enough to account for him being nearly a lap down on his teammate by the end of the race.

Recognising that Hamilton was quicker early on, the team ordered Rosberg to move aside; a call that Rosberg later admitted was “pretty simple” from their point of view.

After winning the first four races of the year Rosberg has taken just six points from the previous two grands prix, and now second-placed Hamilton is only 24 points behind him.

Perhaps that talk of the title race being over was a tad premature...

Red Bull will be relieved to be challenging at the front again for the first time in the hybrid era (their three victories in 2014 came after problems for Mercedes), but that will be of no comfort to Daniel Ricciardo right now.

He was in a position to win the Spanish Grand Prix a fortnight ago, only for the team to move him onto a less competitive strategy that saw him finish fourth. Worse still for Ricciardo was that teammate Max Verstappen took the chequered flag having remained on the optimum strategy.

This weekend Ricciardo was leading again, but when he pitted for the final time there were no tyres waiting for him as the mechanics removed his intermediates. With overtaking opportunities almost non-existent in Monaco, the mistake undoubtedly robbed him of victory.

“Two weeks in a row I have been screwed,” said a dejected Ricciardo afterwards. “It sucks. I didn’t make the call. I got called so they should have been ready. It hurts.”

Prior to the race, Ricciardo claimed the first pole position of his F1 career in his 94^th grand prix weekend. The Aussie set a blistering time of 1:13.622, 0.169 seconds faster than Nico Rosberg and more than three tenths quicker than Lewis Hamilton.

Ricciardo benefitted from an engine upgrade going into the race, giving him a boost of 30bhp and roughly 0.2 seconds of pace per lap around the twisty streets of Monte Carlo.

Pulling into parc ferme after his pole lap in Q3, the 26-year-old made his delight very clear over the team radio: “It’s my time! It’s my ******* time!”

Not quite, Daniel. Not quite.

Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez have endured a disappointing start to the year, with their car unable to deliver the level of performance they’d been hoping for following pre-season testing.

However, the VJM09s surprised everyone with their pace this weekend, enabling Sergio Perez to emerge from a chaotic midfield to claim only the fourth podium in the team’s history.

The Mexican drove superbly to work his way up to third ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel before the half-way point, and the 26-year-old successfully defended the position for an hour to secure the sixth podium finish of his F1 career.

Meanwhile Nico Hulkenberg was able to attack Nico Rosberg in the latter stages, stealing sixth place away place from his fellow countryman in the last few metres of the race. Sneaky!

The young Dutchman might be the hottest property in F1 right now, but there’s no escaping the fact that he still lacks racing experience.

Verstappen tagged one of the barriers in the practice session before qualifying, and then suffered a more substantial crash in Q1 which left him at the back of the grid for the race.

Starting from the pit lane the 18-year-old made great strides towards the top ten, but his race ended an hour into the grand prix as he lost control of his car coming over the hill into Massenet.

Following last year’s race-ending collision involving Romain Grosjean in 2015, Verstappen has now racked up four notable crashes in his two visits to Monaco as a Formula One driver. Room for improvement, there.

Another unexpected result came from McLaren, who were disappointing in qualifying having promised to be much more competitive at F1’s most glamorous event.

However, Fernando Alonso proved that he is still one of the most consistent drivers anywhere in the world by finishing in fifth place, the team’s joint-best result since joining forces again with engine-makers Honda.

The team has now leapfrogged Haas F1 in the constructors standings, and the result will give them something to celebrate on the 50^th anniversary of their first F1 race.

Jenson Button also finished in the top ten – a steady ninth place ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa – to give the team their second double-points finish of 2016. That’s twice as many as last year already!

Sauber aren’t having a great time of it at the moment, as their joint-last place in the constructors championship alongside Manor demonstrates. However, there’s tension between the drivers as well that isn’t helping team morale.

Two thirds of the way through the grand prix, Felipe Nasr was instructed to let his teammate Marcus Ericsson though into fifteenth place. The Brazilian refused, and Ericsson decided to take matters into his own hands with an attempted overtake in Rascasse.

The two cars collided, and five minutes later both drivers had retired from the race.

With the Swiss outfit’s financial future in doubt beyond this season, they certainly won’t attract much needed funds with stunts like this one.

As well as the two Saubers coming together, several other cars were caught out by the impossibly small margins for error around the streets of Monte Carlo.

Jolyon Palmer was the first to retire after the Renault driver was caught out by the lack of grip on the zebra crossing near Turn 1, while a collision between Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen put the Finn out of the race with irreparable damage.

Kevin Magnussen was also involved in a collision as Daniil Kvyat tried an ambitious move in the third sector: the Toro Rosso driver was forced to retire, although Magnussen was able to continue for a while until calling it a day a short time later.

The spirit of Pastor Maldonado lives on in F1...

Before the weekend had properly got underway, Pirelli unveiled the new, wider tyres that will they will introduce to the sport from next season.

Although the compounds are still being developed, the dimensions have been set: 2017’s rears will be 405mm wide, up from the current 325mm, and the fronts will increase to 305mm, also up from the 245mm measurement in use today.

The regulations are being changed to give cars more mechanical grip, which bosses hope will improve racing by allowing drivers to follow each other more closely.

Meanwhile, some other big news went relatively unnoticed: remember that public bust-up between Renault and Red Bull that went on for ages last year? The two parties have just agreed a new engine partnership for 2017 and 2018, with Toro Rosso also reverting back from the Ferrari power units they’re running this season.

All that arguing looks a bit pointless now, doesn’t it?