Ayrton Senna, McLaren, Monte-Carlo, Monaco, 1990

Rosberg takes first Monaco hat-trick since Senna

2015 Monaco Grand Prix stats and facts

25th May 2015, 11:3026th May 2015, 0:07 | Written by Keith Collantine

Not since the days of Monaco master Ayrton Senna has anyone won three consecutive Monaco Grands Prix.

That changed yesterday when Nico Rosberg completed a hat-trick of wins at the circuit. He certainly had luck on his side – but then so did Senna in 1992. The three-times champion won five consecutive races on the Monte-Carlo track between 1989 and 1993. He also won in 1987, and crashed while leading in 1988.

Rosberg joins a select group of drivers who won F1’s most famous race three times or more. They include Senna (six wins), Michael Schumacher and Graham Hill (five), Alain Prost (four), Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart (three each).

It was Rosberg’s tenth career win, putting him level with James Hunt, Ronnie Peterson, Jody Scheckter and Gerhard Berger.

But Lewis Hamilton’s defeat was a bitter blow. He had been on course to repeat his 2008 triumph – yesterday’s race was the first time he had led at Monaco since his previous win at the track.

Hamilton’s 2008 victory was also the most recent occasion the race was not won by the pole sitter, as happened yesterday. This was Hamilton’s 43rd career pole position – two more will see him equal Sebastian Vettel, who has more than any other driver currently competing.

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Despite his disappointment, Hamilton sustained his streaks of consecutive front row starts (14) and podium finishes (13). It was also the 25th consecutive podium finish for Mercedes. They are only the second team in F1 history to reach this milestone, yet they are not even halfway towards equalling the record held by Ferrari. The Scuderia had at least one car on the podium for 53 races from 1999 to 2002.

Mercedes established a new record as for the 25th race in a row the pole sitter was powered by one of their engines. This streak began at the start of last year: the only pole set by a non-works Mercedes since then was Felipe Massa’s in Austria last year.

The three-pointed star also enjoyed its third front row lock-out in as many years at Monaco. However their claim to have had four pole positions in a row doesn’t quite hold true: Mark Webber started from pole position in 2012 for Red Bull – Schumacher had been quickest in qualifying for Mercedes but a penalty relegated him to sixth.

The race’s fastest lap went to Daniel Ricciardo for only the second time in his career – the other came at Abu Dhabi last year.

Monaco was not kind to Williams. For the first time this year neither of their drivers reached Q3, and for the first time since the end of 2013 no Williams driver finished in the points, ending their 24-race-long streak of scoring.

Conversely, Jenson Button gave McLaren their first points score this year. These were also the first points for a McLaren-Honda since Berger concluded their previous partnership with victory at Adelaide in 1992.

Daniil Kvyat finally improved on his career-best finish of ninth, which he’d managed five times before, by taking fourth place.

Kimi Raikkonen is now the only driver to have participated in every qualifying session this year without beating his team mate.

Finally a bonus statistic from the IndyCar world where 2003 Monaco Grand Prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya scored his second Indianapolis 500 victory yesterday. He set a new record for the longest gap between consecutive wins – 15 years – beating the previous best of ten held by AJ Foyt (1967 to 1977).

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Monaco Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

2015 Monaco Grand Prix

Browse all 2015 Monaco Grand Prix articles

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76 comments on “Rosberg takes first Monaco hat-trick since Senna”

jato
25th May 2015, 11:39

Even if the record books say 3 wins in Monaco, to me it is no where near that. Having cheated for one (anyone is entitled to disagree) and gifted another he isn’t a Monaco specialist by any stretch.

It’s odd how poor Williams was at in Monaco, they used to be brilliant at Monaco back when Montoya was driving for them even up to when Webber and Rosberg were with the team.
1. Polo (@polo)
  27th May 2015, 17:55
  
  Reminds me a bit of Graham Hill. He was certainly very good at Monaco, but Jim Clark was better – however Clark got very unlucky, and despite having 4 poles there, he never won there due to mechanical failures. Hill’s wins in ’63 and ’64 were inherited from Clark after Clark had mechanical problems while leading, though Hill’s ’65 win came from pole. Hence 2 of Hill’s 3 consecutive Monaco wins were largely down to luck.
  
  It’s a nice statistic and certainly suggests that he was very good at the track, but statistics don’t tell the full story.
ColdFly F1 (@)
25th May 2015, 11:44

was this the first time VSC was used in an F1 race?
1. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  25th May 2015, 12:12
  
  @coldfly For all of 31 seconds, yes!
  1. ColdFly F1 (@)
    25th May 2015, 12:16
    
    thanks, @keithcollantine.
    I bet LH wished it was only 30secs (i.e. SC being 1sec further ahead)
    1. kpcart
      25th May 2015, 14:26
      
      i think hamilton went too quick in VSC mode compared to Rosberg, s that is what set off talk of pitting him again. he was between 24 and 26 seconds ahead of rosberg on that lap, where the lap before it was nowhere near that. they pitted him the next lap when the lead fell to 21 seconds as the cars were following a real safety car. sadly for lewis, i think him not keeping to vsc delta was the start of what ended his chance of a win.
      1. Polo (@polo)
        27th May 2015, 17:41
        
        I think I heard someone say that the gap was actually the same as it was before the VSC (when it was 19 seconds), but it’s just because of the fact that everyone was going slower that the timing screens overestimated the gap (because, due to the lack of adequate GPS at Monaco, the timing was being done in terms of “when did the driver reach the end of the sector” instead of the constant updates that are done at other tracks). This overestimation of the gap is what made Mercedes think they had the gap required to pit and emerge in the lead (and why Toto was saying “we thought the gap was a different one to what it actually was).
        
        The other possibility is simply that Hamilton’s lead was eroded more than expected as he caught up to the safety car, and Merc weren’t aware of how much time he was losing because of the aforementioned lack of GPS.
    2. WH
      25th May 2015, 16:07
      
      Wouldn’t it be something if it had been 30.5 seconds? LH would have come out in front of Vettel but behind Rosberg. Still a tactical blunder for Mercedes (especially given their policy of giving priority to the leading teammate), would they have made Nico give the place back, as Red Bull did to Ricciardo (albeit for track position that was part of a deliberate strategy rather than a massive error)? Either way, one of the drivers would surely have been even more furious that Lewis was yesterday.
  2. russ
    25th May 2015, 17:06
    
    What a total waste of time.Why invent the VSC and not use it.
2. MattB (@mattb)
  25th May 2015, 13:21
  
  I think the safety car was actually put out accidentally: if you review the footage this happened:
  
  1. Crash happened
  2. VSC deployed
  3. Confusion as some marshalls start waving yellow flags with the SC sign BEFORE the safety car is deployed.
  4. Some drivers go to safety car mode, others on vsc mode
  5. SC deployed to avoid all doubt.
  
  It all happened quickly, but I think that Charlie wanted to cover this one with the Virtual Safety Car, but had to revert to the Safety Car out of fairness.
  1. @HoHum (@hohum)
    26th May 2015, 0:57
    
    Or Because Bernie wanted the SC.
TomD11 (@tomd11)
25th May 2015, 11:45

Not quite a stat yet but I was just thinking, due the similarities with Senna in 1988, about their respective win/race tally. With 7 starts fewer than Senna and 5 races short of his record, it’ll be interesting to see how the next few races pan out.
1. TomD11 (@tomd11)
  25th May 2015, 11:46
  
  Lewis this is.
2. kpcart
  25th May 2015, 14:29
  
  ?? are you of the belief Hamilton is the next Senna? how about Mark Webber he won 2 monaco gps, or Rosberg who has won 3. this was Hamiltons best Monaco gp, and going there for 9 seasons, that is not a great showing and nothing compared to how Senna drove there.
  1. TomD11 (@tomd11)
    26th May 2015, 9:46
    
    No. For starters, Senna was one-of-a-kind. What I meant was that Senna lost a nailed-on win in ’88 like Lewis did this year and that made me wonder if HAM can still match his idol’s record in the same number of races.
    
    P.S. I would say 2008 was his best Monaco GP, considering how he won it and all.
Chapor (@chapor)
25th May 2015, 11:46

What a farcical statistic. One cheated win, one gifted… Baah!
1. PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
  25th May 2015, 12:27
  
  @chapor And many many grumpy fans.
  1. ColdFly F1 (@)
    25th May 2015, 13:07
    
    +1, @xtwl.
    (disclaimer: I consider myself a LH fan (the driver that is), but ain’t grumpy. Life’s too short)
2. Jason (@saint-jay)
  25th May 2015, 12:30
  
  Well someone is a little sore loos… I mean grumpy.
  
  Maybe it’s time for a timeout, yes?
  1. Chapor (@chapor)
    25th May 2015, 15:09
    
    Seriously? Sore looser? What exactly was sporting about this? That statistic should not have a cheaters name on it.
    1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 40 victories!!! (@)
      25th May 2015, 16:51
      
      @chapor maybe we can erase Senna from history for his attack to Prost!
      1. Chapor (@chapor)
        25th May 2015, 17:42
        
        Yeah, right after we erase Prost for his attack on Senna the year before… Is this the way this is going to go?
      2. @HoHum (@hohum)
        26th May 2015, 1:01
        
        Don’t forget Schumacher on Hill.
    2. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
      25th May 2015, 17:33
      
      @chapor I suppose you have the proof for this, proof that nobody else has seen or heard?
      1. Chapor (@chapor)
        25th May 2015, 17:40
        
        Monaco 2014 Qualifying. But since you think it was legit, I will say this, you are right, and I have my peace.
      2. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
        25th May 2015, 23:00
        
        @chapor I didn’t say what I think, I said you’re going to need proof to outright label what he did as cheating.
      3. Chapor (@chapor)
        26th May 2015, 6:14
        
        @weeniebeenie You know exactly what I meant.
      4. Simon (@weeniebeenie)
        26th May 2015, 16:56
        
        @chapor I know exactly what you’re referring to, what I’m saying is you are going to need proof that he had “one cheated win”. Show me absolute proof what he did was intentional.
      5. Chapor (@chapor)
        27th May 2015, 7:44
        
        @weeniebeenie, You want me to reference various footage, including onboard footage, of Nico’s mistake during qualifying of the Monaco GP 2014. His mistake cost Lewis the pole position, and arguably the race. There, that is the proof that he cheated. Now I know you are going to argue that he was cleared by the stewards and therefore his race win was legit. I will argue that just because he got away with it, he still cheated. And you will say that this is not absolute proof and therefore declare Nico the legitimate winner. And the result will be that this will go on forever. Therefore, you go on and continue to think that Nico’s win was legitimate, and I will go on thinking that Nico cheated.
        
        Peace out.
    3. Warwick (@warwick)
      25th May 2015, 19:32
      
      https://youtu.be/XBdZ0DNLqk0?t=256
      
      Better remove Hamilton’s name from the record books then seeing as he has publicly admitted to cheating before.
      1. Warwick (@warwick)
        25th May 2015, 19:32
        
        @chapor
      2. Chapor (@chapor)
        26th May 2015, 6:06
        
        Are we going to argue like third graders?
3. Baron (@baron)
  26th May 2015, 17:42
  
  @chapor :How so? Which was the “cheat win?”
  1. Chapor (@chapor)
    27th May 2015, 7:27
    
    @baron *sigh* Ok, this is how this is going to go…
    
    Me: I see Monaco 2014 as a cheated win…
    You: The stewards cleared him of any wrong doing, therefore his win is legit…
    Me: … * bangs head on table *
    
    I will not argue about this anymore. Apparently, on this forum, an opinion needs to be justified and argued over endlessly… That is my opinion, I am not happy about the situation, and I made that opinion public… Remind me to never do that again.
    1. Baron (@baron)
      27th May 2015, 12:43
      
      @chapor Sorry but if you make confusing statements surely we have a right to question your real meaning. You see Monaco 2014 as a “cheat win” but actually there was nothing wrong with the win itself, it was the qualifying that was an issue (which is heavily disputed in some quarters). But pole is not the win, so “cheat win” I do not think is an appropriate descriptor. The reason I questioned it is because I thought I had missed something, so no need to bang your head any more …
      1. Chapor (@chapor)
        27th May 2015, 12:53
        
        @baron That is exactly what I knew you were going to say, that you will not find anything wrong with the win. Even though the win was facilitated by the cheated pole position. If he had not cheated himself to that pole, he would not have won. Ergo, cheated win. There, got it now? Or should I draw pictures?
      2. Baron (@baron)
        27th May 2015, 12:58
        
        @chapor Bang your head some more and then draw me some pictures…
Hans Herrmann (@twentyseven)
25th May 2015, 11:46

5 of the last 6 races has seen Hamilton, Rosberg and Vettel on the Podium

Vettel is doing great work in that Ferarri
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
25th May 2015, 11:54

‘Kimi Raikkonen is now the only driver to have participated in every qualifying session this year without beating his team mate.’ Very nice stat )
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
25th May 2015, 12:27

Doesn’t Vettel now have the best record for a starting Ferrari driver?
1. BaKano (@bakano)
  26th May 2015, 9:50
  
  @xtwl, I went to check Kimi0s 2007 season (when he joined Ferrari) and he did not perform as good as Vettel this year.
  Alonso at 2010 also not as good.
  So I checked Alain Prost’s 1990 season, his first for Ferrari. He had 2 wins in the first 6 races, but no other podium (and 2 retirements) so Vettel should have the best record…
Mackeine Loveine (@cocaine-mackeine)
25th May 2015, 12:37

Another stat: Maldonado has never finished a Monaco race on his F1 career.
2011 – Collision with Hamilton with 6 laps to go
2012 – Slammed into an HRT at the first corner.
2013 – Crashed with a Marussia forcing a red flag
2014 – Didn’t start due to an engine problem
2015 – Brake Problem
1. DaveF1 (@davef1)
  25th May 2015, 13:27
  
  Wow, that’s quiet a stat considering it’s supposed to be one of his strongest circuits.
  1. William Stuart (@williamstuart)
    25th May 2015, 13:32
    
    Hahaha that says a lot about his career!
2. Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
  25th May 2015, 13:42
  
  Fate. It was not clear he would be allowed to compete in Monaco at all after disobeying yellow flags in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2005 and seriously injuring a marshal.
  
  However, the Monaco ban either did not happen in the first place or was reversed quickly as Maldonado competed at Monaco again in 2006 already.
3. Julien (@jlracing)
  25th May 2015, 13:55
  
  He hasn’t finished any Australian and Malaysian GP either. Pastor certainly has some bad luck tracks
4. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
  25th May 2015, 14:26
  
  All this after his previous ban at the circuit that his sponsors and father paid off officials to get lifted!!
5. Sonics (@sonicslv)
  25th May 2015, 15:07
  
  Maybe some people still hate him for the marshal incident and curse him to never complete Monaco GP even though the ban somehow miraculously lifted.
glue (@glue)
25th May 2015, 12:43

He certainly had luck on his side – but then so did Senna in 1992

And in 1993
geeyore
25th May 2015, 13:06

A farcical comparison. A win is a win – that’s always true and no one should denigrate Roserg for having it – but comparing it to a Senna performance on Monaco? That’s just a preposterous exaggeration.
1. ColdFly F1 (@)
  25th May 2015, 13:09
  
  He certainly had luck on his side – but then so did Senna in 1992.
  1. Michael Brown
    25th May 2015, 14:38
    
    I’m guessing geeyore hasn’t read the comment above, as Senna had luck in 1993, too.
    It looks like Monaco is a special track for Rosberg and Senna. Seems like the stars align for them each race.
    1. speedAddict78 (@speedaddict78)
      25th May 2015, 21:47
      
      In other hand, he had bad luck in 88.
      1. ramboii
        25th May 2015, 23:47
        
        He crashed in 1988, that’s not bad luck, that’s a driving error.
2. Fletch (@fletchuk)
  25th May 2015, 22:56
  
  The person most comparing others to Senna is Hamilton – comparing himself
BasCB (@bascb)
25th May 2015, 14:36

So, Maldonado is still to finish a race this season. I guess its not a record (in days past there are bound to have been boatloads of backmarkers who were lucky to be classified at any race in the season), but its been a while someone failed to finish the first 6 races of the season (and 7 in a row in total).
1. speedAddict78 (@speedaddict78)
  25th May 2015, 21:52
  
  Since Villeneuve in 1999 season (the first one with BAR). He failed to finish the first 11 races of the season.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
25th May 2015, 14:47

When was the longest time during which 2 teams colonised the podium, @keithcollantine?
Strontium (@strontium)
25th May 2015, 16:09

This is the second Monaco Grand Prix in a row where a McLaren and a Force India have collided in Mirabeau on the first lap. Last year it was Button and Perez, this year it was the other cars of Alonso and Hulkenberg.

Both occasions ended up with the Force India in the barriers, and the McLaren continuing. Both collisions were caused by the McLaren trying to go up the inside of the Force India.
BT52B (@)
25th May 2015, 16:20

Montoya should try to win Le Mans, that way he will become only the second driver (after Graham Hill) to win the triple crown of motosports (Monaco, Indy 500 and Le Mans).
1. Fletch (@fletchuk)
  25th May 2015, 22:58
  
  @eduardogigante – OMG that would be AWESOME!
2. Fletch (@fletchuk)
  25th May 2015, 23:16
  
  @eduardogigante – actually just thinking…
  
  the fact that he has now won the Indy 500 twice, AND won at Nascar, AND set the fastest ever recorded speed in an F1 car, AND the greatest ever moment in F1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtjBLN8MxgQ ;)
  
  Is he the greatest driver ever??? :P
  1. BaKano (@bakano)
    26th May 2015, 9:54
    
    LOL @fletchuk.
    This incident shows it much about Montoya. He was ready to* go at the cameraman, a typical hot-blooded person that can do great things but also screw-up badly :-D
sumedh
25th May 2015, 16:28

Please correct me if I am wrong, but Massa and now Rosberg are the only two drivers to have scored a hat trick and not win the WDC.
1. Bleu (@bleu)
  25th May 2015, 16:33
  
  You are correct. Other non-champions with three wins on same circuit are Moss (Monza+Monaco), Peterson (Monza) and Barrichello (Monza) but none of them won three straight.
Erivaldo moreira (@erivaldonin)
25th May 2015, 17:36

Rosberg joins a select group of drivers who won three consecutive Monaco Grands Prix. They include Senna , Graham Hill and Alain Prost.

First time Rosberg wins two races in a row and is the first time since 2010 for a driver who is not world champion

Jenson Button gave McLaren their first points score this year
just like Jules Bianchi did last year to marussia
JMLabareda (@jmlabareda)
25th May 2015, 18:21

6 races in , only 2 teams / 4 drivers in the podium (and could be 3 if not for Kimi’s great performance in Bahrain).
Haven’t checked the last time this happened
1. Andre (@lheela)
  25th May 2015, 18:44
  
  All the occasions when two teams shared all of the podium positions of the first 6 races:
  
  – Mercedes and Ferrari in 2015
  – Ferrari and Maserati in 1956 (if you exclude Indianapolis 500) (run ended after 6 races)
  – Ferrari and Maserati in 1953 (if you exclude Indianapolis 500) (run ended after 8 races because the season was over, both teams continued to share podiums in the first two rounds of 1954)
  – Ferrari and Alfa Romeo in 1951 (if you exclude Indianapolis 500) (run ended after 7 races)
  
  In recent history only 2007 came close, when Ferrari and McLaren shared all podium positions of the first 5 races. At the sixth race however both BMW and Williams scored a podium.
  1. JMLabareda (@jmlabareda)
    25th May 2015, 21:00
    
    great stats
    thanks
JMLabareda (@jmlabareda)
25th May 2015, 21:02

So McLaren finally scores points – suppose it was a long time ago since they failed to score in the first 5 races of a season, or 6 races in a row?
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
25th May 2015, 23:01

Only places where Hamilton has raced but not been on pole: Austria, France, India, Turkey, Suzuka, Austin.

Rosberg’s 1000th career point, Hamilton’s 1600th, Ricciardo’s 300th, Vettel’s 1700th, and Button’s 1200th. Perez didn’t quite get his 200th, though.

First race this year in which Rosberg has finished in a different position to his starting position.

Raikkonen has already beaten his points tally from last year.

Merhi’s starting positions: 19-20-19-20-19. Stevens: 19-18-19-18.

Under the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system, Hamilton would be leading Rosberg by a 5th-place finish with Vettel a further 2nd-place finish behind, just as in the current system.

16th consecutive season in which Button has scored points – equals M Schumacher’s record.

And some more for magnetimarelli.com:

21st different track at which Hamilton has scored pole – only 1 shy of Prost’s record (and he only had 33 poles in his career!).

17th consecutive Mercedes pole – equals McLaren in 1988-89 (only Williams in 1992-93 have a longer streak with 24).

First Dutchman to start from the top 10 in Monaco.

Hulkenberg started 11th for the 4th time in his 5 Monaco visits (10th in 2012 is the exception).

First time since 1952-53 that a team has got both cars on the podium 6 races in a row.

3rd consecutive Monaco GP in which Raikkonen has been hit by another driver (Perez, Chilton, Ricciardo).

Grosjean has made contact with another driver in every Monaco GP he has competed in.

First back-to-back mechanical DNFs for Alonso since Canada-USA 2004.

First Williams no-score since Brazil 2013 – their longest streak.
Yuri (@yulocke)
25th May 2015, 23:28

I am really happy for Nico, completing the Hat-trick and his behaviour after the race. He really is a true sportsman.
1. Surfinsoljah (@surfinsoljah)
  26th May 2015, 17:12
  
  Ha!
rm
25th May 2015, 23:53

No team in the history of F1 has ever put both drivers on the podium for six consecutive races … until Mercedes did it just now.
Surfinsoljah (@surfinsoljah)
26th May 2015, 17:12

Clearly Rosberg is the next Senna! ;D
Michael Brown
31st May 2015, 13:57

This is a late post, but this was a statistic I had thought of just yesterday. Perhaps an undesirable statistic: all three of Nico Rosberg’s Monaco wins have been under some kind of controversy.

2013: Mercedes had conducted a tire test prior to the race
2014: Rosberg’s qualifying incident
2015: Strategy mistake for Hamilton gives the win to Rosberg

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2015 Monaco Grand Prix

Author information

Keith Collantine

76 comments on “Rosberg takes first Monaco hat-trick since Senna”