Lewis Hamilton Wins 2008 Monaco Grand Prix

Britain's Lewis Hamilton started this year's Monaco Grand Prix in third position on the grid, behind the two Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, and knew it would take a top drive to get between them, let alone win.

But after last year's Monaco F1, when Lewis finished second when he could have won, nothing it seems was going to stop him - and in the process take the lead in the drivers championship too.

Unusually for Monaco the weather proved challenging, and rain for 20 minutes before and the first ten laps of the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix proved to be a real challenge for every driver on the circuit, and it was lap 20 before the sun really came out and the track dried.

With no traction control this year, the Monaco F1 was even more of a race of driving skill over car performance, and the Ferrari one-two earned in qualifying disappeared immediately from the start as Lewis Hamilton overtook current World Champion Kimi Raikkonen to slip into second place.

The unusually slow pace for the first ten laps still took its toll, with Monaco resident Jensen Button losing a front wing, and fellow Monaco resident David Coulthard crashing out shortly after, and Lewis Hamilton crashed into a barrier with a rear tyre puncture on the sixth lap at Tabac Corner but recovered after a pit stop.

Indeed it could have been the pit stop that helped Lewis to victory, as the McLaren team re-fuelled the car, enabling Lewis Hamilton to carry on with just one more pit stop necessary to the finish.

Other points of note for driver performance were the disappointing drives of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen (involved in no less than four incidents) and Felipe Massa, while on the positive BMW's Robert Kubica had an excellent Monaco Grand Prix to come second, picking up his trophy from Princess Caroline, and Force India's Adrian Sutil who would have come fifth and picked up World Championship points but for Kimi Raikkonen crashing into him just before the final laps.

Hamilton had built up an impressive 30 second plus lead before his final pit stop, allowing him to re-join the race comfortably leading, but the safety car was called out for the second time in the race, leaving Hamilton's lead in shreds.

Of all the Grand Prix, Monaco is the most testing for drivers by far around the streets of Monte Carlo and the best known Monte Carlo hotel the Hotel de Paris, but Hamilton kept a cool head to win, with Prince Albert presenting Lewis with the winners' trophy.

Lewis called in on his radio to the McLaren team on his victory lap that they would party tonight - and with the Pussycats Doll Nicole Scherzinger Lewis' guest for the weekend, it should be a party Monaco will remember!

The final positions for the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix are:

1 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes two hours 0 minutes 42.742 seconds
2 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 3.064 secs behind
3 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari +4.811secs
4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault +19.295
5 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari +24.657
6 Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda +28.408
7 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota +30.180
8 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes +33.191
9 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari +33.792
10 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault one lap behind
11 Jenson Button (GB) Honda one lap
12 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota one lap
13 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota one lap
14 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber four laps
R Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 67 laps completed
16 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 59 laps
17 Nelson Piquet Jr (Brz) Renault 47 laps
18 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari 36 laps
19 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault seven laps
20 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari seven laps

The 2009 Monaco Grand Prix is Sunday 24 May.

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