MONACO (AP) – Nico Rosberg won the Monaco Grand Prix for the third straight year after a late crash involving teenager Max Verstappen undid Lewis Hamilton’s bid for a fourth win of the season.
Hamilton looked set to take his 37th career win after leading from the start, until the 17-year-old Verstappen rammed his Toro Rosso into the back of Romain Grosjean as he tried to overtake the Lotus driver.
That meant a safety car had to come out at the start of the 64th lap, and when Hamilton was then called in for a pit stop, he suddenly found himself behind both Rosberg and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
When the safety car finally went off track, Hamilton had only a few laps to try and get past Vettel and Rosberg on the most difficult track to overtake on F1.
It was Rosberg’s second win of the season following his victory two weeks ago at the Spanish GP, and he became the first driver since Ayrton Senna to win the Monaco race three straight times. The others to do it were Frenchman Alain Prost and Briton Graham Hill.