Nico Rosberg enjoyed the perfect weekend at his home Grand Prix of Monte Carlo.
Rosberg might be a German racing driver, driving for a German manufacturer, but Rosberg grew up on the streets of Monaco, racing down the roads that he used to walk down as a child on his way to school.
He’s always been good on this track, but this weekend he was perfect.
He set the fastest times in every practice session before storming to pole position ahead of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
?It’s a great feeling to be on pole in the city where I grew up and it means so much to me to drive through the streets here in a Silver Arrow. The conditions were really difficult out there today with the rain at the start but we handled it well. I have to say thank you to everybody at the team for all of their hard work in improving our car and our performance so much since last year. Having said that, we know that race pace has been our weakness. We’ve learnt a lot since the last race, and this track should suit us, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if this will be enough.? he told formula1.com on Saturday evening after qualifying had ended.
As many had expected, with Monaco being notoriously difficult to overtake on qualifying would prove crucial.
With Rosberg and Hamilton locking out the front row they were able to control the race from the very start.
A good getaway by Vettel on the grid only threatened Rosberg’s lead, but he was easily blocked off going into the first corner.
From there Mercedes controlled the race to perfection, looking after the tyres whilst keeping the opposition behind them. As the fuel began to burn off and more grip was being laid down on the track the team informed their drivers to change their setting to increase the pace of the race.
It was just one indication to how Mercedes intended to control the race from the front with Hamilton keeping the Red Bull’s at bay behind him.
The plan however was rocked when a safety car period cost Hamilton second place, with both Red Bull’s of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber able to get past him following the first round of pit-stops.
But while they got past Hamilton, neither were a match for Rosberg who led every single lap on route to claiming victory.
?Monaco is such a special place to win and it just feels amazing today. It was my childhood dream to win this race and to do it in a Silver Arrow on the streets where I have lived all of my life is fantastic. I can’t quite believe it has happened yet and it will probably take a while to sink in. Thank you to the team for the car that we had this weekend and it’s good to have been able to show the same level of performance on Sunday and convert our pole position. The whole weekend went pretty much to plan, even though qualifying was tough with the weather conditions. I didn’t have the best start today which meant Lewis and Seb got pretty close but after the first corner, I was able to set my own pace. Then it was just a case of keeping a cool head through all the incidents and the team did a great job of keeping me in touch with what was happening. Thank you to everyone here today and back at the factories in Brackley and Brixworth. I hope this win today is the first of many more to come for us.?
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seems to be all hype (or glamour) and not good racing to me