Mon GP - Race weekend recap - Webber

Much like Nico Rosberg's weekend all the drama for Red Bull and Mark Webber came before the race.

During the free practice sessions the Red Bull's didn't look particularly quick and many would have written them off from having a chance of repeating the victories in 2010 and 2011.

In free practice one Mark Webber was almost two seconds behind the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, with his best time a whopping + 1.841 off the pace.

In a damp second practice session, Webber was still +1.402 off the pace, this time behind the McLaren of Jenson Button.

Saturday mornings third practice came and went and while team-mate Vettel might have got within 0.050s of Rosberg, Webber remained over a second off the pace in tenth place.

Overall the Australian wouldn't have been overly confident going into qualifying, so setting a time of 1minute 14.381s in Q3 would have delighted Webber and the team, especially considering Schumacher's grid-penalty it meant that he had inherited pole position.

“It was a strong day, particularly this afternoon. It’s normal around here that the momentum has got to build before qualifying and then you have to start putting it all together and the guys did a really good job on the car. I felt comfortable, which is important, you need to go to the absolute limit everywhere to get the maximum out of the car and squeeze everything you can. It’s a great effort from the whole team; we had a lot to do on Thursday night, but the team reacted really well. It’s Michael’s day and he did a great lap, but we are right there and will have a good race tomorrow. It’s been a happy hunting ground for me in the past – Monaco is a very special, unique challenge for the drivers.” he told formula1.com on Saturday evening.

Clearly from pole position Webber already had one eye on the trophy and with the experience of winning at Monaco before the Red Bull driver just needed to get into the first corner in the lead and most would have handed him the race win there and then.

The problem was Mark Webber hasn't been the greatest of starters thus far this season and many thought that Rosberg might have stood a chance at pipping him into the first turn.

However Webber got away fine, with Rosberg slotting in behind him as the chaos happened behind him.

From then on Webber lead a controlled race to become the sixth different winner from the first six races of the season: A first for Formula One.

“An incredible day; this place gives you such amazing memories. There were different parts of the race where I had to be incredibly focused and make sure we really capitalised on the positioning we had. A good friend of mine sent me a text message this morning and said ‘You’re in charge, you’re in front and in charge’ and we were, but you can get bitten here very quickly. There were a few key stages around the stops that were interesting. Sebastian had his tyres very hot and was quick at that point and I couldn’t get mine going, but once he pitted I reverted my attention back to Nico and just looked after the rears until the end of the race. Then the rain came, which around here is very, very tough. But we had composure and experience and great team work on the pit wall. It’s a tough nut to crack this race, but we did it again. I had both hands on it today and I wasn’t going to let go.”

There had been rumours that some of the teams might protest the Red Bull victory, with reports suggesting the car might have holes in an exclusion zone in front of the rear wheels. However those reports didn't turn into anything, with no teams protesting the result.