Lewis Hamilton Keeps Ricciardo At Bay To Win In Monaco

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton pulled out all the stops to record his first win of the season at Formula One's grandest stage, the Monaco Grand Prix.

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo was left feeling like he had been "run over" after his Red Bull pit crew lost him the race by not getting the tyres ready in time for a pit stop. He eventually finished second ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez.

The 2016 Monaco Grand Prix started under the guidance of the safety car after rain lashed the streets of Monaco. When the safety car finally left the track, it was Ricciardo who started from pole who stormed away from the two Mercedes drivers, Nico Rosberg and Hamilton.

Rosberg struggled with his brakes and was slowing both himself and Hamilton down. To ensure they had a chance at clinching the top spot, Mercedes on lap 16, finally ordered Rosberg to let Hamilton through.

On lap 23, Ricciardo pitted for a set of intermediate tyres, but Mercedes decided to let Hamilton stay out for longer. Hamilton finally pitted at the end of lap 31 for a set of brand new Ultra-Soft tyres (the purple banded tyres finally coming into play).

Ricciardo thought he had him covered as he entered the pits to switch to super-softs himself but a communication error meant that his mechanics were not ready for him. The resultant 14-seconds in his pit box eventually cost the Australian the race.

Lap 37 saw some drama as well as Hamilton missed a chicane but just about managed to legally get back in time to deny Ricciardo a win. From then on, Hamilton managed to defend his position till the end of the race to finally claim his second ever win in Monaco.

Hamilton's win saw him cut Rosberg's lead to just 27 points in the 2016 championship (Rosberg finished 6th). Ricciardo jumped the two Ferrari drivers Raikkonen(Did Not Finish) and Sebastian Vettel(4th place) to claim third in the drivers championship battle.

There was good news for McLaren, who were celebrating their 50th anniversary as Fernando Alonso finished 5th while Jenson Button finished 9th to help the British team and their engine suppliers Honda claim another double points finish on their road to recovery.

Coming behind Rosberg was Carlos Sainz from Toro Rosso who finished ahead of Button and the Williams of Felipe Massa.

F1's youngest race winner, Max Verstappen, had a race to forget as greeted the barriers for the second time this weekend to crash out.