Monaco GP: Nico Rosberg wins wild race for Mercedes

Mercedes was unable to repeat its qualifying one-two, as Lewis Hamilton fell to fourth behind the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

Rosberg held his lead at the start and was able to maintain an advantage of around two seconds for the majority of the race, whether in tyre conservation mode or showing his true pace.

Hamilton lost ground when the safety car came out amid the first scheduled pitstops.

Felipe Massa repeated his qualifying crash at Sainte Devote, prompting the interruption and sending the Ferrari driver to hospital for checks.

As all those yet to pit immediately dived in to do so, Hamilton had to queue behind team-mate Rosberg and emerged behind the two Red Bulls.

Hamilton then spent the rest of the race mounting attack after attack on Webber for third, getting alongside through Rascasse at one point but never making it ahead.

Rosberg was not rattled by a mid-race stoppage, caused when contact between Max Chilton's Marussia and Pastor Maldonado's Williams sent the latter flying violently into the Tabac barriers.

Maldonado was unhurt in the incident, for which the stewards punished Chilton with a drive-through penalty.

While Rosberg cruised to victory ahead of the Vettel-Webber-Hamilton train, which only spread out in the final moments, the rest of the pack engaged in some spectacular and wild racing.

Force India's Adrian Sutil pulled off brave passes on Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso into Loews.

He then benefited when contact between Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez at the chicane late on left the Lotus with a puncture and caused damage that would ultimately force Perez to park.

Button came through to sixth, having earlier had a spat with his McLaren team-mate Perez when the Mexican cut the chicane to hold him off.

Perez was ordered to let Button past, but overtook him cleanly at the same spot later on.

He then had another chicane incident with Alonso, and this time it was the Ferrari asked to move aside having cut the corner.

Raikkonen was next on Perez's list, but on that occasion the chicane move ended in contact.

Alonso lost out to Button in the traffic jam behind Perez's wounded car and finished a subdued seventh.

Jean-Eric Vergne chased the Ferrari home in eighth.

Paul di Resta converted 17th on the grid to ninth place, thanks to pitting as early as lap nine and making his tyres last to the end.

Raikkonen's recovery drive ultimately earned him a point, as he overtook Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber on the final lap.

The other major incident came when Romain Grosjean ploughed into the back of Daniel Ricciardo at the chicane, causing the final safety car.

Jules Bianchi also crashed, slewing into the Sainte Devote barriers, having earlier sustained damage on debris from the Chilton/Maldonado crash.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Monaco Grand Prix
Monte Carlo, Monaco;
78 laps (inc red flag); 260.520km;
Weather: Sunny.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                  Time/Gap
 1.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes              2h17m52.056s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault          + 3.888s
 3.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault          + 6.314s
 4.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes                 + 13.894s
 5.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes     + 21.477s
 6.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes         + 23.103s
 7.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                  + 26.734s
 8.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari       + 27.223s
 9.  Paul Di Resta        Force India-Mercedes     + 27.608s
10.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault            + 36.582s
11.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari           + 42.572s
12.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault         + 42.691s
13.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari           + 43.212s
14.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth        + 49.885s
15.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault       + 1m02.590s

Retirements:

     Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes           72 laps
     Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              63 laps
     Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         61 laps
     Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth          58 laps
     Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault           44 laps
     Felipe Massa         Ferrari                    28 laps
     Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault            7 laps

World Championship standings, round 6:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Vettel        107        1.  Red Bull-Renault          164
 2.  Raikkonen      86        2.  Ferrari                   123
 3.  Alonso         78        3.  Lotus-Renault             112
 4.  Hamilton       62        4.  Mercedes                  109
 5.  Webber         57        5.  Force India-Mercedes       44
 6.  Rosberg        47        6.  McLaren-Mercedes           37
 7.  Massa          45        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         12
 8.  Di Resta       28        8.  Sauber-Ferrari              5
 9.  Grosjean       26
10.  Button         25
11.  Sutil          16
12.  Perez          12
13.  Ricciardo       7
14.  Hulkenberg      5
15.  Vergne          5

All timing unofficial