Red Bull's Webber doubles up

A delighted, but modest Mark Webber paid tribute to his Red Bull team yesterday after leaping into serious contention for this year's drivers' championship with a dominant display in an incident-hit Monaco Grand Prix.

The 33-year-old Australian led from his fourth pole to the finish and made light of four interruptions for the introduction of Safety Cars on his way to a second win after Spain the previous weekend.

He finished unchallenged ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel as the Red Bulls delivered their third successive one-two and fourth in six races this year, this time ahead of Pole Robert Kubica who was third for Renault.

"Unbelievable, thank-you," said Webber over the team radio after taking the chequered flag. "You deserve every bit of this. The car is fantastic."

It was the fourth win of his career and his second this year as he became the first Australian victor on the famous Mediterranean street circuit, bathed in more glamour than sunshine this time, since Jack Brabham won in 1959, on his way to the world title.

"This is incredible, the greatest day of my life," said Webber.

"To win here is very special, this place is such a test for any driver - two hours means a lot of work too and today the track conditions changed, there were back markers and the Safety Cars.

"I knew I had to get all the basics right - the stuff like the re-starts, tyre pressure and the rest of it - to make sure. I am honestly so ecstatic and it is very, very special to win here and join those guys like Ayrton Senna and the rest. Today, this is a real 'ripper' for me."

Webber's win lifted him to the top of the drivers' standings on 78 points, level with Vettel as the season continued to unfold as a Red Bull contest.

Defending champion Jenson Button slipped off the top in his McLaren when his engine failed as he ran slowly behind a Safety Car on the opening lap.

"I think it got a little bit hot on the way to the grid," he explained. "We left a bung in on the left-hand side of the car that obviously you're meant to take out on the way to the grid. That's cooked the engine."

Vettel said: "I couldn't keep up with him today. He was gone too far away for me and I had to race to stay second this time."

Brazilian Felipe Massa came home fourth for Ferrari ahead of the 2008 champion Briton Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren.

Schumacher penalised

Seven-times champion German Michael Schumacher, 41, finished sixth for Mercedes but was later demoted to 12th after being given a 20-second penalty following an illegal move behind the Safety Car to pass Spaniard Fernando Alonso on the final lap.

Alonso thus took sixth place ahead of Schumacher's Mercedes team-mate and compatriot Nico Rosberg and Adrian Sutil of Force India who finished eighth.

Force India's Italian driver Vitantonio Liuzzi improved to ninth as a result of Schumacher's penalty while Sebastian Buemi, of Toro Rosso, claimed his first point after finishing 10th yesterday.

Webber was almost drawn into a late drama when he came into the Rascasse hairpin to find Italian Jarno Trulli, of Lotus, colliding with Indian Karun Chandhok of the Hispania team in spectacular fashion.

"He flew in the air and I was just hoping there would be some room to go through on the inside and I would have some options," said Webber. "Thankfully I did."

While Trulli's crash may have been spectacular, it was no more horrifying than those that saw the two Williams men eliminated earlier when they crashed out - German rookie Nico Huelkenberg in the tunnel and Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello at Massanet - in separate incidents.