Lewis Hamilton took a superb victory in a close battle with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo in a thrilling Monaco Grand Prix to re-ignite his title campaign.
Hamilton’s first win this year cut his deficit to Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who finished seventh, to 24 points.
The world champion benefited from a slow pit stop for Ricciardo but also from his own brave call to delay a tyre change on a drying track until he could go straight to slick tyres.
He then had to defend from Ricciardo for 45 laps to win.
It was a masterclass of defensive driving that at times recalled McLaren’s Ayrton Senna holding off the faster Williams of Nigel Mansell in the closing stages of this race in 1992, a battle that has gone down in Formula 1 folklore, reports the BBC.
The race started behind the safety car on a soaking track and victory hinged on Hamilton’s decision to ignore his team’s request to come in to switch to ‘intermediate’ wet tyres, as a step between the full wets on which everyone had started the race and the untreated slicks.
He was the only driver to do that and the decision ensured he moved into the lead after starting third behind Ricciardo and Rosberg.
