By Robert Haile

Max Verstappen has extended his lead in the drivers championship after controlling a wet Monaco Grand Prix.

The Dutch two times World Champion, Verstappen qualified on pole position but there was some hope that Spanish master Fernando Alonso could beat him off the line and put Aston Martin in pole position for their first race win.

This sadly didn’t happen as Verstappen got away clean and even the rain didn’t slow him down as he claimed his fourth win of the season.

Monaco winner and Championship leader Verstappen said: “It’s super nice to win here again in Monaco. It was actually quite a difficult race.

“We were on the medium to begin with and Fernando on the hard compound, so we didn’t want the first stint to be that long, but we had to stay out.

“The rain also made it quite complicated, we made the call for inters and the first few laps on them were incredibly slippery. I clipped the walls a few times again, but that’s Monaco.

“When you are that far in the lead, you don’t want to push that hard, but also you don’t want to loose too much time.

“We managed to stay calm and bring it home, and we scored a good amount of points for the team. I, of course, will celebrate this evening with my friends and family, but tomorrow we focus on Spain.”

Fernando held onto second with Esteban Ocon claiming third for Alpine as he held off Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in fourth and fifth.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finish where he started in sixth after receiving a three place penalty for impeding McLaren’s Lando Norris.

READ MORE: Esteban Ocon Takes Third Place On Alpine’s 50th Grand Prix

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly split the Ferrari drivers with Carlos Sainz following the French driver home in eighth as Norris and Oscar Piastri made it a double points finish for McLaren in ninth and tenth.

Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas missed out in eleventh with AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries splitting the team with Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo in thirteenth as Alex Albon’s Williams followed them in fourteenth.

Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri dropped to fifthteenth as Sergio Perez moved his Red Bull up through the field to take sixteenth as Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Logan Sargeant Williams were the final two finishers.

Kevin Magnussen retired his Haas towards the end of the race and Lance Stroll Aston Martin took a beating around the track and retired on track.

Verstappen is now 39 points ahead of his teammate Perez in the Drivers Championship with Alonso over 50 points further back in third.

In the Constructors Championship Red Bull are well clear of Aston Martin in second with Mercedes and Ferrari in third and fourth closing the gap to the British team.

Formula One continues the European journey as it heads to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix on June 2-4.