Nico Rosberg holds off Red Bulls to win Monaco Grand Prix

A SPECTACULAR mid-race red-flag crash failed to halt Nico Rosberg's untouched hometown triumph at the Monaco F1 grand prix last night.

PRE-RACE fury about secret tyre-testing tactics of rivals Mercedes and a spectacular mid-race red-flag crash failed to halt Nico Rosberg's untouched hometown triumph at the Monaco F1 grand prix last night.

Australia's Mark Webber, who relishes the tight twisting street race, was able to enjoy the champagne spray, finishing third, just behind his Red Bull teammate and overall standings leader Sebastian Vettel.

Rosberg, who lives in Monaco, led from start to finish in the action-packed race.

Webber, who had qualified fourth on the grid, managed to sneak up a spot, overtaking Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton during a mid-race pitstop just as Ferrari's Felipe Massa sideswiped the first corner for the second time this week.

The lock up was identical to Massa's crash in practice earlier in the week. Webber's timing was immaculate, for he was then able to maintain third place during a rare red-flag restart just one lap later, caused by a high-speed head-on barrier crash of Williams driver Pastor Maldonado, who was pushed by Max Chilton into the infamous Tabac corner.

For the entire second half of the race, Webber was tail-gated perilously close by Hamilton who was heard on the race radio saying, "I'm trying to get past, man", but engineers warned him he had to conserve the super-soft tyres to avoid a second time-consuming pit stop.

Torro Rosso's Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo was forced out of the race when the man Webber previously described as a "one-lap nutter", Romain Grosjean, ran straight into the back of Ricciardo coming out of the tunnel section.

Earlier, the tyre-gate scandal threatened to overtake the glitz and celeb-spotting of the start of the grand prix, which was surrounded by movie types Cameron Diaz, Michael Douglas and Leonardo Di Caprio and more than 200,000 people enjoying bright sunshine around the 3.34km circuit.

Webber's Red Bull management had fired in a late protest about Mercedes conducting covert tyre testing with Pirelli which is banned during the season.