2005 Monaco Grand Prix

  2005 Monaco Grand Prix

Race details
Race 6 of 19 in the 2005 Formula One season
Date	May 22, 2005
Official name	LXIII Grand Prix de Monaco
Location	Circuit de Monaco, Monaco
Course	Street circuit 3.34 km (2.075 mi)
Distance	78 laps, 260.52 km (161.85 mi)
Weather	Fine
Pole position
Driver	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	2:30.323 (aggregate)
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:15.842 on lap 40
Podium
First	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Nick Heidfeld	Williams-BMW
Third	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW
Lap leaders

The 2005 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on May 19– May 22, 2005 at the Circuit de Monaco. This was the first Monaco Grand Prix held after the death of Prince Rainier III. His death was the reason why the Princely Family did not attend the Grand Prix.

Summary

Polesitter Kimi Räikkönen led the field from the start of the race, and though he was at first closely followed by Fernando Alonso, he was more than five seconds ahead by the twentieth lap. Meanwhile, Karthikeyan retired without crashing but a hyradlic failure. The race progressed otherwise uneventfully, with Alonso followed by Giancarlo Fisichella, Jarno Trulli, and Mark Webber, until the twenty-third lap, when Christijan Albers spun his Minardi into a wall at Mirabeau, blocking about two-thirds of the width of the track. David Coulthard, arriving behind him, swerved and successfully stopped his Red Bull without damage; however, Michael Schumacher plowed into Coulthard, breaking off his own nosecone and damaging the Red Bull's suspension beyond repair. As more drivers reached the blocked turn, marshals removed Albers's car as the safety car was deployed.

Both Renault drivers pitted immediately, but Räikkönen - acting on instructions from McLaren chief strategist Neil Martin - continued on in what was to prove a winning move. Though this seemingly put Räikkönen in a bad spot, as all of his close competitors had pitted, he fought back with a series of brilliant laps that would give him a 34.7-second lead by the time he pitted on lap 42. Alonso, whose car was substantially slower as it was full of fuel, and whose rear tyres were wearing rapidly, was unable to catch up, and Räikkönen, after pitting, returned to the track still 13 seconds ahead. He would go on to win the race having led every lap of it. Liuzzi had smoke with his car burning the rear wing, he pulled to the pits and retired

Nick Heidfeld worked his way up from sixth grid position, passing his own teammate in the pits after Williams called him in a lap earlier whilst Alonso was badly holding the two Williams drivers up. After Heidfeld's stop, a superb overtaking manoeuvre into the Nouvelle chicane put him ahead of Alonso. Webber tried to follow suit a lap later, but on the first attempt Alonso missed the corner yet stayed in front, and on the second attempt succeeded for good, eventually taking his first career podium. Alonso straggled into fourth, his rear tyres almost entirely bald. Montoya advanced from sixteenth on the grid to an eventual fifth, finishing on Alonso's tail, followed by Michael and Ralf Schumacher, who crossed the line almost side-by-side.

Both Red Bull Racing cars ran with the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Livery and, for part of the race, the Red Bull Racing pit crew dressed up as Imperial Stormtroopers. It didn't help the team's fortunes, as this was the first race where they failed to score points.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 order	Q1 time	Q1 pos	Q1+Q2 time
1	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	18	1:13.644	1	2.30.325
2	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	17	1:14.125	2	2.30.406
3	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	13	1:14.584	3	2.31.656
4	6	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	14	1:14.783	4	2.32.100
5	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	16	1:15.189	7	2.32.590
6	8	Nick Heidfeld	Williams-BMW	9	1:15.128	6	2.32.883
7	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Cosworth	11	1:15.329	8	2.33.867
8	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	4	1:16.186	11	2.34.736
9	11	Jacques Villeneuve	Sauber-Petronas	5	1:15.921	9	2.34.936
10	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	10	1:16.142	10	2.34.983
11	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	8	1:16.218	12	2.35.120
12	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Red Bull-Cosworth	1	1:16.817	13	2.37.152
13	20	Patrick Friesacher	Minardi-Cosworth	2	1:18.574	14	2.40.810
14	21	Christijan Albers	Minardi-Cosworth	3	1:19.229	15	2.42.206
15	18	Tiago Monteiro	Jordan-Toyota	7	1:19.408	16	2.43.078
16	10	Juan Pablo Montoya#	McLaren-Mercedes	12	1:14.858	5	NO TIME
17	19	Narain Karthikeyan*	Jordan-Toyota	6	1:19.474	17	2.43.422
18	17	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	15	-	18	NO TIME

* = Narain Karthikeyan had an engine change

# = Montoya's Saturday time of 1:14.858 deleted as punishment for role in earlier practice accident

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	78	1:45:15.556	1	10
2	8	Nick Heidfeld	Williams-BMW	78	+13.877	6	8
3	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	78	+18.484	3	6
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	78	+36.487	2	5
5	10	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	78	+36.647	16	4
6	17	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	78	+37.117	18	3
7	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	78	+37.223	8	2
8	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	78	+37.570	10	1
9	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	77	+1 Lap	11
10	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	77	+1 Lap	5
11	11	Jacques Villeneuve	Sauber-Petronas	77	+1 Lap	9
12	6	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	77	+1 Lap	4
13	18	Tiago Monteiro	Jordan-Toyota	75	+3 Laps	15
14	21	Christijan Albers	Minardi-Cosworth	73	+5 Laps	14
Ret	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Red Bull-Cosworth	59	Accident damage	12
Ret	20	Patrick Friesacher	Minardi-Cosworth	29	Accident	13
Ret	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Cosworth	23	Collision damage	7
Ret	19	Narain Karthikeyan	Jordan-Toyota	18	Hydraulics	17

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	49
2	Kimi Räikkönen	27
3	Jarno Trulli	26
4	Mark Webber	18
5	Ralf Schumacher	17

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Renault	63
2	McLaren-Mercedes	51
3	Toyota	43
4	Williams-BMW	35
5	Ferrari	21

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

References

Previous race: 2005 Spanish Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2005 season	Next race: 2005 European Grand Prix
Previous race: 2004 Monaco Grand Prix	Monaco Grand Prix	Next race: 2006 Monaco Grand Prix
Awards
Preceded by 2004 Bahrain Grand Prix	Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 2005	Succeeded by 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix