Vettel takes Monaco victory

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel celebrates winning the race on the podium with the trophy at Monaco Grand Prix 2017, on May 28. [Photo/Agencies]?

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel jumped team mate Kimi Raikkonen in the first round of pit stops at Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix to give the Italian marque's fans their first win in the principality since 2001.

The Finn came home in second, followed by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.

Raikkonen led the opening stint from pole position, slowly pulling away from Vettel and the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was the first of the front runners to blink, pitting from fourth on Lap 32, followed by Bottas one lap later.

In what proved to be a deciding move of the race, Ferrari pitter Raikkonen from the lead on Lap 34 but kept his team mate out for another five laps on an overcut strategy – setting fastest laps to gain the advantage.

Rejoining in the lead, the four-time world champion pulled out a 10-second lead by the time the safety car was called on Lap 61 for an incident between Jenson Button and Sauber's Pascal Wehrlein.

Bearing an eerie similarity to Wehrlein's pre-season Race of Champions accident the Sauber was flipped onto its side, where it then remained, at Portier after Button dived into a gap that was always going to close up.

Luckily for the German, he was unhurt in the incident, and Button, standing in for Fernando Alonso, was forced to retire.

Lewis Hamilton was able to salvage a seventh place finish after starting a lowly 13th in a weekend to forget from the triple world champion, comprehensively beaten by his team mate and seeing Vettel stretch his lead in the championship to 25 points.

After the race Ferrari and Vettel were quick to quash any suspicion that the German's win had been orchestrated by the team and that team orders played a part in the race.

"No, not really. I don't think there… we couldn't plan much. The plan was to try and pull away, which we did. Then, Valtteri had really good pace. I think we were struggling a little bit, both, with our rears and at that point the window opened," Vettel said.

"So as soon as Valtteri pitted, Kimi responded. For me, I think I still had a bit of a gap, nothing to lose in P2, so I tried to push as hard as possible and within two laps I was surprised myself to be able to pull a gap to be able to come out in front."

Vettel's team mate however remained stony faced on the podium, either displaying the cool, unshakeable persona he is famous for, or perhaps something more. When asked about the pit stops, Raikkonen remained somewhat diplomatic.

"It's hard to say really. Obviously it's still second place, but it doesn't feel awful good but this is how it goes sometimes and we go for the next race and try to do better but it's one of those days that you wish you get a bit more."

The next round takes place in Canada on June 11.