F1 News
Date:
26/May/2013
Nico Rosberg took his and Mercedes first victory of the F1
season at Monaco on Sunday, repeating his qualifying form despite two safety
car periods and a restart.
Rosberg, whose previous F1 win came in China last year, won
by 3.8s from reigning Champion Sebastian Vettel, whose Red Bull team-mate Mark
Webber took third.
“Unbelievable!” beamed Rosberg, who grew up in Monaco and
whose father Keke won the 1983 race. “When I was quite young, my first memories
were of Ayrton Senna with his yellow helmet, red and white car winning.
“It was a childhood dream to one day win the Grand Prix of
Monaco, because it is my home and that’s the most special race for me to win,
so the feeling was just incredible, it was unreal.
“That’s what’s so special about the sport: these great emotions
of joy and winning that make up for all the difficult moments that have gone
before. Amazing.”
But even as Rosberg spoke more ‘difficult moments’ were
brewing, with Mercedes facing an official protest for a ‘secret’ tyre test
following the previous Spanish round, at which Mercedes had struggled badly for
tyre performance.
Mercedes insisted they had not broken the strict testing
rules since the outing had been arranged by Pirelli and apparently cleared by
the FIA. They also claimed to have no knowledge of which tyres were being used.
However rivals teams - especially Red Bull and Ferrari -
were furious that a current 2013 car had been chosen and deeply suspicious that
no mention of the (1000km) test was made by Mercedes, Pirelli, Rosberg or Lewis
Hamilton until the news broke on Sunday morning in Monaco.
Adding to the pressure on Mercedes, it later emerged that the
FIA ‘clearance’ for the test was far from clear cut.
“Pirelli and Mercedes-AMG were advised by the FIA that such
a development test [with a current car] could be possible if carried out by
Pirelli, as opposed to the team that would provide the car and driver, and that
such tests would be conditional upon every team being given the same
opportunity to test in order to ensure full sporting equity,” said an FIA
statement.
“Following this communication, the FIA received no further
information about a possible test from Pirelli or from Mercedes-AMG.
Furthermore, the FIA received no confirmation that all teams had been given an
opportunity to take part in this test.”
The matter has now been referred to an FIA tribunal. It
remains to be seen what action, if any, will be taken, although Rosberg’s victory
does not appear to be in jeopardy.
“You have to ask Pirelli about this issue. I’m not going to
comment,” said Rosberg.
But Webber was prepared to comment.
“We were a little bit surprised that it happened,” said the
Australian. “I don’t think it had a huge
bearing on today’s result. I think their car was always going to perform pretty
well round here, to be fair, but yeah, you can’t unlearn what went on at the
test obviously.
“So we need to see how the test came about and whether it’s
within the rules or not. I’m sure Mercedes thought it was OK, so that’s why
they did it, so time will tell. But I don’t think it affected today’s result.”
Hamilton had been running second in the early part of the
race, but lost out to the Red Bulls during a safety car period and dropped to
fourth.
Vettel has now increased his title lead to 21-points over
Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus) who crossed the line in tenth after a late puncture due
to contact with Sergio Perez.
Despite his victory, Rosberg is only sixth in the standings
having suffered two non-scores from the six races so far. Monaco was also his
first podium finish of the season.
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