Ferrari's Felipe Massa finished third, held off by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in second place and two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso who won the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Spaniard finished 4.095 seconds ahead of Hamilton and 1:09.114 in front of Massa after 78 laps on the twisting 2.076-mile street circuit.

It was Alonso's 17th overall win and the second this season as McLaren claimed its 150th F1 victory.

Alonso and Hamilton share the lead in the standings with 38 points, five ahead of third-place Massa.

Although Hamilton is yet to win in his debut F1 season, the Briton had five straight top-three finishes.

Alonso, who won last year's race from the pole position after Michael Schumacher was stripped of the honor for hindering him in qualifying, started from top of the grid for the first time for McLaren.

Alonso started quickly with Hamilton tucking in behind him in front of Massa, before quickly moving four seconds ahead of his McLaren teammate after 10 laps as Massa fell another 3 seconds back.

After 20 laps, Alonso and Hamilton had started lapping cars.

The margin between the two McLarens stayed at about 5 seconds midway through the race, before extending to 10.8 seconds by the 48th lap as Massa dropped to more than 36 seconds behind.

Following pit stops by the two McLarens, the gap by the 58th lap was less than a second, but that was as close as it got with Alonso gradually pulling away over the next 20 laps.

Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault finished fourth, Robert Kubica of BMW-Sauber was fifth with teammate Nick Heidfeld next. Alexander Wurz of Williams came in seventh.

Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, who won the first race of the season, was eighth after starting 16th when he broke a wheel steering arm in qualifying Saturday.

The Finn moved up to 12th after the first lap, but dropped to almost a minute behind on the 20th lap and was lapped by the 40th.

After two races in Europe, the series shifts to North America with the Canadian GP on June 10 followed by the United States GP.   AP

Monaco GP Placings

1. Alonso 2. Hamilton 3.Massa 4. Raikkonen 5. Heidfeld 6. Fisichella 7. Kubica 8. Rosberg 9. Coulthard 10. Trulli 11. Kovalainen 12. Wurz 13. Sato 14. R.Schumacher

In Italian: Monaco, trionfo McLaren Alonso, Hamilton. Massa 3°

Senza storia la quinta prova del Mondiale: a Montecarlo domina lo spagnolo davanti al giovane inglese, finora sempre sul podio. La Ferrari limita i danni con Felipe. Fisichella 4°, Raikkonen 8°

Pronti, via e tanti saluti a tutti. La McLaren ha dominato il GP di Monaco dall'inizio alla fine, ha fatto il pieno di punti e piazzato il primo tentativo di allungo in classifica. Ha vinto Fernando Alonso che ha sfruttato bene la pole position di ieri e raggiunto la vetta del Mondiale. Non da solo, però, bensì in coabitazione con Lewis Hamilton, oggi secondo. L’inglesino è all’esordio in F.1 ma ha raggiunto il quinto podio su 5 gare.

VANTAGGIO - A Monaco, del resto, la posizione di partenza è determinante. Chi scatta davanti ha un vantaggio enorme, Alonso lo sa e non sbaglia: al semaforo verde non ha esitato e ha conservato la prima posizione, coperto alle spalle da Hamilton. Il campione del mondo ha via via aumentato e ha sofferto solo per colpa dei doppiati che in alcuni frangenti lo hanno rallentato consentendo a Hamilton di riavvicinarsi. Dopo i due pit stop, che non hanno influito sulle posizioni, Alonso si è ritrovato Hamilton negli specchietti. Ma tutto è rimasto congelato fino alla bandiera a scacchi. Quinto posto per Kubica, sesto per Heidfeld e settimo per Wurz. Prossima gara in Canada tra due settimane, la Ferrari deve rispondere. Gazzetta 

Driver's Championship