The race began under rain conditions, so everyone went for wet tyres. Lauda was fastest at the start, while Pryce had a slow start and was passed by Jarier and Peterson; the Frenchman soon attempted to pass Lauda in an ill-advised overtaking manoeuvre, and hit the barriers at the Mirabeau; his car was damaged in the collision and handled badly, which caused him to hit the wall again at the Tabac corner and then retire. Peterson went into the second place with
Vittorio Brambilla third, until Pryce hit the Italian's wheel. Regazzoni stopped to change a tyre and the nosecone of his car, and
James Hunt stopped to change onto slick tyres, anticipating a drying of the track surface. However, his team's slow pit work cost him a substantial amount of time.
Ronnie Peterson's victory chances were damaged at his pit stop when a wheel nut was lost under the car.
Tom Pryce came in to replace a broken nosecone, and by that time
Niki Lauda led by 15 seconds from
Emerson Fittipaldi and
Carlos Pace. Many accidents happened during the race:
Jochen Mass and
James Hunt tangled at Mirabeau, and
Patrick Depailler got embroiled in their accident;
Clay Regazzoni hit the chicane and suffered damage;
John Watson spun and stalled the engine of his car; Pryce hit the barrier and had to retire;
Mario Andretti entered the pits with his car on fire;
Mark Donohue hit the barrier, whilst
Alan Jones broke a wheel. In the last laps Lauda's oil pressure was fading and Fittipaldi was closing. With three laps left the gap was 2.75 seconds; however, the two-hour time limit was reached and the race was stopped, with Lauda winning.
Ferrari had won their first
Monaco Grand Prix in 20 years; the tragedy of the Spanish Grand Prix receded and the championship race was back on. Fittipaldi's second position strengthened his narrow points lead over early season points leader Pace. == Classification ==