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Monaco stats - Rosberg, Marussia strike gold in Monte Carlo

25 May 2014

In a city famed for its casinos, there were two teams who really hit the jackpot in Monte Carlo on Sunday - Mercedes and Marussia.

The Silver Arrows scored their sixth victory in a row and fifth successive one-two, while Nico Rosberg won his second race in the Principality in as many seasons. Like last year, the German also led every lap, becoming the first driver to do that in Monaco since Ayrton Senna in 1989/1990. The legendary Brazilian went on to lead every lap in the 1991 race, but we’ll have to wait until 2015 to see if Rosberg can emulate that record. On a separate note, Mercedes have still led every lap so far this season.

Further back, Marussia finally made it into the points at the 83rd time of asking thanks to Jules Bianchi’s brilliant ninth-place finish. The Banbury-based squad are in their fifth season of Formula One racing, having joined the grid as Virgin Racing in 2010, and had previously finished no higher than 12th (which they achieved in Singapore and Brazil in 2012). Bianchi, who was competing in his 25th Grand Prix, becomes the 326th driver and 35th Frenchman to score a world championship point. Rather fittingly, Bianchi follows in the footsteps of his great uncle Lucien Bianchi who scored the only podium finish of his F1 career in Monaco in 1968.

Incidentally, Marussia’s success means that Caterham are now the only team on the grid never to have scored a world championship point.

There were other notable results in the top ten: Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo recorded his second career podium finish; Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso moved the Scuderia’s streak of consecutive points finishes on to 73 races with fourth place; Williams' Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen all recorded their third points finishes of the season; and Lotus’s Romain Grosjean made it to the flag in Monaco for the first time in his career - his eighth-place finish giving him consecutive points finishes for the first time this year.

But there were many drivers who had less pleasant afternoons in Monaco. In all there were eight retirements in Sunday’s race, tying the season-opener in Australia for the most DNFs in an event this year. One of the unlucky retirees was Williams' Valtteri Bottas who failed to finish in the points for the first time in 2014. Conversely, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg kept his own season-long streak of top ten finishes going by coming home fifth.

Elsewhere, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen had a difficult race in what was his 200th Grand Prix event. The Finn ran as high as third early on, before dropping back down the field and eventually finishing 12th. He did at least have the consolation of setting fastest lap for the 40th time in his F1 career.

Another world champion celebrating a significant milestone on Sunday was Sebastian Vettel. The German was competing in his 100th race for Red Bull but was an early retirement. Still, it was only the 11th time in his career with the Milton Keynes-based team that he has not been a classified race finisher. And finally, speaking of classified finishers, Toro Rosso’s double DNF meant the Italian squad were without one for the first time since the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix.