Alonso wins while competitors retire

World champion Fernando Alonso has won his first GP of Monaco by leading from start to finish. All closest competitors in the likes of Raikkonen, Webber and Trulli abandoned the race with technical problems. He is joined on the podium by Montoya and Coulthard, two former winners of the prestigious Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher finished 5th after starting from the pitlane because of a disqualification.

While Michael Schumacher is waiting in the pitlane to leave after everybody else, the pack leaves and storms through Saint Devote. While Webber is able to hold his position to a challenging Raikkonen, but is one lap later passed after seemingly slow accelleration out of the first corner. In the back, Michael Schumacher appears to want to prove something as he is passing one car after the other and is already up to 16th place after 5 laps. Just as Raikkonen is very close behind Alonso, Schumacher is challenging Button who lost a place to Heidfeld during the first lap.

Meanwhile from 5th to 8th place Barrichello is the leader of a train of 4 cars including Barrichella, Rosberg, Coulthard and Fisichella. Those cars are already 17 seconds behind Alonso and 13 seconds behind 4th placed Montoya after 10 laps. Few laps later Monteiro is already lapped by Alonso and Raikkonen. The two MF1 cars had touched in during the start after Albers put his teammate into the sidewall. Monteiro's car thereby lost an upper flap of the front wing and had to come into the pitlane for a new one. Albers later received a drive through penalty after 18 laps because of causing the "avoidable accident".

After 21 laps, Michael Schumacher finally manages to get past Button and immediately storms through and out of sight of the British Honda driver. At the same time, Montoya is the first to come in and is followed by his teammate one lap later. Alonso is theeby granted some breathing room as the Finn was chasing closely behind the world champion. The fun was however short-lived as just two laps further down the race Alonso pits and rejoins the track just in front of Kimi once more.

Mark Webber has found his second breath after his pitstop and had rejoined the two leaders ater making up for his 5 seconds deficit. Raikkonen meanwhile also appears to be a lot faster than Alonso but is unable to get past. Montoya is also faster than the leaders and closes in too with almost one second a lap.

In the middle of the field after several men had taken their first stops, a very big peloton formed including Heidfeld, R. Schumacher, Villeneuve, Coulthard, Fisichella and Rosberg. After 38 laps both Schumacher and Massa came into the pits. Schumacher thereby left the pitlane on a clear track which allows him to put in some good laps, contrary to the men stuck in the group. Fisichella there suddenly found the edge and passed both Coulthard and Villeneuve. As Heidfeild quickly after that entered the pitlane, the group fell apart with several position changes. Michael Schumacher regained places and found himself in 13th place with 35 laps to go.

In lap 46 both Barrichello and Trulli make their only pitstop of the race and rejoin the track where they left it, in place 5th and 6th. Moments later Webber's Cosworth blows and introduces the safety car, resulting in almost everyone coming in for fuel and new tyres. Sato meanwhile also had to abandon. At the front Alonso maintained the lead over Raikkonen. As both Red Bulls decided not to pit, they were allowed to go past the safety car. Behind the safety car, Raikkonen also suffers a flaming engine and abandones just before the tunnel. As a result, Alonso is now first ahead of Montoya, Barrichello and Trulli. Klien is in 5th place, Coulthard 6th, M Schumacher 7th and Fisichella 8th. That same lap Rosberg misses the Anthony Noghes corner and retires from the race. Suddenly, the race for Williams is done after the promising performances during the qualiying.

Only two laps later Klien's race is also finished as he slowly drives into the pitlane. With 19 more laps to go, Villeneuve comes in for a drive through penalty following overtaking under a yellow flag condition. Barrichello also strangely drives through the pitlane for speeding in the pitlane which moves Trulli up to third place, followed by superman David Coulthard. Barrichello rejoins the track in 5th place with nobody really close in front or behind him.

Only 6 laps to go and Trulli is the next victim as he comes to a halt at Saint Devote with a technical problem. Ralf therefore enters the points and Coulthard moves up to a provisional podium spot. One lap later Michael Schumacer puts in the fastest lap of the race and comes in just behind Barrichello in 4th place.

The world champion finally wins the Monaco GP and will form a great podium together with former winners Montoya and Coulthard.

The complete results are:
1 F. Alonso Renault 1:43:43.116 10
2 JP. Montoya McLaren + 14.567 8
3 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 52.298 6
4 R. Barrichello Honda + 53.337 5
5 M. Schumacher Ferrari + 53.830 4
6 G. Fisichella Renault + 1:02.072 3
7 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1 laps 2
8 R. Schumacher Toyota + 1 laps 1
9 F. Massa Ferrari + 1 laps 10 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps 11 J. Button Honda + 1 laps 12 C. Albers Midland F1 + 1 laps 13 S. Speed Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps 14 J. Villeneuve BMW + 1 laps 15 T. Monteiro Midland F1 + 2 laps 16 F. Montagny Super Aguri + 3 laps Did not finish
17 J. Trulli Toyota + 5 laps 18 C. Klien Red Bull + 21 laps 19 N. Rosberg Williams + 26 laps 20 K. Räikkönen McLaren + 28 laps 21 M. Webber Williams + 30 laps 22 T. Sato Super Aguri + 32 laps