Rosberg takes late Monaco win, Latvala shines in Portugal

Rosberg takes late Monaco win, Latvala shines in Portugal
By Euronews
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Welcome back to Speed​​, our programme dedicated to the world of motorsport. Drivers were battling it out in Monaco this weekend with Nico Rosberg

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Welcome back to Speed​​, our programme dedicated to the world of motorsport. Drivers were battling it out in Monaco this weekend with Nico Rosberg taking the chequered flag for the third year in a row. The German took advantage of a strategic error by team-mate Lewis Hamilton who had to settle for third place behind Sebastien Vettel.

Rosberg takes late Monaco win

Germany’s Nico Rosberg celebrated a surprise hat-trick of Monaco Grand Prix victories on Sunday after an error of judgement from Mercedes undid Lewis Hamilton ‘s bid for a fourth win of the season.

The defending champion had looked set to extend his overall lead but a crash between Max Verstappen’s Toro Rosso and Romain Grosjean of Lotus changed the course of the race.

The safety car was deployed with 14 laps to go, prompting Mercedes to bring Hamilton into the pits for a second time. The 30-year-old came out in third place and wasn’t able to trouble the leaders.

Rosberg kept Vettel at bay to seal the title, becoming only the fourth driver after Graham Hill, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna to win three straight races at Monaco.

The 1929 Monaco Grand Prix

Formula One wouldn’t be the same without the Monaco Grand Prix, one of the most iconic and glamorous sporting events in the world. Let’s go back to where it all began.

Monaco was first used for grand prix racing in 1929, and the track has been largely unchanged since. There were no qualifying heats as starting positions were decided by the drawing of lots. Britain’s William Grover-Williams outclassed Georges Bouriano to secure the win with pre-race favourite Rudolf Caracciola of Germany completing the podium. The first official race took place in 1950 and the event resumed five years later. The Monaco Grand Prix has remained on the calendar ever since, with only Monza having played host to more races.

Latvala shines in Portugal

Overnight leader Jari-Matti Latvala safely steered his Polo through the remaining three gravel stages to clinch the Rally of Portugal ahead of defending champion Sebastien Ogier.

The 30-year-old finished 8.2 seconds ahead of the Frenchman while Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen overtook Kris Meeke in his Citroen to complete an impressive 1-2-3 finish for Volkswagen.

Latvala, who held a 9.5 second lead over the chasing pack going into the final day, looked in great shape and held his nerve to claim his first win of the season after failing to score a point in the previous three races.

This result sees Sebastien Ogier stretch his lead in the overall standings. The 31-year-old now has 105 points, 42 ahead of Mikkelsen with Latvala sitting fifth going into the Rally Italia, which gets underway on June 11.

Di Grassi disqualified

See you on May 31 for another edition of Speed where we will be looking at the Italian Moto GP. In the meantime, we end the programme with some of the best moments from the Formula E Championship, with Jerome D’Ambrosio inheriting victory as race winner Lucas di Grassi was disqualified after failing post-race scrutineering. See you soon.

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