Verstappen, who claimed the pole position during qualifying, led the race from start to finish to move up to 119 points in the championship.

The seasoned two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso, finished in second for what was his fifth podium on the season.

Esteban Ocon rounded off the podium to become the first French driver since Jean Alesi in 1996 to finish in the top three.

While Verstappen and Alonso were unstoppable on the day, late rain caused a lot of drama, and the difference was certainly that pair has their respective tactics spot on.

Verstappen said it wasn’t the easiest of victories, but he expected nothing less of the Monaco Grand Prix.

“It was quite a difficult one because we were on the medium initially and Fernando was on the hard tyre,” said race winner Verstappen.

“We didn’t want to go that long, but we had to. The rain was coming, and we didn’t really know what was going on.

“The tyres were graining and then took a few laps to get through that graining phase and the pace picked up a little bit, but it was still very tricky to drive. Then it started to rain lap by lap, and then we had to make the call to go on to the inters.

“It was incredibly slippery. When you are that far in the lead you don’t want to push too hard, but you don’t want to lose too much time, so it’s quite difficult in that scenario. I clipped the walls a few times, it was super difficult out there, but that’s Monaco.”

The next stop is Catalunya for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport