Red Bull’s Max Verstappen breezed to his maiden Monaco Grand Prix win over the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris, with Ferrari polesitter and home hero Charles Leclerc failing to take the start after suffering a pre-race driveshaft issue.
Starting effectively from pole after Leclerc’s DNS, Verstappen out-muscled Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas off the line to take a lead that he would only briefly relinquish in the pit stops, Verstappen claiming his second win of the season, and his first ever podium in Monaco.
Verstappen also takes the lead of the drivers’ championship for the first time in his career . In an off-day for world champions Mercedes, a disgruntled Hamilton could do no better than seventh (the same position he started) to lose his lead of the championship to Verstappen – who now heads Hamilton 105 points to 101 – while Bottas had even worse luck, after a stuck right-front tyre in his pit stop forced him into retirement.
Former McLaren team mates Sainz and Norris come home P2 and P3 to complete the podium, Sainz now at Ferrari salvaging the day for the Scuderia to take his first podium in red car, while some brilliant strategy from Red Bull allowed Sergio Perez to overcut his way from P8 to P4 in the pit stops.
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel drove an excellent race to take P5, for by far his and his team’s best finish of the year – Vettel maintaining his record of never being classified lower than P5 in a race he’s finished in Monaco, while AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was able to hold off Hamilton’s Mercedes to claim P6, Hamilton salvaging a bonus point for fastest lap after a late second stop.
Starting on hard tyres from P13 paid dividends for Lance Stroll, who made a 58-lap stint work to claim P8 and add to Aston Martin’s joy in Monte Carlo. He finished ahead of the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, while Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi took Alfa Romeo’s first point of the season after claiming 10th.
Outside the top 10 came a trio of former Monaco winners, Kimi Raikkonen 11th, ahead of Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso, with the two Williams of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi 14th and 15th on the team’s 750th Grand Prix.
Yuki Tsunoda, on his first ever visit to Monaco in any category, took P16 – narrowly avoiding smashing into Latifi at Rascasse at the tail-end of the race after outbraking himself – while Mazepin was able to make it back past Schumacher to claim P17, his joint-best finish of the year.
[…] Verstappen’s commanding victory came after being the beneficiary of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc’s inability to start the race, so he was able to lead from lights to flag and take a key win for Red Bull, that took the team to the top of the Constructors’ Championship and propelled Verstappen to the top of the Drivers’ Championship for the first time in his career. […]