The report cards of the Monaco Grand Prix

NICO ROSBERG 8

“I was very lucky today.” Definitely lucky. And this is also needed to win the grand prix. Nico, who had been taking them soundly from his teammate all weekend on the home track, took an unexpected victory which materialized as if by magic with twelve laps to go. Well yes, because throughout the race the German had to defend himself from Vettel who was chasing him lap after lap, and only saw the rear of his sister car from afar. However, when the Safety Car comes in, he inexplicably finds himself in first place, in a dream. Furthermore, there are less than ten laps left to the end of the race, and the track in question is called Monte Carlo, where not even the reigning world champion manages to overtake. Three wins in the last three years here - are we making history?

SEBASTIAN VETTEL 8.5

Once again he is the one keeping Ferrari's horse high throughout the weekend. Wherever you need to qualify on the second row to have a smooth race, he is there. Wherever an opponent's strategic error needs to be exploited, he gets there. He stalks his compatriot in the Mercedes for the entire race, trying to overtake him in the only pit but with poor results. However, he remains attached to the exhausts, and when Hamilton exits the pit lane after the infamous pit stop he is only slightly ahead of him. The last eight laps are pure passion. Defense, anything but difficult among the narrow walls of the principality, strenuous at every turn. In the end he grabbed a decidedly unexpected second place.

LEWIS HAMILTON 9

Undisputed dominator of the weekend, from qualifying to a good part of the race. We only find him relegated to third place. Lewis' race is a slow but inexorable escape, which leads him in the last twenty laps to have accumulated about twenty seconds from his rival Nico Rosberg. Then at the moment of the Safety Car the darkness, his mind becomes clouded and his clarity disappears. He declares that he trusted the Team, but a "are you sure guys?" plus, he would definitely have saved the “guys what's going on?” once he realized the mess. Ok, far from blaming him for the omelette, but... a proverb says, trusting is good...

DANIIL KVYAT 7.5

On an extraordinarily fit Redbull - a matter of track - the young and talented Russian manages to qualify very well on Saturday, in fifth position, and after a few meters on Sunday he gets Ricciardo out of the way, with a rocket start. From the first lap onwards it's a continuous grind of kilometers trying to get away from his teammate and Raikkonen. After the entry of the Safety car he had to give way to his teammate on supersoft tyres, only to then regain the position on the last lap thanks to an order from the team.

DANIEL RICCIARDO 7

Good fourth position in qualifying for the Australian on Saturday. On Sunday his teammate suffers quite a bit: at the start he gets mocked and is hounded until the pit stop by Raikkonen. On the thirty-eighth lap, in fact, in the pit stop he loses the position in favor of the Ferrari driver, however he demonstrates that he has a better pace, and having a large gap behind him, at the time of Verstappen's accident he decides to mount supersoft tires to attempt the going for broke in the final laps. Attacking Raikkonen, he overtakes him, almost sending him into the wall in a maneuver bordering on regularity, then also overtakes Kvyat and follows the Vettel Hamilton pair hoping for some mistakes. Eventually the team asks him to give the position back to Kvyat, and he obeys having failed to pass Hamilton's Mercedes.

KIMI RAIKKONEN 6

Skimpy enough this time for Ferrari's Finn. Sixth place in qualifying is not enough. Having overtaken Ricciardo at the pit stop is not enough. Ferrari wants much more from him. It's okay that Monaco isn't marked by overtaking, but Kimi seems to suffer the events that happen to him. Furthermore, in the end, he loses in a personal battle with the Redbulls, and is forced to settle for sixth place.

SERGIO PEREZ 7.5

Force India finds itself in the Principality, emulating Red Bull, and Sergio Perez manages to bring the car to a very honorable seventh place (very honorable given the previous ones). The Mexican's race is rather solitary, as the cars in front of him immediately manage to gain a large gap, and he himself manages to distance himself from those behind him. The 78 laps are a challenge against himself and against time. In the end, after the Safety Car, he finds himself on the track with supersoft tires and could even attack Raikkonen's Ferrari, but the track is not exactly one for easy overtaking. All in all a great race.

JENSON BUTTON 8

Starting from tenth position on the grid, the Englishman accomplished the feat that everyone at McLaren had been waiting for. The first points of the season. At the start he immediately lost a position on Hulkenberg, which he promptly recovered shortly afterwards. From then on it's a race with constant qualifying laps. Having overtaken Maldonado, Jenson continues his ride, which takes him to eighth place thanks to Verstappen's first pit pit trouble. Thus he ends the match without too many emotions at the end. It will be a big party tonight in the McLaren hospitality.

FELIPE NASR 7.5

From fourteenth on the starting grid, Felipe manages a sporting miracle, bringing his Sauber into the points. Of course he took advantage of the numerous retirements ahead of him, nevertheless it remains a great race and a good result for a team that certainly hadn't shone in the last few races. He gains two positions at the start, then starts chasing the two McLarens. With Alonso and Verstappen out, he managed to comfortably climb into the points, finishing ninth.

CARLOS SAINZ JR. 6.5

Speaking of sporting miracles, here's another pilot that's no laughing matter. Starting from the pit lane and finishing in tenth place in Monaco is no mean feat. With a different strategy and with a long stint on the soft tyres, Tororosso manages to make the Spaniard's race variable, offering him a good window of opportunity to do very well. He takes advantage of it and manages to bring home his nice little point. Another story is the lightness of Saturday which cost him the start from the pit lane. A naivety that should not be repeated for any reason.

NICO HULKENBERG 6

The second Force India to reach the finish line certainly had less luck than the first. Starting in the group, in eleventh position, Nico was knocked out by Alonso after a few corners. Forced to return to the pits, losing a lot of time on the return lap and replacing the wing, he had to invent something different to recover. It slowly climbs up to eleventh place, where it then closes, just outside the points.

ROMAIN GROSJEAN 6

Starting with a penalty already on his shoulders, fifteenth, for a good part of the race he remained behind Nasr, recovering positions depending on who retired in front. He defends himself well from the recovery of the attacking Verstappen, avoiding being fooled by the Dutchman like Sainz and Bottas. However, the bad luck doesn't completely abandon him, so Max decides to hit his right rear tire - it's a miracle he held up - sending him into a spin in front of Santa Devota. The Frenchman returns to the track in twelfth position and from there there is little to do other than bring the car to the finish line.

MARCUS ERICSSON 5.5

"Disappointing race,” the Swede told journalists. A good pace at times but the result is certainly not satisfactory. Starting from seventeenth position, we couldn't expect much, although the comparison with his teammate didn't guarantee him passing after 78 laps.

VALTTERI BOTTAS 4

What a disappointment. We really never expected such a negative performance from the Williams Finn. Surprisingly, Sabato was immediately excluded from Q1, obtaining seventeenth place and then starting sixteenth. In the race he is never seen, and when it is time to defend himself, he even manages to let Verstappen pass him while giving way to Vettel. He finishes the race in fourteenth position. A race to forget, in a weekend to be erased from the Williams annals.

FELIPE MASSA 5

Another sore point of the Williams weekend. Even the Brazilian didn't fare very well in qualifying, obtaining just fourteenth position. On the first lap of the race he gets a puncture which forces him to pit and also change the nose cone, losing a lot of time. Back on the track he can't do much except stay in front of the two Manors... at least that.

ROBERTO MEHRI 6 & WILL STEVENS 6

They exchange positions between qualifying and the race, but, noteworthy, they don't crash into any wall for 78 laps! Fair race for the Manor. In the drivers' standings they are both ahead of Maldonado.

MAX VERSTAPPEN 5

Unfortunately we cannot give him a passing grade due to the bad accident on lap 65, which put the race at risk, as well as Grosjean's safety. For the rest his race is a spectacle. In the first laps Maldonado passes on the outside of Santa Devota in a thrilling overtaking. He is clever to take advantage of the blue flags for Vettel, and by chasing him he manages to pass Sainz and Bottas as they left the way for the German. Having arrived behind the Frenchman, however, he makes a serious mistake when braking. In addition to retiring, it will also cost him five positions on the grid in the next Canadian GP.

FERNANDO ALONSO 6

You are trusted. Blocked in qualifying and blocked in the race when he was on the edge of the points zone. Find an exorcist for that car.

PASTOR MALDONADO SV

Five retirements out of six races. What a joke!

LE PAJELLE (the best and worst of the weekend)

GRID BOYS: In the calm sobriety of the principality's weekend, the act of an opera called hypocrisy is staged: for gender equality this time there are boys marking the pitches instead of the usual models. Just the right place to show everyone this momentum for gender equality. The good Jackie Stewart takes care of playing it down to the RAI microphones: "how's it going Jackie, are you always happy to be here on the grid?" “Yes but I wanted girls!”

MAZZONI AND THE TECHNICAL DATA: Gianfranco always wants to delight us with good and sound technical analysis, and so on with the 4000 gear changes per lap... nothing but cramps in the fingers, poor riders (PS: the gear changes are around 90 per lap).

WHAT'S HAPPENING GUYS?: “Sing to me, O Diva of the Hamilton driver/ the fatal wrath that brought countless deaths/ deaths to the Muretto, many before the time for dismissal/ generous overwhelming souls of engineers.” Aside from this low-grade readjustment, what did they smoke or drink at the Mercedes wall this afternoon? Or smoked and drank, because the shit is powerful. German Mercedes strategists of the caliber of the French ones at Waterloo. Hamilton's latest radio team is worth a thousand words “Don't talk to me!”.

Matteo Bramati.