Mark Webber wins for Red Bull in Monte Carlo: Monaco GP

Mark Webber won the Monaco GP for the second time in three years from Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso.

The Red Bull driver led from the start and controlled the race, measuring his pace to ensure he stayed ahead.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton ran third in the early laps but lost out to Ferrari’s Alonso and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel on strategy.

McLaren’s Jenson Button had a difficult race, running with backmarkers after a poor start and retiring after a spin.

The top six, completed by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, ran nose to tail in a tense last 10 laps, enlivened by intermittent light rain.

But all kept their cool on the tricky and tight street circuit and there were no changes before the flag.

Webber’s victory makes this the first Formula 1 season in history to feature six different winners in the first six races.

“I’m feeling incredible,” said the Australian. “It was an interesting race. The first phase of the race was strange. It was hard to get the soft prime tyre warmed up.

“Seb had his tyres in and wasn’t wearing them so he was coming back into the picture. I didn’t want him to get the magic 21 second gap and take the lead.

“It’s an amazing day for the team, myself and really happy to have won here again.”

The result moves Alonso into the world championship lead , three points ahead of Vettel and Webber, who is classified third on results count-back.

Hamilton drops from third to fourth, 13 points adrift of the Ferrari driver.

Webber shrugged off his reputation for poor starts by leading into the first corner, followed by Mercedes’ Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso.

Up front, Webber pulled out a lead of about two seconds and controlled that gap, with Rosberg a similar margin ahead of Hamilton.

Alonso initially dropped back a little from Hamilton but he was merely saving his tyres so he could use their grip closer to the pit stops.

The strategy paid off, as when Webber and Hamilton stopped on lap 29, two laps after Rosberg, Alonso stayed out for one more lap, on which he put in the two fastest sectors of the race to that point. That allowed him to emerge ahead of Hamilton.