Pole-sitter Charles Leclerc won a chase with McLaren during a red-flagged Monaco Grand Prix, wiping out the Monaco curse and holding first place for both starts.
The race was red flagged on the opening lap after Sergio Pérez and Kevin Magnussen crashed, sending their Red Bull flying into the Armco barriers, denting the barriers and destroying the RB20.
Monaco Grand Prix is a series of crashes and queues
Charles Leclerc made a great start from pole position and team-mate Carlos Sainz quickly attacked Oscar Piastri for second place, but after contact with a McLaren, Sainz suffered a puncture on his front-left tyre and went the wrong way down the escape road.
Further back, there was high drama when Sergio Pérez was caught up at the top of a hill by Kevin Magnussen and went nose-first into the Armco barrier at a 90 degree angle, before being caught up by both Haas drivers, destroying his RB20 and peeling the car off across the width of the track.
Pérez was lucky to pull himself out of his broken RB20 as the race was red-flagged, with a dented Armco barrier meaning a lengthy pit stop was expected.
Replays of the opening lap showed Esteban Ocon barrelling into Pierre Gasly at Turn 8 just before the tunnel, contacting his teammate’s wheel and launching him into the air, dropping him out of the race.
Luckily, all three drivers got out of the car after that incident, but there’s not much left for Red Bull after that 😳#F1 #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/JHA63u8n5i
— Planet F1 (@Planet_F1) May 26, 2024
Race control extended a helping hand to Sainz by announcing that the restart order would be Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Norris, Russell, Verstappen, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Albon, Gasly, Stroll, Ricciardo, Alonso, Sargent, Bottas and Zhou, based on the second safety car line on the opening lap.
Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz and Norris switched from the Pirelli medium tyres to the hard ones, as did Tsunoda and Albon, while Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton switched from the hard to medium tyres.
The second race, scheduled for the third of 78 laps, got off to a clean start, with Leclerc heading off the starting line ahead of Piastri and Sainz, but in keeping with Monaco’s tradition of crashes and processions, Russell was told to pull away from Norris on lap six to manage his tyres, with Russell complaining that if Norris dropped the pace he would “open up a pit stop for them”.
Stats: Teammate Wars 2024
👉 F1 2024: Teammate qualifying match records
👉 F1 2024: Teammate head-to-head race statistics
Verstappen was told by race engineer Giampiero Lambiase that he “didn’t know” why Russell had slowed, but speculated that it was due to tyre management. Verstappen was 12 seconds behind the leader after 10 laps.
Leclerc was also controlling the pace, chasing Piastri with Sainz and Norris close behind holding off the Australian. The top four were running wing-to-wing, separated by three seconds. “Is Charles doing a bit better?” asked Sainz.
On lap 25, Leclerc increased his pace to get out of Piastri’s DRS range, who also opened up a gap to Sainz by a few tenths of a second. Norris reported tyre wear and McLaren told him that Sainz’s tyres were “granulating” while his were only “wearing away”. Leclerc was told by Ferrari that his tyre management was “good”.
Further back, Verstappen was still running in the middle of a Mercedes sandwich at the halfway point and summed up the race by saying: “It’s really boring. I should have brought a pillow.”
Meanwhile, in the battle for eighth place, Albon sat on Tsunoda’s rear wing, while Alonso, in 12th place, backed up his car behind him to give his teammate Stroll more room.
As Ferrari worked out their strategy, Leclerc was told to go slower to prevent Norris from widening his pit-stop gap to Russell in fifth place: “We need to go a bit slower, hopefully to stop McLaren from gaining time for their pit-stop.” But driving slower means lowering tyre temperatures, and Sainz was also worried about the gap to McLaren.
On lap 43, Stroll finally pitted for fresh tyres. He was one lap behind Norris on the track, but ahead of Alonso in the running order. Seven laps later, as he entered the pit lane, his right rear tyre punctured, causing the car to come off and return to the pits. Stroll finished in last place, 16th.
As the debate over tyres and pit stop windows continued, Ferrari told Leclerc they were “not interested” in his opinion. “That’s rude,” Leclerc replied.
Hamilton was the first of the top ten to pit, doing so on lap 52 for new hard tyres, followed by Verstappen the following lap, and they returned to the track in sixth and seventh places, with the Red Bull driver ahead.
As Ferrari and McLaren continued their tyre battle, both teams kept an eye on Verstappen’s pace on the new hard tyre and Stroll’s ability to move through the lead pack on the soft tyre. Leclerc increased his pace as Verstappen and Hamilton closed in.
Verstappen got behind Russell’s rear wing on lap 62 but did well to hold him off as Hamilton, who was setting the fastest lap, closed in on the back of the pair – but as we all know, it’s easier to catch up than to overtake in Monaco.
Leclerc sprinted to the chequered flag to not only record his first Monaco Grand Prix victory, but also his first podium at his home race.
Piastri finished second, Sainz completed the podium, and Norris took fourth place for McLaren.
Russell took fifth place ahead of Verstappen, whose Red Bull started in the middle of the Mercedes sandwich and battled with Hamilton in seventh, while Tsunoda, Albon and Gasly also scored points.
result
1. Charles Leclerc 2:23:15.554
2 Oscar Piastri +7.152
3 Carlos Sainz +7.585
4 Lando Norris +8.650
5 George Russell +13.309
6 Max Verstappen +13.853
7 Lewis Hamilton +14.908
8 Yuki Tsunoda +1 lap
9 Alexander Albon +1 lap
10 Pierre Gasly +1 Lap
11 Fernando Alonso +2 laps
12 Daniel Ricciardo +2 laps
13 Valtteri Bottas +2 laps
14 Lance Stroll +2 laps
15 Logan Sargent +2 Rap
16 Zhou Guanyu +2 Zhou
Did not finish
Esteban Ocon Crash in the Alps – 1st Lap
Kevin Magnussen Haas Crash – 1st Lap
Nico Hulkenberg Haas crash – 1st lap
Sergio Perez Red Bull Crash – 1st Lap
Read next: For all the latest F1 news, follow the PlanetF1.com WhatsApp channel
