Charles Leclerc becomes the first Monegasque driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix since the formation of the Formula 1 World Championship.
Whilst Monaco isn’t typically known for its good racing, its tight and unforgiving nature can breed some chaos, and that was on full display at the start of this race. Firstly, Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz made contact on the exit of turn 1, giving the former some floor damage and the latter a tyre puncture.
Then, Kevin Magnussen, looking to begin making a move on Sergio Perez, made contact with the Red Bull, crashing them both out and collecting Nico Hulkenberg along with them, taking them all out of the race.
Finally, the Alpine teammates collided at Portier when Ocon made a move down the inside of Gasly, but, believing himself to be clear, Ocon had ended up crashing into Gasly. Whilst Ocon’s race would end at this point, Gasly would be fine to continue on.
All this commotion meant that the red flag was brought out, which was a lifeline for Sainz, as the red flag restart would be ran in the order of the original grand prix starting positions, meaning he would return to third, where he would have had to start last otherwise.
The red flag also meant everyone was able to get in their free pitstops for the race, which did somewhat screw over the Mercedes cars, who had elected to start on hard tyres, and now had to go to mediums until the end of the race.
The race resumed and things quickly became a procession. The top 4 began to pull away from Russell having to nurse his tyres, and whilst Piastri was keeping Leclerc honest, and Sainz doing the same for Piastri, no moves were even close to being considered.
Lance Stroll would take a gamble a little past the half way point in pursuit of Pierre Gasly’s 10th place by pitting onto fresh tyres. However, this would not work out well for him as he’d need to come in again only a few laps later after his left rear suffered a puncture, pushing him to the back.
Hamilton attempted to get himself either a tyre offset or undercut by pitting onto fresh tyres himself. Verstappen would respond so not to become a sitting duck, and would be able to successfully cover off Hamilton’s undercut attempt.
Verstappen now on fresh tyres would begin chasing down Hamilton’s teammate for 5th place. The gap closed quickly, though Verstappen would struggle to overtake George Russell, despite having tyres that were over 50 laps younger. Russell had been saving his tyres well, and now had a bit more license to push in order to fend off the threat from Verstappen, and had begun to gain on Norris in 4th.
In the dying laps, Leclerc’s gap began to increase more and more, and his grasp on the winner’s trophy at the crown jewel of the Formula 1 calendar would become more and more tight. In the end, he would pass the chequered flag on lap 78 over 7 seconds ahead of Piastri to become the first Monegasque driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix since Louis Chiron, and the first since it became a part of the Formula 1 World Championship in 1950.
In the end, the entirety of the top 10 finished in the same position as they qualified, the first time this has happened in F1 history.
Verstappen, finishing in 6th, saw the gap in the World Driver’s Championship from Leclerc in 2nd shrink to 31 points, and Ferrari’s 1-3 meant that they were able to capitalise on Red Bull’s poor showing to close the gap in the Constructor’s Standings to 24 points.
Albon’s 9th place finish is his and Williams’ first points of the season, leaving Kick Sauber as the only team yet to score points. The result also means that Williams now jump Alpine into 8th in the Constructor’s Standings.
