| 2007 Monaco Grand Prix | |||||
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Race 5 of 17 in the2007 Formula One World Championship
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| Race details | |||||
| Date | 27 May 2007 | ||||
| Official name | Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2007 | ||||
| Location | Circuit de Monaco | ||||
| Course | Street circuit | ||||
| Course length | 3.34 km (2.08 miles) | ||||
| Distance | 78 laps, 260.52 km (162.24 miles) | ||||
| Weather | Cloudy, air temp 24–27 °C (75–81 °F), track temp 33–42 °C (91–108 °F) | ||||
| Pole position | |||||
| Driver | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Time | 1:15.726 | ||||
| Fastest lap | |||||
| Driver |  Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:15.284 on lap 44 | ||||
| Podium | |||||
| First | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Second | McLaren-Mercedes | ||||
| Third | Ferrari | ||||
Lap leaders | |||||
The2007 Monaco Grand Prix (officially theFormula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2007)[1] was aFormula One motor race held on 27 May 2007 at theCircuit de Monaco. It was the fifth race of the2007 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The 78-lap race was won frompole position by Spanish driverFernando Alonso, driving aMcLaren-Mercedes. Alonso took his second consecutive Monaco win by four seconds from English teammateLewis Hamilton, with BrazilianFelipe Massa third in aFerrari.
The Grand Prix was contested by 22 drivers, in eleven teams of two. The teams, also known as "constructors", wereRenault,McLaren-Mercedes,Ferrari,Honda,Spyker-Ferrari,BMW Sauber,Toyota,Red Bull-Renault,Williams-Toyota,Toro Rosso-Ferrari andSuper Aguri.
Before the race, McLaren driverLewis Hamilton led theDrivers' Championship, with 30 points, ahead of team-mateFernando Alonso on 28 and Ferrari driverFelipe Massa on 27 points. Massa's team-mateKimi Räikkönen was fourth, ahead of BMW Sauber'sNick Heidfeld in fifth. In theConstructors' Championship, McLaren were leading with 58 points, nine points ahead of Ferrari with 49 points; BMW Sauber were a further 26 points in third.
Testing started a week and a half before the race atCircuit Paul Ricard using the circuit's 2D SC configuration to replicate the Circuit de Monaco.[2]Lewis Hamilton went on to score the fastest times on the days of testing whilst the circuit was in the Monaco configuration.
Hamilton, who had never lost a race on theMonte Carlo track (having won there in bothGP2 andF3)[3] played down his chances of winning the race, although he still remained "realistic" and optimistic, looking to fight for a win as is "the case with everything (he) competes in."[3]
Six days before the race, Ferrari employeeNigel Stepney tried to sabotage Kimi Räikkönen's and Felipe Massa's cars, when a mysterious powder was found in the fuel tank of Räikkönen's and Massa's car. The parts were replaced before the race and the powder was sent to the police to be examined. Stepney was reportedly angry with Ferrari for not being promoted to technical director afterRoss Brawn, left the team after last season.[4]
Ferrari changed the colour of their car dark red which was changed to approximate the color scheme used by Marlboro.[5]
The final practice session on Saturday morning was heavily affected by rain.Adrian Sutil of Spyker topped the timesheets for this session due to the conditions.
Qualifying was dominated throughout by the two McLarens of Hamilton andFernando Alonso. Despite Hamilton setting fastest times for the first session, Alonso outpaced him in the final stages to take pole position, with Hamilton being held up slightly byMark Webber.Felipe Massa ofFerrari qualified third fastest, posting a time after the clock stopped.Kimi Räikkönen made a mistake and hit the barriers coming out of the Swimming Pool Complex during the second qualifying stage, breaking his front-right suspension. The damage inflicted could not be repaired and he qualified sixteenth. Despite provisionally making the top ten,David Coulthard was penalised for impedingHeikki Kovalainen and demoted to thirteenth.[6] Coulthard's demotion allowedJenson Button to participate in the final qualifying stage, but he failed to move up the field and finished the qualifying session in 10th place.
Of those whose qualifying went well, former Monaco residentGiancarlo Fisichella fared best, putting hisRenault on the second row in fourth place.Nico Rosberg's performance marked a return to form for hisWilliams team; his fifth place was the British constructor's best qualifying position since Mark Webber's second place at the same track one year before in2006. Webber himself also fared well, filling the second slot on row three, alongside Rosberg, in sixth place.
The race started at 14:00CET. From the starting line everyone got away for the first laps, withHamilton diving in behindAlonso to defend any of the Ferrari's advances. After the race, FIA launched an investigation of the McLaren team for giving out team orders, to the effect of asking Hamilton not to attempt to race or overtake Alonso.[7] McLaren were later cleared of any wrongdoing by the FIA.[8]
No other car in the field could keep up with the sheer pace of both of the McLaren-Mercedes, withMassa, after a competitive first stint in third place, dropping to sixty seconds behind Hamilton. Notably, he was the only car the two McLaren drivers did not lap during the afternoon.
Kimi Räikkönen came back up the field to eighth place to gain one championship point after his poor qualifying performance.
Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed out of the race on the second lap, a fate that befellSpyker driverAdrian Sutil in the second half of the Grand Prix. The other Spyker car, driven byChristijan Albers failed to finish the race due to a mechanical problem. The only other retirement wasMark Webber, whoseRed Bull's gearbox failed in the early stages of the race.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren-Mercedes | 78 | 1:40:29.329 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 2 |  Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 78 | +4.095 | 2 | 8 |
| 3 | 5 |  Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 78 | +1:09.114 | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 3 |  Giancarlo Fisichella | Renault | 77 | +1 Lap | 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 10 |  Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 77 | +1 Lap | 8 | 4 |
| 6 | 9 |  Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 77 | +1 Lap | 7 | 3 |
| 7 | 17 |  Alexander Wurz | Williams-Toyota | 77 | +1 Lap | 11 | 2 |
| 8 | 6 |  Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 77 | +1 Lap | 16 | 1 |
| 9 | 19 |  Scott Speed | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 77 | +1 Lap | 18 | |
| 10 | 8 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 77 | +1 Lap | 9 | |
| 11 | 7 | Jenson Button | Honda | 77 | +1 Lap | 10 | |
| 12 | 16 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 77 | +1 Lap | 5 | |
| 131 | 4 | Heikki Kovalainen | Renault | 76 | Engine | 15 | |
| 14 | 14 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Renault | 76 | +2 Laps | 13 | |
| 15 | 12 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 76 | +2 Laps | 14 | |
| 16 | 11 | Ralf Schumacher | Toyota | 76 | +2 Laps | 20 | |
| 17 | 22 |  Takuma Sato | Super Aguri-Honda | 76 | +2 Laps | 21 | |
| 18 | 23 | Anthony Davidson | Super Aguri-Honda | 76 | +2 Laps | 17 | |
| 191 | 21 |  Christijan Albers | Spyker-Ferrari | 70 | Driveshaft | 22 | |
| Ret | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Spyker-Ferrari | 53 | Accident | 19 | |
| Ret | 15 |  Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 17 | Gearbox | 6 | |
| Ret | 18 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1 | Accident | 12 | |
Source:[11] | |||||||
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| Previous race: 2007 Spanish Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2007 season | Next race: 2007 Canadian Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2006 Monaco Grand Prix | Monaco Grand Prix | Next race: 2008 Monaco Grand Prix |
43°44′4.74″N7°25′16.8″E / 43.7346500°N 7.421333°E /43.7346500; 7.421333
