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Nico Rosberg has become the new ‘king of Monaco’ after winning his third straight Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.
Joining the likes of Ayrton Senna, Graham Hill, and Alain Prost, who have achieved the feat, Rosberg would take advantage of a late safety car to record the victory.
After a late crash to Max Verstappen, who hit Romain Grosjean heading into turn 1 on lap 64, Hamilton was told by the team to pit from the lead.
He did that but lost position to Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel, who didn’t pit, and relied on their tyres to get home.
It was a big tactical error by the team who thought he had a gap large enough to get back out in front.
With Hamilton now behind the duo, and Monaco being a hard track to overtake at, he virtually gave Rosberg the victory.
Rosberg, after the restart on lap 71, would run away and win his 3rd straight race in Monaco.
A distraught Hamilton was inconsolable after the race. The debrief will be interesting between the teams.
If the last 14 laps, after the incident, were drama packed then the first 64 were not.
Hamilton, from pole position, would lead into turn 1 and stay in the lead until the safety car.
Rosberg and Vettel would join him, in 2nd and 3rd, with Daniil Kvyat getting past Daniel Ricciardo for 4th.
Raikkonen would remain in 6th and fight with Ricciardo for position for the first 30 laps of the race.
When both pitted though, on lap 37 and 38 respectively, Raikkonen would move past the Australian.
These positions would stay the same until the incident involving Verstappen.
The Toro Rosso driver, on his debut at Monaco, stormed from 13th to 11th after a pit stop for super soft tyres.
He was pushed back to 13th after a horror first pit stop when his rear tyres failed to come off the car quickly.
When he got close to Grosjean he was fighting for 10th and a point in the world championship.
Unfortunately for him he paid the ultimate price for the lack of room Monaco provides.
After the restart both Hamilton and Ricciardo tried to move forward with fresher tyres.
Hamilton had no luck, but Ricciardo was able to move past Raikkonen.
In a brave move he passed the Ferrari driver at Mirabeau, but pushed him out the way at the same time.
The move was investigated but the officials did nothing about it.
To be fair to the Australian, he had his car level with Raikkonen, as the Finn closed the door.
Contact was inevitable.
Ricciardo was then given team orders to go past Kvyat and try to overtake Hamilton for third.
Unfortunately for him, he could not get past Hamilton in the closing few laps, and was forced to give Kvyat the position back.
4th and 5th for Red Bull is a fantastic result for them. They seem to be heading in the right direction.
The final positions in the top ten were a bit of a surprise given the form the teams have been in this year.
Sergio Perez finished 7th for Force India and Jenson Button finished 8th for McLaren.
Finally, after 6 rounds, the McLaren is in the points.
The championship now heads to Canada with Hamilton’s lead in the title race reduced to ten points.
That race will be held in the early hours of the morning on Monday June 8.
Nico Rosberg will be looking for his third straight win in Monaco tonight when the most prestigious race of the F1 season gets underway at Monte Carlo tonight. Join The Roar for a live blog of the race from 10:00pm AEST tonight.
Rosberg, and Mercedes, have been the dominant force at Monaco over the last three years.
The German, who calls this race his home as he lives here, has been the man to beat.
He has won the last two races, in convincing fashion, and hounded Mark Webber for 55 laps when the Australian won his final Monaco race in 2012.
Tonight he will be looking for his third race win in a row from second on the grid.
Looking to stop him will be his team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, who qualified on pole position for the race.
Hamilton had never won a pole position before today and it was something he desperately wanted at the venue.
The Brit will be looking to win his second Monaco Grand Prix, after winning in 2008, and it looks to be a battle between these two for the win.
The run to the first corner will be interesting because whoever can get the lead will be in a prime position to win the race.
At a track which is almost impossible to pass, strategy needs to be used to beat your rival.
Others to look out for today include the Ferrari’s and the two Red Bulls.
In a big return to form for Red Bull, Dan Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, are in the top 5 for the race.
Kvyat is fifth and Ricciardo is fourth but said he could have been third if the car was wound up to full power in the final stages of qualifying.
Sebastian Vettel, in his Ferrari, is third but looks to be fighting with the Red Bulls for the final podium spot.
Further back it will be a tough day for Williams and McLaren.
Bottas and Massa, for Williams, qualified thirteenth and sixteenth for the race.
They have a tough job to do today.
McLaren qualified eleventh and fourteenth, with Button and Alonso respectively, and will look to get in the points.
Today marks almost one year as well since Jules Bianchi finished 9th in his Marussia.
He is still in a lot of trouble after his crash in Suzuka last year. We wish him all the best as he tries to recover from his injuries. #FORZAJULES.
Thinking of our great friend and team-mate, today and every day. #JB17 #ForzaJules pic.twitter.com/V03MOfJMjU
— Manor F1 Team (@ManorF1Team) May 24, 2015
Hopefully Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi can repeat his heroics last year and provide a brilliant story for today.
Prediction: It will be a battle between Mercedes for the win. I favour Hamilton but Rosberg will fight him all the way.
This is Dan Ricciardo’s best chance of recording a good result today as well. He can snare a podium.
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