© Getty Images2024 Monaco Grand Prix - Race ReportIt was a bruising, battling and ultimately bottled-up Sunday in Monaco for The Bulls.
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When the lights went out at the start, pole-sitter Charles Leclerc got away cleanly to take the lead into Sainte-Devote. Behind him, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was put under pressure by Carlos Sainz and, as the duelling pair went into Turn 1, Piastri clipped Sainz's left-front tyre, which instantly punctured and going into Casino Square, Sainz was forced to take the escape road.
Further back, though, chaos was unfolding. Starting from 16th on the grid, Checo got away poorly and fell back towards the two Haas drivers, who had made good starts from the back of the grid.
Checo made it through Turn 1 and as they went up the hill, he moved to the middle of the track to defend his position. Behind him, on the left, Nico Hülkenberg held station but on the right, Kevin Magnussen was over ambitious and tried to push past. He tagged the rear right wheel of Checo’s car and the Mexican was spun into barriers.
In a massive shower of carbon fibre and metal, all four corners of Checo’s car disintegrated but thanks to the strength of the survival cell and the wheel tethers, the Red Bull driver was unhurt, and he was able to quickly climb out of the wrecked tub. However, with a huge debris field extending up towards the Massenet corner, and with another clash occurring at Portier between the Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, the race was immediately red flagged.
Checo Walks Away From Monaco Incident© Getty Images
After an almost 45-minute delay the race resumed with a standing start and in the original order, with Sainz lucky to have another opportunity to race. The red flags also provided an opportunity to switch tyres, and targeting a long run to the finish, the front four moved to Hard tyres. For Max, however, that was not an option. The Dutchman had started on Hard tyres and thus he was backed into the corner of having to switch to Mediums for the second start.
When the lights went out, the pack all got away cleanly and Leclerc took the lead ahead of Piastri, Sainz, Norris and Russell, with Max again in sixth place.
Leclerc soon settled into the lead, 0.5s clear of Piastri, with Sainz another half second back in third. Further back, though, Max was bottled up behind Russell who was heavily managing his Medium tyres six seconds behind fourth-placed Norris. By lap 13 Max was 14 seconds off the lead, while Russell was being told not to go any quicker in order to keep his tyres alive.
At the front, Leclerc too was managing his pace, backing the field up to keep the pack in touch with Russell in order to avoid opening up a hole in traffic between Norris and Russell into which the McLarens could potentially pit and fit fresh tyres, and after 20 laps the gap to Piastri was steady at just over half a second.
Tackling The Nouvelle Chicane© Getty Images
The race then became a cat-and-mouse contest as The Ferraris backed the McLarens toward Russell, while the Mercedes driver tried to preserve his tyres and keep Max at bay.
At the end of lap 51, Lewis Hamilton, who had a healthy gap back to VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda, pitted from seventh and rejoined in the same position. That freed the team to pit Max and, after a 2.1s stop for Hard tyres, he again took up sixth place ahead Hamilton. With fresh tyres onboard, Max began to rattle off fastest laps and he closed on Russell quickly enough to deny the Mercedes driver a pit stop in response. That forced Russell to stay on his starting Mediums and to pick up the pace.
Max’s pace on new tyres was electric and on lap 60 he had squeezed the gap to Russell from 12 seconds to just 3 and three laps later he thundered into DRS range of the Mercedes man. Behind Max, Hamilton was also making the most of his new tyres and with Russell holding Max up, the seven-time champion was closing up to the back of Max’s RB20.
However, in Monaco, track position is everything and though Max probed and pushed, trying to force an error from Russell, the Mercedes driver was able to position his car well enough on the narrow streets to keep the champion at bay.
Russell’s late-race pace meant that further up the road any window for McLaren to pit was firmly shut. Leclerc settled into management mode and after 78 laps, the Ferrari driver took the chequered flag to become the first Monegasque driver in the championship era to win his home grand prix.
Behind him Piastri finished second ahead of Sainz, with Norris fourth ahead of Russell. Max’s sixth place and the eight points taken means he now heads the Drivers’ standings with 169 points, 31 ahead of Leclerc, with Norris third on 113 points. Checo’s non-finish means he drops to fifth in the standings a point behind Sainz who now has 108 points.
In the Constructors’ Championship, the Team still leads the way, but the frustrating weekend in Monaco and the double podium for Ferrari means that the Bulls, on 276 points, are now 24 points ahead of the Italian squad.
Max Keeps Pushing In Monaco© Getty Images
| Rank | Driver | Team | Gap | Points | | 1 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | - | 25 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +7.152 | 18 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +7.585 | 15 |
| 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | +8.650 | 12 |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | +13.309 | 10 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Oracle Red Bull Racing | +13.853 | 8 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +14.908 | 6 (+1) |
| 8 | Yuki Tsunoda | Visa Cash App RB | +1L | 4 |
| 9 | Alex Albon | Williams | +1L | 2 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +1L | 1 |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | |
| DNF | Sergio Pérez | Oracle Red Bull Racing | RTD (lap 1) | 0 |
