Beating his teammate to the win, Vettel has extended his championship lead to 25 points after Hamilton had a difficult race having qualified 12th. After 16 years, Ferrari have finally taken a win in Monaco – the last time being 2001 with Schumacher.
Verstappen was the first driver to pit in the top 5, followed by Bottas on the next lap. Despite pushing hard, he was not able to make the undercut as he had hoped. Raikkonen also responded to Verstappen’s stop but Vettel and Ricciardo decided to stay out longer.
This proved to be the best strategy, with both of them jumping their teammates at their stops. Vettel pulled out a comfortable lead of the race, with Raikkonen unable to keep up.
From then on, this order was not to change and until lap 60 there was very little action. A risky move from Button up the inside of Wehrlein ended in contact, and the Sauber sideways in the wall. This incident brought out the safety car and the remaining 20 laps were full of action.
When the lapped cars were permitted to pass the safety car after the incident had been cleared Ericsson, on cold tyres, went straight on at Ste Devote and into the wall. Vandoorne then had a repeat of this incident when racing resumed and was also out.
Meanwhile, Verstappen was incredibly close to Bottas and, having pitted when the safety car came out, he was on fresher tyres. Despite putting pressure on Bottas until the end, he was not quite able to find a way past and he had to settle for fifth.