Christian Horner, Team Principal: "It's a fantastic result for the team to achieve a third consecutive victory in Monte Carlo. Mark drove an immaculate race and after a very clean get away, he controlled the race from the front. We weren't sure if it was going to be a one or two-stop strategy heading into the race, but Mark did such a good job on the soft tyre that he bought the option to make a one-stop really work and delivered the pace when he needed to. Despite some heart stopping moments in the last few laps, he controlled his pace fantastically well and never looked under threat. With Sebastian, after a good start he was in a high speed train in sixth place until all the soft runners pitted and then he had his window of opportunity to put in some really competitive lap times on the worn hard tyre and that, together with a fantastic pit stop today, enabled him to jump both Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton. So first and fourth is a great team result, it's great to achieve a result like this, especially when all our partners are here in the Principality. All the races carry the same amount of points, but some are that little bit more special to win."
Cyril Dumont, Renault: "It's simply fantastic. It's the third time in a row that Red Bull-Renault has won the Monaco Grand Prix. I think Mark made a very solid race; he started from pole position and managed to maintain it throughout the race. For Seb, it was much more difficult - he started ninth and so it's a pretty good result to move up to fourth, even if we do believe that we could have finished even a bit further up. I think we could have even got a one and two today, but the main thing is that we have increased our lead in the Constructors' Championship and that's the main key to keep in mind for today. It's a very special race and it's fantastic for everybody."
Martin Whitmarsh, Team Principal: "This year's Monaco Grand Prix won't go down as one of the most triumphant in McLaren's glorious Monte-Carlo history - since, although Lewis finished just four seconds behind Mark [Webber] today, in truth the smallness of that deficit was partly occasioned by the unique combination of the drivers' need to drive with tyre conservation in mind and a circuit on which overtaking is well-nigh impossible. As a consequence, Mark was able to back the field up in the closing stages, without risking his lead.
"Still, Lewis scored a useful 10 points, and lies only 13 points off the drivers' world championship lead.
"Jenson had a frustrating afternoon, striving to make up ground from 12th on the grid, the result of which was ultimately a lap-71 DNF.
"Our next stop will be Montreal, another non-purpose-built racetrack, but one on which overtaking is at least feasible.
"Jenson won brilliantly there last year, and Lewis won superbly there the year before - so, although we weren't able to add to our unrivalled record of 15 wins here at Monaco this afternoon, you can rest assured that in two weeks' time we'll be aiming to score a hat-trick of Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Canadian Grand Prix victories."
Stefano Domenicali: First of all, I want to say that all our thoughts are with everyone who is suffering as a result of the earthquake that hit the Emilia region last week: we hope that this strong race from Ferrari will have allowed them, just for a couple of hours, to forget their troubles at such a difficult time. We are with you, in thought and deed, because our roots are there, in the ground that has continued to shake there for the past eight days. As for the race, we leave the Principality with a very positive result and, above all, with Fernando Alonso leading the Drivers' classification and Felipe Massa having delivered a brilliant and feisty performance all weekend long. Both our drivers did a great job, from the first to the last lap and the team behind them was a match for the situation. I am particularly happy for Felipe who needed a positive result: I'm sure this weekend really represents a fresh start to the season for him. We have to be satisfied, but we must definitely not relax, especially as we are not yet the best in terms of performance, particularly in qualifying. As I usually say after a good weekend, keep calm and carry on!
Pat Fry: A very intense race, which ended with one car on the podium and the other in the top six. There was not a moment's respite, right from the start, with the top six all together in just a handful of seconds. We all started a bit blind in terms of how the tyres would behave, both as far as durability was concerned and how they would perform in the first laps of use. Furthermore, the rain was always lying in wait and appeared right in the final moments. Fernando and Felipe both drove impeccably, without making the slightest mistake, as was the case for the crew during the pit stops. As for the strategy, day after day, the option of the one stop became ever more clear and, in the end it was the best choice. Sure, with hindsight, it's easy to say that if Fernando had stayed out on track for a few laps more, then maybe he could have also passed Rosberg and got on terms with Webber as well as Hamilton, given the time he did on his in-lap. I think this weather was a surprise for everyone, as was the difficulty encountered in getting the Softs up to temperature in their first laps. With just a few seconds to react, we took the most logical decision, which did all the same lead to a podium finish. It all goes to show how every detail is crucial in a championship as closely contested as this one. We need to continue pushing on the development of the car, because we are still not where we want to be in terms of performance.
Nico ran a one-stop strategy from P2 on the grid, starting on super-soft tyres and changing to softs on lap 27. Michael was forced to retire on lap 64, owing to a fuel pressure problem that began to slow him on lap 58. Nico has scored 59 points in the last four races, the most of any driver in the field.
Ross Brawn: Nico ran a very good race today and did all he needed to do. I think we made the right calls but nothing opened up for us. It was a race that was about managing gaps and finding the right windows in the traffic; the team did a great job on that. Nico was the first of the front-runners to stop, but the harder tyre took a lap or two to come in and it wasn't enough to jump Mark. As for Michael, he was hit on the run to the opening corner which cost him positions, but was very quick when a fuel pressure problem started to slow him later in the race. We tried to continue but it was costing him too much time, dropped him out of the points and forced us to retire the car. It was very disappointing because he put in a great performance this weekend and he was still on course to score useful points. We need to make sure we eliminate the problems for him, starting in Canada.
Norbert Haug: It was a strong race for Nico and our team, and we were in with a chance of winning until the chequered flag, but Mark did not put a foot wrong all afternoon ahead of Nico. Looking at the results today, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton - who lead Nico in the championship- all finished behind him, and this helped him close the gap at the top of the standings to 17 points. That translates to an average of fewer than three points a race separating Nico from the championship lead after six rounds of the championship. It was a pity for Michael: he clearly demonstrated this weekend that he has the speed to win races but his time will come again, like yesterday when he posted the pole position time.
Lotus F1 Team endured a difficult Monaco Grand Prix, with Kimi Raikkonen finishing in ninth position and Romain Grosjean crashing out of the race before the first corner. It was also a difficult race for the strategists with rain looming but never arriving to any significant extent until immediately after the chequered flag fell. Lotus F1 Team are now tied in third position in the Constructors' Championship with Ferrari.
Both cars started on used sets of red-marked super soft Pirelli P-Zero tyres. Kimi changed to a set of new soft tyres on lap 29.
Eric Boullier, Team Principal: "We arrived in Monaco after two consecutive podiums and did not really know what to expect at such a unique circuit. Before qualifying it was obvious that the E20 was going to be competitive, but things did not go as planned. Our positions on the grid did not reflect our true pace and that put us on the back foot for the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately Romain's race ended prematurely after contact with Michael Schumacher, and like the Stewards I think it was a racing incident. With Kimi, we knew that fighting for a podium was going to be more than difficult. It then became obvious that we were struggling with our tyres when the temperature fell. The grip was just not there and we could only defend our position. In the end, the two points we've scored today are disappointing but because the field is so tight we have not lost too much ground on our opponents. We have the same number of points as Ferrari in the constructors' championship, while Kimi is 25 points away from Fernando Alonso who's leading the drivers' classification. Anything can still happen and the championship is wide open. We're now looking forward to Montreal, the first low downforce track of the season, where the E20 should be strong. Finally, I wish to congratulate the team for all their hard work this weekend. Our 500th was not one of our best, but I hope the 501st is!"
James Allison, Technical Director: "We've had five races so far this season where we've shown strongly. Sadly, at the sixth we were not on the pace. It was a completely joyless experience from start to finish. Romain has been metronomic this weekend, but he was out of the race before the first corner which was a massive blow to our hopes for today. Kimi had an okay start, but wasn't able to keep the car running at a challenging pace once the sheen came off his tyres after ten or fifteen laps. We stayed out longer than we would have done otherwise on the first set of super soft tyres as we, and everyone else, were waiting for rain to come. Now we have to pick ourselves up and come back in Canada to bring both cars home in strong placings."
Ricardo Penteado, Renault Sport F1 Team Support Leader: "We worked hard to deliver good drive and response over the lower rev ranges to deal with the low average speed of the Monaco track. The package has been quick this weekend, which was reflected in the qualifying positions, but Romain was very unlucky to be involved in the accident at the start. Ninth place for Kimi is a bit frustrating and not reflective of the general level of performance we have shown at this event."
Sahara Force India raced to a strong double points finish in the Monaco Grand Prix as Paul Di Resta finished in seventh just ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in eighth, earning the team ten valuable championship points.
Dr Vijay Mallya, Team Principal & Managing Director: "A very enjoyable Monaco Grand Prix and I am delighted to see both Sahara Force Indias well inside the points. Paul drove a very strong race, making up seven places on his grid position and managing the tyres perfectly. Nico was running the reverse strategy to Paul, which also worked out well, and means we leave here with ten important points. Now we look forward to the next race in Canada where we hope to continue our run of points finishes."
Fastest lap of the Monaco Grand Prix was small consolation for Sergio Perez after a spirited drive that saw the Sauber F1 Team driver come from the back row of the grid to finish 11th. Kamui Kobayashi retired from the race on lap six with damaged suspension, which was the result of a collision between his Sauber C31-Ferrari and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean just after the start.
Peter Sauber, Team Principal: "Sergio not only did the fastest race lap, but for long periods of the race he was the fastest driver on the track. This clearly shows what we can achieve if everything goes right for us. Now it is up to the entire team to turn our opportunities into success."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "It is difficult to decide whether to laugh or cry. On the one hand we can be very happy about how quick our car was, especially on a track which historically doesn't favour us. On the other hand if something was going to go wrong then we were in the middle of it. Kamui just had bad luck being hit by Romain Grosjean's Lotus in the first corner. Due to a part of the suspension being damaged he had to retire after six laps. It is to Sergio's credit that he didn't give up today despite his difficult starting position and heavy traffic. He made some good overtaking manoeuvres. On strategy we actually didn't help him. The ideal time for a tyre change obviously would have been earlier, but we calculated more rain would come and lengthened his stint a bit. However, later in the race this turned out to be an advantage as his tyres then were fresher than those of the other drivers. We clearly wanted points here and didn't get them."
Franz Tost: "The heavier rain that finally arrived as Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber was on the podium celebrating a great win came too late to keep Jean-Eric in the points. Because he found himself towards the back of the field in the early stages after several cars got ahead of him on the opening lap by cutting the chicane, we brought him in early to switch to the Soft tyre with which he would go to the end of the race on a one stop strategy. Unfortunately, the tyres we fitted on lap 17 were therefore not in the best condition when some very light drizzle began to fall. As he had very little grip on the worn tyres, we brought him to fit the Intermediates on lap 71, but the rain which would have helped him fight for tenth place did not come soon enough. Rain, or the lack of it, also affected Daniel's strategy. We kept him out late on the Supersoft in the hope we would call him in for rain tyres, but it did not happen and, as those around him picked up their pace, when he left the pits he therefore found himself at the back of that same group. In the end, we elected to retire his car in the pits after impact with a kerb appears to have damaged the steering."
It was a bitter-sweet day for the Williams F1 Team, with Bruno Senna finishing in the points after a measured drive in the Monaco Grand Prix. Bruno made a good start from 13th on the grid, avoiding the first lap incidents and posting some competitive times to bring his Williams-Renault home in 10th position.
After starting on the back row of the grid following two penalties, Pastor Maldonado ended a troubled weekend by retiring on lap one. While trying to avoid first lap collisions, Pastor picked up damage to the front of his car with part of the front wing being lodged underneath leaving him unable to turn into the hairpin where he hit the barrier.
Mark Gillan, Chief Operations Engineer: Whilst we are pleased to get a point today with Bruno we are equally frustrated as the car and drivers had much more pace than those immediately in front of them. Unfortunately Pastor's race ended on the first lap as he hit Pedro de la Rosa who was in turn braking hard due to the Grosjean incident ahead. Bruno drove a very good race pushing Raikkonen hard all the way to the end, but could simply not get past despite trying hard. We will now regroup for Canada and hope to do a better job in Montreal.
Laurent Debout, Renault Sport F1 team support leader: Monaco is a challenging track for engine engineers as it's unlike any other circuit on the calendar due to the high number of low speed corners. But this weekend has been difficult overall. Starting so far back means it is hard to make up positions so one point for Bruno is a reasonable result. We're looking forward to Montreal for a better outcome.
Mark Smith, Technical Director: "A very exciting race and one where we showed how we are progressing. It was obviously unfortunate to see Vitaly having to retire early, had he not been hit by the Sauber he would likely have been right up there with his team mate and we had opted to start the cars on different compounds so we would have had more strategy options open to us if he had not had the electrical failure that ended his race.
"With Heikki we started him on the supersofts and kept him out for a long first stint as he was managing his tyres well. He was having a fantastic battle with Jenson and keeping him at bay, and the pitcrew did a very good job indeed to keep him ahead of the McLaren after the stops. When the rain started falling we saw Heikki's brake temperatures starting to drop and he was telling us the car was harder to control, but had Perez not hit him and caused his front wing failure I am sure he would have retained that place - he was clearly in a very determined mood and driving to the level everyone knows he can. I am delighted for him and the whole team - this has been a strong weekend for us and one that gives us even more impetus to keep challenging as we head to Canada and the rest of the season."
Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: "I am obviously a very happy man today. That was one of the most tense but most exciting races we have had since we came into the sport just two and a half years ago, and to be not only racing Jenson's McLaren, but to be keeping him behind us and to be able to resist his attacks is a huge achievement for a team that is still young, still growing and hungrier than ever to succeed. In fact, when Heikki passed Jenson out of the pits that was definitely the most exciting moment in my Formula 1 career and something that I will remember for ever.
"For Vitaly today will go down as one of those races. It was good to see him how disappointed he was to be forced out by something out of his control as it proves how hungry he is to help us keep pushing forwards, but he has had another good weekend with us and I am sure the luck will turn for him soon. On the other side of the garage Heikki put in one of the best drives we have seen from him since we started back in Bahrain 2010 and his 13th place today puts us back into tenth in the championship and gives us a very good platform to work from for the rest of the season.
"I am also extremely proud of how the whole team worked today. The people back at the factory have never stopped working as hard as they can to give the drivers a car that they can use like they did this weekend, and the team on track were magnificent today. Calm, professional and as good as anyone else out there in the pitlane. When Heikki had to box late on in the race for a new nose it was a pretty tense moment, but they performed brilliantly, enough to make our Chief Race Engineer Jody Egginton tell them over the radio that they had done a "fantastic job lads - pure mint", and that sentiment goes for the whole team. I am an optimist and our pitwall is full of people who would call themselves realists - I would probably say they are pessimists - but after today I have never seen so many pessimists so optimistic about the future. A great day for sure."
With no time to lose, HRT Formula 1 Team will head to Madrid this very night to prepare all the material that will fly out to Canada in a couple of days for the seventh Grand Prix of the season which will take place in Montreal from the 8th to the 10th of June.
Luis Perez-Sala, Team Principal: "We've got mixed feelings today. Pedro got hit from behind in the early stages, which was a real shame but, on the other hand, Narain completed a very good race and we achieved a 15th place finish, our best result this season so far. This race is always complicated and, given the forecast, we started with a strategy planned for a wet race. In the end it didn't rain and that cost us a couple of positions. But we're satisfied because we finished the race, with one car at least and only two laps off the winner, something which here in Monte Carlo is positive for us."
The Marussia F1 Team's Monaco Grand Prix got off to a flying start and continued that way for much of a race that saw Timo Glock equal his highest finish of the season, P14. However, in a more disappointing conclusion, a broken front wing end plate necessitated one more stop than his planned strategy and dropped Timo back in the race and the team down in the Constructors' Standings.
The race also ended frustratingly for his team-mate Charles Pic, who suffered an electrical problem on lap 65. Prior to that he had been enjoying improved pace in race trim after a more challenging early part of the weekend.
John Booth, Team Principal: "This has been a disappointing race all round for us in terms of how it concluded. Unfortunately, given the way the race played out at the end, despite Kovalainen's front wing change the problems on both our cars meant that he was able to retain 13th position, which means we have slipped back from 10th place in the Championship. However, looking at the positives, the race pace on both our cars was good and Timo was in line to finish without being lapped. It was therefore very frustrating that he lost his right front wing end plate in the Swimming Pool section. We have yet to determine how this happened, although a likely scenario is damage incurred at some other point in the race that weakened the end plate and it eventually came off. For Charles, unfortunately he retired on lap 65 due to a chassis related electrical issue which caused the engine to stop. We will take the lessons we've learned from this weekend and apply them positively as we prepare for the next race and beyond."
At the start, all the drivers apart from Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, McLaren's Jenson Button, Force India's Paul di Resta, Caterham's Vitaly Petrov and HRT's Pedro de la Rosa started on the P Zero Red supersoft tyre.
With the possibility of rain predicted halfway through the race, the drivers concentrated on making their first set of tyres last for as long as possible, in order to minimise the potential number of pit stops. The timing of the pit stops is always crucial in Monaco, in order to ensure that cars do not feed out into traffic that is difficult to overtake. A flawless one-stop strategy from Red Bull ensured that Webber was able to convert his pole position into a second win at Monaco.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was the first of the leaders to change from supersoft to P Zero Yellow soft on lap 27, banking on no rain coming. Two laps later, Webber also pitted but crucially he was able to emerge ahead of Rosberg. The longest stint on the supersoft was carried out by Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo, who made his original set of P Zero Reds last for 40 laps.
Vettel's strategy meant that he was able to take the lead by the halfway point of the race, building up a significant advantage by the time he finally pitted for supersoft tyres on lap 46, having put in a series of rapid laps. But it was not quite enough for him to keep the lead after his stop: Vettel re-joined in fourth position behind Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso, who now heads the championship standings.
Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne also used strategy, with an early pit stop on lap 17, to move from 17th on the grid to a points-scoring seventh. He then gambled on switching to intermediates with six laps to go, after running on the soft tyre for 53 laps. Sauber driver Sergio Perez set the fastest lap of the race on the soft tyre, having started at the back end of the grid after going off in qualifying.
The anticipated rain finally fell lightly with just over 10 laps to go, creating a grandstand finish in Monaco for the second year in succession. The top six ran nose to tail to the flag, covered by just six seconds at the finish.
Paul Hembery: "Congratulations to Mark Webber and Red Bull. The team managed their race and their tyre strategy perfectly, winning Monaco for the third year in a row and a race for the second time this year. Once again we saw that the cars were all extremely closely matched, equalling each other on pace throughout the race. This was despite the fact that nobody had any proper running on the supersoft with full tanks, due to the mixed weather conditions during free practice on Thursday. As a result, calculating the strategy was extremely complicated. But with the nature of the circuit, plus a tyre choice that was certainly more conservative and hardly any tyre degradation, it was clear that a one-stop strategy was the way forward as soon as the teams learned more about the performance of the supersoft after the race got underway. Obviously that led to longer stints and limited opportunities for overtaking. Although there was some rain at the end, our slick tyres still offered enough grip to carry the leaders through to a very close finish with the top six finishing within six seconds of each other."
