Vettel wins Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix in Ferrari one-two to leave Mercedes reeling

Sebastian Vettel took victory at the Monaco Grand Prix to end a 16 year winless streak for Ferrari at this circuit while polesitter Kimi Raikkonen finished second.

Not a single overtaking manoeuvre was recorded today, and all position changes were dictated by pitstops, though the grand prix was punctuated by a lap 61 Safety Car due to a collision between Jenson Button and Pascal Wehrlein.

The gap in the drivers' championship between Vettel and Lewis Hamilton has been extended by 25 points as Hamilton settled for a seventh place finish, having started 13th.

The podium was therefore without either Mercedes driver for the first time since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

Raikkonen ended a 128-race pole position drought yesterday but failed to score his first win since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix today, as Vettel benefited from a later pitstop than his team-mate.

The veteran Finn pitted on lap 35 and lost time encountering backmarkers while Vettel took the soft tyres five laps later having avoided traffic and gained a race-winning advantage.

This strategy gave Vettel an advantage as he pulled away in clean air on ultra-softs having enjoyed a longer spell on the faster tyre.

A one-second advantage was the drivers' championship leader's as he exited the pits ahead of Raikkonen and Vettel took victory to the end.

"Unbelievable," said Vettel of his win.

"It was a very intense race. I was hoping to have a better launch at the start.

"There was a place in the first stint that was really tricky where the tyres were slipping.

"At the restart it was really difficult with the tyres, but I held on and it's a fantastic weekend for Ferrari."

The Safety Car on lap 61 bunched the field together but the frantic restart didn't change the running order, even as the trio of Ricciardo, Bottas and Verstappen battled for third.

Ricciardo got away with a brush of the wall up the hill after Turn 1 but neither Bottas nor Verstappen could take advantage.

"I didn't enjoy that," said Ricciardo.

"I wasn't sure if I damaged anything. These tyres are like driving on ice when you get a Safety Car."

The two Ferraris pulled away after the Safety Car returned to the pits to continue their path to a one-two finish.

Ricciardo, who frustratingly missed out on victory last year as his Red Bull team failed to have tyres ready during a crucial pitstop, had much better fortune today.

The Australian pitted later than Bottas and came out ahead on soft tyres, clear of the Mercedes driver and team-mate Max Verstappen, the Australian taking his second podium of the year.

Bottas started third and looked to have a comfortable podium but Mercedes had him pit too early – a few more laps on ultra-softs in clean air may have secured that last podium place – and the Finn had to settle for fourth.

Clearly, the undercut strategy failed for Verstappen today as he pitted earlier than both Ricciardo and Bottas and both left the pitlane ahead of him. "It's a [expletive] disaster," he shouted on team radio after the pitstop.

A small consolation for the Dutchman - who was three years old when Ferrari last won at Monaco - came as he finished a race at Monaco for the first time, having crashed out in 2015 and 2016, albeit in fifth, behind his team-mate who he qualified ahead of.

"I don't know what to say. It's very hard, after such a clean weekend, to lose out on a podium," said Verstappen post-race.

"You can't change it now. It's not great what we did but I guess that's racing. Should I say it like that?"

Hamilton was given little chance of success today. The 2015 champion qualified 14th (starting 13th due to Button's grid penalty) as an unfortunate yellow flag cut short his efforts to advance from Q2 in yesterday's qualifying.

The deflated driver struggled to get past Daniil Kvyat early on but stayed out on ultra-softs until lap 46 to work his way up to seventh and retain a points finish – a mere sliver of a silver lining in context of the championship.

He said, however, "I feel really good, I feel very positive. Yeah I feel very happy.

"I came in today obviously a lot further back and I had no idea what was going to happen.

"When I got into clean air I had a lot of fun. The team said this morning that tenth was the best I could get but I was really happy to leapfrog those guys...

"The gap's big for sure but not impossible to close so I come away from one of the most difficult weekends I've had in a while with a lot of positives.”

Toro Rosso was on course for an impressive weekend until Kvyat retired on lap 73 after Force India's Sergio Perez hit his right-rear tyre at Rascasse. Carlos Sainz Jr did finish sixth, ahead of Hamilton.

Midfield leader Force India ended a run of double points finishes with problems affecting both Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez.

Perez narrowly missed out on a 16th-straight points finish. He was forced to stop on lap 17 for a new nose section as his front-wing was dragging on the tarmac.

The Mexican recovered to 10th having pitted very early but his late collision with Kvyat after a clumsy lunge put him back down to 13th. He did, however, set the fastest lap with a time of 1m14.820s.

Team-mate Ocon (12th) suffered a puncture midway as the kerb in Turn 1 was breaking up, some teams having speculated a raised manhole cover was to blame.

One of seven retirees was Nico Hulkenberg, whose Renault suffered a gearbox failure on lap 16 and his car stopped at the run-off zone before the tunnel section for his first non-finish of the season while team-mate Jolyon Palmer finished 11th.

Lance Stroll retired late on for his fourth retirement in six races this season.

More astonishingly, Sauber's Wehrlein ended the race horizontally before the tunnel section at Portier as Button clipped his rear-right tyre and sent him head-first into the barriers on lap 61.

Button started the race from the pitlane as his McLaren team breached parc ferme regulations having changed his set-up pre-race.

A 15 place grid penalty dampened his original grid position of ninth as McLaren replaced his power unit's hybrid component (MGU-H).

The Briton's one-off return to F1 was over before the chequered flag was flown then, as he stood-in for IndyCar cameo Fernando Alonso for 62 out of 78 laps.

Outdoing Sauber team-mate Wehrlein was Marcus Ericsson, who crashed in Turn 1 under caution while attempting to lap the Safety Car in an embarrassing mishap; both Saubers were out within a few minutes.

Stoffel Vandoorne crashed into the wall of Turn 1 on the restart on lap 67 after the Safety Car had returned to the pits, in the exact same spot as Ericsson, cueing another early day off for McLaren who will now be turning its attention to Indianapolis.

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Race Results, 2017 Monaco GP: