2004 Monaco Grand Prix

  2004 Monaco Grand Prix

Race details
Race 6 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One season
Date	May 23, 2004
Official name	LXII Grand Prix de Monaco
Location	Circuit de Monaco, Monaco
Course	Street circuit 3.34 km (2.075 mi)
Distance	77 laps, 257.18 km (159.775 mi)
Weather	Fine
Pole position
Driver	Jarno Trulli	Renault
Time	1:13.985
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:14.439 on lap 23
Podium
First	Jarno Trulli	Renault
Second	Jenson Button	BAR Honda
Third	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari

Michael Schumacher and Takuma Sato, in qualifying, en route to setting the fifth and eighth best times respectively

The 2004 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on May 23, 2004 at the Circuit de Monaco.

Summary

One of the most eventful races of the 2004 season, the Monaco Grand Prix saw Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher qualify in fourth place (his time was actually fifth best; his brother Ralf qualified second, but was dropped ten places as a penalty for changing engines). Italian Renault driver Jarno Trulli took his first pole position and made it his first race win, breaking the elder Schumacher's streak of race wins.

The race began with Trulli on pole and BAR's Jenson Button behind; Renault's Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher occupied the second row. After two aborted starts (Olivier Panis stalled his Toyota and Trulli's Renault leaked coolant onto the track) the parade lap began; Panis stalled again and started the race from the pits. As the race began, BAR's Takuma Sato made an excellent start, moving from eighth to fourth in seconds. Presently Sato's engine began smoking; on the third lap, it exploded spectacularly and released an enormous cloud of smoke, in which Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella collided with McLaren’s David Coulthard and overturned. Both drivers were unhurt but out of the race, as was Sato.

Out came the yellow flags, and the race proceeded under the safety car until the eighth lap, at which point Alonso fought Trulli for the lead, followed by Button. When the race restarted, Juan Pablo Montoya moved past Rubens Barrichello to take sixth position, and Trulli set three consecutive fastest laps, but was only able to increase his lead to 1.2 seconds over Alonso. The leaders began their first pit stops on lap 18, and by Michael Schumacher's stop on lap 26, Trulli led from Alonso, with Schumacher now in third ahead of both Kimi Räikkönen and Button.

On lap 28, Räikkönen retired with mechanical troubles, joining Jaguar's Christian Klien and Mark Webber, as well as Jordan's Giorgio Pantano and Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni on the sidelines.

In an attempt to lap Ralf Schumacher, who was down in 11th position, Alonso tried to pass him offline around the outside in the tunnel and crashed heavily. Alonso was enraged by this incident, and publicly accused Ralf of dangerous driving. The safety car was immediately deployed, and all of the front-runners (except Michael Schumacher and Montoya) took the opportunity to pit. As the safety car prepares to pit for the race restart, it is common for the lead driver to slow down, to bunch up the field and choose the opportunity to accelerate to the starting line. It is also common for drivers to swerve back and forth, accelerate and decelerate rapidly to impart heat into their brakes and tires. Montoya (who was a lap down) seemed to be watching his mirrors and not what was happening in front of him as they entered the tunnel. Schumacher suddenly slowed and locked his left front brake after apparently being surprised by the slow speed of the safety car and Montoya moved to the inside trying to avoid running into the back of Schumacher. However as Schumacher continued there was no space between his car and the barrier for Montoya's and he clipped Montoya's left front tyre with his right rear, spun sideways and hit the barriers. This accident ended Schumacher's hopes for a sixth consecutive victory and a perfect season.

As the order settled down towards the end of the race, Trulli led from Button, with Barrichello in third. The top three were a lap in front of the rest of the field, and the only drivers with a chance of winning the race. Barrichello needed to pit with 22 laps remaining, and rejoined too far behind the top two in order to make a challenge. From then on, it was a straight fight between Trulli and Button, but Monaco is notoriously the hardest circuit to make a passing move on. Therefore, Button having no chance of passing, Trulli took the win by close to half a second.

Thursday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Thursday. These drivers drove on Thursday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Constructor	Nat	Driver
BAR-Honda		Anthony Davidson
Sauber-Petronas		-
Jaguar-Cosworth		Björn Wirdheim
Toyota		Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Ford		Timo Glock
Minardi-Cosworth		Bas Leinders

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Time	Gap
1	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:13.985	—
2	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:14.345	+0.360
3	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:14.396	+0.411
4	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:14.408	+0.423
5	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:14.516	+0.531
6	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:14.592	+0.607
7	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:14.716	+0.731
8	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	1:14.827	+0.842
9	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:14.951	+0.966
10	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:15.039	+1.054
11	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	1:15.352	+1.367
12	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:15.725	+1.740
13	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:15.859	+1.874
14	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:15.919	+1.934
15	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	1:16.169	+2.184
16	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:16.248	+2.263
17	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	1:16.488	+2.503
18	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	1:17.443	+3,458
19	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	1:20.060	+6.075
20	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	1:20.115	+6.130

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	77	1:45:46.601	1	10
2	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	77	+0.497	2	8
3	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	77	+1:15.766	6	6
4	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	76	+1 Lap	9	5
5	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	76	+1 Lap	16	4
6	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	76	+1 Lap	15	3
7	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	75	+2 Laps	17	2
8	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	74	+3 Laps	13	1
9	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	71	+6 Laps	19
10	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	69	Gearbox	12
Ret	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	45	Collision damage	4
Ret	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	41	Accident	3
Ret	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	27	Pneumatics	5
Ret	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	15	Gearbox	20
Ret	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	12	Transmission	18
Ret	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	11	Gearbox	11
Ret	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	2	Engine	7
Ret	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	2	Collision	8
Ret	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	2	Collision	10
Ret	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	0	Accident	14

Notes

• Lap Leaders: Jarno Trulli 72 (1-23, 26-42, 46-77), Fernando Alonso 1 (24) and Michael Schumacher 4 (25, 43-45)
• This was Jarno Trulli's first pole position and only victory in his career.
• This race marked the only retirement of the season for Michael Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella.
• Olivier Panis started this race from the pit lane.
• Both of the Jaguar Racing R5 cars ran with Ocean's Twelve and Steinmetz Diamonds livery to represent the upcoming film, Ocean's Twelve starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, both of which were present at the Monaco Grand Prix along with other special guests such as Roger Moore. As Klien crashed in the first lap, the diamond was lost in the incident.

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Michael Schumacher	50
2	Rubens Barrichello	38
3	Jenson Button	32
4	Jarno Trulli	31
5	Juan Pablo Montoya	23

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Ferrari	88
2	Renault	52
3	BAR-Honda	40
4	Williams-BMW	35
5	Sauber-Petronas	7

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Previous race: 2004 Spanish Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2004 season	Next race: 2004 European Grand Prix
Previous race: 2003 Monaco Grand Prix	Monaco Grand Prix	Next race: 2005 Monaco Grand Prix