Daniel Ricciardo finally got his redemption as the ghosts of 2016 were laid to rest with victory at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday.The Australian led every lap around the streets of Monte Carlo but it was far from a simple cruise around the Principality as an engine problem in his Red Bull left him wounded for most of the race.At what is always one of the more nervy starts of the year, Ricciardo maintained the lead from pole into Sainte Devote, just keeping Sebastian Vettel at arms length through the first corner.Aware the race can only be lost on the first lap, the entire field was well-behaved with only minor front wing damage for Brendon Hartley the only scar caused.Lewis Hamilton remained in third place ahead of the two Finns, Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas, as the order remained largely unchanged.One of the main stories before the start was how Max Verstappen would cope making his way through the field from the back of the grid, after missing qualifying due to a crash in final practice.The Dutchman picked off the two Haas cars at the start and then showed what he can with a perfect combination of patience and aggression with some nice moves at Mirabeau and into the chicane.

His progress was further helped by a disaster at Williams with Sergey Sirotkin, who started 13th,  given a 10-second stop/go penalty for not having tyres fitted at the three-minute signal before the start.

Just as the Russian was exiting the pits for serving that penalty, teammate Lance Stroll would pick up the first of two punctures during the race after making light contact with Marcus Ericsson through Casino Square.

Back at the front, the pace was slow with all the drivers trying to keep as much life in the Hypersoft tyres as possible.

When the first sensible gap emerged to the midfield though, Hamilton was the first to pit, switching to the Ultrasoft tyre and producing a nice move on Esteban Ocon to remain in the fight.

In clear air, however, the Mercedes driver's pace wasn't exactly rapid and it allowed Vettel and Ricciardo ahead to be more measured as to when they chose to stop.

Eventually, both would also move onto the Ultrasoft tyre but it was shortly after that the Red Bull driver would report a loss of power and face being some 20kph slower on the straights.

It would allow Vettel to close up to around a second but problems with graining on the tyres would then limit the Ferrari driver's pace and with Ricciardo faster in the corners, the lap-times evened out.

Thanks to the pit-stops, Verstappen would run back inside the top 10 after his good early moves and would wait until lap 48 to pit and switch to the Hypersoft tyres for the final 30-lap dash.

In a race heavily dictated by tyres, it was the Supersoft compound which emerged as the best but only Valtteri Bottas of the leading quintet would use it, and against the back of Kimi Raikkonen would have nowhere to make a move.

Remarkably, it was often the midfield drivers lapping faster than the leaders such was the lack of pace at the front with Ricciardo, at one point, 10 seconds slower than his pole time.

With Vettel and Hamilton, who was caught the top two, unable to launch a real attack, it left the road clear for the 28-year-old to take the victory.

That was then secured when the Virtual Safety Car was needed to clear debris for a big crash between Charles Leclerc and Hartley exiting the tunnel, caused by brake failure for the Monegasque driver.

With better tyres, Ricciardo pulled out a five-second margin on Vettel at the restart and maintained it to the checkered flag.

The German settled for second with Hamilton, who was keen to stop twice but had several requests for fresh tyres turned down by Mercedes, in third ahead of Raikkonen and Bottas in fourth and fifth.

Ocon would be right on the tail of Bottas in sixth for Force India and would hold off an impressive Pierre Gasly in seventh and the hard-charging Nico Hulkenberg and Verstappen on their Hypersoft tyres.

Starting on the pink-striped tyre proved the downfall of Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard was left having to let his teammate by before eventually completing the points in 10th.

Down the order, a botched pit-stop cost Sergio Perez points with the Mexican finishing 12th, ahead of the two Haas cars and Stoffel Vandoorne with the McLaren driver sandwiched between Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean.

After their various problems, the two Williams' brought up the field with Fernando Alonso the only other retirement after a gearbox problem caused him to pull off at Sainte Devote.

The day belonged to Ricciardo, however, as he completed a clean sweep of leading every session throughout the Monaco weekend and took his second win of the 2018 season.

In the championship, the Red Bull driver now sits third once again with Hamilton still leading Vettel by 14 points ahead of the next race in Canada in two weeks time.

Full results from the race can be seen below: