MONACO—Sebastian Vettel profited from a large stroke of fortune to win Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix and strengthen his championship lead, beating Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in a thrilling and incident-
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Defending F1 champion Vettel has won five of six races for Red Bull this season, with only McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton beating him in China.
“It was unbelievable, the race today was pretty entertaining,” Vettel, who started from pole position for the fifth time this season, said. “The roulette button must have stopped last night and kept on spinning.”
Vettel now leads Hamilton by 58 points, his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber by 64, Button by 67 and Alonso by 74.
“We need to win three races and (Vettel) not to score,” Alonso joked. “At the moment I don’t think it’s possible.”
Alonso’s second place is the best performance of the season for the two-time former F1 champion. Webber finished fourth, ahead of Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi and Hamilton.
Seven-time former champion Michael Schumacher, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, and Vitaly Petrov, whose Renault was involved in the late crash that halted the race, were among those who failed to finish. AP