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Sebastian Vettel wins Monaco GP to extend title lead

29th May 2017, 11:25 by Aditya Nadkarni

Sebastian Vettel has won the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix, while his team mate Kimi Raikkonen finished second. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo managed to get his second consecutive podium finish of the season by finishing third. With this win, Vettel has extended his lead in the World Drivers' Championship to 25 points over Lewis Hamilton, who managed to cross the finish line in the seventh position.

The race started with Kimi Raikkonen on pole position, his first ever leading start in 9 years. Vettel locked an all-Ferrari front row at the grid, while Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Max Verstappen were on the third and fourth place. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton started from 13th place on the grid, after failing to get into Q3 on Saturday.

Despite the wider 2017 cars and the narrow Monaco street circuit, the race started without any issues. Raikkonen led the pack with Sebastian Vettel a close second. Bottas and Verstappen did try to catch the two Ferraris, but weren't able to clock the required lap times. Meanwhile, Ricciardo managed to stick to his team mate's tail. Verstappen made his pit stop on lap 32, while Bottas came in the following lap. However, Ricciardo continued to lap around the circuit before coming into the pits on lap 38. This later stop strategy helped the Australian to pass Bottas as well as Verstappen.

A similar set of events was seen at the front between the two Ferraris. Race leader Raikkonen made his pit stop on lap 34, while Vettel came in on lap 39. The German driver managed to take the race lead position and take the chequered flag to claim his third victory of the season.

For his title rival - Lewis Hamilton, the race started on a low note with the thirteenth grid position. He managed to pass McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne at the start and soon climbed to the 10th spot after Nico Hulkenberg's Renault suffered a blown gearbox and Sergio Perez went into the pits to change the front wing on his Force India. He made his only pit stop of the race on lap 46, when he was running in sixth position. He came out of the pits after losing just one position and went on to finish the race in seventh spot.

A major incident took place on lap 60, when McLaren's Jenson Button, tried to pull off an overtaking maneuver on Sauber's Pascal Wehrlein. The two cars made contact, which resulted in the Sauber going into the barriers on its side. The driver came out without any serious injuries. Button too suffered a retirement due to suspension damage.

Valtteri Bottas crossed the line in fourth position, followed by Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Romain Grosjean, Felipe Massa and Kevin Magnussen.

The next race is in Canada in two weeks' time. After six races of the 2017 season, the WDC title standings are: