Juan Pablo Montoya won today's Monaco Grand Prix after a finely judged drive to win by just over half a second from World Championship leader Kimi Raikkonen.  Michael Schumacher was just behind in third place with brother Ralf 4th for Williams ahead of the two Renaults.

The race was decided on pit stop strategy for although pole sitter Ralf Schumacher led the race during the early stages his first pit stop at the end of lap 21 allowed second placed Montoya to gain time before his stop and he emerged in front of his team mate.  Raikkonen also stayed out, jumping in front of Ralf Schumacher, while reigning World Champion Michael Schumacher did not stop until several laps later enabling him to also move in front.

Once the race settled down after the second set of pit stops Montoya held the lead with Raikkonen pressuring him in second place and Michael Schumacher gaining ground in 3rd.  They finished in this order with Ralf Schumacher 4th, while David Coulthard finished 7th for McLaren behind the Renaults and the final point went to the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello.

For Jordan Ford the day brought a comfortable finish in 10th and 12th for Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman.  The Jordan drivers made two pit stops each, Fisichella on laps 25 and 58, Firman on 24 and 56.  Neither appeared to suffer any major problem, although traffic caused Firman to lose a lot of time as he made way for the leaders.

The race was not without incident, Heinz Harald Frentzen crashing his Sauber heavily at the exit of the Swimming Pool complex and causing the Safety Car to be brought out from laps 2 until 4.  Jensen Button did not race his BAR following yesterday's high speed accident, while both Jaguars were early retirements, the two Minardis retired within a lap of each other and Jacques Villeneuve's BAR pulled off at the chicance with an apparent engine bay fire.

Raikkonen now leads the championship by 4 points from Michael Schumacher, and with McLaren set to introduce their radical new car within the new month the Championship seems set for a fascinating duel over the summer months.