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Martin Brundle: Drivers take starring role in memorable Monaco GP

The Sky F1 pundit reviews a classic Monaco as Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton shine while Nico Rosberg & Max Verstappen suffer

Despite the magnificent setting, the high-tech cars, and the numerous celebs populating the grid, the drivers were far and away the stars of the show in Monaco.

Not least for their commitment and pace throughout practice and qualifying followed by astonishing control and skill on a treacherous circuit on race day. Well, for some anyway.

These latest F1 cars have prodigious levels of torque, and a flex of the right toe can be enough to light up the rear wheels on the cambers, bumps and painted lines of the street layout. They are also lardy machines when it comes to the braking zones with complex brake-by-wire systems to master too.

It was a race where all five Pirelli tyre choices were used at some point. After three days of relentless dry running on a well rubbered-in track the heavens opened and, with just a few formation laps to the grid, they would race headlong into the great unknown. That is once the Safety Car had outstayed its welcome and finally moved out of the limelight.

Daniel Ricciardo had declared it 'my time' after his blistering pole position and that's very much how it looked in the race. He streaked away as an increasingly impatient Lewis Hamilton was holed up behind his unusually slow team-mate Nico Rosberg.

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Ted Kravitz analyses all the action from and offers his verdict on the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix.

Confidence is everything in those conditions and it all snowballs. Speed means heat in the brakes and tyres which means more speed, and so on. Rosberg has impressively won the last three races in Monaco but he looked strangely out of sorts all afternoon. Being mugged in the very last corner for sixth place by Nico Hulkenberg summed it up.

Critically he had been asked to let Hamilton by early in the race, a willing decision, which Hamilton described as 'gentlemanly' and also which played a key role in his team winning the race. And of course his main championship rival winning too. With traffic-affected pit stops and being caught behind Fernando Alonso's occasionally steady McLaren, Rosberg was almost lapped.

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Once clear Hamilton's pace was very impressive. By hanging on very successfully to his initial wet tyres for 31 laps and then going straight to slicks he at least put himself in contention and gained track position over Ricciardo.

Hamilton's long opening stint from third on the grid, and subsequent pace to the end on ultrasoft tyres, justifies why he doesn't feel it was a lucky win.

Even so it looked like Red Bull's race to lose, which sadly they did. A full 13 seconds was given away while they looked for tyres to put on at a stop which the team called.

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Red Bull didn't have the tyres ready for Daniel Ricciardo's second pit stop, which meant that Lewis Hamilton could take the lead of the Monaco GP

Out on track Hamilton was struggling for grip on his fresh slicks on a surface which he would later describe as like driving on ice. But still it was enough to stay ahead of the delayed Aussie, a lead he would take to the finish in some style.

We are so used to seeing Ricciardo smiling but on the podium he looked gaunt, broken, and gutted as he shook his head in disbelief. His Monaco GP victory had been stolen from him. It will be a long-lasting pain starting particularly when he opened his eyes on Monday morning. On the podium Hamilton congratulated him on his performance, which would have lessened the misery not one little bit.

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Sky F1's very own Martin Brundle conducts the podium interviews with the top 3 drivers following the Monaco Grand Prix.

I'm told it was a number of small errors which aligned for the Red Bull pit-stop disaster, and that the blame does not lie with the mechanics. Sometimes the driver bins it, sometimes the car fails, sometimes the pit stops go wrong. But this was a great performance on a track which many described as one of the toughest they'd ever driven.

Hamilton was a little lucky to get away with running through the escape zone at the sea front chicane and then subsequently blocking Ricciardo. I'm all up for less race control interference in combat action providing it's consistently applied.

One of the star drivers of the day was Sergio Perez who showed great maturity and speed to beat Vettel to the final spot on that legendary Royal podium. A great result for Force India doing their usual David and Goliath act. Considering performance per pound spent, they are the champions.

Others strong drives came from Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz, and Fernando Alonso. In the post-race paddock there were many who felt they could and should have been third and on the podium.

Very much in the naughty corner were Jolyon Palmer, Daniil Kvyat, Kimi Raikkonen, Marcus Ericsson, Kevin Magnussen and Max Verstappen. In fact, the Red Bull and Renault carbon and suspension shops will be flat out up to Canada feverishly making some spares.

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Lewis Hamilton wins the Monaco GP his first victory of the season.

This is the biggest test of Verstappen's career, given that he whacked the wall three times in two days, very much showing his lack of experience. He undid much of the good work from two weeks earlier, and it will now be very easy to become tense in the car in wheel-to-wheel combat and when it slides around. I suspect he will be just fine and totally flat out from lap one in Canada, but we'll see.

Now just 24 points behind, it bizarrely feels that Hamilton is the favourite for the title again, especially given his general speed this year notwithstanding the technical gremlins. And the psychological pendulum swung significantly his way on Sunday.

The Monaco GP and rain is like fish and chips and gin and tonic, made for each other and very enjoyable.

Montreal can throw some variables into the mix too, talk to you from there.  

MB

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