A huge cheer went up from the crowd peering through the mesh fence separating the Monaco harbour from the paddock on Sunday afternoon as the three podium finishers, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen, stepped out of the minivan bringing them down from pit lane to the Media Centre.

However, cutting a somewhat sadder figure than the top three guys still dripping in champagne spray and completely unnoticed by the crowd, was Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel, showered, changed, debriefed and on his way home after a very short race.

Vettel had only completed 15 laps, but they were closely watched by all the world’s TV cameras. Carrying the lightest fuel load of the field, so you can work out he was meant to have started higher up the grid than fourth, Sebastian opted to start on the super soft tyres, as the team figured they’d be fine for the very short first stint he was meant to do. Unfortunately, their performance dropped off so drastically that, running fourth, he was forced to pit on lap 10 to fit the harder tyres, but he then got it wrong and ended his afternoon in the wall.

Given that he’d started eighth, after a difficult qualifying session, Mark Webber can be reasonably satisfied at keeping his points tally up with a further four for fifth place. But given the huge workload and the number of all-nighters needed from the crew, fitting new parts, adapting to running a new diffuser and so forth, it wasn’t really the result the team would have preferred. However, on a good note, they are still second in the Constructors’ Championship.

Red Bull