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Lewis Hamilton finally kick-started his championship challenge with a thrilling victory at a rain-hit Monaco Grand Prix, his second at the sport’s most prestigious race after his first in similar conditions in 2008.
While fortune finally favoured the triple world champion after a run of bad luck, championship leader Nico Rosberg finished seventh - 93.2 seconds behind - and saw his lead cut to 24 points after six of 21 races.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo was runner-up in a grand prix he really ought to have won, with a botched second pit-stop destroying his chances after he started on pole position for the first time in his career.
Mexican Sergio Perez rounded of the podium with an impressive third for Force India.
“I prayed for a day like this so I feel truly blessed,” said Hamilton, who had cut a disconsolate figure after a fuel pressure problem in qualifying left him third on the starting grid.
The win was the 44th of his career, matching his favourite number and the one on his car, and his first since Texas last October when he took his third world championship.
The British driver said: “This might be the best place ever to have win number 44. What a special day … truly one of the hardest races I can ever remember having. To stay in the zone, not make any mistakes and come out on top is just unbelievable.”
The Monaco resident added: “I walk along here every day and think about the greats who have won this race – the likes of Fangio, Moss, Hill and Senna – and it’s a truly amazing feeling to have my name added to that list again.”
His win came from a combination of a brilliant strategy call and a masterclass in defensive driving. Firstly, he made the right call on the tyres, running a long stint with the wets and then going straight to slicks to only make one pit-stop while every other car stopped for intermediates, and then got much more mileage out of the ultra-softs than expected.
He also made his car as wide as possible with Ricciardo crawling all over the back of him but unable to pass on this tightest of circuits.
Undoubtedly, another factor in his win was the terrible error made by the Red Bull team to ruin a likely victory for Ricciardo for the second race running. The crew called him in for a pit-stop but did not have the tyres ready, resulting in at least 10 seconds of sitting idle in the pit box and him coming out just behind Hamilton.
“Two weeks in a row I’ve been suffering. It sucks. I was called into the box. They should have been ready,” said the driver, who had also led in Spain two weeks ago until a strategy error handed the advantage to 18-year-old Dutch team mate Max Verstappen, who became the sport’s youngest winner.
“Nothing you can say can make it any better,” Ricciardo had told the team over the radio after the chequered flag. “Just save it.”
Ricciardo had built up a tidy lead at the start before Mercedes told Rosberg, then in second place, to let Hamilton through on lap 16 because the German was suffering from high brake temperatures.
The race had started with seven laps behind the safety car in wet conditions, dried out and then ended with more rain threatening and cloudy skies.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished fourth, while Finnish team-mate Kimi Raikkonen retired with his front wing wedged awkwardly under the car after clouting the barriers on the 12th of the 78 laps. Raikkonen continued through the tunnel with sparks coming from his car before parking up at the exit.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was fifth, on the 50th anniversary of his team’s race debut in Monaco in 1966, with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg snatching sixth from Rosberg at the very end.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz was eighth for Toro Rosso, ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button and Brazilian Felipe Massa in a Williams. The safety car had barely come in, with Hamilton among those chafing at the amount of time it had been deployed, before Renault rookie Jolyon Palmer lost control and crashed at the first Sainte Devote corner.
Verstappen, who crashed in qualifying and had been due to start from the pit lane, made some impressive overtakes but his race came to an end just before the half distance when he hit the barriers on the approach to Casino Square.
Renault’s Kevin Magnussen smashed his car’s front wing off when he nosed into barriers and the two Saubers then drove into each other at Rascasse corner, triggering another virtual safety car deployment.
There was another deployment 10 laps from the end when what looked like a large tarpaulin, or plastic sheet, had to be retrieved from the track by a marshal.
Hamilton was congratulated by pop singer Justin Bieber as he stepped out of the car in the pit lane before the podium celebration but as far as Mercedes and race fans were concerned the biggest star of the day was their man.
Toto Wolff, head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport said: “What an incredible drive from Lewis - he didn’t put a foot wrong, we took some risks together as a team and lady luck smiled on us as well.
“It was an amazing race and just what the doctor ordered after everything we have been through together in recent weeks. But I feel really bad for Nico too. He endured a messy race in a car that didn’t have the pace today, a delayed second pit stop that cost him track position and then found himself stuck behind Alonso for the rest of the race.
“It was like all his bad luck came on one day and the result was seventh. In the first stint we told him to let Lewis pass, as that was our best chance of winning the race at that time. The fact that he did so was the gesture of a great team player.
“But we don’t leave Monaco feeling in any way complacent. Red Bull had the performance this weekend and Montreal and Baku will present some very different challenges for us to tackle. So we need to keep pushing on performance and keep chasing the root causes of the problems we have experienced. For now, though, we can also savour a special win for Lewis who was at his very best.”
