Motorsport: Vettel claims Monaco GP for Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel on his way to winning the Monaco Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images

Championship leader Sebastian Vettel has won his first Monaco Grand Prix for Ferrari, ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen with Australia's Daniel Ricciardo third in his Red Bull.

The win is Vettel's second at the circuit and the first time a Ferrari has been at the top of the podium since Michael Schumacher won the race in 2001.

"It feels unbelievable. It was a very tense race. I had a couple of laps where I really pushed and it made a difference," Vettel said.

It was also Vettel's third win of the season, after victories in Australia and Bahrain, and extends his lead in the standings over Lewis Hamilton to 25 points.

Raikkonen started from pole and led from the first corner until he became the third man to enter the pits on lap 35. As a result he lost out big time when it came to strategy.

Raikkonen pitted after Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas kicked off a chain reaction but all three would lose out by pitting early.

Vettel (who was second) and Ricciardo (fifth) going into the pit stops both stayed out on track and put in some of the fastest laps of the race as Raikkonen was released into traffic.

Ricciardo waited until lap 39 to pit and leapfrogged both Bottas and Verstappen.

Verstappen's response on the team radio was succinct.

"What a f***ing disaster," the Dutchman proclaimed.

The result left Ricciardo smiling. A stark contrast to the way the Australian was feeling on Saturday when his team sent him out for qualifying in traffic.

"Yesterday I felt we had so much more to offer, " Ricciardo said. "Today we proved it."

When Vettel pitted on lap 40 he came out just ahead of Raikkonen, taking the race lead as the Finn slipped into the distance.

Ricciardo's happiness a completely different mood than that of Raikkonen, who was stony-faced throughout his post-race interview and remained so throughout a 30-minute long press conference.

"Obviously it's still second place but it doesn't feel awfully good" Raikkonen said.

"It is one of those days."

Things almost changed late in the race when on lap 61 of the Grand Prix Jenson Button, in his last race ever, sent 22-year-old Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein airborne and his car onto its side against the fence at Portier.

The German was able to walk away from the incident that ended both their days and most likely Button's Formula 1 career.

Button failing living up to a pre-race request from Fernando Alonso, who asked him from Indianapolis to "take care of my car," however all Button promised to to was "pee in (Alonso's) seat."

The race was back on, on lap 68, which again allowed Vettel to pull away but put Ricciardo under pressure from Bottas and Verstappen and the Australian's race very nearly ended then and there when he got too deep into turn one and hit the wall hard.

Ricciardo feared all the hard work he had done to get into a podium position was gone at that moment as he thought he had significantly damaged his Red Bull.

"The safety car nearly ruined my race," Ricciardo told AAP.

"When you get the safety car, these tyres are like driving on ice.

"At the restart I hit the wall in turn one and I hit it pretty hard, so I assumed I would have had damage and then I saw Valtteri in my blind spot and I just managed to hold on."

Also producing quite the drive was Hamilton. The Briton managed to quietly make his way from 12th on the grid to finish seventh and collect some valuable points for Mercedes.