Before this incident Lewis Hamilton was leading the race by a big margin and from his point of view the safety car was the last thing he needed. This was compounded with a poor decision by McLaren not to bring him in to the pit for his final tyre change - almost all other drivers came in once the pit lane was reopened, leaving Hamilton to come in under normal race conditions and claw his way back into the lead.

And that he certainly did, with a beautiful display of driving that shows why he really is world class.

Although not raining torrentially, conditions were certainly challenging for all drivers, and bad pit decisions for both Raikkonen and Alonso which saw them both pit with no tyre change gave each driver extra work to keep up the pace. The Ferrari’s didn’t have a good weekend at all, with Felipe Massa spinning his car on five separate occasions. And David Coulthard, who has just announced his retirement, made an early exit after going off on the first lap after colliding with Sebastian Vettel, who also retired.

Other drivers who failed to finish include Robert Kubicca, who is in the running for the Championship after BMW’s improved performance this season; and Jenson Button, who showed again that if he concentrated more on his Grand Prix driving and less on activities such as triathlon that clearly distract him.

Lewis made a bold move from the start, where he started in forth place. Leaping ahead of both Raikkonen and Webber before the first bend, he came straight being teammate Heikki Kovalainen. After sitting behind him in the spray he eventually passed him too, and from that point on lead the race, finishing ahead of Nick Heidfeld by more than a minute.

Driver Championship after British Grand Prix

In the end it was Robert Kubica who was the hero of the day. After his massive smash in last year’s Canadian Grand Prix he must have been somewhat anxious at the thought of racing there again. But he needn’t have worried, winning his first Grand Prix, almost certainly the first of many.

Meanwhile Jorge Lorenso spent the weekend in hospital after coming off his bike in practice. With two broken ankles already to contend with, he has added concussion and a possible skin graft to his hand too.

A total of six drivers failed to finish the race, all with the exception of Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella due to accidents. The unluckiest man of the day must have been the other Force India driver, Adrian Sutil, whose car was damaged by a rear shunt from Kimi Räikkönen who uncharacteristically lost control of his car briefly.

Hamilton’s win will be a boost to both him and McLaren, and they’ll be looking for him to perform similarly in Canada in June.

Results from Monaco

Driver table

The race provided plenty of excitement throughout with the first corner dispatching Fisichella, who ran into the back of Nakajima in a spectacular but ultimately stupid smash, and contact between Finish drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen requiring the McLaren driver to make an earlier pit stop.

One of the biggest factors in deciding the final outcome though was McLaren’s decision to run Lewis Hamilton on a three stop strategy due to concerns about his tyres. Although leading at one stage of the race, his extra stop meant he was unable to get past the Ferrari front runner and had to make do with second place.

Felipe Massa (Ferrari) +10
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) +8
Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) +6
Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) +5
Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) +4
Fernando Alonso (Renault) +3
Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) +2
Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) +1
David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault)
Jarno Trulli (Toyota)
Jenson Button (Honda)
Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes)
Timo Glock (Toyota)
Rubens Barrichello (Honda)
Nelsinho Piquet (Renault)
Adrian Sutil (Force India-Ferrari)
Sebastian Vettel (STR-Ferrari)
Sebastien Bourdais (STR-Ferrari)
Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota) Accident damage
Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Ferrari) Accident

While Guardiola is seen by many to be the perfect choice for Barcelona- Catalan though and through, ex-Barça player, and already part of the family - others are not so sure that he is the right choice for Barça’s style of play.

View a clip of the crash from YouTube video:

That’s right, when I first saw it I thought it must be a mistake, but despite the crisis at Barça, with Real Madrid winning the league, with Manchester United going through to the Champions League final and Valencia knocking them out of the Copa del Rey AND then going on to win it against Getafe, they managed to put everything together against Valencia last night.

Despite that 10 players will be given the boot transferred this summer, that must give the players some morale. On Wednesday they play Real Madrid, so perhaps Barcelona will be able to do it all again and salvage their honour, bruised from a defeat in the Nou Camp leg back in December.