Party time for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton realised a boyhood dream by claiming victory in an action-packed Monaco Grand Prix to regain control of a furious fight for the Formula One world title.

After an early run into the barriers on a wet circuit as the rain fell, Hamilton managed to hold his nerve, becoming only the fifth Briton to take the chequered flag.

In claiming his sixth triumph in 23 starts, he now joins Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Sir Jackie Stewart and David Coulthard on being crowned king of the Principality.

After crossing the line, and talking to his pit crew via his in-car radio, a jubilant Hamilton said: “I apologise for hitting the barrier, but we made up for it.

“Now let’s go party!”

Once the rain started to fall around 20 minutes before the start, it was always going to be an incident-fuelled race, and so it wonderfully proved.

The conditions meant the race ran for the full two hours, with 76 of the 78 laps completed.

And for once, rather than watching a dull procession around the tight, twisty streets of Monte Carlo, the public who pay through the nose for tickets for Formula One’s blue riband event were given real value for money.

The first incident, though, was unexpected and occurred prior to the race unfolding as Heikki Kovalainen failed to pull away from the grid for the warm-up lap.

The Finn, who was forced to start from the pit lane, must have run over a black cat of late given his run of bad luck.

After escaping uninjured from a horrifying smash in Barcelona, and then suffering a puncture in Turkey at the first corner, the 26-year-old must surely have been cursing inside the cockpit.

After Hamilton had made a superb start to pass Kimi Raikkonen on the run down to Sainte Devote, Jenson Button became the first on-track casualty.

The Briton, normally so superb in the wet, attempted to pass the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld coming out of the swimming pool complex on lap one, only to lose his nose cone.

It was the start to a catalyst of events as the rain steadily fell for the first 20 minutes, and expected mayhem ensued.

Nico Rosberg and Timo Glock soon required new nose cones for their Williams and Toyota cars respectively, all within the first three laps.

Then Hamilton clipped a barrier on the entry to Tabac, puncturing his right-rear tyre and forcing him into an unexpected pit stop.

However, by a strange quirk of fate it played into his hands.

Then double world champion Fernando Alonso slid into a barrier in his Renault, and like Hamilton he too damaged his right-rear tyre.

Within seconds, David Coulthard lost the back end of his Red Bull on entry to Casino Square, clouting a barrier and forcing him out of the race.

Coming just 24 hours after the Scot had escaped unharmed from a 180mph smash in qualifying, it was a weekend to forget for the 37-year-old.

To add to a stationary Coulthard’s chagrin, he was immediately hit from behind by Sebastien Bourdais after the Frenchman had lost his Toro Rosso on the same part of the circuit, forcing the safety car into play.

Then came confirmation of a foolish mistake from Ferrari as they had not fully fitted Raikkonen’s tyres at the three-minute signal prior to the start of the race.

That resulted in a 10-second penalty for the Finn, an error in what was a disastrous race for the reigning world champion.

Alonso made a second error when he punted into the side of Heidfeld at Loews hairpin as the incidents continued unabated, and still with only 14 laps run at that stage.

Massa almost joined the list of casualties at Sainte Devote as he slid off into the run-off area, allowing Kubica to take the lead.

Then the race and a drying track started to come to Hamilton, and as Kubica and Massa were eventually forced to make the first of their routine stops.

That allowed Hamilton to gain the lead on lap 33, one he did not relinquish until the chequered flag as various other incidents unfolded behind him.

With 20 minutes of the race remaining and at a point when Hamilton had a 40-second lead over Kubica, Nico Rosberg lost his line coming out of the swimming pool complex.

The Williams driver initially thundered off a wall and across the circuit into a barrier on the entry to La Rascasse.

With a wrecked car and debris all over the track, it brought the safety car into play for the second time, but crucially whittling Hamilton’s 40-second lead down to nothing with 17 minutes to go.

Six minutes later the safety car pitted, and it became a run to the line for the leaders and a battle for the points.

But there was still more drama to come as Raikkonen lost control of his car on the run down to the Nouvelle Chicane.

Although the Finn managed to hold on without hitting a barrier, he instead ran into the back of Adrian Sutil, who had driven superbly to hold fourth at the time.

Force India were on course for their first points, but the damage to his car was too much, and the German had to retire, leaving him in floods of tears in his garage.

Raikkonen pitted for a fourth time overall for a new nose, but was unable to slot back into a points-scoring position, finishing ninth overall.

Behind Hamilton, Kubica came home second, followed by Massa, with the Red Bull of Mark Webber again in the points for the fifth successive race in a season-high fourth.

Sebastian Vettel scored his first points of the season by taking fifth for Toro Rosso, whilst for the first time in 22 races since the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2006, Rubens Barrichello ended up in the points by claiming sixth in his Honda.

The Williams of Kazuki Nakajima was seventh, with Kovalainen a resolute eighth.