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MONACO. — World champion Lewis Hamilton ended his six-month wait for a win yesterday when he secured an unexpected and skilful victory for Mercedes in an incident-filled Monaco Grand Prix. Taking full advantage of a bungled pit stop for his nearest rival, Australian Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, Hamilton drove supremely in mixed conditions to seize his first triumph in nine races since clinching his third title at the 2015 United States Grand Prix last October.

Ricciardo, who started from his maiden pole position, led until he pitted for slick tyres — that were not ready for him — after 32 laps and finally came home second, 7.2 seconds behind the three-time champion.

It was Hamilton’s second win on the famous Mediterranean street circuit, his first this season and the 44th of his career. It also repeated his 2008 triumph when he started third and won in wet conditions.

Mexican Sergio Perez finished third, 6.5 seconds behind a disconsolate Ricciardo, but ahead of four-time champion Sebastian Vettel of Germany (Ferrari) and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Spain, who finished a superb fifth for McLaren on the 50th anniversary of their Formula One debut race in 1966.

Hamilton’s win kept alive his title defence and, with Rosberg off the podium, trimmed the leader’s advantage to 24 points, less than a single victory, in the title race.

“Thank God that today went as I’d hoped,” said Hamilton, who sopped to give Justin Bieber a swig of his champagne in the podium celebrations.

“A big thank you to the team. I’m kind of lost for words. I prayed for a day like this and it came through so I feel blessed. That was the longest run after I stopped for those tyres.”

A furious Ricciardo struggled to control his feelings and his language. “I don’t even want to comment on the race,” he said. “Two weekends in a row now, I’ve been s*****d. It sucks. It hurts.”

On a grim afternoon of torrential rain in the Principality, the race started — for the first time — behind a Safety Car with the entire field running on full-wet tyres.

This negated any advantage that Ricciardo could have gained by Red Bull’s choice of ‘super-soft’ tyres for final qualifying on Saturday.

Finally, on lap seven, the Safety Car came in and the contest began in earnest.

Almost immediately, Kevin Magnussen pitted for intermediate tyres and his Renault team-mate Briton Jolyon Palmer wrecked the front of his car on his way down the straight as he lost grip on a pedestrian crossing and slid into the barriers at Ste Devote.

A Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed until lap 11 when racing resumed and Kimi Raikkonen promptly crashed his Ferrari at Loews, almost collecting Romain Grosjean with him. — AFP.