Just how do you separate the great drivers from the the really good drivers? A rain affected Monaco Grand Prix is perhaps the best arena in which to find an answer to that question. And Lewis Hamilton put in a display worthy of his world championship status and then some. This was a victory against the odds. Yes the Mercedes is still the class of the field but around Monaco’s twisty street circuit it is the underlying chassis performance that wins and not absolute power. Around Monaco the Red Bull had the superior chassis and was boosted with an Renault engine power upgrade that swung pole position into Daniel Ricciardo’s favour. Hamilton could only muster third during Saturday qualifying after suffering a minor technical issue in the dying moments of Q3 and had to contend with Nico Rosberg being one slot ahead on the grid. So the race victory looked highly unlikely for Hamilton on Sunday because Monaco has more tight and twisty corners than any meaningful straights. So it’s virtually impossible to overtake no matter how superior the car is behind. When rain falls on Monaco it usually means a more open race and the best drivers usually take advantage of the conditions. That’s exactly what Lewis Hamilton did. Monaco is tricky in the dry and even more so in the wet so the race began under the safety car for the first seven laps. As the safety car reeled into the pitlane Ricciardo stormed away into the lead leaving second place Nico Rosberg in his wake. Rosberg had struggled with his set-up all weekend and began to slow his team mate. Then on lap 16 Mercedes instructed Rosberg to allow Hamilton through. Rosberg did as instructed, later saying it was “pianful” but logical. Hamilton then had free reign to challenge Ricciardo for the lead. While Ricciardo had a 13 second advantage at this stage of the race Hamilton could only marginally cut into the Australian’s lead. Meanwhile the wet conditions were causing incidents up and down the field just a lap earlier Raikkonen out-braked himself at a relatively low speed and ended up damaging his front wing at the Lowes Hairpin complex. The incident also managed to outwit Romain Grosjean while Raikkonen’s wing became trapped under his car which all but ended his race. There was a flurry of pitstops on lap 15 as many switched from full wets to intermediates. But Hamilton and Ricciardo chose to remain on full wets. By lap 24 Ricciardo pits for intermediates but Hamilton opts to stay out on full wets and make the switch to full dry running tyres in the belief that the track will dry out and negate the need to make an extra pit stop. This is where Hamilton effectively  wins the race. With Ricciardo breathing down Hamilton’s neck by lap 31, by now the tyres on the Mercedes are fading on a drying track and this is the moment Hamilton finally pits for slick tyres. Ricciardo follows suit on the next lap but astonishingly his pit crew aren’t ready and waste crucial seconds scrambling around to put on the correct set of slick tyres. As Ricciardo finally rejoins the track he comes out of the pits side by side with Hamilton but Hamilton has the momentum and grip to just about stay in the lead. From then on until the end of the 78 lap race Hamilton would fend of Ricciardo’s multiple attempts to take the lead. But this is Monaco and and the car in front always has the advantage and combined with Hamilton’s guile and guts he also had the foresight to save his tyres so that in the end he was able to extract a small but comfortable margin over Ricciardo. For Rosberg it was a miserable afternoon, he was so far off the pace that as Hamilton crossed the line to take the chequered flag he had almost lapped his Mercedes team mate. In The end Rosberg finished 7th thereby seeing his lead cut in half to 24 points. Max Verstappen had an equally torrid weekend. Have made the headlines after becoming the youngest ever Grand Prix race winner at the previous race he made the headlines in Monaco for becoming the youngest ever DNF around Monaco. Third place was secured by Sergio Perez who managed to stay out of trouble throughout but put in a sold and consistent drive. The Force India beat Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari into 4th a car which didn’t have the consistency to unlock the true pace within. Fernando Alonso wrapped up 5th place with a solid showing for McLaren-Honda but for this team there is still much progress to made. For Hamilton it was his first win of the season and may well be the springboard to claw back into the race for the F1 world title. For Rosberg it was a demonstration that to become a champion in Formula One you must be able to overcome the conditions before the changeable conditions beat you. Rosberg hasn’t mastered this yet and may well have surrendered the psychological advantage to Hamilton. 2016 Monaco Grand Prix Results: