McLaren Mercedes drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton scored a dominant one-two in Sunday's mainly sunny Monaco Grand Prix, but Felipe Massa was happy to salvage third place - and the only other unlapped runner - to keep his and Ferrari's championship hopes alive.

The McLaren pair were in a class of their own, finishing a whole minute ahead of their rivals. In a largely processional race of just three retirements, the McLaren pair were content to claim first and second, even though Hamilton suggested that he had the quicker car at the start of the third stint. But then he pointed out that he had number two on his car, and was thus the second driver. Ferrari's second driver, Kimi Raikkonen, was handicapped from the start after hitting the barrier in qualifying, starting sixteenth on the grid, and claiming a single point with eighth place at the end.

At the start, the two McLarens shot straight into the lead which is where they would stay, as would third place Massa and fourth place Giancarlo Fisichella. But Nick Heidfeld picked up two places to head Williams's Nico Rosberg, while Rubens Barrichello also picked up two places to hold seventh from Mark Webber who lost two places in comparison to his grid position. Raikkonen moved up four places on the first lap to hold 12th.

The opening stages were marked by Alonso leaving Hamilton behind, the British driver being mainly shadowed by Massa, who pulled away from Fisichella. These four were left on their own as Heidfeld desperately held up Rosberg and Button found Webber and Kubica queuing up behind him. Webber became the second retirement when he lost third gear which cost him eighth place. That was just before the first fuel stops. Fisichella was the first in from fourth place on lap 23. Alonso and Massa pitted on lap 26, the Brazilian changing to the softer tyres and taking it easy early on as they had showed a tendency to grain. Hamilton came in on lap 29, having expected a five lap advantage over teammate Alonso, but found that it was only three.

It meant that Alonso's lead was still 4.2s over his teammate when they rejoined. Massa, however, was 21s behind and would lose more time in traffic. Heidfeld was initially fourth, ahead of Fisichella, until his one pit stop just before half distance, which left Barrichello fifth, pushed by Kubica, until the Honda driver pitted on lap 37. Massa's only drama had come on lap 30 when he missed the chicane at the swimming pool exit which cost him a couple of seconds, but he was still losing time to the McLarens. He was over half a minute behind when Alonso pitted on lap 51, followed two laps later by Hamilton. Massa came in a couple of laps after that, as did Fisichella.

Now came the only real threat to Alonso's lead, as Hamilton closed onto his tail, but he dropped away again with 18 laps to go, and the pair cruised to the chequered flag. Massa's deficit grew by 15s at the pit stop, so that he emerged 47s behind Hamilton, a margin with again grew to 65s by the end. Fisichella was a lapped fourth, while Kubica was fifth and Heidfeld sixth. Alexander Wurz scored his first points of the year with seventh, while Raikkonen scored a single point with eighth, ahead of Scott Speed and the Hondas.
 

The result means Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton are equal on 38 points in the World Championship although Alonso has two wins to Hamilton's zero. Massa has 33 points, with Raikkonen another ten points behind. McLaren Mercedes have 76 points in the Constructors' series, twenty ahead of Ferrari, while BMW Sauber are another 26 points behind.

Jean Todt: "As we had expected this was a very tough race for us. On a track where overtaking is almost impossible, we saw the top four cars on the grid finishing in the same order. Kimi, who started from down the back, could only pin his hopes on a good strategy to try and get a good result, but after spending nearly the whole time in traffic, he only managed to bring home a single point. We must congratulate those who, today, were quicker than us and work to get back to being competitive at the highest level right from the start of the two consecutive races in Canada and the USA."

Felipe Massa: "I think this was the best possible result I could have got today, given the pace of our closest rivals. At half distance, given the situation, I concentrated on just managing my race and bringing the car home. These six points are very important: the championship is still very open and there is still a very long way to go. We tried to see if we could change the situation by using the extra soft tyres in the second stint of the race, but it did not make much difference. The main problem today was the traffic: I lost a lot of time behind backmarkers, but I don't think that had any effect on the final result. Today we were the inferior of the two teams, but we have all we need to get back to winning again, right from the next race."

Kimi Raikkonen: "We knew we were facing an uphill battle and that's how things turned out. I got a good start, quickly moving up to twelfth, but from then on I was nearly always in traffic, never getting any chance to overtake. I never had a clear track ahead of me and it was only thanks to the strategy that I was able to make up some more places and get into the points, but I couldn't do any better. Obviously the situation in the classification is now a bit more complicated but there is still a long way to go in the championship and I am not the sort to give up."

Luca Baldisserri: "Today we were not competitive enough to win. We tried to change things about a bit with Felipe, switching to the extra-soft tyres at the first stop but this choice didn't pay off. Even so, we don't think this would have changed the result. Kimi faced a very difficult race starting from sixteenth place. He made a good start but then he spent nearly the whole time in traffic and the point for eighth place was the best he could do. We have to study the situation and understand why our rivals were better than us, before tackling the double header in North America in better shape so that we can fight for the wins."

Race Details: Felipe Massa:3rd + 69.114 78 laps chassis 260; Kimi Raikkonen: 8th + 1 lap 77 laps chassis 262; Weather: air temperature 23/26°C, track temperature 31/29°C, cloudy then sunny.