29 May, 2017
The outcome of the Monaco Grand Prix leaves Vettel 25 points ahead of Hamilton in the Drivers Championship, and Ferrari 17 points ahead of Mercedes in the Constructors.
There are few better places to celebrate than glitzy Monaco, and Vettel seemed keen to make the most of it. It is the constructor's first win at Monaco in 16 years.
Teammate Daniel Ricciardo also has history here, and not having learned its lesson past year, when it effectively cost him the race, Red Bull made another strategic error yesterday hence the Australian starting fifth.
The Red Bulls ended up in a similar situation with Daniel Ricciardo on a Vettel-style strategy and Max Verstappen losing out with an earlier pit stop akin to Raikkonen's.
"We couldn't plan much - the plan was to pull away but Valtteri [Bottas, in third] had good pace", he said.
"It doesn't feel awfully good - that is how it goes sometimes".
When asked how he felt about the race after looking downbeat on the podium, Raikkonen said: "I don't know".
Bourdais still can't put any weight on his right leg for five weeks, but he is targeting he season-ending race at Sonoma to get back in his auto.
With his new set of super-softs, Hamilton was briefly the fastest man on the track and quickly closed on sixth-placed Carlos Sainz Jr.
Vettel overcuts Raikkonen to end Ferrari's Monaco wait
But team chairman Lauda told Bild am Sonntag newspaper that Vettel is happy and competitive at Ferrari, while Spaniard Alonso is "absolutely no topic" for Mercedes.
"The strategists said 10th was probably the maximum today", he said.
Vettel added that he was as surprised as anyone when he came out ahead. "We've got a real fight on our hands, but there are still 14 races to go". Kimi Raikkonen, who claimed a stunning first pole position in nine years on Saturday, led in the early stages and had been doing a solid job out front, at times lapping 0.5s faster than his teammate. The start is the beginning of the race, but not the end so we'll see. It was the first for a blood red Ferrari since Michael Schumacher celebrated in Monaco in 2001.
Knowing that Lewis Hamilton was so far down the track took huge pressure off the German and he easily defended his position from Valtteri Bottas going up the first corner. "Today it was a really exciting race".
Weirdly during the safety auto Marcus Ericsson's race ended at the first corner and as soon as the cars were released Stoffel Vandoorne crashed in the same place.
Passing is always virtually impossible on Monte Carlo's streets, the more so with this season's wider cars, and pit tactics were likely to decide the race.
That said, in another late move, McLaren, needing a replacement diffuser for Vandoorne following his Q2 crash took the Briton's which will hardly have helped his mood. As a result he lost out big time when it came to strategy.
Up ahead, Vettel was already thinking about his party.
