Top-3 finishers on Friday - Race 1

The Frenchman led the field away as the lights went out, with Petrov forcing his way in front of a fast starting Nico Hülkenberg as the rest of the field looked for a way through St Devote: Andreas Zuber, di Grassi and Jérôme d'Ambrosio were the next men to follow in their wake as they climbed the hill towards the Casino.

The famously tight circuit lived up to its reputation as the Belgian held a train of cars in his wake, leaving pit strategy to write a new story: Luca Filippi did the best job with his stop to become the man to beat out of the pits, leapfrogging up to effective sixth position while di Grassi repeated that form further up the field to put himself onto a potential podium.

Filippi was stuck once again though, as Davide Rigon left his stop to the closing laps of the race: when he was finally released he pushed too hard to catch Zuber and clipped the curb at the final corner to immediately finish his race, while Alvaro Parente, Javier Villa and Edoardo Mortara tripped over each other at the hairpin to shake up the order behind.

But it was Grosjean who punched the air with delight as he crossed the finish line 6.6 seconds ahead of his teammate Petrov, while di Grassi held off Hülkenberg for the final podium position. Zuber finished a strong race in fifth position ahead of d'Ambrosio and Karun Chandhok, while Villa claimed eighth despite a very crooked front wing in the closing laps. With Grosjean also taking a point for fastest lap, the Frenchman's lead in the championship continues to grow as his rivals look towards tomorrow's sprint race in an attempt to claw back some points.

Results

Monaco – Race 1

Fastest lap time: Romain Grosjean (Barwa Addax Team) – 1:21.823 on lap 30