Fernando Alonso with the trophy in Monaco on Sunday

Monaco: Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso led the Monaco Grand Prix from start to finish on Sunday to hand Renault their fifth victory in seven races.

The win, with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher starting in the pit lane after being stripped of pole for deliberately obstructing rivals in qualifying, stretched the Spaniard’s overall lead to 21 points.

It was the 12th win of the 24-year-old’s career, his first in Monaco and fourth of the season. He has 64 points to Schumacher’s 43, with the German fighting back from last place to fifth.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2003 winner for Williams, finished second 14.5 seconds behind Alonso in his McLaren team’s 40th anniversary race with Briton David Coulthard taking Ferrari-powered Red Bull’s first podium finish in third place.

It was the Scottish two times Monaco winner’s first top-three finish since Japan 2003 with McLaren.

There was no champagne to spray on the podium as a mark of respect to tyre manufacturer Edouard Michelin, who died on Friday. All three on the podium raced with Michelin tyres.

“I want to dedicate the victory to Edouard Michelin,” Alonso said. “Michelin did a great job in Formula One in the last few years, and especially this year.

“The race was quite emotional,” Alonso told the post-race news conference. “Sure, starting in first position made it a bit easier... In Monaco you have to keep your concentration and not touch anybody.”

Coulthard’s joy was Italian Jarno Trulli’s despair, with the Toyota driver in third place and heading for his first points of the season until he pulled over with five laps remaining.

Honda’s Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was also left regretting what might have been after collecting a drive-through penalty 15 laps from the end while running third. He finished fourth.

Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld, lapped by the race winner, seventh ahead of Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher.

Brazilian Felipe Massa was ninth for Ferrari after starting on the back row in a qualifying nightmare for the team.

Schumi is sorry

Meanwhile, Schumacher apologised on Sunday, while still protesting his innocence, to anyone who suspected he had tried to manipulate the qualifying race in his favour.

“Anyone who thinks that I deliberately wanted to wreck Alonso’s lap is wrong,” he told a German television channel. “And to those who think that, I can only say ‘I’m sorry that it happened’.”

Max Mosley came out in support of Schumacher and said he should not be branded a cheat for the incident that stripped him of pole position Saturday. “I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was cheating,” the FIA chief said.