An intense and contentious weekend was capped off by a thrilling race through the streets of Monte Carlo. Come with me below the fold to find out the results of this most classic and glamorous of all Grands Prix…

Rosberg outduels Hamilton as tensions at Mercedes ratchet up, Ricciardo continues outstanding season with solid 3rd

Tensions boiled over in Monaco this past weekend between two Mercedes drivers who know they have far and away the best chassis and an excellent chance to win both Championships, with Lewis Hamilton speculating that teammate Nico Rosberg had deliberately ruined his last qualifying lap with a late off that brought out a yellow. But it was Rosberg who had the last word on race day as he ran from Pole to the checkered flag as the dominant leader, with Hamilton’s chances thwarted by having debris in his eye for several crucial laps. Rosberg, who grew up in Monte Carlo, won his second consecutive Monaco Grand Prix, the most coveted victory on the F1 schedule. He also snatched back the points lead in the Drivers’ Championship from his English rival and stopped Hamilton’s superlative four-race win streak to reclaim momentum and prove that he is as serious a title contender as his teammate. With the personal relationship between the drivers deteriorating into all out warfare for the title, it should be fascinating to see how the rest of the season plays out and whether the animosity reaches Senna-Prost level of intesity. One thing seems certain at this point: short of their drivers taking each other out, no other team can challenge Mercedes dominance this season.

The best of the rest was the impressive young Australian, Daniel Ricciardo, who grabbed the final podium position and hounded Hamilton in the last 10 laps. Ricciardo was left to fly Red Bull colors alone when teammate and former champion Sebastian Vettel had turbo failure that forced his retirement on lap 5. With a mere 45 points after 6 races and an unreliable RB10 chassis it seems fairly safe to say that the German wunderkind’s remarkable 4 year championship run is over.

Fernando Alonso again salvaged some pride for Ferrari with a gutsy 4th place finish after his teammate Kimi Raikkonen got away quicker at the start. But the Finnish veteran got tangled up with back-marker Max Chilton of Marussia and his race was effectively undone — he finished out of the points again in 12th. Nico Hulkenberg had another consistently excellent drive to finish 5th for Force India, Jenson Button grabbed 6th for McLaren with teammate Kevin Magnussen talking the last point at 10th and Felipe Massa got a valuable 7th for Williams. Romain Grosjean had a determined drive for Lotus to come home 8th and fellow Frenchman Jules Bianchi was able to snatch 9th to capture the first-ever Championship points for the underfunded Marussia team, a fine achievement in its own right even if due to the high rate of attrition in this year’s race.

Top 10 finishers from Monaco here:

Complete race results and statistics at Formula1.com.

The next race is in two weeks at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. Hope to see you then!