FORMULA 1/Monaco Grand Prix: David Coulthard had his second win at the Monaco GP in three years yesterday fending off world champion Michael Schumacher for much of the race.

Coulthard has had a miserable season so far, being forced to watch what should have been his big year slide slowly down the drain. Taking over the reins at McLaren with the departure of Mika Hakkinen at the end of last season should have spelled a career revival for Coulthard who has always, since he debuted as a replacement for the late Ayrton Senna at Williams in 1994, been viewed as a second fiddle kind of guy. But after six years as understudy his big chance came, only for it to coincide with a seemingly terminal slump in McLaren's fortunes. Arriving in Monaco he had scored just two podium finishes and had scored just 10 points from six races. He even had to suffer the ignominity of being lapped by Michael Schumacher at Imola.

Yesterday in Monaco, the real world ceased to exist, however, and Coulthard was allowed to hold off a stern challenge from Michael Schumacher and take his first victory since Austria last year.

"It's good for the sport," said the Scot after he had taken the chequered flag. "Every race this year has been won by a Schumacher, so this is good. Anything that makes the show better has to be good." Except that Coulthard's win is more of a sideshow. In the real world outside Monaco is an strange and curious aberration, a circuit that is not a circuit, a race where the normal rules of engagement cease to apply. At the Monaco GP technical superiority goes unrewarded, one second gaps that exists from Ferrari and Michael Schumacher back to the rest of the field are wiped out as Formula One's pilots have to force their charges around corners and through tunnels at an average speed of just 90 m.p.h.

Coulthard's win yesterday was a personal triumph for the Scot, who proved that he can mix it with the very best through qualifying and race and still come out on top, but in the real world of Formula One where circuits are in fields and are purpose-built to allow racing cars to race, it is Michael Schumacher who remains overlord.

The German's second place yesterday was a crack in the crystal chandelier of unreality under whose glow Monaco bathes, a reminder that while Monaco thought it could offer an alternate universe, all it really provided was a short lull in the inexorable march to victory that is Schumacher's reality. Scary but true.

Monaco is about exceptional drivers and yesterday the Scot proved that on occasion he has it within his grasp to qualify for that august club. On Saturday, he had timed an almost perfect lap to perfection, stealing on to provisional pole late on. Juan Pablo Montoya spoiled Coulthard two-in-a-row pole statistic though with a blistering final run, but the McLaren pilot was to have his revenge at the race start.

The Colombian got away poorly and then as the pair speared towards Sainte Devote, Coulthard swept into the lead. It was one he wasn't to lose. With the tactical nous of Adrian Newey allied to Coulthard's perfectly functioning judgment and instincts, McLaren brought the Scot in for an earlier than planned stop after Schumacher pitted early and then reeled off a sequence of fastest laps.

Coulthard's early stopping response - to forbid Schumacher the chance to close the gap - was well timed. The Scot emerged from his stop with just eight tenths in hand over Schumacher, but so it stayed for the remainder of the race.

Coulthard was faultless, despite Schumacher harrying, pushing, prodding and testing the McLaren's boundaries for a weak spot right through to the chequered flag, ahead of the brother Schumacher, fourth place Jarno Trulli, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jordan old boy Heinz-Harald Frentzen who took the final point for Arrows.

"It's absolutely unbelievable," said Coulthard, as in confirmation of the unreal atmosphere. "I'm so pleased that I was able to win this race for the team as we have had a difficult start to the season and everybody has been working really hard. It was a tough race where I was giving 100 per cent all the time. I was under pressure for the vast majority of the 78 laps."

Schumacher, though, still walked away from Monaco with six points. Six points that now puts him 33 ahead of his nearest rivals Ralf Schumacher, who yesterday finished a solid third.