Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber won this afternoon’s Monaco Grand Prix after dominating from lights to flag for the second successive race, crossing the line ahead of his teammate, Sebastian Vettel and as a result he moves into the lead of the driver’s championship.

Robert Kubica rounded out the podium with Felipe Massa fourth, Lewis Hamilton fifth, Schumacher sixth, Fernando Alonso recovering from a pitlane start to finish seventh, Nico Rosberg eighth and the two Force India’s Sutil ahead of Liuzzi, in ninth and tenth.

Beautiful weather conditions greeted the twenty four drivers for this afternoon’s Monaco Grand prix with air temperature sitting at twenty two degrees and track temperature registering a very warm forty. The cars were lined up on the grid with Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber on pole alongside Robert Kubica while the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso had taken up his place, awaiting the start in pitlane after his crash in third practice.

The grid clears, as much as it can in Monaco, and the formation lap gets underway. Mark Webber leads them around the tight twisty venue and they wait for the start, and it’s GO IN MONACO! Robert Kubica tries to block Vettel but the German driver gets past the Renault and into second. Jenson Button drops back to eleventh, Schumacher gets ahead of Rosberg but Barrichello is on the move, the Brazilian up to sixth place behind Hamilton.

The safety car is deployed after Nico Hulkenberg smashed into the Armco in the tunnel and Fernando Alonso pits. There is smoke coming from the rear of Jenson Button’s McLaren! The car looks to have overcooked and he climbs from the cockpit and retires. The team later confirm that they left a radiator blocker in his car and they thought he already had an engine issue on his way to the grid.

Mark Webber speaks to the FIA over the radio...

“Charlie if you can hear me there’s lot debris on the line in the tunnel and up against the wall.”

“Have you checked my wing, front right side,” Lewis Hamilton says to his McLaren pit crew as he was forced over the kerbing at the first corner. “It’s fine, the wing is fine,” they reply.

The safety car comes in on lap six and we go racing once again! Fernando Alonso is desperately trying to get past Lucas di Grassi’s Virgin for 19^th place but the Virgin driver isn’t making it easy for the Ferrari. He finally gets through when di Grassi makes an error in the tunnel and the next man on his list is former teammate Jarno Trulli, who makes it a lot easier for the Spaniard to get through.

Meanwhile, up the front Mark Webber is setting fastest lap after fastest lap as he moves to almost four seconds ahead of his teammate in second place, the Aussie’s lap time half a second faster than Vettel. Lap thirteen and Alonso is now on the gearbox of Timo Glock’s Virgin for 17^th place. Her gets through and hunts down Heikki Kovalainen. He makes his move in the same place, at the end of the tunnel and takes 16^th.

Lap 17 and Lewis Hamilton is the first man to stop and he comes out ahead of Alonso. This was a strategic stop as Alonso does not have to stop again and the Ferrari is now in clear air. Other teams realize what is going on and they pit too, Massa, Schumacher, Barrichello, Liuzzi, are all in. Schumacher rejoins ahead of Barrichello but they are behind Alonso now and Massa comes out in front of Hamilton.

Lap twenty ad Rosberg now sets the fastest lap of the race. Kubica comes in then Petrov and Alguersuari. Vettel comes in then Sutil, leaving just Rosberg and Webber still out. De la Rosa is in and there are problems for the Sauber driver. Webber also comes in and he is back out ahead of Rosberg, who has yet to pit. De la Rosa retires and Timo Glock slows with what looks like suspension damage and comes to a halt, his race also over.

Problems in the pits for di Grassi and Trulli, with di Grassi retiring soon afterward. Rosberg finally pits and comes out behind his teammate in P8. The order is Webber, Vettel, Kubica, Massa, Hamilton, Alonso, Schumacher, Rosberg, Sutil and Barrichello.  

Kobayashi is the next retirement as Jaime Alguersuari has an off at Ste Devote, he corrects the situation and continues on, losing several places. Petrov is slow and pits but Rubens Barrichello is out! The Williams hit the wall after what looked like a left rear failure at Massenet and the safety car is deployed once again. Not even half way through and we have seven retirements and only twelve drivers on the lead lap.

The safety car comes in on lap 33 and Webber leads the restart once again and once again he begins to pull away.

Lewis Hamilton is told over the radio to adjust his brake bias toward the rear as he needs to manage his front brake wear and the young Brit is not happy about the situation. Fastest lap for Kubica who is now just a second behind second placed Vettel. Webber reacts and sets another new fastest lap the next time around, becoming the first driver into the 1:16’s.

Lewis Hamilton is also into the 1:16’s now, but not as low as Webber. The safety car is deployed for a third time as a drain cover is loose at turn three. The safety car is back in and all is good, apparently and Webber leads them away again....

Hamilton is all over the back of Massa but can’t get past, the Ferrari driver then going over the chicane but holding position.  

The laps tick down and there is no change to the order. Mark Webber just gets faster and faster and dips into the 1:15’s for the first time. Senna and Kovalainen pit and add their names to the retired list. We have lost both Virgins, both Williams, both Saubers, one McLaren, one HRT and one Lotus with fifteen laps remaining.

Webber is told he can slow down a little now and look after the car, mainly the brakes. While Webber does ease off somewhat, his teammate does not and he slowly eats into Webber’s lead setting the new fastest lap on lap 71. Despite this, he doesn’t get a chance to make a move...