MONACO: Lewis Hamilton resisted intense race-long pressure on Sunday to secure a narrow, dramatic and emotional victory for a mourning Mercedes in the Monaco Grand Prix.

The defending five-time world champion and current series leader, who came home less than a second ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, said he survived the Dutchman’s late attacks by “fighting with the spirit of Niki [Lauda]”.

He lifted his red helmet in tribute to the three-time champion Austrian and non-executive chairman of Mercedes who died on Monday.

Verstappen, who was involved a pit-lane collision during the race, was classified fourth after taking a five-second penalty. This elevated Sebastian Vettel to second for Ferrari and lifted the luckless Valtteri Bottas to third in the second Mercedes.

Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc started 15th, after his team bungled qualifying, and retired after 19 laps. Leclerc damaged his right rear tyre trying a bold overtaking move on Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault, scattering debris over the track and forcing the safety car to come out.

“That was the hardest race I think I’ve had,” said Hamilton. “I was fighting with the spirit of Niki. He’s been truly an influential person in our team and we miss him.”

Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly finished fifth, with Carlos Saiunz sixth for McLaren followed by Toro Rosso pairing Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, last year’s winner for Red Bull, was ninth and Romain Grosjean collected the final point for Haas.

t was Hamilton’s third win in Monaco and the 77th of his career, opening up a clear lead ahead of Bottas in the drivers’ title race.

The result extended Mercedes’ run of season-opening wins to six, but brought an end to their sequence of one-two triumphs.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2019