2005 Monaco Grand Prix

The 2005 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on May 20 May 22, 2005 at the Circuit de Monaco. __FORCETOC__

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. 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, stewards removed Albers's car and deployed the safety car.

Both Renault drivers pitted immediately, but Räikkönen was unable to do the same, having just passed the pit entrance. 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.

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. 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.

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	12
Ret	20	Patrick Friesacher	Minardi-Cosworth	29	Accident	13
Ret	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Cosworth	23	Accident	7
Ret	19	Narain Karthikeyan	Jordan-Toyota	18	Hydraulics	17

Notes

• Pole position: Kimi Räikkönen
• Fastest lap: Michael Schumacher 1:15.842
• First Podium: Mark Webber
• This was the first Monaco Grand Prix held after the death of Prince Rainier III
• Banned BAR-Honda driver Jenson Button joined James Allen and Martin Brundle in the ITV-F1 commentary box to overlook the weekend's race.
• 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