Mat Coch writes:

Nico Rosberg drove a masterful Monaco Grand Prix, never more than a few seconds ahead of the field but leading each of the seventy-eight laps. The German, whose school bus drove through the famous Monaco tunnel, wrote himself in to the record books as the first son of a Monaco Grand Prix winner to also stand atop the top step.

Bright sunny skies replaced the clouds which had dominated Saturday's qualifying session. Much of the pre-race talk surrounded Mercedes and whether Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton could remain at the head of the field – and whether they would be allowed to keep their places if protests over a ‘secret’ tyre test in Spain were upheld, though more on that elsewhere.

A gearbox change for Max Chilton demoted him to the back of the grid, promoting Ferrari's Felipe Massa to twenty-first. The Brazilian had not made it out in qualifying after wiping three wheels off his wagon in final practice on Saturday morning.

Soft and supersoft tyres were the order of the day from Pirelli, a two stop strategy expected for most while some would invariably look to stretch it to a single stop.

The race did not start well for Jules Bianchi, failing to get off the grid as the field pulled away for the warm-up lap, his Marussia team pushing him to the end of the pit lane from where he would start. It followed on from a difficult qualifying session where the highly rated Frenchman was forced to park his car after just two hundred metres with an engine problem. An overnight change, to a previously used engine, meant he was on the grid, albeit at the rear, having not set a time, but without penalty.

As the lights went out it was a good start from Vettel which allowed the German the opportunity to force his way inside Lewis Hamilton at the first corner, the Mercedes driver holding out around the outside as the field rushed through St Devote.

Accelerating up the hill before pouring down through the Station hairpin, Giedo van der Garde made contact with Maldonado ahead, losing his front wing before limping back around to the pits for a replacement. Maldonado also pitted with a damaged from wing, the pair instantly dropping half a lap behind the field.

The opening lap featured a wheel-banging battle between the McLaren drivers; Jenson Button and Sergio Perez unwilling to give an inch around the narrow Monaco streets, Perez holding the early advantage.

Still on the attack Vettel monstered the back of Hamilton's Mercedes, the duo separated by inches as they exited the Nouvelle Cchicane on the second lap as Hamilton swerved wildly across the road to keep his German rival behind.

On the radio Button called in to his team pointing out the fact teammate Perez had cut the chicane, "he needs to stop turning in on me," he said, while claiming he'd been alongside his Mexican colleague at the chicane, only for Perez to skip across the run-off to maintain position. He repeated the move at the exit of the Swimming Pool a few corners later.