F1: Monaco proves predictably unpredictable

It should have been a foregone conclusion: two Ferraris on the front row would inevitably mean that one of them would win.

But Hamilton's demon starting brought him up to second place before the first corner and that seemed to assure him a podium place, given the procession that Monaco often turns out to be after the initial scurries.

Indeed the thrill of Monaco is not the racing, but the skill of the world's best racing drivers in defying the odds and not crashing.

The mix was well and truly stirred by the fact that a wet race followed a dry qualifying. And there was a prediction for heavy rain (which came, although only briefly), a dry spell (that came, too) and then more rain (which despite extremely precise predictions never actually appeared). So tyre choice was important. As the rain came down, it was clear that all the teams, in choosing the intermediates, had made the correct choice although some did temporarily swap to full wets.

And so, within five laps, the scene was set: Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen. No reason to assume that these three - who were streaking away from the pack, would not finish in that order.

Until Hamilton clipped a barrier and deflated his right read tyre. As he headed into pit lane, an accident on the back of the circuit brought out waved yellows and the safety car. Incredibly, he was able to slot back in, with new tyres and a full fuel load, to fourth. And because of the wet conditions, being heavy was not the usual disadvantage. So Hamilton was suddenly on what amounted to a one-stop strategy. It was an easy mathematical calculation to work out that, so long as he stayed out of trouble, Hamilton would win: because of the safety car he was just three car lengths from the lead - and a pit stop in hand.

Then Raikkonen got the news (it's always interesting how such things take a long time to emerge when it's a Ferrari at fault) that his team had failed to meet the three minute deadline before the start for fitting his tyres. That cost him a drive-through penalty and several places.

Kubica drove a storming race and eventually finished second ahead of Massa.

But the drive of the day - and please read this carefully because it's hard to believe - was from Sutil. From showing promise in his first few races last year, Sutil had reached the point where he was fighting for his career. If Team Kingfisher don't give him a rise after Monaco, there is no justice. On merit he passed almost everyone - mostly on track - to reach fourth position. And he would have finished in the points but for the curse of the tunnel.

When it's wet, the glare as drivers exit the tunnel is even worse than the sudden sunshine of the dry days. Car after car had a "moment" coming out of the tunnel and set up "tank slappers."

Sutil did not - but he did approach the chicane a little too fast, and had to brake extra hard and even then it appeared that he would not actually make it around the chicane and would have to straight line it. That would have been fine - if it had not been for Raikkonen. He came out of the tunnel, did the pre-chicane wiggle that had caught out so many others in the wet and the dry, and dived for the chicane - only to find Sutil there.

There can be no blame attached to Sutil: Raikkonen's do or die attempt was poor driving. But Sutil might have got away with it had he not chosen that moment do be in the wrong position - albeit only by a matter of inches.

But it took Sutil out, and cost his team a points finish that they richly deserved.

A second safety car incident caused Hamilton a little extra work: he had a 40 second lead at one point but then the field came up behind him following a spectacular shunt by Rosberg littered the track with shattered bodywork and large pieces of components. Hamilton is good at restarts and had almost a second lead by the start-line which he was then able to build back into a reasonable buffer as others battled amongst themselves.