Juan Pablo Montoya drove a superb race in Monaco this afternoon to secure his and Williams first win of the season, a mere 6 tenths of a second in front of the McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen. Reigning world champion, Michael Schumacher crossed the line in third place, a further second behind the Finn.

The race got underway in beautiful weather conditions, despite the threat of rain here in the Principality. Fernando Alonso picked up two places at the start, getting past Rubens Barrichello while Juan Pablo Montoya moved into second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Heinz- Harald's Monaco GP weekend came to a disappointing end after his Sauber collided with the wall just after the Swimming Pool, bringing out the safety car.

It was relatively obvious from the opening laps that pit stops would hold the key here this afternoon. Mark Webber was first in on lap 14, but the Aussie driver was back in only four laps later to retire, following the retirement of his teammate Antonio Pizzonia earlier in the race.

Lap 21 and Ralf Schumacher shows his hand, making his first stop of the afternoon and handing the lead of the race over to his teammate. Montoya follows suit two laps later and emerges in front of Ralf. Michael Schumacher takes control of the race on lap 27 after the top four runners pit and the German ace remains on track until lap 30, recording the fastest lap of the race just before pitting in.

Ralf's second stop came on lap 48, Montoya the following lap. While Ralf ended up all the way back in eighth place, Montoya rejoined in third, only four seconds behind Michael Schumacher's second placed Ferrari and 21 seconds behind new race leader, Kimi Raikkonen. The McLaren driver relinquishes the lead to Schumacher when he pits on lap 53, the Finn emerging back in third place, five seconds covering the top three. Schumacher opens up a small gap but eventually pits on lap 59, giving the lead back to Montoya.

From there it was a run to the flag with Raikkonen right on Montoya's gearbox and Michael Schumacher closing the gap with every lap. 13 drivers finished the race, with Olivier Panis, one time winner here, four laps down and in last place. Ralf Schumacher continued his run of race finishes with a fourth place, while Alonso and Trulli finished fifth and sixth respectively for Renault.

Last year's race winner, David Coulthard finished seventh while the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello took the final point in eighth place.