Michael Schumacher yesterday became the most successful driver in Ferrari history, winning the Monaco Grand Prix after he and team-mate Eddie Irvine staged a superb start-line coup that gave them an unbreakable stranglehold on Formula One's premier race.

Despite dominating Saturday's qualifying session, Schumacher had pole position stolen from under his nose by arch-rival Mika Hakkinen, the Finn powering his McLaren to the top of the grid in the very last minute of the session.

If the Ferrari number one was stung by Hakkinen's act of larceny, the German more than avenged the theft in yesterday's start, blasting past a sluggish Finn to take the lead by the first corner.

One row back, Schumacher's lieutenant Eddie Irvine showed an admirable gift for mimicry and took the opportunity to pass McLaren number two David Coulthard in a carbon-copy manoeuvre and go in search of a Ferrari double. The Ulsterman, who initially gave up the chase for second after his first pit stop had left him more than 20 seconds adrift of the world champion, received his reward moments later when Hakkinen, making an uncharacteristic error, spun on entering the Mirabeau corner.

That narrowed the gap to just two seconds, and when Hakkinen pitted after 47 laps, Irvine gratefully accepted the vacant second spot and never let go. Schumacher admitted that he had been surprised by the ease with which he took the lead going into the Saint Devote. "It was unexpected," he said. "I saw Mika struggling and took the opportunity. He tried to move across, but I had a better speed and was able to get ahead. It was nice to be in the lead so early and pulling everyone along again," he added. "If I had been behind Mika we would have had to alter out strategy and the race would have been a lot different, so it was nice to do it straight away.

After qualifying, Irvine had confessed that he wasn't unhappy with his fourth place on the grid and that he usually made good starts. Yesterday he was as good as his word. "I made a great start and got past David, which was crucial because he wasn't particularly quick and if I'd got stuck behind him I wouldn't have been able to get near Mika and pass him. We were so close in qualifying and after the morning warm-up (on Sunday) I had an idea I'd be able to narrow the gap in the race."

Schumacher's victory means that the German now moves beyond Niki Lauda's record of 15 grand prix wins with Ferrari and becomes the team's most successful driver. "It means a lot being a driver," he said. "That's something special. And winning races for Ferrari is super special, so being the most successful ever is one beyond that. To be honest, it hasn't really sunk in yet and doesn't mean too much. The most important thing at the moment is the championship. But when you retire it's nice to have these things to look back on. It will be a nice statistic." More significantly, the Ferrari one-two now puts the Scuderia into a commanding 24-point lead in the constructors' championship. Schumacher also extends his lead in the drivers' title race to 26 points, eight ahead of his team-mate Irvine and with a significant 14-point advantage over Hakkinen. McLaren, by contrast, had a forgettable weekend.

Both McLaren drivers struggled with poor set-ups until their last ditch fight back at the close of qualifying. For Hakkinen all that good work was undone by his poor start and then the spin which allowed Irvine to reel him in. "I had too much wheel spin at the start and that's really it," he said.

"It's important to be on pole in Monaco, and today I didn't use the advantage I had. But at that stage I didn't think it was lost. It's a long race and a lot can happen. But I quickly realised that the car was not right, it didn't have the right balance which made it very unpleasant to drive. As for the spin, there was an incident which I think had just happened as I arrived, and it had left some oil on the track.

"There were yellow flags when I went into the corner, but because of the oil I lost the back end. If I had tried to turn into Mirabeau corner I would have really lost it and gone into the barriers. So I decided to go straight and get back on the track (from the escape road) as quickly as possible. Obviously I lost too much time there. But there was nothing else I could have done." The misery was completed by the retirement of David Coulthard, whose nightmare season goes on. After suffering mechanical failures in both Australia and Brazil, the Scot seemed to be back on track with second place in Imola. But yesterday it all went wrong again.

As early as lap 18 Coulthard's McLaren MP4/14 began to jet smoke every time he negotiated the hairpin at Loews. His pursuit of Irvine didn't let up, though, until lap 32 when the McLaren suddenly lost more than 12 seconds to the Ferrari and two laps later Coulthard pulled his stricken car into the pit lane to retire.

"I started to have gear selection problems, and the team advised me that the gear box had lost oil pressure and told me to pit, which was right because a terminal failure was inevitable," he said.

Jordan, meanwhile, maintained their third position in the championship, with Heinz Harald Frentzen once more among the points, driving a solid race to finish fourth, stealing the three points from Stewart's Rubens Barrichello thanks to a strategy that kept the German out long enough to build a sufficient lead over the Stewart after the Brazilian had pitted.

"The whole race was really against Rubens and we won it comfortably," he said.

"The plan had been to keep up with him. I didn't expect to be able to take him at the start, so we decided that I should just stay close and make up the time when he made his pit stop. As soon as he pitted I was able to pull away."

If the day once again proved how settled and reliable Frentzen is becoming at Jordan, then it proved just the opposite for Damon Hill. The Jordan number one had a dreadful qualifying session which saw him start from a lowly 17th on the grid and yesterday Hill's dread rapidly turned to outright horror as he crashed out as early as lap three, braking late on the entrance to the chicane and colliding with Ralf Schumacher's Williams.

While his former Jordan team-mate was able to carry on, eventually finishing 10th, Hill had a long walk back to the pits.

"The incident was my fault," he admitted.

"I was simply being too ambitious. Starting in 17th, I had to be very aggressive with my strategy and I decided after two laps that I just had to try and overtake. Ralf was defending his line, so I don't blame him at all."

While Jordan were left with the hope and dismay, and McLaren with work to do, Schumacher admitted that the team would party into the night in celebration of the team's first ever one-two in the principality. However, the championship leader wasn't losing sight of the bigger picture beyond Monte Carlo's bay and warned that the gap Ferrari have built may soon be narrowed.

"Monaco is special and out of the 16 or 17 grands prix on the calendar it's the one you really want to win, and to win it for the fourth time is just perfect, but it helps us more in our championship position. We have built up a cushion, which I think we'll definitely need as we head to circuits like Barcelona (in a fortnight), where we will not be so strong and which may suit McLaren a lot better. We might be second or third there, so that cushion becomes very important."