Six Races, Six Drivers .... Mark Webber Wins the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix

In a season like no other (recently) Mark Webber takes victory at the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix to make it six different drivers to win the first six races.

With the action starting from take off, anyone watching knew that it was going to be a race to remember. An incident packed start saw contact between Romain Grosjean and Schumacher, the man who had been quickest in qualifying tipping the Lotus into a spin and into retirement. Further back, there was also contact between Jenson Button and Kamui Kobayashi and Pastor Maldonado and Pedro De la Rosa, leading to an early safety car situation. Although Button and Schumacher were able to continue, the others were not so fortunate.

Monaco can bring out the best and worst in the drivers and it seemed no different this year. Lotus' Kimi Räikkönen essentially held off most of the pack by mid race and was able to defend against nearly half of the drives. Unlike Schumacher, Räikkönen has had a glorious return to Formula One and it looks like he has lost none of his charm.

Lewis Hamilton though, he just seemed to be having a tough race. From a poor take off to debris falling on his head from the pit boards, a fifth place finish is a great end to a bad day.

Jenson Button had been stuck behind Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen for most of the race and eventually outbraked himself out of frustration in to the swimming pool chicane, pitching the car in to a spin but getting a puncture which ended his race.

With overtaking opportunities around the tight confines few and far between, the key moments were always going to come down to tyre strategy and the all important pit stops. With rain in the air all of the teams extended their opening stints, causing what had been a tightly bunched field to spread out as different drivers struggled with degradation. The rain started to fall with 12 laps to go, and Webber appeared very cautious having led for the majority of the race. The lap times dropped to over seven seconds off the racing speeds, but Webber maintained his lead from Rosberg as the whole top six bunched right up. In such conditions nobody was willing to try a manoeuvre, however, and as the track dried Webber picked up the pace again to hold on for a well deserved victory in fading light.

Results in full

Mark Webber	Winner   Fan's Choice
Nico Rosberg	Second
Fernando Alonso	Third
Sebastian Vettel	P4
Lewis Hamilton	P5
Felipe Massa	P6
Paul di Resta	P7
Nico Hükenberg	P8
Kimi Räikkönen	P9
Bruno Senna	P10
Sergio Perez	P11 (+1 lap)
Jean-Éric Vergne	P12 (+1 lap)
Heikki Kovalainen	P13 (+1 lap)
Timo Glock	P14 (+1 lap)
Narain Karthikeyan	P15 (+2 laps)
Jenson Button	Retired (collision)
Daniel Ricciardo	Retired (Steering)
Charles Pic	Retired (Electrical)
Michael Schumacher	Retired (Fuel pressure)
Vitaly Petrov	Retired (Electrical)
Kamui Kobayashi	Retired (collision)
Pedro de la Rosa	Retired (collision)
Pastor Maldonado	Retired (collision)
Romain Grosjean	Retired (collision)