Alonso leads dominant McLaren victory at Monaco

F1 Grand Prix, GP Monaco, Monte Carlo Circuit

Fernando Alonso has lead McLaren to a stunning 1-2 finish at the principality. The team have developed a package that was by far the best of the field. Apart from the stops, Alonso never gave away his leading position. Felipe Massa is third and the only one in the same lap as the two McLarens. Giancarlo Fisichella is fourth and secures the best finish so far for Renault this year. Raikkonen finally managed to secure a single point after starting from 16th.

Bridgestone brought their soft and super-soft compounds to Monaco and all but a few are on the regular soft. Nick Heidfeld is one of the exceptions.

Partly thanks to these tyres, Heidfeld is also able to make a very good start and moves up to 5th place. At the front, all top 4 position remain the same. Hamilton immediately took Massa's chance to gain a place by moving right behind Alonso and closing the gap with the Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen made the best start as he came out of lap 1 just behind Button and is 12th. He was able to profit from slowish starts by Kovalainen and an even slower one by Trulli. The second Toyota also had trouble getting off the line as Ralf is last after the first lap.

Lap 2 is the end for Liuzzi as he hits the barriers after apparent oversteer up the hill at Massanet. Yellow flags are waved but there is fortunately no sign of a safety car. Meanwhile Trulli has partly made up for his problematic start as he passed Sato on lap 8.

Alonso already meets Ralf after 14 laps and looks able to pass slower drivers faster than Hamilton. As a result, Alonso is 8 seconds ahead after 16 laps. Alonso is further down seriously held up by Trulli who, when eventually allowing Alonso to pass is also passed by Sato again. That same lap, Mark Webber slowly enters the pit to end his race after yet another gearbox problem.

Fisichella and Rosberg are the first to come in for their first regular stops in lap 24. The Renault driver rejoins the track just behind Heidfeld. Alonso enters the pit together with Massa in lap 27. When Hamilton enters the pitlane in lap 29, Alonso takes the lead again by 4.8 seconds.

In lap 38, Davidson comes in for a drive through penalty after ignoring blue flags. One lap later he's in for his first stop. At the time, Kubica, Wurz, Button, Raikkonen, Speed, Coulthard and Kovalainen have not yet taken their first stops. They are either going for a single stop or could take into account the graining problems of the super-soft compound.

Coulthard meanwhile complains through the radio that there might be something with his front wing. He is suffering more and more understeer which is reflected in his lap times. He takes his first stop 2 laps later and fits super-soft tyres.

In lap 51 Alonso pits for his final stop and switches to the softest tyre available. Hamilton also pits 2 laps later and must of course also switch to the softest tyre compound. After completing their stops, Hamilton is 4 seconds down on Alonso. Massa and Fisichella follow suit in lap 56. Sutil on the other hand commits an error at the same place as Liuzzi did and is out of the race.

Lap 59 and Hamilton is right behind Alonso. Hamilton has slowly been decreasing the gap with Fernando but was seriously aided by again a Toyota who blocked Alonso and let Hamilton easily pass by.

5 laps later and with only 15 laps to go, Hamilton appears to start struggling with his super-soft tyres and slightly loses his gained time to Alonso. The closest competitor to the McLarens is Massa, down 50 seconds. Giancarlo Fisichella is performing really well in 4th place and well ahead of Kubica, Wurz and Raikkonen. Both Hondas have fallen out of the points after surprising late stops. It looked like both were going for a single stop strategy but apparently they decided on a double stopper with a very long first stint.

With only 4 laps to go, Albers ends his race in the pitlane. He is last but will probably still be classified.

McLaren have displayed fabulous form here at Monaco. Both drivers have put in solid performances and only Massa at the end is in the same lap as the leaders.