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MONACO -- The rivalry between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton for the Formula One title is turning into a full-blown scrap -- both on and off the track. Rosberg won the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to take the championship lead back from Hamilton, who won the previous four races but was left infuriated by Rosbergs sudden and late accident the day before in qualifying. The win was a fifth straight 1-2 finish for Mercedes, which has swept all six races this season, but thats the only type of harmony in the team. Tension is building, with Hamilton appearing unhappy before, during and after the race. "Its a fierce battle between me and Nico and will continue that way," he said. "Im going to keep my head up and keep pushing." Rosberg drew his teammates ire in qualifying when his late error led to a yellow flag and ended Hamiltons chances of beating his time with a final flying lap. Rosberg denied that he caused the incident intentionally and he was cleared of any wrongdoing by race stewards. He went on to clinch his second victory of the season and fifth of his career, repeating his maiden GP win from pole here in Monaco last year. He leads Hamilton by four points in the drivers standings, 122-118. Ferraris Fernando Alonso, who was fourth, is already 57 points behind Hamilton. "Its a special win, definitely, because Lewis has had the momentum with results," Rosberg said. He finished 9.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton, who was 0.4 faster than Daniel Ricciardos Red Bull. Four-time defending champion Sebastian Vettels frustrating season with Red Bull continued as he abandoned the race on lap eight with a power unit failure. Hamilton and Rosberg raced each other in their junior karting days, but they did not appear to shake hands after the race, and Hamilton looked visibly tense in the post-match race conference as he sat next to Rosberg. He revealed that he and Rosberg had not even been in the post-qualifying debriefing together on Saturday. "Nico did his big debrief before I got there, which is not what we normally do," Hamilton said. "Fortunately the engineers wrote down what Nico said." Even at the drivers pre-race parade they were at opposite ends of the circuit, and now they have six months left together until the end of the season, starting with the Canadian GP in two weeks time. Hamilton said after the race that he "drove fairly all weekend," which sounded like a veiled swipe at Rosberg. During the race, a tense Hamilton snapped back at his team when told that Ricciardo was closing on him. "I dont care about Ricciardo, whats the gap to Nico?" Hamilton said. Hamilton would certainly have attacked more on another track. But overtaking on Monacos tight and narrow 78-lap circuit -- which has the slowest average speed -- is so tough that 10 of the past 11 winners came from pole. The exception was Hamilton in 2008, the year he won the title. Hamilton had sparked the escalation in the rivalry with Rosberg when he questioned his teammates hunger on Thursday as he compared their different childhoods. Rosberg is the son of former F1 driver Keke Rosberg. "I come from a not-great place in Stevenage and lived on a couch in my dads apartment, and Nico grew up in Monaco with jets and hotels and boats," Hamilton said on Thursday. "If I were to come here believing that Nico is hungrier than me then I might as well go home." Later, Hamilton explained what hed meant. "I said what gives me the hunger is where I grew up, in comparison to where Nico grew up," he said. "I was striving to come to live (in Monaco). I used to travel around with Nico on his dads plane, I used to go on his boat, (in) his house. That gave me the desire to want that." The race itself was also eventful as eight drivers failed to finish. The safety car came out on lap one after Sergio Perez was bumped off the track by his former teammate Jenson Buttons McLaren at the Mirabeau turn. The safety car came out again on lap 26 when German driver Adrian Sutils Sauber went into the barriers on the run down to the chicane. Mercedes took the opportunity to pit both their cars, and Hamilton seemed unhappy with the timing. "We should have pitted on that lap (before)," he said. "But I knew you wouldnt call me in, guys." Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca. Hi Kerry, I follow CMon Ref faithfully and I couldnt help but notice the classic example in your last two columns where a large number of fans are quick to recite the rule book when a call goes in their teams favour - and equally as quick to pass off the written rule as nitpicky when a potential call would go against their team. My question has to do with the rules - when theyre applied, bent, or even ignored by officials. During Thursdays Pens-Flyers game, Simon Despres laid a questionable hit on Sean Couturier and was penalized. Phillys R.J. Umberger then challenged Despres resulting in a tussle. So we end up with five and two to Despres, and five to Umberger with Philly going to the power play. Obviously, Despres knew he was going to have to answer since players are expected to fight even after clean hits, but why would Umberger not be given an instigator minor based on the written rule (obvious retribution for a previous incident in the game)? Not that Im a fan of this rule, and I do like a good scrap, but if the league is trying to get the fighting out, and thats basically the purpose of the rule, why would they not use it? Thanks, Art Goddard - Edmonton --- Art, Thank you very much for your loyal following of Cmon Ref. I read most off the blogger comments and have to agree that fans often interpret or apply the rules to their teams advantage.ddddddddddddThe referees are directed by the Officiating and Hockey Operations Departments to apply an expected standard of enforcement for each rule. The literal interpretation of the written word can sometimes vary from what is expected. The instigator rule is one that is usually applied with a very loose standard. To be perfectly honest, it is very seldom applied unless blatantly obvious. R.J. Umberger engaged Simon Despres from close proximity following the hit on Sean Couturier and as result of Despres awareness and quick response with his gloves off, Umberger avoided being assessed an instigator penalty. You hit the nail on the head, Art when you stated that Despres knew he was going to have to answer the bell. Umberger did not have to travel an extended distance to engage Despres; nor did he throw the first punch or drop his gloves first. Instead a two-handed push by R.J. with his gloves into Despres chest sounded the bell. Despres immediately dropped his gloves, grabbed onto Umbergers jersey and the fight was on. Even though the fight was initiated in retribution for the hit on Coutouier, the events as I described here did not cross the line for the refs to apply the instigator penalty. It needs to be much more obvious than this event. given the standard that is seldom applied. 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