Massa held to P1 at the start but a mistake at St. Devote eventually dropped him to third. (LAT Photo) » More Photos

The SC period meant that when Kubica and Massa made their first stops – the Brazilian moving past the Pole thanks to stopping six laps later (Massa had been overtaken by Kubica after his lap 15 mistake) Hamilton became the de facto leader of the race, a position he wouldn’t relinquish until the checkered flag.

By the second round of stops around lap 50, Hamilton had opened up such a gap to Massa and Kubica that he was able to rejoin still on first despite pitting earlier. As conditions improved and drivers opted for slicks, Kubica benefited from stopping before Massa to regain the second position.

Further back, plenty of action was still ongoing, though. On lap 61, the recovering Rosberg suffered a major crash at the Swimming Pool chicane and brought out the second SC of the day.

The bunching of the field allowed the frontrunners hampered by early mistakes to attempt a comeback. Battling Sutil for fourth, Raikkonen lost his Ferrari and ran into the back of the German, who was initially able to continue but ended up being forced to retire. Sutil cried copiously in the pits after climbing out of his car. The Finn, for his part, made his second nosecone change of the day and endured to finish ninth.

Other significant retirements included the erratic Nelson Piquet running straight on with his Renault at St. Devote and Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella being sidelined by mechanical failure in the race in which he celebrated his 200th GP start.

No one was able to mount a serious challenge to Hamilton at the final restart, however, and the Briton brought his McLaren home as the race ended on the two-hour limit.

"This has got to be the highlight of my career and I am sure it will be a highlight for the rest of my life," admitted the Briton, who paid tribute to his hero Ayrton Senna, the winningest driver at the Principality. "I was thinking in the last few laps of how Ayrton won here; to win here is amazing.”

As for the Tabac crash, Hamilton took responsibility: “I couldn't see anything and so I stayed in second as rain came down because there was so much spray I couldn't see any more and through Tabac there was a river coming across. As I was catching Felipe I oversteered and steered into the barrier. I know I just touched it but I had a puncture, but I was able to tell team and they could react as quick as possible. They did a fantastic job."

Despite equaling his career-best finish, Kubica said he’s concerned that BMW is losing ground to McLaren and Ferrari.

"I think our team was the most consistent in the first three races, with less problems, and that is why I think we could extract more from the car," the Pole pondered. "But lately I think we struggled a bit more. You just need to look at the results in qualifying and I think the answer is clear – it is harder. In Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain with good driving I could be on the first or second row easy, and now I struggle to stay close to fourth. So things are changing, although it is still good enough to be fifth. I think in the last two races the situation looks more like last year.”

This Sunday’s results put Hamilton atop the points table with 38, three more than Raikkonen and four ahead of Massa. The 2008 F1 season resumes in two weeks time with the Canadian GP in Montreal.


MONACO GRAND PRIX RESULTS