2004 Monaco Grand Prix

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The 2004 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on May 23, 2004 at the Circuit de Monaco.

Summary

One of the most eventful races of the 2004 season, the Monaco Grand Prix saw Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher qualify in fourth place (his time was actually fifth best; his brother Ralf qualified second, but was dropped ten places as a penalty for changing engines). Italian Renault driver Jarno Trulli took his first pole position and made it his first race win, breaking the elder Schumacher's streak of race wins.

The race began with Trulli on pole and BAR's Jenson Button behind; Renault's Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher occupied the second row. After two aborted starts (Olivier Panis stalled his Toyota and Trulli's Renault leaked coolant onto the track) the parade lap began; Panis stalled again and started the race from the pits. As the race began, BAR's Takuma Sato made an excellent start, moving from eighth to fourth in seconds. Presently Sato's engine began smoking; on the third lap, it exploded spectacularly and released an enormous cloud of smoke, in which Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella collided with McLaren's David Coulthard and overturned. Both drivers were unhurt but out of the race, as was Sato.

Out came the yellow flags, and the race proceeded under the safety car until the eighth lap, at which point Alonso fought Trulli for the lead, followed by Button. When the race restarted, Juan Pablo Montoya moved past Rubens Barrichello to take sixth position, and Trulli set three consecutive fastest laps, but was only able to increase his lead to 1.2 seconds over Alonso. The leaders began their first pit stops on lap 18, and by Michael Schumacher's stop on lap 26, Trulli led from Alonso, with Schumacher now in third ahead of both Kimi Räikkönen and Button.

On lap 28, Räikkönen retired with mechanical troubles, joining Jaguar's Christian Klien and Mark Webber, as well as Jordan's Giorgio Pantano and Minardi's Gianmaria Bruni on the sidelines.

In an attempt to lap Ralf Schumacher, who was down in 11th position, Alonso got offline and crashed heavily in the tunnel. Alonso was enraged by this incident, and publicly accused Ralf of dangerous driving. The safety car was immediately deployed, and all of the front-runners (except Michael Schumacher and Montoya) took the opportunity to pit. As the safety car prepares to pit for the race restart, it is common for the lead driver to slow down, to bunch up the field and choose the opportunity to accelerate to the starting line. It is also common for drivers to swerve back and forth, accelerate and decelerate rapidly to impart heat into their brakes and tires. Montoya (who was a lap down) seemed to be watching his mirrors and not what was happening in front of him as they entered the tunnel. Schumacher suddenly slowed in the tunnel, Montoya swerved to the inside of the turn ran into the back of Schumacher, pushing the F2004 sideways and into the wall. This accident ended Schumacher's hopes for a sixth consecutive victory and a perfect season.

As the order settled down towards the end of the race, Trulli led from Button, with Barrichello in third. The top three were a lap in front of the rest of the field, and the only drivers with a chance of winning the race. Barrichello needed to pit with 22 laps remaining, and rejoined too far behind the top two in order to make a challenge. From then on, it was a straight fight between Trulli and Button, but Monaco is notoriously the hardest circuit to make a passing move on. Therefore, Button having no chance of passing, Trulli took the win by close to half a second.

Thursday Drivers

Constructor Nat Driver
BAR-Honda 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png Anthony Davidson
Sauber-Petronas -
Jaguar-Cosworth 22px-Flag of Sweden.png Björn Wirdheim
Toyota 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Ford 22px-Flag of Germany.png Timo Glock
Minardi-Cosworth 22px-Flag of Belgium (civil).png Bas Leinders


Classification

Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points
1 7 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Jarno Trulli Renault 77 1:45:46.601 1 10
2 9 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png Jenson Button BAR-Honda 77 +0.497 2 8
3 2 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 77 +1:15.766 6 6
4 3 22px-Flag of Colombia.png Juan Pablo Montoya Williams-BMW 76 +1 Lap 9 5
5 12 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 76 +1 Lap 16 4
6 16 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Cristiano da Matta Toyota 76 +1 Lap 15 3
7 18 22px-Flag of Germany.png Nick Heidfeld Jordan-Ford 75 +2 Laps 17 2
8 17 22px-Flag of France.png Olivier Panis Toyota 74 +3 Laps 13 1
9 21 22px-Flag of Hungary.png Zsolt Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth 71 +6 Laps 19  
10 4 22px-Flag of Germany.png Ralf Schumacher Williams-BMW 69 Gearbox 12  
Ret 1 22px-Flag of Germany.png Michael Schumacher Ferrari 45 Collision 4  
Ret 8 22px-Flag of Spain.png Fernando Alonso Renault 41 Accident 3  
Ret 6 22px-Flag of Finland.png Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 27 Pneumatics 5  
Ret 20 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Gianmaria Bruni Minardi-Cosworth 15 Gearbox 20  
Ret 19 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Giorgio Pantano Jordan-Ford 12 Transmission 18  
Ret 14 22px-Flag of Australia.png Mark Webber Jaguar-Cosworth 11 Gearbox 11  
Ret 10 22px-Flag of Japan.png Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 2 Engine 7  
Ret 5 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png David Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes 2 Collision 8  
Ret 11 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Giancarlo Fisichella Sauber-Petronas 2 Collision 10  
Ret 15 22px-Flag of Austria.png Christian Klien Jaguar-Cosworth 0 Accident 14  


Notes


Formula One Grands Prix (1990–2009)
1990
USA · BRA · SMR · MON · CAN · MEX · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · POR · ESP · JPN · AUS
1991
USA · BRA · SMR · MON · CAN · MEX · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · POR · ESP · JPN · AUS
1992
RSA · MEX · BRA · ESP · SMR · MON · CAN · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · POR · JPN · AUS
1993
RSA · BRA · EUR · SMR · ESP · MON · CAN · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · POR · JPN · AUS
1994
BRA · PAC · SMR · MON · ESP · CAN · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · POR · EUR · JPN · AUS
1995
BRA · ARG · SMR · ESP · MON · CAN · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · POR · EUR · PAC · JPN · AUS
1996
AUS · BRA · ARG · EUR · SMR · MON · ESP · CAN · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · POR · JPN
1997
AUS · BRA · ARG · SMR · MON · ESP · CAN · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · AUT · LUX · JPN · EUR
1998
AUS · BRA · ARG · SMR · ESP · MON · CAN · FRA · GBR · AUT · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · LUX · JPN
1999
AUS · BRA · SMR · MON · ESP · CAN · FRA · GBR · AUT · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · EUR · MAL · JPN
2000
AUS · BRA · SMR · GBR · ESP · EUR · MON · CAN · FRA · AUT · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · USA · JPN · MAL
2001
AUS · MAL · BRA · SMR · ESP · AUT · MON · CAN · EUR · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · USA · JPN
2002
AUS · MAL · BRA · SMR · ESP · AUT · MON · CAN · EUR · GBR · FRA · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · USA · JPN
2003
AUS · MAL · BRA · SMR · ESP · AUT · MON · CAN · EUR · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · ITA · USA · JPN
2004
AUS · MAL · BHR · SMR · ESP · MON · EUR · CAN · USA · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · BEL · ITA · CHN · JPN · BRA
2005
AUS · MAL · BHR · SMR · ESP · MON · EUR · CAN · USA · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · TUR · ITA · BEL · BRA · JPN · CHN
2006
BHR · MAL · AUS · SMR · EUR · ESP · MON · GBR · CAN · USA · FRA · GER · HUN · TUR · ITA · CHN · JPN · BRA
2007
AUS · MAL · BHR · ESP · MON · CAN · USA · FRA · GBR · EUR · HUN · TUR · ITA · BEL · JPN · CHN · BRA
2008
AUS · MAL · BHR · ESP · TUR · MON · CAN · FRA · GBR · GER · HUN · EUR · BEL · ITA · SIN · JPN · CHN · BRA
2009
AUS · MAL · CHN · BHR · ESP · MON · TUR · GBR · GER · HUN · EUR · BEL · ITA · SIN · JPN · BRA · ABU