Nico Rosberg took his second consecutive Monaco Grand Prix victory and reclaimed control of the FIA Formula One World Driver’s Champiolnship with a controlled drive from pole position.

The German held of a strong challenge from team-mate Lewis Hamilton, whose chances of taking a fourth win in a row this season faded when he suffered a visibility problem caused by dirt in his left eye. Daniel Ricciardo finished third for Red Bull Racing after recovering from a slide to fifth at the start.

Rosberg held his lead at the start, but had Hamilton hard in pursuit. Behind them third-on the-grid Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo made a poor getaway and was passed by team-mate Sebastian Vettel. The Australian then tried to fend off the hard-charging Fernando Alonso and that allowed his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who had started sixth, to slip past both around the outside.

As the front-runners settled into the lap behind them Force India’s Sergio Perez, who had started 10^th, was clipped by McLaren’s Jenson Button and pitched into the barriers on the run down to the hairpin.

That triggered a brief safety car intervention and when the pace car left the order quickly changed again. This time it was Vettel on the move – though backwards. The champion reported a loss of power and slid rapidly back to 10^th by the end of lap four. He pitted for work to be done but when he was released back on track he quickly reported that his RB10 was stuck in first and then had further power unit problems, which forced him to retire at the end of the lap. His exit moved Raikkonen to third and Ricciardo to fourth.

The next man to stop was Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. The Russian rookie had impress all weekend on his first time out at Monaco but after a decent race start in which he settled into eighth position he began to drop back on lap 11 losing places to Button and Hulkenberg. Kvyat steered his car back to the pit lane and retired.

The Safety Car next appeared on lap 25. Adrian Sutil lost control of his Sauber on the exit of the tunnel and smashed into the barriers scattering debris all across the run down to the Nouvelle Chicane.

That was the cue for a flurry of stops as all the front runners visited the pits. While all went smoothly for the Mercedes drivers and for Ricciardo, trouble was brewing elsewhere. Seventh-placed Jean-Eric Vergne was released into the path of Magnussen and incurred a penalty that spelled the beginning of the end of his race. Raikkonen, meanwhile, slotted back into third following his stop but was soon back in the pits, for another set of softs, the Finn being clipped by a lapped Marussia on his out lap. The Finn’s misfortune promoted Ricciardo to third.

Vergne’s return to the pits on lap 37 for his penalty shuffled the order in the lower half of the top 10. Hulkenberg was now sixth, ahead of Magnussen, Button, Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Gutierrez.

Massa, though, was still circulating on his starting supersofts and would need to make the switch. He finally pitted on lap 45, dropping back to 11^th. The order now was Rosberg, just 0.8s ahead of Hamilton, with Ricciardo third 12s back. Alonso was fourth ahead of Hulkenberg, Magnussen and Button. Bottas was eighth, Gutierrez ninth and Raikkonen was back into the top 10.

Vergne’s race meanwhile went from bad to worse. Fighting with Jules Bianchi for P13 on lap 52, blue smoke suddenly appeared at the back of the Toro Rosso. By the time Vergne reached the swimming pool section it had turned into a plume and he arrowed into pit lane to bring to an end a frustrating afternoon for his Italian team.

A handful of laps later a second engine failure changed the order again. Bottas, in eighth, was defending hard as behind him Gutierrez, Raikkonen and Massa (on fresher tyres) pushed to get past. In the end none of the trio had to tussle too hard as on lap 57 Bottas’ FW36 expired in a pall of smoke at the hairpin.

Gutierrez was the next man to exit the race. The Mexican clipped the barrier at Rascasse, sustained a puncture and spun close to the pit lane entrance.

That put Marussia’s Jules Bianchi in a points-scoring position. The Frenchman was due to take a five-second penalty at the end of the race for a previous infringement but with a six-second advantage over Grosjean on track, it looked like the Frenchman was on the way to his first F1 points.

Hamilton, meanwhile, was in trouble, complaining that he had dirt in his left eye that was impairing his vision. The gap between him and Rosberg drifted to five seconds, with Ricciardo now eight seconds behind Hamilton.

The Australian made a determined bid to reel in Hamilton and closed the gap on the Mercedes driver to three seconds by lap 72. Hamilton was soon embroiled in traffic and on lap 73 Riccardo was running on the Briton’s gearbox.

In the traffic, Button passed Magnussen across the start-finish line. Riccardo and Hamilton wove their through the backmarkers and as they did so Raikkonen attempted to pass Magnussen.

Both got stuck at the hairpin and that allowed Bianchi to move up to eighth place, meaning that regardless of his penalty he would retain a points position.

It was now all about the Riccardo/Hamilton duel. Riccardo threw everything at the challenge but the Red Bull driver could find no way past as Hamilton used his greater power in tunnel to prevent any move from Riccardo into the chicane.

Ahead, Rosberg crossed the line to take his second Monaco win and to seize back the championship lead. The German now has 122 points to his team-mate’s 118.

Hamilton held off Riccardo to take second. Alonso was fourth behind the Australian, with Hulkenberg fifth. Button was sixth for McLaren, ahead of Massa. Romain Grosjean was eighth with Bianchi ninth, but the Marussia driver was crucially nine seconds ahead of tenth-placed Magnussen, meaning that Marussia scored their first championship points and took a crucial advantage over Caterham, for whom Ericsson was 11th, in the Constructors’ Championship.

2014 Monaco Grand Prix – Race Result
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 78 1:49:27.661 1 25
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 78 +9.2 secs 2 18
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 78 +9.6 secs 3 15
4 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 78 +32.4 secs 5 12
5 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 77 +1 Lap 11 10
6 Jenson Button McLaren 77 +1 Lap 12 8
7 Felipe Massa Williams 77 +1 Lap 16 6
8 Romain Grosjean Lotus 77 +1 Lap 14 4
9 Jules Bianchi Marussia 77 +1 Lap 21 2
10 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 77 +1 Lap 8 1
11 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 77 +1 Lap 22
12 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 77 +1 Lap 6
13 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 75 +3 Laps 20
14 Max Chilton Marussia 75 +3 Laps 19
Ret Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 59 Accident 17
Ret Valtteri Bottas Williams 55 +23 Laps 13
Ret Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 50 +28 Laps 7
Ret Adrian Sutil Sauber 23 Accident 18
Ret Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 10 +68 Laps 9
Ret Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 5 +73 Laps 4
Ret Sergio Perez Force India 0 Accident 10
Ret Pastor Maldonado Lotus 0 +78 Laps 15