as the order settled down towards the end of the race, trulli led from button, with barrichello in third. the top three were a lap in front of the rest of the field, and the only drivers with a chance of winning the race. barrichello needed to pit with 22 laps remaining, and rejoined too far behind the top two in order to make a challenge. from then on, it was a straight fight between trulli and button, but monaco is notoriously the hardest circuit to make a passing move on. therefore, button having no chance of passing, trulli took the win by close to half a second.