Toro Rosso hail 'incredible' Vettel

The 20-year-old German has retired from four races so far this season, three of them due to first lap collisions. But in a chaotic race at Monte Carlo, where several front-runners and both active world champions made errors, Vettel, on his Monaco debut, put in a faultless performance to finish in the points.

"Fifth place, four points, a new car and all at Monaco, fantastic!" said team principal Franz Tost. "It was an exciting race and Vettel did an incredible job, especially at the beginning with these exceptionally difficult circumstances when he had a new car totally under control.

"Later, when he changed onto the dry tyres, he was one of the fastest on track. Doing this on his first appearance in Monaco in an F1 car and with the new car is really a fantastic performance.

"The team did a good job with the new car, especially as it did not look so good after Thursday, but over the next two days, the car was given a completely new set-up, so congratulations to the engineers and everyone in the team for doing a fantastic job."

Vettel put his performance down to his strong pace on a drying track halfway through the race, when he was one of several drivers to post a fastest lap time.

"The race today was extremely difficult, especially at the start when with all the water on the track surface there was a lot of aquaplaning," he said. "But we were very strong as the track began to dry and that's what made the difference.

"It's great to score my first points of the season at Monaco and with the new car as well. A big thank you to the team, who worked so hard to understand the car and improve it over the weekend. And a special thanks for the pit stop which was fantastic and gained me two places."

Vettel's team-mate Sebastien Bourdais did not enjoy his Monaco debut to the same extent, crashing out early when he aquaplaned off the track and collected David Coulthard's already-crashed Red Bull at Massanet.

"As far as my accident was concerned, David had gone off the track," said the Frenchman. "For some reason, even though it seemed to have stopped raining by then, there was more water on the track at that point than before and when I saw the yellow flags, I backed off a bit more and lost control of the rear of the car."