Leclerc Lavishes F1 Monaco Grand Prix Glory in Red-Flagged race

Written by Owen Bradley

Credit: Mark Thompson

Formula One returned to the iconic streets of Monte Carlo for the Monaco Grand Prix. Home hero Charles Leclerc started from pole position, with Oscar Piastri alongside him.

Grand Prix

The race got underway with a chaotic start, Carlos Sainz managed to attempt a move on Oscar Piastri into saint devote (Turn 1), however with the corner tightening on the exit, Piastri and Sainz would make contact, giving Sainz a front-left puncture.

Sainz would nearly end up in the barriers at Turn 5's right hander, the car unable to turn in. Elsewhere, the Alpine's of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly would make contact, as Ocon overtook Gasly just before the tunnel. However, Ocon ran too deep into the corner, his rear left wheel running over the top of Gasly's front right tyre, sending Ocon airborne and damaging his suspension.

Kevin Magnussen and Sergio Perez would make heavy contact on the run up to the second braking zone, Magnussen refused to back out of one of the kinks, making contact with Perez's Red Bull and driving straight into the right sidepod of the Red Bull. Unfortunately, Nico Hulkenberg would be collected, as the Red Bull speared back across the circuit and hit the right rear of Hulkenberg's Haas, bringing out the red flag.

Credit: Jayce Illman

Around 20 minutes later, the race got restarted with Carlos Sainz lining back up in third place, as the red flag was called at the end of lap one and the running order was set back to how it was at the start of the race. With most of the field taking new tyres under the red flag, moving to the hard compound tyres, the field was on a split strategy.

A clean restart for the field, Charles Leclerc led the way with Piastri right on his rear diffuser. Sainz and Lando Norris would follow one another just a couple of seconds down the road, as George Russell struggled for pace drastically in fifth.

Leclerc began to intentionally slow the cars behind, attempting to keep Russell's Mercedes within the pit stop range for both McLaren's behind. With Russell still in the pit stop range, McLaren would not have been able to pit and get out in front of Russell. Knowing how difficult it is to overtake at Monaco, both McLaren's were hesitant to bring either of the cars in, until eventually it became too late in the race to recover any potential advantage from a pit stop.

Leclerc managed to hold the gap to Piastri to around three seconds, as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen pitted for fresh hard tyres. Hamilton would be unsuccessful in performing the undercut on Verstappen, as the Red Bull began chasing down fifth place George Russell.

Within just a few short laps, Verstappen would close right onto the rear wing of Russell, but would be unable to make an overtake on the sharp narrow corners of Monte Carlo.

With just a few laps remaining, Leclerc began pushing as Piastri began struggling for grip. The gap suddenly increasing to over eight seconds, as Sainz and Norris closed on PIastri's yellow and green McLaren.

Charles Leclerc would come home to take victory at Monaco, a home win for the Monagasque driver, who also takes his win at Monaco, a decade after his godfather Jules Bianchi's best result at Monaco with Marussia, finishing ninth.

Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz would round out the podium places, with Lando Norris only just missing out on another consecutive podium finish.

Monaco Grand Prix Results

1st Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

2nd Oscar Piastri, McLaren

3rd Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

4th Lando Norris, McLaren

5th George Russell, Mercedes

6th Max Verstappen, Red Bull

7th Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

8th Yuki Tsunoda, RB

9th Alex Albon, Williams

10th Pierre Gasly, Alpine

11th Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin

12th Daniel Ricciardo, RB

13th Valtteri Bottas, Sauber

14th Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

15th Logan Sargeant, Williams

16th Guanyu Zhou, Sauber

DNF Esteban Ocon, Alpine

DNF Nico Hulkenberg, Haas

DNF Sergio Perez, Red Bull

DNF Kevin Magnussen, Haas