Monaco resident Sean Edwards scored a dream result when he won his first race around his local streets in Sunday morning's Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup encounter.
British pilot Edwards started from pole position after heading qualifying on Friday, and successfully kept hold of the lead at the race.
Sebastiaan Bleekemolen had recorded his best ever qualifying result to line up alongside Edwards on the front row, but found the barrier at the swimming pool on the second lap.
That promoted young Frenchman Kevin Estre into second place behind Edwards, with defending champion and last year's Monaco winner Rene Rast in third.
The German driver's victory hopes ended however at Ste Devote with five laps to go when a power steering failure caused by a broken fan belt and subsequent rising temperatures led to him missing the apex and crashing.
This brought the safety car out, but Edwards successfully brought his Konrad Motorsport entry to the flag, 1.2 seconds ahead of Hermes Attempto driver Estre.
“That was a fantastic race,” said a jubilant Edwards. “I had a clean start and was able to pull clear of my pursuers. After that I controlled the race, even with Kevin and Rene close behind me. The last laps were not easy because there was a lot of oil on the track and parts were scattered everywhere. But I made it through well. I want to thank my team for this perfect weekend.”
After starting sixth, Edwards' teammate Christian Engelhart completed the podium to go some way to making up for the last-minute cancellation of the Barcelona race that he had been due to start from pole.
Norbert Siedler finished fourth to retain his points lead on 54 points, six ahead of Engelhart and 11 ahead of Edwards with Rast slipping down to fifth behind Estre. Jeroen Bleekemolen made his Supercup return in fifth place, ahead of top rookie Michael Ammermuller – who previously raced around Monaco in GP2.