Ricciardo takes sensational win at Monaco

Daniel Ricciardo wins the Monaco Grand Prix. The Australian driver crossed the finishing line ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton to take his first win at Monaco.

The race started without any major incidents. Ricciardo kept his first place after a good start. Behind him, Vettel had no solution to pass and had to settle for the second place, with Hamilton on third.

The first part of the race was very well controlled by Ricciardo. He kept a 1.5 second advantage over Vettel after the first pitstops. At this point of the race everything seemed to be under control for the Australian.

The other Red Bull driven by Max Verstappen was slowly making progress in the field. Having to start last after an unfortunate incident at the end of FP3 which saw him missing the qualifying session, Verstappen was already near the points places after the pitstops.

After he dominated the first laps of the race, Ricciardo's Red Bull seemed to have a failure. As much as the Australian wanted to resolve this issue, he had to manage a power deficit and a Sebastian Vettel very eager to take the first place from him.

Soon, the gap closed to 0.5 seconds and nothing was certain anymore for Ricciardo. Far behind them, Alonso had a gearbox failure while he was battling with Gasly. The Spaniard had to retire from the race. For the McLaren driver this was the first DNF of the year.

Meanwhile, Ricciardo managed somehow to keep Vettel behind him. With all the power deficit, the Monaco narrow streets helped him to keep the Ferrari driver behind. Hamilton reduced the gap to Vettel but he had no chance of getting past him.

Near the end of the race, Leclerc complained about brake problems on his Sauber. Unfortunately, he slammed into Hartley's car and both had to retire from the race. As a consequence of the incident, the virtual safety car was deployed as soon as possible.

The last laps seemed to bring the best bit of the race. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case, as Vettel lost more than six seconds behind the virtual safety car. At this stage of the race, Ricciardo had the win in his pocket.

In the end, Ricciardo took the checkered flag and won his first Monaco Grand Prix. Vettel came nearly eight seconds afterwards and brought home valuable points for the world championship fight. Hamilton completed the podium, while Raikkonen held Bottas to finish fourth.

Ocon brought valuable for Force India by finishing sixth. Gasly did another fantastic race and finished seventh, while Hulkenberg kept Verstappen behind him to finish eight. The only consolation for Verstappen was the fastest lap he managed to set in the latter stages of the race. Sainz was the last man to score points by finishing tenth.

Behind Sainz, Ericsson, Perez, Magnussen, Vandoorne, Grosjean, Sirotkin and Stroll were the other driver who managed to get the checkered flag in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton remains the Drivers Championship leader after the Monaco Grand Prix. The reigning world championship has scored 110 points,14 more than his closest rival, Sebastian Vettel who has scored 96 points. Daniel Ricciardo completes the podium with 72 points.

In the Constructors Championship, Mercedes stays ahead of Ferrari. The German constructor has scored 178 points, 22 more than Ferrari, who has 156 points under their tally. Red Bull Racing completes the podium with 107 points.

Canada will host the next Formula 1 grand prix from the 2018 season. The Canadian Grand Prix will take place between 8-10 June on the legendary Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in the heart of Montreal.

Paul Athes