Fernando Alonso finally got one over his young team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the first time since Malaysia to claim victory at the most prized race of them all in Monte Carlo. The current world champion took his second sucessive win in the principality and drew level with his British team-mate at the top of the championship standings. It was a dominant display from the Woking team which underlined their status at the top of both tables.

Leading into qualifying all the focus, as it has been all season, was on Lewis Hamilton. After four fault-free races he crashed heavily into the barrier at Ste Devote during Thursday's free practice and lead to some critics questioning his ability around the street circuit, despite his previous success in both Formula 3 and GP2. In qualifying he showed a fast pace and it produced a great battle between himself and Fernando Alonso, which was ultimately settled when Hamilton made a mistake at the Grand Hotel hairpin, possibly unsighted by Mark Webber's Red Bull in front of him and gifting the pole to Alonso. Behind them Felipe Massa secured an unspectacular third and was joined on the second row by Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault. However, Massa's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen had a terrible session, clipping the barrier on the exit of the Swimming Pool section and breaking the suspension, meaning the Finn started in 16th place on the grid.

At the start it was a formation getaway for the McLaren's with Alonso leading Hamilton. Behind them there was very little change, apart from Raikkonen gaining a few places and settling in behind Button. The first major incident occured on lap 2 when Tonio Liuzzi put his Toro Rosso into the barrier approaching Casino Square. With the crash covered under waved yellows and not the safety car many people's gambles with their strategy was under threat. Hamilton was one of these drivers. He was catching Alonso at a fast rate when they began to lap the slower traffic. Alonso managed to cut through this without any major trouble, but Hamilton lost a bucket load of time behind Jarno Trulli. The gap went from 2.5 seconds to 5.5 seconds, meaning Hamilton had too big of a gap to jump Alonso in the pit stops. They came out in the same formation as they entered.

As for the rest of the race it was nothing to write home about. Both McLarens emerged from their second stop with the status quo maintained, and although it seemed that Hamilton had the pace to catch Alonso in the final laps, they both held station at finished in formation. It later emerged that McLaren had asked both their drivers to hold position after the first pit stops as to not risk the team's chances of a perfect result - a decision that led to accusations of team orders, which of course were banned after the Ferrari debacle of Austria 2002.

Felipe Massa took the final spot on the podium but was almost a minute behind Alonso - not what Ferrari wanted to see. Giancarlo Fisichella took forth for Renault, cementing their forth place in the team standings. BMW took 5th and 6th, with Kubica jumping Heidfeld in the pits and finshing above the German. Alex Wurze took seventh on a one-stopper and Kimi Raikkonen took the final point in 8th after a trying weekend.

With the teams now heading to the trans-Atlantic double in Canada and the USA there will be no testing between now and the French GP. Some questions will need answered State-side - can Ferrari close the gap to McLaren? Will Honda improve their form? Can BMW Sauber keep their pace up for third place? And will Lewis Hamilton repeat his Thursday Monaco crash or his impressive Monaco qualifying pace? Montreal seems the ideal track to answer these