@LewisHamilton holds off @Max33Verstappen to win thrilling #MonacoGP. #F1

Lewis Hamilton withstood intense pressure from hard-pushing Max Verstappen to win a thrilling Monaco Grand Prix, as a pit-lane incident with Valtteri Bottas cost Verstappen second place.

Hamilton had to manage his yellow C4 medium rubber for 60 laps and ultimately resisted pressure from Verstappen and his pursuers behind who were all on harder compounds.

As Verstappen was unable to be by the Mercedes and move clear – despite a late lunge dive at the Nouvelle Chicane with two laps remaining – the Dutchman fell from second to fourth following his five-second time penalty.

Verstappen was handed the punishment due to an unsafe release in the pit-lane that put him ahead of the second-placed Mercedes of Bottas, who he made slight contact with and snagged the wall.

Thus, Verstappen was relegated behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Bottas, who rounded out the top three despite needing to make another stop under the safety car after brushing the wall and causing a puncture.

When the 78 lap Monaco Grand Prix began, pole-sitter Hamilton retained his lead at the start ahead of Mercedes team-mate Bottas, despite Verstappen having a look at the inside of the Mercedes at St Devote on the opening lap.

The front-running places remained stable in the opening stint until the safety car was deployed for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – who started 15^th on the grid due to the Scuderia’s qualifying mishap – scattered the streets of Monte Carlos with debris after a puncture.

Leclerc hit the inside wall with his SF90 racer at Rascasse and half-spun attempting to pass Renault F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg.

The young-Monegasque driver attempted to continue racing but picked up a puncture and littered the track with a significant amount of debris as the rubber fell apart around the rest of the lap.

Mercedes decided to pit both drivers under the caution period and Bottas fell behind Hamilton under the safety car to try and make enough of a gap to prevent losing time.

When they pitted, Verstappen was released just as Bottas was coming by and although Verstappen was a nose ahead of the Finn’s Silver Arrow, a small amount of contact was made as Bottas touched the wall on the right-hand side.

The incident damaged the wheel rim of Bottas’ F1 W10 EQ Power+, which caused a puncture, but with the safety car still on track he only dropped behind Vettel to fourth and eventually Verstappen was hit with a five-second time penalty.

When the race went green, Verstappen was pushing Hamilton to his limits, but only got much closer to the Mercedes with ten laps remaining to hound the five-time World Champion.

The Dutchman took a slight look on the outside at Fairmont Hairpin with eight laps remaining but was not get close enough on the exit of Portier to get a good run at Hamilton into the Nouvelle Chicane.

With two laps remaining, he took a lunge at Hamilton into the Nouvelle Chicane, but the Briton moved across. Verstappen locked-up and they made slight wheel-to-wheel contact – Verstappen’s right-front to Hamilton’s left-rear and Hamilton took a trip through the run-off area, but both continued unscathed with no damage.

Hamilton crossed the line to win the Monaco Grand extended his advantage in the World Driver’s Championship to 17 points over Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Vettel and Bottas were slightly behind the leaders reaching the chequered flag but within five seconds and crucially within the five seconds to demote Verstappen to fourth.

Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly completed the top five and secured his best result since being promoted to the senior team, with the Frenchman also taking the bonus fastest lap point after building enough of a gap to make a free pit-stop and bolt on a fresh set of soft rubber.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz came home in sixth place and took his best result for the Woking-based outfit after not opting to stop under the safety car.

That strategy was also followed by Toro Rosso pairing Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon who finished in seventh and eighth respectively.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo ended the Monaco Grand Prix in ninth place, the leading midfield runner who opted to pit under the safety car.

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean who replicated the same strategy as Sainz/Kvyat/Albon completed the top ten and took the final point available.

The other McLaren of Lando Norris finished outside the top ten in 11^th place and in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who was 12^th and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez who was 13^th.

Renault F1 Team’s Hulkenberg was 14^th and ahead of ROKiT Williams Racing’s George Russell who took 15^th and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll who was 16^th.

The two Alfa Romeo Racing C38’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi finished a low 17^th and the rear with the second Williams of Robert Kubica taking 18^th.

The aforementioned Leclerc was the only retirement at the Monaco Grand Prix after initially wanting to push on following his early setback but soon parked his SF90 in the pits.

There was another bit of drama at La Rascasse shortly after the safety car period, when Giovinazzi hit Kubica’s FW42 causing him to spin.

The circuit was briefly a parking lot with cars held up, but Kubica managed to reverse and move out of the way quickly to prevent anything more than waved yellow flags.

The Monaco GP Top Three

1^st – Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “That was the hardest race I think I’ve had. I was fighting with the spirit of Niki. He’s been truly an influential person in our team in making it what it is today. We truly miss him. I was never going to come in, a few years ago I was in the lead and learned the hard way. I was either going to crash or finish and drive around on nothing. I think it was the wrong tyre, but nonetheless the team has done an incredible, what we’ve done in the past six races is incredible.”

2^nd – Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow, SF90: “It was obviously a tough race to manage. I thought we had a good stop, but Max must have had an incredible stop. There was a good chance that we could capitalise on Valtteri’s puncture, we always tried to stay in range. [My tyres] we just not getting hot! It’s all about Niki, I think he would be happy today. He’ll always be around, but we’ll miss him.”

3rd – Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “Obviously a disappointing weekend for me because I think the speed was there. We had to stop the same time as Lewis, so I lost a bit of time, and then Max left me no room in the pitstop.”

Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2019 Race Classification (78 Laps)

Formula 1 2019 World Driver’s Championship Standings – Top 10

1. Lewis Hamilton – 137 Points.
2. Valtteri Bottas – 120 Points.
3. Sebastian Vettel – 82 Points.
4. Max Verstappen – 78 Points.
5. Charles Leclerc – 57 Points.
6. Pierre Gasly – 32 Points.
7. Carlos Sainz – 18 Points.
8. Kevin Magnussen – 14 Points.
9. Sergio Perez – 13 Points.
10. Kimi Raikkonen – 13 Points.

Formula 1 2019 World Constructors Championship Standings

1. Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport – 257 Points.
2. Scuderia Ferrari – 139 Points.
3. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda – 110 Points.
4. McLaren-Renault F1 Team – 30 Points.
5. SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team – 17 Points.
6. Rich Energy Haas F1 Team – 16 Points.
7. Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda – 16 Points.
8. Renault F1 Team – 14 Points.
9. Alfa Romeo Racing – 13 Points.
10. ROKiT Williams Racing – 0 Points.

Round seven of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada for the Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix Du Canada 2019 from Friday June 7-Sunday June 9.