Party time for Hamilton

After an early run into the barriers on a wet circuit as the rain fell, Hamilton managed to hold his nerve, becoming only the fifth Briton to take the chequered flag.

In claiming his sixth triumph in 23 starts, he now joins Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Sir Jackie Stewart and David Coulthard on being crowned king of the Principality.

After crossing the line, and talking to his pit crew via his in-car radio, a jubilant Hamilton said: "I apologise for hitting the barrier, but we made up for it.

"Now let's go party!"

Once the rain started to fall around 20 minutes before the start, it was always going to be an incident-fuelled race, and so it wonderfully proved. The conditions meaning the race ran for the full two hours, with 76 of the 78 laps completed.

And for once, rather than watching a dull procession around the tight, twisty streets of Monte Carlo, the public who pay through the nose for tickets for Formula One's blue riband event were given real value for money.

Heikki Kovalainen, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock, Fernando Alonso, David Coulthard, Sebastien Bourdais, Nick Heidfeld, Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, Adrian Sutil and Hamilton were all involved in a variety of incidents in a thrilling race from start to finish.

Pre-race championship leader Raikkonen finished ninth overall after a dramatic crash with Sutil just minutes from the end, who had driven superbly to hold fourth at the time.

Behind Hamilton, Robert Kubica came home second, followed by Massa, with the Red Bull of Mark Webber again in the points for the fifth successive race in a season-high fourth.