Nico Rosberg wins wild race for Mercedes at Monaco 2013

Nico Rosberg stayed out of trouble at the front of an incident-packed Monaco Grand Prix.

It was a slow-burner of a race, brought to life by the deployment of the safety car on two occasions, and even a red-flag incident.

Rosberg, top of the pile, found his tyres more forgiving than they have been elsewhere this season, and had more than enough to hold off Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber for second and third.

Lewis Hamilton, undone by bad timing at his first pit stop, slipped to fourth place, while Adrian Sutil bagged fifth for Force India.

Jenson Button grabbed sixth after a tangle between Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez cost both drivers, ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Jean-Eric Vergne’s impressive weekend ended with eighth place, Paul di Resta put his qualifying woes to one side to claim ninth, while Raikkonen flew up the standings late on to nab the point which sealed a 23rd straight points finish for the Finn.

Rosberg held his lead at the start and was able to maintain an advantage of around two seconds for the majority of the race, whether in tyre conservation mode or showing his true pace.

Hamilton lost ground when the safety car came out amid the first scheduled pitstops.

Felipe Massa repeated his qualifying crash at Sainte Devote, prompting the interruption and sending the Ferrari driver to hospital for checks.

As all those yet to pit immediately dived in to do so, Hamilton had to queue behind team-mate Rosberg and emerged behind the two Red Bulls.

Hamilton then spent the rest of the race mounting attack after attack on Webber for third, getting alongside through Rascasse at one point but never making it ahead.

Rosberg was not rattled by a mid-race stoppage, caused when contact between Max Chilton’s Marussia and Pastor Maldonado’s Williams sent the latter flying violently into the Tabac barriers.

Maldonado was unhurt in the incident, for which the stewards punished Chilton with a drive-through penalty.

While Rosberg cruised to victory ahead of the Vettel-Webber-Hamilton train, which only spread out in the final moments, the rest of the pack engaged in some spectacular and wild racing.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil pulled off brave passes on Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso into Loews.

He then benefited when contact between Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez at the chicane late on left the Lotus with a puncture and caused damage that would ultimately force Perez to park.

Button came through to sixth, having earlier had a spat with his McLaren team-mate Perez when the Mexican cut the chicane to hold him off.

Perez was ordered to let Button past, but overtook him cleanly at the same spot later on.

He then had another chicane incident with Alonso, and this time it was the Ferrari asked to move aside having cut the corner.

Raikkonen was next on Perez’s list, but on that occasion the chicane move ended in contact.

Alonso lost out to Button in the traffic jam behind Perez’s wounded car and finished a subdued seventh.

Jean-Eric Vergne chased the Ferrari home in eighth.

Paul di Resta converted 17th on the grid to ninth place, thanks to pitting as early as lap nine and making his tyres last to the end.

Raikkonen’s recovery drive ultimately earned him a point, as he overtook Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber on the final lap.

The other major incident came when Romain Grosjean ploughed into the back of Daniel Ricciardo at the chicane, causing the final safety car.

Jules Bianchi also crashed, slewing into the Sainte Devote barriers, having earlier sustained damage on debris from the Chilton/Maldonado crash.