The Monaco Grand Prix is undoubtedly one of the most prestigious, historic and glamorous events on not just Formula 1’s calendar, but motorsport as a whole.

The streets of the principality are famed for their tight, bumpy and undulating characteristics that make Grand Prix cars dance around them in a way that is utterly unique. The race is sometimes called a procession as it’s extremely hard to overtake, but if you look at the history of the event, it is rarely so simple. So, with that in mind, here are Essaar’s Top 5.

5: 2008 – Hamilton’s Recovery

It was a Ferrari front-row lockout for the 2008 race, which began under rainy conditions. Lewis Hamilton, a man who usually excels on a wet track, passed Kimi Raikkonen at the start to move into second place while Felipe Massa maintained first position. But even Hamilton was caught out by the tricky conditions, sliding wide at Tabac after just a few laps and getting a puncture. He crawled back to the pits and re-emerged in fifth.

Massa continued to lead but the safety car eliminated his advantage over the rest of the field. Raikkonen was handed a drive-through penalty and Massa and Kubica both pitted which meant the Hamilton was now into the lead by Lap 33 of 76. The track eventually dried out and Hamilton maintained his lead throughout to complete an amazing comeback and achieve his first win at Monaco.

4: 1992 – Senna v Mansell

The 1992 Williams car was one of F1’s most dominant in history, Nigel Mansell had won the first five rounds of the season and already looked certain to win the world championship. Mansell was on pole, with his teammate, Riccardo Patrese alongside him on the starting grid. Ayrton Senna, the winner of the last three Monaco Grands Prix, jumped Patrese at the start but Mansell lead going round Sainte Devote.

Mansell dominated the race and in the days before tyre stops became mandatory, never relinquished his lead. After 70 or 78 Laps, his advantage over Senna was huge but disaster struck. A wheel nut came loose on the Briton’s car and he had to pit for new tyres. Senna took the lead but Mansell smashed the lap record to catch back up after just a few laps, he was right on the McLaren’s gearbox.

He was so much faster than Senna, but the Brazilian had track position. Even so, Mansell was all over him, trying to dive through at every corner but they never touched, this was a classic example of two great champions at the top of their game.

Senna held on, against all the odds, to equal Graham Hill’s record of five wins in the principality, a superb achievement.

3: 1984 – Senna’s Emergence

A Monaco monsoon drowned the circuit back in 1984 in what has to be one of the wettest races in Grand Prix history. Alain Prost in his McLaren lead away at the start with Nigel Mansell’s Lotus following closely behind. After seven laps, Mansell made a move for the lead and passed Prost. He held first place until he lost the rear of his car just before the Casino.

Prost retook the lead with his teammate, Niki Lauda in second but, sensationally, a then-unknown Ayrton Senna was third in his Toleman. It took the Brazilian rookie only a few laps to pass double world champion, Lauda and set about catching Prost for the lead.

Senna was catching Prost by over 3 seconds a lap and this rattled the Frenchman. He waved his hands in the air to stop the race and got his wish, as the red flag was brought out a lap later. Prost pulled over by the start/finish line but did not cross it before Senna did.

Senna coasted around the circuit, waving his fist in the air in sheer ecstasy as if he had won but sadly, when a race is red-flagged the positions from the previous lap are taken as the results. His time would come though.

2: 1996 – An Unlikely Winner

There was another wet start to the Monaco Grand Prix back in ’96 and this race has gone down in folklore as one of the craziest of all time. Damon Hill got the jump on polesitter Michael Schumacher at the start but it got worse for the German, as he slid wide at Portier and broke he suspension. Hill looked almost certain to emulate his late father but his engine failed at the halfway stage and he was also out.

That meant that Jean Alesi in his Benetton now lead but this didn’t last either, his suspension failed after Lap 60 of 75. That all meant that Olivier Panis in the Ligier now somehow lead the Grand Prix. He held off David Coulthard’s McLaren to earn Ligier’s one and only F1 victory after starting all the way down in 14th. 

In the end, the three men that stood on the podium were the only finishers that day, remarkable.

1: 1982 – The Race That No One Wanted To Win

Nothing can top what happened back in 1982 for sheer chaos. Rene Arnoux started the race from pole position and held the lead going into Turn 1 and his teammate, Alain Prost, made excellent progress up the field by passing both Riccardo Patrese and Bruno Giacomelli in the early stages. Things were looking good for a Renault 1-2 until Arnoux spun at the Swimming Pool and was out with a stalled engine on Lap 14.

Prost inherited the lead and held it all the way until Lap 73 of 76 when rain began to fall and he violently slammed into the barriers at the Chicane. Patrese only had to keep going in his Brabham to win but he couldn’t manage it, spinning at the hairpin and handing the lead to Didier Pironi. However, the Ferrari was a very thirsty car and Pironi stopped in the tunnel just over a lap later. Andrea de Cesaris or Derek Daly would’ve taken the lead but both had separate incidents as they joined the ever-growing list of retirements.

Incredibly, this now meant that Riccardo Patrese once again took the lead to win his first Grand Prix. Pironi was classified second and de Cesaris was third despite both of them running out of fuel.