Kimi Raikkonen won the Monaco Grand Prix to secure his second consecutive victory for McLaren with a controlled performance as rivals Renault struggled in the sunny principality on Sunday.
Raikkonen, who started from his third consecutive pole position, proved he is now the man in form as McLaren executed the perfect one-stop strategy to pile the pressure on early championship leaders Renault.
An early-race incident looked set to turn the race on its head, but McLaren stuck with their plans as their rivals dived to the pits and Raikkonen was able to ease to victory with a comfortable gap.
Spaniard Fernando Alonso, the championship leader, struggled with his tyres and dropped from second to fourth late in the race when Williams drivers Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber passed to climb on to the podium.
Heidfeld secured a best-ever finish of second after getting the better of Australian teammate Webber, who made it on to the podium after 56 races of trying.
Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya raced his way to fifth place for McLaren, despite starting from 16th after being punished for causing an accident in practice, while German Ralf Schumacher managed to secure sixth for Toyota.
And the Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello climbed up from their mid-grid starting positions to secure some points for the ailing Italian team as they finished seventh and eighth.
Raikkonen made a clean getaway to lead Alonso through Sainte Devote, despite locking both front wheels as he pushed hard into the corner to make sure the Renault stayed behind him.
Webber, starting behind the front-row pair, suffered again for Williams’ poor start-line performance as he dropped down to fifth, with Giancarlo Fisichella moving up to third and Jarno Trulli fourth.
Felipe Massa made a strong start to shoot up from 11th to ninth, while Montoya was up to 12th from the start.
Raikkonen reeled off several fastest laps early in the race to extend his lead over Alonso to 3,2 seconds by the end of lap 10, with Fisichella just 1,7 seconds further back.
The race was thrown open when Christijan Albers spun heading into Portier on the leaders’ 24th lap and was hit by David Coulthard as the Red Bull Racing driver came up to put the Minardi driver a lap down.
Michael Schumacher hit the back of Coulthard, knocking off the front wing on his Ferrari, and Jacques Villeneuve was also involved as the cars came to a standstill and the safety car was deployed.
Both Renaults of Alonso and Fisichella took advantage and pitted, as did the two Williams cars of Webber and Heidfeld and seventh-placed Massa, but, crucially, Raikkonen and Trulli stayed out behind the safety car.
Schumacher also stopped to repair his front wing and Coulthard was forced to retire because of too much damage.
The incident left Raikkonen leading ahead of Trulli, both still to make a stop, with Alonso third, Webber fourth, Heidfeld fifth, Massa sixth, Villeneuve seventh and Fisichella eighth.
Raikkonen flew away when the safety car peeled in at the end of lap 28 and extended a 5,6-second lead over Trulli and a 7,5-second advantage over Alonso within the first lap of racing.
Raikkonen continued to reel out more fastest laps as he pushed hard to build a lead before his stop and he was left with an advantage of 29 seconds over Alonso when Trulli gave up his second place by heading for the pits on lap 39.
Raikkonen pitted on lap 41 and, after a long stop, he still came out with a 15-second advantage over Alonso as the Spaniard absorbed pressure from Webber, who was right up on the rear of the Renault.
Ferrari were already well out the picture, but Barrichello stalled on his pit stop on lap 45 and was then penalised for speeding on his way out as Schumacher sat down in 12th place after his involvement in the earlier incident.
Raikkonen continued to hold his 15-second lead at the front as Alonso stayed just ahead of Webber with Heidfeld less than a second further behind and a chase for second place with 25 laps left to run.
Liuzzi was forced to stop on lap 61 when his rear tyre failed and he retired as Fisichella, in fifth, held a train of cars behind him with Trulli, Montoya, Massa and Villeneuve all close behind.
The two Saubers went into Sainte Devote side by side on lap 63, with Villeneuve coming off worse when he took the inside line into the corner, but hit the barriers, lost his nose cone and forced Massa up the escape lane.
Fisichella then bucked under the pressure of the train behind and lost four places as he went wide in the hairpin to allow Trulli up to fifth, but he then lost control in the chicane and Montoya took the place.
That left Raikkonen clear in the lead with Alonso second, Heidfeld and Webber third and fourth, Montoya fifth, Ralf Schumacher sixth and the Ferraris of Barrichello and Schumacher in the points in seventh and eighth.
Trulli pulled in with a tyre problem at the end of the lap, but the team sent him out again and Heidfeld finally got the better of Alonso, who was struggling with his tyre wear, to snatch second in the chicane on lap 71.
Webber made it past Alonso in the same place on lap 73, but both cut the chicane, Alonso more than Webber, and the Renault driver held station. Webber tried again on the next lap and made it past. — Sapa-AFP